Il y a vingt ans, un mystérieux virus a décimé la population de la planète. Enoa est devenu le plus grand trafiquant de drogue de toute l'Amérique latine. Nombreux sont ceux qui aimeraient le voir mort. Mais ils n'ont pas les moyens de s'en prendre directement à lui, alors ils tentent de l'atteindre à travers ses enfants. Tandis que sa sœur est kidnappée, Elia parvient à échapper à ses ravisseurs, mais il tombe entre les mains d'un groupe de mercenaires dont le chef s'appelle Karn Nazarbaief. Cependant, un danger encore plus grand les guette. L'armée du Propater s'apprête à donner l'assaut…
Hiroki Endo (遠藤浩輝) is a Japanese mangaka born on 1970 in Akita Prefecture. He graduated from Musashino Art University. He is best known for his science-fiction series Eden: It's an Endless World, which has been translated into English by Dark Horse.
This volume is somewhat clearer-in not so post-apocalyptic settings after all. There’s power play at stake between different heavily armed factions and Eliah is one leverage tool to be transferred to a safe zone somewhere beyond the Andes. The crossing will obviously not be a picnic.
I won’t pretend everything is crystal clear but it seems the fog is lifting up. What’s revealed bit by bit is interspersed with violent combat scenes with heavy cyberpunk gear.
Art is great with excellent action management. I’m definitely hooked.
This was a good volume with more action and characters. I really liked new characters Hannah and Katia as well as I am fond of Eliah. The only complaint is that sometimes it is confusing with its explanations. It can make the story hard to read. PS: It is the second time that I see my countrie's name ( Azerbaijan) in Japanese fiction. Lol
I didn't find this sequel nearly as interesting as the first book. There is practically zero mention of the plague and we just follow a pretty standard militia storyline. There is mention of rape and sex trafficking (of women only) which is never a good inclusion in my opinion.
The book didn't really focus on Elijah apart from a flashback and mention of his father's line of work, which I did find intriguing but I really can't see it being resolved/developed any time soon.
We got to know the group as a whole a bit better but I'm no longer interested in following the series.
Well the similarities between this series and Neon Genesis Evangelion pretty much disappear in this volume, where the action doesn’t miss a beat and things start hitting the fan. Because while there are robots and such that are fighting and all that, these are not the otherworldly incarnations of divine will that seem to appear in Evangelion, but the direct tools of man turned against man. This is a world where because of the disease that spread through humanity, the use of robotics has been expanded far into science fiction, where robots and cyborgs exist integrated into society. Robotic parts are basically a luxury for those who can afford them. And here we start seeing that humanity has lost more than just parts of itself. Or, rather, that these external signs of the inhuman are symptoms of the inhumanity that has taken hold of humanity in general. People are desperate, in a constant struggle for survival. The weak are made to suffer. Just looking at the two new characters that show up in this book, in the form of one prostitute and one girl who was basically taken as a sex slave, and we start to see what kind of a world this is.
This, really, is the first we’re seeing of life outside after the disease. The first book really didn’t much get into how people live in the twenty years after the disease. Here we finally start to see what has happened. The world of the series, set in South America, seems to revolve around drugs. Drug cartels control most of the land that the organization Propater does not, and Enoia, the boy from the beginning of the first volume, is the head of the most powerful cartel. Elijah, his son, is estranged from his father, apparently, after Hannah (the girl from the beginning of the first volume) and Elijah’s sister are taken by Propater. Elijah seems to be trying to distance himself from his father, or at least see the world without the oversight of his father, but at the moment he is still be taken by this group of mercenaries. Through it all Elijah remains rather naïve and fairly pure at heart, genuinely wanting to help people and trying to do the best he can. But a lot of that is a purity born from being kept protected by the outside world. He never had to worry about the harsher realities of life, and was always fed. This leads to some animosity towards him from others in the group, but all in all he does what he can.
The whole crux of this volume is really setting up some of the personalities of the mercenaries and women the group save. We start to see the instabilities in everyone. We see that the group is really made up of damaged people looking for ways to fill the holes left in their lives that have been left by the deaths of loved ones. This is a world where no one grows up completely unscathed, after all, and even Elijah must live with the absence of his mother and sister. But while we start to get a sense of these character, we are also interrupted by the constant threat of violence. The story does move right along, and here we see the group preparing to go up against a group of Propater soldiers. The battle is opened and it’s all fairly standard from there, where the group successfully repels the first wave of attacks against them. But obviously from the traps being laid this is only the first wave and more can be expected. The battle is fairly fresh and interesting, though, and definitely visceral.
I’m expecting that with the next volume things are only going to escalate, but so it goes for now. This volume did do a good job of getting a bit more into these characters, and introducing more ideas and giving a little bit more information about what happened with Enoia, though the series seems quite hesitant to show any of what’s happening with that. Neither have we learned what the real goals of Propater are, so there isn’t all that much that is known for certain about what the larger story is going to be. But the character work is solid and really that’s what’s important. I can’t say that I was blown away by this last volume, but it was well done and fun to read. While not quite as strong as the first volume, really that might just be the nature of the narrative. I’ll just have to wait and see what happens next. As for this volume, though, I give it a 7.5/10.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This was another great volume. I wasn't super thrilled about the timeskip at first (I was like, hello, where's Hannah? She was my favorite from the first volume) but I quickly was drawn in by Elijah's story as well. But wow did this volume make me HATE Enoah from the previous volume... oh and also Kenji; he can go DIAF but I really love the characters Kachua and Helena. If anything happens to them I'll throw the book. Anyway this volume was also great with the worldbuilding and the politics.
Hiroki Endo doesn’t want to make it too easy for the reader to follow what’s going on. I was confused about what was happening at times or the motivations of certain characters. That being said, it is a thrill to read.
The second volume of “Eden” continues the tale Elijah, a teenaged boy surviving in a world in chaos. In the end of the last book we were introduced to a new band of characters fighting a political battle against a group that is trying to win dominance over the entire planet. This is where the story picks up directly.
The plot goes many interesting ways, even if it does feel even more unfocused than in volume 1. Action takes over a bit, which isn’t such a good thing at this point when character and world building would be required. It was also sad to see that the series seems to move on from depicting a story of a deadly plague from two time points, concentrating merely on the consequences from now on. I thought that the introductory storyline was the strongest point of the previous book. Nevertheless, there is plenty of potential and room to grow here, and what we already get isn’t half bad.
Okay, the most obvious statement I can make about the second volume of Eden, is just how little it shares in common with its predecessor.
The first manga was set in a utopian society, where the last two people alive explained what had happened to humanity. Whereas this story, set roughly twenty years later, follows the actions of a military group somewhere in Peru.
As you can imagine, this is a significant shift in tone. It is almost like reading a completely different series, which could prove quite problematic for those that fell in love with the first outing.
Thankfully, I didn't find this giant genre leap too jarring, as the final chapters of the first volume made some effort to ease the transition. And although I have zero love for the military genre, the world's post-apocalyptic background still has my keen interest.
The only real issue for me is the world's significant population increase. At points, the first graphic novel hinted that humanity was down to two people, but now it seems like those pesky buggers are running around everywhere. I know there are plausible explanations for this, but I can't help but think that the author just changed his mind and decided to write about something else.
I also thought the increased sexual context, and the mistreatment of women in this part raised a few eyebrows. I know this was probably so that the author could open up a philosophical debate, but I can't help but think it might have ruined the enjoyment for some readers.
Despite a few issues arising in this volume, the standard remains high. The author's world feels very realistic and he has now assembled himself a good cast of characters to follow on his journey. I can't wait to see where he takes us! 5/5.
I’ve decided to leave the same review for every volume after the first, since my thoughts remain basically unchanged:
What happened???
While the art remains jaw-droppingly clean, detailed, and to die for, the story completely flies off the rails. What began as a tight, post-apocalyptic survival tale about a boy and a robot navigating a ruined world slowly devolves into a chaotic sprawl of disconnected narratives.
The time jump (twenty years? maybe more?) is so abrupt it practically gives you whiplash. Suddenly there are new characters, new factions, and entire genres being swapped out every few chapters. One moment it’s a military desert campaign, the next it’s a political thriller, then a mob drama, a romance, a heist flick with a mech/powersuit fight for good measure, and now… a hostage situation involving a Chinese pipeline and terrorists? I honestly lost track of what this series wants to be.
Even more confusing, the world doesn’t seem all that post-apocalyptic anymore. There are bustling airports and packed cities, so the supposedly world-ending virus from Volume 1 ends up feeling like an afterthought. And while I don’t mind adult themes, the sudden focus on sex workers and drug trade politics feels tonally jarring — like each arc was written for a different series entirely.
That said, the art remains absolutely stunning. Hiroki Endo’s attention to realism and architectural precision puts him in the same conversation as Otomo (Akira) and Inoue (Vagabond). His clean linework, visual logic, and panel clarity are so good they almost redeem the narrative chaos. Almost.
In the end, the art alone earns this series a solid 4 out of 5, but I have to dock a full star for the storytelling inconsistency. It’s visually magnificent — but narratively lost.
Rereading through this, I can see the complaints about the bait-and-switch coming up. The first volume does deal firmly with a post-apocalyptic society, and while that is still technically the case here (with the real setup being hinted towards in the last chapter of last volume), society isn't quite as disintegrated as it was meant to appear, and given that the characters are isolated on the hinterlands of the political sphere, the narrative is shunted into the military sci-fi genre with the few of the benefits of exploring a post-plague society at large, engaged here only in a single offhand comment at an airport and several marginal textdumps to establish the motivations of the antagonists. Elijah is still the primary perspective here, but viewpoints broaden to include the other members of NOMAD and a pair of women spared from the group's raid on a Propater camp. The weakest portion of the volume concerns the interpersonal relations within NOMAD; while these get fleshed out better later when we actually get to see their backstories, here they aren't particularly well-illustrated. However, the two groups are more than enough to pick up the slack, with the best individual chapters being a couple of one-off, self-contained pieces focusing exclusively on one of them. But aside from consistent moments of quiet philosophy, the main draw here is the action, which Endo delivers in spades with a sense of detail and motion that has little competition within comics. If the switch over to overt military sci-fi isn't too much of a nuisance, this volume delivers on nearly all of the highs as the first.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
So volume 2 becomes more focused on a guerilla group of misfits fighting other people for, I guess the freedom of 2 prostitutes? Ok. We meet these refugees and develop their characters and then end the book in a cliffhanger. It was interesting and had a few philosophical ideas in it. We see flashbacks to how the main character kid got to where he is and some bloody action but didn't feel as deep as I thought i'd be going in.
a'ight, so all the plague talk in prev volume was just to set up a reason for so much empty space & military overun
This volume decided the genre it wanted to be was cybernetics & desert. If humanity was so busy dying of the plague, when'd they have time to develop the cool cyberpunk.... we're not really here to explore that, but have some cool action scenes! With missiles! YEAH!
Me parece que o mangá esconde mais do que mostra. Não sei se por medo, se estratégia de narrativa, mas há algo escondido. Um ritmo que se quebra, uma tragédia que não se afirma tão bem. Mas meu interesse é alto na história.
The second volume only improves on the groundwork that the first laid out, funny at times, tense, action packed and beautifully drawn. This brutal post apocalyptic adventure is fantastic.
''Eu não acredito em Deus. Mas penso que serei feliz, hoje, amanhã, algum dia, tenho certeza.''
Bem, acho que o primeiro ponto que todos percebem ao ler Eden é o quão caótico ele aparenta ser inicialmente. Há idas e vindas no tempo. Volume 2 pouco se parece com o anterior. No apanhado geral que eu fiz do Volume 1, eu já havia citado como Eden muda de foco e até de gênero o tempo todo para narrar uma história de um imenso escopo, que parte de guerras de guerrilha na América do Sul e chega em questões existenciais e religiosas, em viagens espaciais e sobrevivência da raça humana. Há uma dessas mudanças do Volume 1 para o Volume 2: saímos da contemplação e exploração de um mundo apocalíptico destruído, mais próximo das narrativas de sobrevivência, para uma ação desenfreada, com mortes brutais, conflitos militares/políticos e cliffhangers. (Achei engraçado que uma das resenhas negativas aqui eu vi alguém dizer que "o mangá simplesmente decide qual gênero ele quer ser")
Apesar de eu preferir o lado mais filosófico e introspectivo de Eden (como não lembrar da dança, que ocupa umas cinco páginas ao todo, entrecortada por memórias, com uma carga imensa de significados na one-shot de abertura?) sua ação, um futurismo/cyberpunk com toque meio retrô, também não é de se virar a cara. O mundo criado pelo autor permanece bastante realista e o elenco interessante de personagens só cresce aqui. O ponto crucial deste volume é, portanto, apresentar e expandir as personalidades dos mercenários que capturam o Elijah e das duas mulheres que o grupo salvou. Começamos a vislumbrar as instabilidades e as sombras por detrás daquelas personagens, um grupo formado por pessoas prejudicadas e cheias de problemas que estão unidas por um ideal.
Kachua, por exemplo, descende dos Incas e trabalha em um campo de concentração de produção de cocaína nos Andes; por ser bonita, foi tornada uma prostituta durante a invasão da Propátria. Helena, a outra personagem, teve uma mãe e vó prostitutas que sonhavam em dar uma vida melhor para suas filhas, mas que nunca conseguiram realizar esse sonho. Sofia, uma das mercenárias, com o corpo meio robô, modificado, no passado foi muito promíscua e com isso deu à luz oito filhos que não criou. E até o Elijah, nosso protagonista, que tem de viver com o fardo de ser filho de seu pai, um figurão do narcotráfico que causou muito daquilo, vivendo à custa das drogas, do tráfico e da prostitução; o que também causou o sequestro da mãe e da irmã dele.
Mas, ao mesmo tempo que começamos a ter uma noção da profundidade desses personagens nos diálogos, somos interrompidos todo tempo pela constante ameaça de violência visceral: não há como se sentir seguro em Eden por muito tempo. Há também um salto perceptível na qualidade visual e literária em relação ao primeiro volume, há um relance da escrita do Endo em algumas passagens, mas ainda está longe do seu potencial real. Talvez aqui se inicie de fato a montanha-russa que é Eden e você deve apertar os cintos para passar por todas as edições e chegar no fulminante final.
O excesso de ação e violência (verdadeiramente gráfica) pode ser um pouco problemática para aqueles atraídos a Eden por todas as discussões que ele engloba. Há um pouco disso sim aqui nesse volume, principalmente no esporro que Helena dá em Elijah, entre outras cenas apertadas entre a ação, mas não parece ser o foco nesse momento.
No geral, é uma edição ok, um pouco abaixo do padrão Eden, mas uma boa edição.
Disappointment. The first volume was all deserted cities and empty landscapes, and then this one has people everywhere, bustling airports, what kind of apocalypse is this?
And the sex parts bothered me too, the way it was portrayed as something men need and a burden for women. It's got women being forced into prostitution, a woman with no interest in sex giving a guy a bj just to calm him down.
Okay, in this volume, I'm completely lost. The main(?) character is going around with a group of people who kill other people. And I have no idea what their aim is or who the good guys are. There's a whole lot of violence, and then some more violence. And politics and religion are in there somewhere.
But, basically, I'm completely lost, and too put off by all the violence to care to figure out what's going on.
What was maybe-okay for teens has taken a turn for the Not Okay. Lots more violence and sex--not that those things are inherently bad but I'm losing the sense of a post-apocalyptic world in the drug war we're fighting instead. If that's what we're fighting; I think I stopped paying attention.
Giving the series one more volume (because I already have it out from the library, so why not) before abandoning the series.
The dialogue is getting way too heavy handed for my tastes, not to mention the characters are starting to annoy me. The writing is starting to languish in cliches and has become boring and uninteresting. I'll give it one more issue before deciding whether or not to finish the series. Still have no idea why it's rated 18+.
A noticeable jump in quality regarding the visual art compared to the first volume, and Endo's writing starts to show its real potential. From this point on, Eden becomes a true roller-coaster. The visual art gets better and better with each volume, and Endo goes on to fully unleash his unconventional and visionary genius as a writer.
I wish they didn’t do a time skip but followed straight from the ending of volume one.
That said, I am still hooked with this manga. Love the art and the philosophical debate that our protagonist engage in. Might not be other's favorite part , but their pondering over good and evil is my favorite part. I like the characters and I can’t wait to see where this is going.