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King of Thorn #2
いばらの王 2
"It's edge-of-the-seat action all the way." --Anime News NetworkNarrowly escaping their island prison through the once-welded underground hatch, our band of survivors now find themselves making a tense escape through a half-submerged tunnel. The watery path may look serene at first, but what monstrosities await them beneath the inky depths? And who is the mysterious girl watching their every move? When a shocking revelation shatters the group to the core, not all of them will continue on to freedom...or answers."It's a gripping entry in the genre of violent survivor manga." --Publishers Weekly
194 pages, Paperback
First published September 26, 2003
5 people are currently reading
116 people want to read
About the author
Yuji Iwahara
57 books52 followersIWAHARA Yuji
Japanese Name (岩原裕二)
Associated Names:
ИВАХАРА Юдзи
IWAHARA Yuuji
Blood Type: B
Japanese Name (岩原裕二)
Associated Names:
ИВАХАРА Юдзи
IWAHARA Yuuji
Blood Type: B
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 27 reviews
September 22, 2025
3.5/5
An enjoyable and intriguing, if baffling volume. I still have no real idea about what is happening.
An enjoyable and intriguing, if baffling volume. I still have no real idea about what is happening.
December 8, 2012
Kasumi and the other survivors have barely managed to escape their island prison, and now they have to make their way through a mostly submerged tunnel. When a shocking revelation shatters the little group, how many will continue on to survival...or answers?
The second volume in the KING OF THORN manga.
The second volume in the KING OF THORN manga.
September 6, 2017
Segundo tomo de King of Thorn y segundo tomo que disfruto mucho más de lo que lo recordaba. A ver, el manga sigue siendo una especie de Battle Royale en cuanto a que no sabes qué personaje va a morir de forma absurda en la siguiente página, pero ésta mezcla de incertidumbre, acción y buen dibujo me engancha.
Los misterios siguen a la par que se presentan unos cuantos nuevos: quién es la chica misteriosa que aparece en unas pocas viñetas? Quién es el supuesto traidor entre los supervivientes? Qué se supone que pasó?
Vale que el científico nos dice qué hacía él y que la compañía que controlaba el proyecto era de gente mala, pero el caso es que no se nos responde aún a ninguno de los interrogantes planteados en el primer tomo. Al menos se confirma que el negro y el americano molan mucho como héroes de acción y que la chica protagonista es un auténtico coñazo insoportable: de verdad, sus dudas existenciales y su depresión constante me aburren y no me pegan en un manga de diversión sin contemplaciones como me parece que es King of Thorn.
Lo dicho: nada excesivamente bueno, pero si lo que buscas es un manga de entretenimiento con toque de misterio y grandes dosis de acción éstos dos primeros tomos te darán lo que buscas (y con un buen dibujo).
Cuatro tomo más y acabamos!
Los misterios siguen a la par que se presentan unos cuantos nuevos: quién es la chica misteriosa que aparece en unas pocas viñetas? Quién es el supuesto traidor entre los supervivientes? Qué se supone que pasó?
Vale que el científico nos dice qué hacía él y que la compañía que controlaba el proyecto era de gente mala, pero el caso es que no se nos responde aún a ninguno de los interrogantes planteados en el primer tomo. Al menos se confirma que el negro y el americano molan mucho como héroes de acción y que la chica protagonista es un auténtico coñazo insoportable: de verdad, sus dudas existenciales y su depresión constante me aburren y no me pegan en un manga de diversión sin contemplaciones como me parece que es King of Thorn.
Lo dicho: nada excesivamente bueno, pero si lo que buscas es un manga de entretenimiento con toque de misterio y grandes dosis de acción éstos dos primeros tomos te darán lo que buscas (y con un buen dibujo).
Cuatro tomo más y acabamos!
July 5, 2020
This is a review of the entire series.
Synopsis: Kasumi and her sister, Shizuku, are infected with the Medusa virus, which slowly eats away at the body. There is no cure, but of the two only Kasumi is selected to be cryogenically frozen with 159 others until a cure is found. At some point in the future, Kasumi awakens to find herself in an unfamiliar world with violent monsters. How long were they asleep and why is the world worse off now than it was before?
Review: Wow! For such a short series this was an absolute mindfuck. It starts off as a survival-horror thriller with tons of monsters and gore which was genuinely frightening, then it transitions into a psychological fairy tale with science fiction twists. Marco is a badass character, the mystery between the twin sisters was much more imaginative and insane than I expected, the other supporting characters also had some heart to them. The directing style and the pseudo fairy tale theme really reminded me of a Guillermo Del Toro film. It has the same theme of finding fragments of hope in the face of absolute despair. The movie adaption for the manga was also really good even though it took quite a few different turns.
Synopsis: Kasumi and her sister, Shizuku, are infected with the Medusa virus, which slowly eats away at the body. There is no cure, but of the two only Kasumi is selected to be cryogenically frozen with 159 others until a cure is found. At some point in the future, Kasumi awakens to find herself in an unfamiliar world with violent monsters. How long were they asleep and why is the world worse off now than it was before?
Review: Wow! For such a short series this was an absolute mindfuck. It starts off as a survival-horror thriller with tons of monsters and gore which was genuinely frightening, then it transitions into a psychological fairy tale with science fiction twists. Marco is a badass character, the mystery between the twin sisters was much more imaginative and insane than I expected, the other supporting characters also had some heart to them. The directing style and the pseudo fairy tale theme really reminded me of a Guillermo Del Toro film. It has the same theme of finding fragments of hope in the face of absolute despair. The movie adaption for the manga was also really good even though it took quite a few different turns.
August 9, 2023
I'm getting very strong Resident Evil 5 vibes off this volume, what with the creatures and the guns and the action movie hero moments. 😂
Also can we talk about that certain page in the "crown of crosses and thorns" chapter, with the creature... That's certainly something. Is it good? No not remotely but it might just be so bad it's good. B-grade scifi horror movie vibes intensifying.
Anyway I really liked this quote:
"I just... don't want anyone else to die.
That's all.
Is that... such a bad thing?
Do I have to be willing to kill others in order to survive?"
Also can we talk about that certain page in the "crown of crosses and thorns" chapter, with the creature... That's certainly something. Is it good? No not remotely but it might just be so bad it's good. B-grade scifi horror movie vibes intensifying.
Anyway I really liked this quote:
"I just... don't want anyone else to die.
That's all.
Is that... such a bad thing?
Do I have to be willing to kill others in order to survive?"
December 26, 2020
Such an unusual art style where it looks like rough draft sketches. It was hard depicting what was going on in the action scenes but aside that, the mystery behind this place is keeping me going as well as the concept.
October 9, 2017
Again, quick read. Lots of action, but not much happened, if that makes any sense.
October 21, 2020
Pretty awesome survival/horror manga about a pandemic, interesting story/plot and love the art work 👌😁😻🦠
June 22, 2023
I fucking love the monsters in these books
Read
February 21, 2017Things keep chugging along in the second volume of "King of Thorn". Our survivors are still in the middle of... wherever they are, trying to survive the attacks from the beasts and from each other's distrust. Will they be able to discover anything? What about that mysterious person that is observing them? And will the creatures kill anyone else?
The second volume starts where the first left and does a good job in keeping the pace high, the action non-stop and the blood flying. Iwahara knows how to develop the action (even if some of the pages, drawings and distribution of the action still falter) and keeps to that. The characters have so little arc, it is a shame. Kasumi keeps thinking all the time about her sister, Marco is your hacker-superhero-of-the-week type, and all the others cover the sidekicks functions (cannon fodder, shy and scared, secretive type...). Iwahara cares nothing about these subtleties: if you can have blood and action, why develop the characters?
It all makes for empty and shallow fun. Nothing you would care if you didn't read, but that is easy on the eye, and has enough mystery to keep the attention (you can just have a limit of beasts surprising the 'heroes' moments). Let's see if the 'mysteries' are developed in the four volumes that are left (something that I doubt, taking into account how fast I read the first two).
6/10
(Spanish Translation by Ayako Koike)
The second volume starts where the first left and does a good job in keeping the pace high, the action non-stop and the blood flying. Iwahara knows how to develop the action (even if some of the pages, drawings and distribution of the action still falter) and keeps to that. The characters have so little arc, it is a shame. Kasumi keeps thinking all the time about her sister, Marco is your hacker-superhero-of-the-week type, and all the others cover the sidekicks functions (cannon fodder, shy and scared, secretive type...). Iwahara cares nothing about these subtleties: if you can have blood and action, why develop the characters?
It all makes for empty and shallow fun. Nothing you would care if you didn't read, but that is easy on the eye, and has enough mystery to keep the attention (you can just have a limit of beasts surprising the 'heroes' moments). Let's see if the 'mysteries' are developed in the four volumes that are left (something that I doubt, taking into account how fast I read the first two).
6/10
(Spanish Translation by Ayako Koike)
January 2, 2013
This volume is causing the series to risk becoming cluttered, from a plot standpoint. Coming into this volume, the plot had the main driving conflict of "How do these characters, which are almost all infected with a disease that could kill them, survive in this post-apocalyptic world with massive thorny plants that have consumed everything, and also freaking dinosaurs?"
There was also the question of "How did we go from the world that these characters were in when they went into cryo, into the world with the aforementioned plants and dinosaurs?"
This volume, unfortunately, does nothing to answer these questions, and instead Iwahara decides to add a third plot thread to the mix, related to some sort of conspiracy theory about the virus - which at present does nothing to explain any of the earlier questions.
I'm going to keep reading this series, but I do hope that Iwahara learned something from the X-Files and Lost, that too many questions without a hint that there are answers coming doesn't keep your audience hooked - it burns them out.
There was also the question of "How did we go from the world that these characters were in when they went into cryo, into the world with the aforementioned plants and dinosaurs?"
This volume, unfortunately, does nothing to answer these questions, and instead Iwahara decides to add a third plot thread to the mix, related to some sort of conspiracy theory about the virus - which at present does nothing to explain any of the earlier questions.
I'm going to keep reading this series, but I do hope that Iwahara learned something from the X-Files and Lost, that too many questions without a hint that there are answers coming doesn't keep your audience hooked - it burns them out.
December 30, 2014
Ha mejorado bastante respecto al primer tomo, por otro es lado comprensible, ya que se va desgranando la trama detrás del misterio que envuelve a los seis personajes supervivientes en las instalaciones, así como la operación Medusa. Ya hay algunas muertes y más acción. El dibujo me ha resultado que estaba hecho con ' más ganas'; la apreciación quizá no sea visible a bote pronto pero es ligeramente notable.
Sigue teniendo algún toque surrealista de lo más gracioso ( véase cap. 11 con su título y dibujo con la resolución de un combate..jeje)
No suelo reseñar mangas, pero lo hago porqué he visto que no hay reseñas de éste en español..espero que os sirva de guía a los interesados/ as:)
Sigue teniendo algún toque surrealista de lo más gracioso ( véase cap. 11 con su título y dibujo con la resolución de un combate..jeje)
No suelo reseñar mangas, pero lo hago porqué he visto que no hay reseñas de éste en español..espero que os sirva de guía a los interesados/ as:)
December 2, 2012
I really enjoyed this second volume of "King of Thorn". The first volume completely captivated me, and the second did the same. The mystery keeps getting deeper and deeper. And there are some amazing scenes in the story as well. I still don't recommend this manga to kids, though. I think it would be too gory for children to read.
June 17, 2016
I finally got it, some fo it was familair, as I had read a bit of this series online, but it's so much better when it's a physical copy, this is a very stressful to read series though, since I never finished the online bit (it was removed once the series was licensed here) so I don't know whats going to happen...
October 30, 2008
Still waiting for this to get better, but since the library had vol. 3 in when i got this, I checked it out. Just never could get around to finishing it, since I have so many other things I'd like to read. Oh well.
August 1, 2014
This added more questions by hinting at a medusa virus conspiracy while not answering any old questions. Why is it post apocalypse? How did their chambers open if they only do so from the outside? What's up with the creepy girl in the cape? SOMETHING needs to be answered.
December 18, 2007
Continues to be great!
May 12, 2009
Well, the plot thickens. What is the deal with the vines? And how long were they asleep?
I'm still not crazy about the art, but I do want to read the rest of the story. I'm hooked.
I'm still not crazy about the art, but I do want to read the rest of the story. I'm hooked.
June 8, 2010
I pretty enjoyable sci-fi series. I'm not running out to find the new copies, but when I get the chance I do scoop them up...
March 22, 2010
Good plot, but the small black and white panels are a bit confusing. I had no idea what I was looking at on certain pages.
July 28, 2011
Non stop action and we learn more about Medua and the mysterious lab. I can't wait to read #3.
August 30, 2013
A história fica cada vez mais densa e tensa. Os sobreviventes começam a ser imersos no mistério que envolve a instalação, e a organização que os manteve em extase criogênico.
August 19, 2016
The story is moving along and the information which is being provided answers some questions, but it brings up more questions, in other words it is doing what it should.
November 7, 2016
in this part the girl kasuim was tooken out of the water and up the latter by a man whos belived she was the only one who didnt k now what was going on.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 27 reviews