Eden: It's an Endless World!, Band 3

Eden: It's an Endless World! #3

by Hiroki Endo

Elijah's rag-tag mob of fighters, under the leadership of the mysterious Colonel Khan, are pinned down in Cuzco City by Propater forces, & a terrible battle ensues. As Elijah fights for his life, the truth about his newfound friends is finally revealed - but at least two of them won't be making it out of this deadly situation alive.

Genres: Manga, Comics, Science Fiction, Seinen, Cyberpunk, Fiction, Graphic Novels

224 pages, Paperback

First published May 19, 1999

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Frédéric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Almost 200 pages of urban combat in a small peruvian village. It’s impressively intense and visually amazing. The few flashbacks are the same. And that ending... left me shellshocked.

Be warned: extreme graphic violence.

[Nərmin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume was a bit boring, since it was all about fights. And no real plot is still in sight . Not to mention that horrible ending! They just can't kill them! Not like THIS!

[S.Baqer Al-Meshqab · Rating 4 out of 5]

great improvement. Too much gore though. Cruelty of Humanity demonstrated.

[fonz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me temo que soy un viejo gañán desubicado pero, al contrario que otros lectores, en este tebeo prefiero con mucho las ostias a la filosofía y el conflicto moral y este número es eso mismo; doscientas fabulosas páginas de ostias, acción, tensión y tragedia narradas y rematadas de manera magistral por un excelente discípulo de Otomo.

[Koen Claeys · Rating 4 out of 5]

At this point we still lack a whole lot of character background, as if the reader was thrown in the middle of the story. This book is a continuation of the battle in the previous volume so it’s mostly gore, terror and action. The ending really startled me... damn... My wife noticed that what I saw on the pages shocked me like I haven’t been shocked in a long while...

[Cassie Fleurs · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is very action heavy but still finds the time to tell us a bit about the background of the characters.

Sometimes the fights get a little hard to follow along, and the action is not why I started reading it , so I hope we get more story in the next chapters.

A side not, is that I am really interested in those human- cyborg things. Genuinely creepy and I would love to see those animated.

[Nikolas Rex · Rating 4 out of 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.

[Erik B.K.K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow... I really thought the girl would make it... Was planning on giving 2 stars because I thought it was going to be some cliché redemption arc for Wycliffe, but this outcome truly shocked me.

[Shawn M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Alright, the violence was fun and whoa inducing, but is it moving the story forward? Not really, honestly. It just gets rid of characters that didn't have much development going for them. It felt like a lazy attempt storywise.

[James Idsardi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Apart from good and well-timed flashbacks for Elijah and Wycliffe, this volume is pretty much entirely action, which Endo handles fantastically up to a heartrending conclusion. Your enjoyment of this will depend entirely on how well his action sequences hit with you.

[Eressea]

便當發得痛快
但就是那種R級動作片的感覺
說深刻的科幻思考嗎
好像還少了點什麼
四星是給畫功的~

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well that was gory.

Sophia's still my favourite character though.

[ComicBookCult Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tense, epic and high stakes. This series has it all and I can’t wait to read more and see where it goes.

[Cloie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! The story is certainly picking up steam however, I am still a bit confused on what is going on in the story since the time jump after the 1st volume. Maybe the next one will catch me up!

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stuff I Read – Eden It’s an Endless World Vol 3 Review

The third volume of this slightly odd series lands the group in the middle of a large battle. After the opening moves at the end of volume two, this volume begins and ends with the ground battle. Opting to get up close and personal, Propater throws everything it has at the group, and this volume has quite a few surprises and twists. It introduces the Aeons, which are set up to be nearly indestructible soldiers. These Aeons, however, turn out to be a bit of a disappointment, and suffer from the fact that they are taken down rather easily by a number of the group members, which calls their effectiveness into question. That aside, the volume also ups the ante when it comes to danger to the group, and there are casualties. So all in all the volume covers quite a bit of ground while at the same time being entirely contained to the fight between the group and Propater forces.

I suppose I should start with the battle scenes themselves. Mostly we are dealing with Kenji being the strange killing machine while Khan and the rest stand up well in their roles. When it comes to back stories, this volume focuses mostly on Wycliffe and Kachua, which I suppose makes sense. The stories themselves are fairly done, and do a good job setting up these characters and continuing to flesh out this dystopian future. On the one hand you have Wycliffe, who is desperately trying to outrun his guilt. Basically he is trying to do some very horrible things because he sees himself as already fallen, already tainted, and by becoming more so he is trying to spare other the same taint. On the other hand is the relatively innocent Kachua, who has grown up in a relatively safe environment, but one completely devoid of freedom. And here, on the edge of freedom, she meets Wycliffe and the two form a strange bond.

But, like many manga series or shows, the main reason that we learn about these characters is because its makes their deaths that much more meaningful and weighty. Which is not the most original way to do it, but the volume does a decent job of getting the reader to care about these characters before they are killed. The manner in which they are killed is also rather telling, as Wycliffe basically gets the chance to reenact the scene that broke him originally. But where the first time through he did nothing, that sin being the one he has carried ever since, this time he gets to try and save the innocent life. Of course he fails, which is where the book comes down on innocence and sin in this new world. Namely, it denies Wycliffe the redemption, denies him saving Kachua. At the same time that it denies Wycliffe to be forgiven for the sin, it also denies Kachua salvation, implying that she, too, is beyond redemption in this world, that the only way she can find freedom is in death.

Otherwise, the volume does have some good fighting, and it does show a bit more of the character of Elijah. He is a strange character himself, because in this volume he does show that he has aptitude in fighting. But it is a little inconsistent, because he freaks out a bit when he is controlling Cherubim and kills someone. But later, when he is sniping expertly, he really isn’t reacting at all, and indeed he only gets upset because he can’t act quickly enough to save Wycliffe and Kachua. So while it is interesting to see his reactions to the various violence going on around him, the volume fails to be incredibly consistent when dealing with that. I mean, I get that despite being a child he is still twisted by this world, but I don’t know how exactly. It is something that hopefully will be worked with more as time goes on.

All in all, though, the volume does a good job ramping up the action and making the story a bit more personal. It does a fair job fleshing out some characters, though it does summarily blow that flesh to pieces. But still, it is nice to see that people aren’t really safe in this world. And while those two did seem the most expendable, it might be trying to set up an unstable environment where even main characters can die. I can hope, at the very least. While hampered by a few minor problems, and relegated to gory battle most of the volume, the series still manages good moments, and finishes this volume with a 7.25/10.

[Nolan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The intriguing premise of building utopia that starts the series hooked me, but that story is long over by book three. I'm a little salty about the sudden shift but now we’re two decades later and caught up with a guerilla faction in the middle of a chaotic war in South America. Thematically about the ambiguous morality of the fighting and its cold, violent consequences, book three closes by taking this to a shocking extreme. It's a dark and heavy read for a comic but the fast-paced, tense, and surprising action had me white-knuckling through the entire book. The art is clean, making the action easy to follow (can’t say the same for a lot of manga I’ve read, and this volume is one long action scene), and builds a world full of detail and contradiction while a military, technological, and ideological struggle we can’t make sense of occurs throughout the ruins of Machu Picchu.

I have no clue what will happen next, but I'm locked into the series now, somewhat regrettably, because Dark Horse never finished publishing it in English.

[Sir Nicho · Rating 2 out of 5]

This manga has no idea what it's trying to be. There's no central storyline or plot and the only two characters that have any development you haven't seen since the first book and they're twenty years older now anyway. The central idea behind the first half of the first book would have made a great series, but now it's just random nonsense with dull characters and poor writing. Even if there is some semblance as to what is going on you have no context so you don't care. It's almost as if the first book was written by someone else. The heavy handediness is still there as is the beyond terrible dialogue. The pointless flashbacks are just that pointless. Why would you give a character a flashback and then immediately kill him? If that information was important you would have given it to us earlier or started the story from there. I hate flashbacks especially when they add nothing to the story or character, especially a character you have no reason to care about. At least this time out I can tell why it's finally rated 18+. Also the group of people must be the luckiest people on the planet and the best at what they do to survive everything going on. So close to abandoning this series.

[Mikael Kuoppala · Rating 2 out of 5]

And it sinks. After a really promising opening and a slightly less focused continuation, “Eden” delivers a stylish but painstakingly hollow volume. The third book is made up entirely out of one overlong battle scene with some aesthetic merits, a microscopic amount of character stuff and no plot or thematic substance whatsoever. A vessel of disappointment.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ugh, I forgot how utterly heartwrenching and despair-filled the last section of this volume is. Ugh, all the feelings ;____; and I bet it'll only get worse for my weepy self with the next one because if memory served me right, it's Kenji's backstory. So yeah. Good job, Endo. I mean that.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story is really heating up now. Bit of a drag that it takes until the 3rd book to really get going, but i am rabidly wondering what happens next. No punches are pulled, and don't expect any happy endings.

[Kam-Hung Soh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just continuous skirmishes in this volume as Elijah, Colonel Khan and his small band of fighters battle Propater troops. In some panels, it is hard to distinguish the robot Cherubim from other armoured troops.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Much like book 2, but ending goes from dark to super disturbing.

[Brandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really liked the first book, but by volume 3 here, it's a completely different story.

[Kenechi Udogu · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Marilyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really sure if I like this manga or not. It's unrealistic and confusing. Don't really get the characters.

[budburst · Rating 5 out of 5]

在本集，大家可以見識到遠藤浩輝發便當的功力（默），令一個我想得到、更強的優質便當王，就是喬治‧馬丁的奇幻史詩《冰與火之歌》系列了。