Biomega, Bd. 1

Biomega / バイオメガ #1

by Tsutomu Nihei, Costa Caspary (Übersetzer)

Im Jahr 3005 reisen Menschen zum ersten Mal seit 700 Jahren wieder zum Mars. In einer verfallenen Kolonie, in der es weder Wasser noch Sauerstoff gibt, begegnet die Besatzung des Forschungsraumschiffs einer Frau...

Bei der Rückkehr hat das Raumschiff im Orbit der Erde einen schweren Unfall: Die mit einem bisher unbekannten Virus infizierte Leiche eines Besatzungsmitglieds treibt im Weltall und verliert ständig Sporen...

Ein halbes Jahr später, auf der Erde: Der synthetische Humanoid Kanoe Zoichi, ein Agent der Toha-Industries, dringt in 9JO ein, einer künstlichen Insel, die von der DRF (Data Recovery Foundation-) kontrolliert wird. Hier wimmelt es bereits von „Dronen“ (Menschen, die mit dem N5S-Virus infiziert wurden). Noch 15 Stunden und die ganze Erde ist infiziert...

Kann Zoichi eine „Adaptierte“ ausfindig machen und beschützen?!

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

218 pages, Paperback

First published January 19, 2007

About the author

See also 弐瓶 勉.

Tsutomu Nihei (弐瓶 勉 Nihei Tsutomu, born 1971) is a Japanese manga artist. His cyberpunk-influenced artwork has gained a strong cult following. He has a relatively large community of fans in Germany where his manga Blame!, NOiSE and Biomega were published by Ehapa. Blame! was also published in France and Spain by Glénat, in the US by Tokyopop and in Italy by Panini Comics.

At first he studied architecture and later it is shown up in his manga works with drawing huge structures. This became one of his general theme that makes his manga unique. His works are usually in black and white. He is also an avid fan of the video game series Halo, as he mentions in his commentary section in the Halo Graphic Novel.

Taken from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsutomu_...

Reviews

[Tom Ewing · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some comics are great because they do one thing extremely well. You're not going to read Biomega for the ideas (zombies), or the dialogue (sparse), or the characterisation (sparser), or the plot (sparsest). You might read it for the action - high-speed, sometimes thrilling, sometimes murky and chaotic. And you might read it if you're a fan of bikes, bears and ballistics. But mostly you should read Biomega, as with any Tsutomu Nihei manga, for the architecture.

Nihei is the master of space, scale, and conveying enormity within the confines of the small comics page. His cyclopean buildings and colossal structures are less extreme (and less the main character) than in his earlier Blame! but there are still double-page spreads in Biomega that are beautifully dizzying and alienating, like a cyberpunk Gormenghast. Sometimes they interlace with the action, but they don't always need to. Vertiginous, and unlike anything else I've read.

[Ill D · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not sure what I’ve just read. But I definitely enjoyed it and I’m quite sure that you will too. Why you ask? Because there’s just something unexplainably enjoyable about seeing an anthropomorphized bear chosen as a man character; did I mention he packs heat too? And as odd as it sounds it’s oddities such as such that not only pepper the comic with eye candy but coalesce for a deeply memorable reading experience due to its unusually idiosyncratic nature. These highly personal manifestations allow BioMega to stand out amongst its thematical peers and predecessors whose markets (while far from stale) are becoming increasingly oversaturated: Zombies and Manga.

We(‘ve) got some dystopia going on here (+1k years in the future to be exact). With Romero’s undead hooligan’s appropriated once again, the author made the judicious decision to expand the vision of their environs. Not caged in my a forest or an island, Biomega’s flesh-rotting zombies perform their sole biological ritual with an ever unceasing fervor in an enormously vast metropolis that is only exceeded in length by its dilapidation.

And it is within this (effectively enough) necropolis of corroded wires and faded concrete that our narrative ties in a small but, effective panoply of characters to tell it’s story. With an energy that powers its internal magnetic apparatus – the decisions and conflicts between a seeker, a damsel, and that gun toting bear (again) are whirled together with tints and tones of suspense, horror, and adrenaline fueled action.

Unsurprisingly however, these spates of artery bursting violence are illustrated with a typically excessive style that Anime/Manga (in)famously employs. Coupled with a brutality simplistic pallet and a relatively static approach to the penciling, BioMega can be something of a grind to read. Eventually everything all melts together, which lip-swishingly disappointingly enough includes the fights themselves. Topping all this off is a murky atmosphere, that while perfectly befitting of the series, often leaves too much enshrouded in it’s own opacity.

All in all, some 10 issues later, enlightenment wasn’t found at the bottom of the rabbit hole but, neither was I expecting it. High(er) Expectations will be somewhat unfulfilled due to unclear development and muddy artwork. Those of a lower variety will quickly draw parallels with other connectables in pop culture such as the Resident Evil Series, for example. Strictly un-intertextualized Biomega seeks out its own vision with little in the way of tributaries of influence to water itself down. In fact it deserves to be read and judged on its own merit’s alone.

[Venus Maneater · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beksinski meets Giger meets Cronenberg. High tech dystopian body horror, on deserted overpasses and zombie riddled ghost towns. Many cartridges of black ink gave their life to bring us this manga, and while I really appreciate that, I'm not quite sure if this is one for me.

On one hand, there's a scene where an artificial human rides his oversized, pitch-black motorcycle on a rooftop with a talking bear on the backseat, while the building behind them goes up in flames. That was pretty awesome.


no lie

On the other hand, I needed more dialogue, and more of a story. Right now I know that there is an infection that zombifies you, and humanity is on its last legs. There is also a crazy cult that fully embraces the zombie inside you and wants everyone to go undead, pretty please. There's a special snowflake that got infected and didn't go the Romero way, but instead got gifted with (among others) the power of regenerating her limbs. She's also pretty chummy with the bear.

And in between all that ^ there's high-speed motorcycle chasing and totally rad killshots by our protagonist, who reminds me of a slighter more badass Ichise from Texhnolyze.
There's also me going "Why the fuck is no one asking the bear why it can speak?"

The art is A++, and I'm kind of curious as to what's going to happen to bear-bro, but not gotta-buy-it-asap-curious, more a maybe-I-can-borrow-it-from-a-friend-someday-curious. This one is a meh.

[s · Rating 3 out of 5]

manifestly stupid power chord shit but it’s nihei so i could look at it all day.

[Sol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full series review:

Biomega is proof that a comic need not have good writing to be great. It seems straightforward - motorcycle, zombies, cyborgs, bear with a gun. Those first two volumes form the peak of Nihei's craft, along with Abara. I wouldn't change a thing about them. In the third and fourth Nihei complicates the plot further and further, and by the fifth volume it starts coming apart at the seams, pieces falling off as it staggers to the finish line. The final volume is not so much a story as a series of scenes that could be the basis of a story. Imagine picking out every third chapter in the final three volumes of a manga, and you have some idea of the level of coherence at play. Despite all that, Biomega remains a delight for the eyes, and I consider it a very good manga. Nihei's architectural and creature genius is on full blast here, and Biomega has some of his best choreographed action.



My attempted chronological explanation:

Roughly 1000 years ago, an immortal woman named Riruodo is born. She has a different chromosome count from normal humans, and secretes a plastic-like liquid pollen (the "Reverse Morphic Polymer") that reacts to and absorbs non-living material. 900 years ago, a colony on Mars was created.

741 years ago, fossilized 7-legged pseudoinsects were discovered on Mars, that could be revived with water. They contained ovules within themselves that reacted to the liquid "pollen" secreted by Riruodo. Riruodo was discovered around this time by Leif Grigoryevich Grebnev, and he appears to have fallen in love with her. Riruodo left Leif and went to Mars, and experiments there in fertilizing the ovules using Riruodo's pollen created the N5S plague, which zombifies humans. The Mars colony was destroyed in a matter of days. On Earth a few months later, a terroristic attack destroyed all digital records, plunging civilization into chaos. Seven years later, Leif created a company called Microvolt which conducted research on immortality and life-extension. This company later became the "Data Recovery Foundation", the biggest company on Earth.

Roughly 500 years ago, an immortal woman named Niarudi was born, with the psychic power to know the thoughts and history of any living or once-living object she touched. Whether she could create pollen of her own is unclear. Based on a comment by Narein, it's likely that she couldn't. At a young age she was recruited by Leif, and she recruited a psychic man named Narein. At some point in the future he underwent extreme body modification to extend his life and prevent Niarudi from reading his mind. At an unknown period, the two of them broke into Leif's office and discovered a locket with a picture of Riruodo, which also had a container containing the insectoid ovules, which Niarudi read the history of.

Roughly 200 years ago, the first synthetic human was created by the DRF, the man who raised Kozlov as a "father". He worked with the pollen and knew Niarudi's plans to use it to remake the Earth.

186 years ago, a seemingly-young woman named Viev Chiena (later Eon Green) worked with Leif in a laboratory personally supervised by him. She had the same chromosomal profile as Riruodo, thus was also immortal and produced her own pollen. Leif combined his and her DNA into a clone body which was also immortal. Leif transplanted his brain into that clone, and the clone's brain into the body of his pet bear, who became Kozlov Leifovich Grebnev. Later, Leif disappeared, sealed the Continental Geo-stationary Satellite, and stole Riruodo's polymer. Kozlov was raised by the DRF's synthetic human, and seemed generally unaware of his provenance, believing that Leif was his grandfather. Later, Kozlov lived with Eon Green and was very protective of her. Toa Heavy Industries erroneously believed that he was Leif living under an assumed name.

In 3004, Toa Heavy Industries became suspicious of the DRF's schemes, and fast-tracked a program to create extremely strong and durable synthetic humans, using accelerated time virtual reality education to bring their minds from infancy to adulthood in under a year. They were created in sibling pairs with artificial intelligences that resided in their motorcycles, with Dr. Kurakawa's daughter acting as their mother.

In 3005, Leif returned to Mars and met Riruodo again. At this point, the manga begins. At least one member of the crew became infected with N5S, and in returning to Earth, the body floated in the atmosphere and spread spores. At the start of the manga, only the artificial island 9JO (the residence of Eon and Kozlov) is infected, but it quickly spreads across Earth and destroys all of humanity. Toa's synthetic humans attempt to stop the spread, but fail. Narein kidnaps Eon Green, Toa Heavy Industries is destroyed, and Dr. Kurakawa is kidnapped.

The DRF was able to use the N5S virus to create powerful superhumans by suppressing and controlling the zombifying effects of the virus. Narein hoped to use the virus to turn all of humanity immortal, as Leif had originally envisioned, while Niarudi wanted to use the plague only as a medium to spread the Reverse Morphic Polymer across the planet, to remake it and rule it as a god. Niarudi and Narein's sections of the DRF came into conflict, and while she was invading Narein's headquarters, Narein transferred his consciousness into a synthetic human body created by Kurakawa. Narein began reversing the zombification of the N5S victims, but Niarudi released large quantities of the polymer near the drones, causing it to go out of control and absorb Narein's body. Niarudi also merged with Narein, and attempted to take control of the combined body. Unchanged humans and Eon Green evacuated to the Geo-Stationary Satellite, which Niarudi attempted to destroy. During the battle, the polymer fertilized one of the ovules, and the Earth was transformed into the "Recreator", a massive string-like structure 100 kilometres in diameter and 4.8 billion kilometres long. It was apparently created by the ovule in response to information decoded by the polymer and a distorted wish of Kozlov.

The Geo-Stationary Satellite crashed onto the Recreator, and its inhabitants became the primitive Imiguru tribe, who protected Eon Green and kept her secret. Kozlov and Zoichi also crashed on the Recreator, though very far away. The Recreator possessed its own history and radically different biosphere the moment that Zoichi landed on it, immediately after its creation from his perspective. Earth existed only as a legend of a primordial time to the Recreators inhabitants. This could possibly be a case of Omphalism, or a distortion in time caused by its creation. The Recreator was fused with Niarudi, who did not have complete control of it and was only intermittently conscious. Shortly before Zoichi's arrival, the DRF impregnated a young woman named Yaa with the "child of the Recreator", Niarudi's daughter. Zoichi failed to save Yaa, but got the child, Funipero away from the DRF.

Zoichi spent 200 years travelling the Recreator, heading toward the end where Niarudi lived. Funipero grew and acquired powers similar to Niarudi's. Funipero contacted Kozlov, telling him to journey to a place and make a wish. Kozlov did so, finding a pupa-like structure. Zoichi battles Niarudi's forces while Niarudi fights Funipero. Niarudi attempts to absorb Funipero and trick Zoichi, but fails. The encounter prompts recollections from Niarudi exposing many of the mysteries of the early segment of the manga. Kozlov enters the pupa and makes a new wish, stopping Niarudi and purifying the Recreator. Kozlov reunites with Eon, and Zoichi journeys to a distant section of the Recreator to try and recover the data of Fuyu, his AI sister killed in the battle with Niarudi.




However much or little sense the above makes, it's presented in the most confusing possible manner. Tiny bits of information are doled out over long periods of time, then much later big flashbacks will happen providing huge chunks of the backstory, one of which occurs almost in the last few pages of the manga. The mechanics of the Recreator are barely explained and I don't claim to understand them (for example, whose pollen was it made from? Eon's or Riruodo's? Where the hell did the insects with the ovules come from?) This is compounded by the increasingly disjoint nature of the later volumes and the complete setting change after the midpoint. I've probably read this manga four times, and it still required me to flip through all six volumes out of order to make the above summary.



I think that the setting of the Recreator could be used as the basis of a really cool story. I'd love a nice long Xenogears-like JRPG set on it. As it is, it feels like at some point Nihei just wanted to wrap things up and illustrated the remaining notes he had on hand. Entire characters like Nishu Mizuno and Kadaru Spindaru simply disappear from the story without explanation. That really stings, as they actually had some characterization in comparison to Zoichi, who may as well be Killy with a new suit. Kadaru especially could have been interesting. She tries to warn away Zoichi from fighting the DRF, cures the poison he got from the inspector in the first volume, and during the battle with Niarudi, Zoichi and Mizuno entrust her with protecting Eon. Seriously, would it have killed Nihei to spend a page explaining what happened to her after the satellite crashed?



Despite all this, I rank it second among the endings of Nihei's serial manga. It lacks the simplicity of Blame!'s ending, but it's more comprehensible than Abara's. Knights of Sidonia comes last (so far).



Now for the connections:

Retinal analysis returns from Blame!
The inspectors' skin-mask faces resemble the villain of Abara
Jet engines integrated into back appear several times, and recur in Aposimz
Kadaru's disguise is reminiscent of the girl from the Blame! postscript
Narein's brainwaves are reminiscent of 2nd chimera's GBE release from Sidonia
The patrol inspector's goop on Yaa is similar to the anti-placenta goo from Aposimz
The transformation from touching Niarudi's flesh is similar to safeguard transformation in Blame!
Researchers having bizarre white masks is a recurring image from this point on, occurring in both Sidonia and Aposimz
Kardal Spindal is similar to the black gauna of Abara
The fauna of the Recreator are similar to the automatons of Aposimz, but more biological
Niarudi's dress at the end is very similar to the one Titania wore in the Aposimz oneshot

[Baal Of · Rating 4 out of 5]

The same murky atmospheric dread of his Blame series but with a marginally easier to follow plot. The action is cranked up to an absurdly unbelievable level, especially the scenes with Zoichi riding his motorcycle across rooftops, making physically impossible jumps. There's no substantial characterization, but I still found it intriguing. The final mini-chapter called Interlink was incoherent.

[Sylvia Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Biomega is a cyberpunk zombie apocalypse story featuring motorbikes, talking grizzly bears, and ridiculously big weapons (but not in a dumb fantasy kind of way). This book drips with style and seems incredibly confident with itself in the best way.

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reason for Reading: Apocalypse? Virus? Zombies? How could I *not* want to read it?

Comments: First off this book is a little larger in length and width than the usual manga which really enhances the superb artwork. Done in very detailed black ink the artwork tells the story for much of the book. There are a lot of wordless panels, especially in the first half where words are very seldom used and only sparsely when needed. There are many scenes which look down upon a city or place and these are truly stunning, some of the best artwork I've seen in a manga. There is a lot of violence but it's all of the kind you'd expect to see when zombies are being shot at and blown to pieces plus a small bit of language, thus the manga has an "M" rating.

The story in this first volume is brief. The outline of what is going on and who our main characters are is introduced and one gets a bit of a feel for them. By the end of the book slight revelations have been made and we know the end of the world is imminent. There is one character whom not much information has been given and I found, shall we say, quite interesting, by the name of Kozlov who is a large talking grizzly bear who seems to be trying to protect Eon Green and I find myself most compelled by him at the moment.

I definitely have a sense of the story here but I'm not big on wordless graphics, even though this does contain enough bubbles to tell some story. I personally do need more. At this point, I'm going to wait for Volume 2 before deciding whether this is a series I want to follow. If you like Apocalyptic stories, lots of zombie and motorcycle action with a grizzly bear thrown in for good measure you may want to give this one a try.

[Janelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won't pretend I'm any sort of manga expert because I'm not, so I'm just going to offer my very amateur opinions on the storyline and the artwork.

Plot: Most of the human population have been turned into zombies thanks to the wonderful N5S virus. The Public Health Service sends Compulsory Execution Units (CEU) into infected areas to kill off said zombies, which are referred to as "drones". These drones look like your typical zombies, but with elongated limbs and torsoes - no word on if they eat brains though. The protagonist is some "synthetic human" dude (you can tell I've been paying attention!) on a motorbike, who completes missions in infected areas under the guidance of a little hologram lady in his bike computer, for a company called Toha Industries - rival of the Public Health Service and CEU.

As with most zombie-virus-apocalyptic texts, there are a select few humans that are immune to the virus. In the Biomega world they're called Accommodators, and are essentially infected with the N5S virus but retain their human appearance. It seems like motorbike dude just goes into infected areas to do the job of the CEU, but receives orders to recover a young Accommodator girl called Eon Green. It turns out the Public Health Service is out to capture these so-called Accommodators and experiment on them, in hopes of wiping out the drones and starting over with humanity. Or something like that.

As far as the storyline goes, Biomega hits all the right spots: apocalyptic storyline, zombies, viruses, synthetic humans/robots, shadow organisation and a precious few humans that are immune to said zombie virus. It's by no means an original premise, but I love me some dystopian/apocalyptic fiction and am likely to keep reading it as long as people write it.

There were a few original things I really liked about the story though. For one, there was a talking bear! It was completely random and incongruent with the story, but it added a bit of LOLWAT to an otherwise srs bsns text. I also found the drones really creepy and fascinating, wondering what it is about the virus that causes their limbs to stretch and appearance to change. And the Accommodators are damn creepy! I'm guessing they're intended to look creepy, because the motorbike dude doesn't look quite as soulless. I was left wondering if they look like that because they're actually infected with the virus, rather than being totally immune to it (a part of the mythology that I really enjoyed!)

I also find the Compulsory Execution Unit ~creatures to be equally creepy and fascinating. I have to admit I'm a bit confused about the main antagonist CEU guy, but I love the murderous butcher garb!

You can probably tell I don't have any problems with the storyline itself, but I actually found Biomega #1 to be strangely lacking in story and dialogue. Again, I'm no manga expert so I'm unsure about what is "normal" when it comes to manga and graphic novels, but this text felt like it was 90% dude-riding-his-motorbike and 10% story and dialogue. I feel like I could rip out at least 20 pages of this text without affecting any of the story. I would've preferred a text with fewer pages and a heavier concentration of story, rather than a big long manga with little story and a million useless panels. I didn't purchase this manga (I borrowed it off a friend) but I'd feel a little ripped off if I had.

I also have a little problem with the artwork - sometimes I just didn't have a fucking clue what was happening. Most of the time I could figure it out by looking at the panels before/after, but sometimes I just had no clue what the image was supposed to be. I don't think it affected my overall comprehension of the story, but I found it to be quite jarring. I know those few panels are going to bug the crap out of me until I figure them out! The artist's style is also very rushed and scribbly, which suits the story but doesn't help my case.

Overall: I love the premise of Biomega, but found it strangely lacking in story and often had no clue what went on in certain panels. It's unnecessarily long, so unless you're a collector I'd suggest borrowing rather than buying this one. That being said, I'm really excited to borrow start the next one!

[Elaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's another zombie apocalypse story that seems to be the hot thing nowadays, except they're called drones in this reincarnation of the we're-all-going-to-die-and-become-reanimated-corpses story. The art is dark and gritty, with explosions, fight scenes and exploding heads. But I found the strangely far-spaced eyes a bit disconcerting. Plot-wise, the reader is pretty much thrown into the midst of things (or onto the back of Zoichi's inky black AI equipped motorcycle if you so wish) and you kind of figure things out on the way. If that wasn't enough to provide a basis for entertaining story, there is also the rifle-touting bear. That talks. Awesome. What zombie apocalypse story is complete without an armed animal amigo?

I also wanna say that this is a dystopian story, but I'm not sure it counts when practically everyone understands that the present world is by no means an utopia. Since this is pretty much an action-packed intro volume, don't expect too much story. Or expect what little story you do get needing to be clarified. Looking forward to picking up the next volumes to see where these hijinks lead.

Oh, did I mention the heat-packing talking bear?

[Devastatingwildness · Rating 5 out of 5]

6/6 Historia completa.

Hay elementos comunes con Blame!, y en cierta parte de la historia podría incluso haberse convertido en la precuela (muy en el pasado) de Blame! Acaba tomando otro camino.

No me gusta el apelativo de 'distopía de zombies' para este manga, aunque quizá sea por el prejuicio hacia el género (o no) de estúpido en general. Ciertamente hay los equivalentes a zombies, pero la historia no toma el camino de una difícil supervivencia entre miles y miles de zombies ya que esto no tendría sentido frente a la relevancia y las capacidades del personaje central del manga.
Igualmente que en Blame! hay elementos de ciberpunk como las IA, los humanos sintéticos, ciencia muy avanzada que permite grandes modificaciones biológicas, etc. Encaja perfectamente en el género distópico. En cuanto a escenarios, los que conozcan Blame! encontrarán también grandes escenarios arquitectónicos, aunque de distinta forma. En ciertas partes también grandes estructuras orgánicas que me recordaron a Nausicaä. Aunque yo preferí los de Blame! (Y seguramente la obra en general también)

Hay muchos más diálogos, y no hay ningún problema en un manga largo que se hace esperar en cuanto a la trama; y Blame! lo hace bien. Aquí son 6 tomos frente a 10 de la otra obra. La trama se desarrolla más rápido necesariamente, porque también deben suceder muchas cosas. De hecho podría haberse extendido el manga en la parte final o, lo que habría sido alucinante para mí, una posible unión de Biomega y Blame! que necesitaría de muchos cambios en la historia claro.

Y la historia, pues creo que podría mejorarse también. Hay de nuevo algunos saltos temporales, no demasiados, y un poco de dejar al entendimiento del lector. Con Blame! disfruté más con la relectura, sobre todo los tomos finales y en general al reconstruir la historia completa en mi mente. Aquí creo que puede pasar un poco lo mismo sobre ciertas cosas que se dejan a la interpretación.

En definitiva es un buen manga para mi gusto en cuanto a ambiciones de la historia, estética y personajes. Algo centrada en el avance de la historia y la acción, cuando podría también haberse tomado sus momentos de calma para mostrar lo que le está sucediendo al mundo y a los personajes más en detalle.

[Robert Brice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Body horror, cyborgs, violence, megalophobia-inducing architecture, an alienating lack of character development, dreamlike atmosphere, gnarly seat-of-the-pants plotting and an unexplained, rifle-wielding bear named Kozlov L. Grebnev. God, I love Tsutomu Nihei.

[Liam Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Action packed zombie manga

[Nicolas · Rating 3 out of 5]

least confusing manga

[James Watson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great art, but a bit unclear on story. Art alone 4.5/5. Story us a 1/5 for me.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Note: I've read the english translated books, not the Japanese editions like the one pictured.

Biomega is one of the best New manga series out there. Zoichi is one kick-but synthetic human! But it gets super confusing, especially after the second book, so read carefuly! (I had to reread all the books just to understand it fully.)
The drawing style is unique, but it can get very graphic and just down right grotesque at times(nothing inapropriate, but its a post-apoctiliptic(sp?) zombie pandemic based story, what do you expect?). My sugestion for people thinking about reading this particular manga is to read the rating and content warnings BEFORE you begin reading. Just to see if the story is stuff you can handle.
Personally i love Tsutomu Nihei's drawing style. Her character's faces bugged me at first (especially arround the eyes) but i've gotten over that, and the settings and characters are drawn in extremely impressive detail!
In my opinion, a good read!

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Zombies und Apokalypse haben Hochkonjunktur, BIOMEGA liegt also voll im Trend. Warum hat mir der Band dann nicht wirklich gefallen? Die Zeichnungen sind überwiegen ansprechend und gelegentlich auch einfalls-bzw. detailreich, aber Mangas sind anscheinend wirklich nicht mein Ding (richtig, BIOMEGA ist auch meine Manga-Premiere gewesen). Ich hatte häufiger Proleme, mir aus der Bilderfolge die Handlung zusammen zu reimen - und ja, doch, ich habe die Mangalesefolge beachtet. Es gibt wenig Text, was nicht unbedingt nachteilig sein muss, aber mich hier manchmal doch ratlos zurück ließ. Der entscheidende Knapckpunkt aber ist: die Handlung hat mich einfach nicht mitgenommen. Da mir für Mangas die Kriterien fehlen, abschließend nur noch einmal der deutliche Hinweis, dass diese Rezension nur eine sehr subjektive Bewertung darstellt.

[Ingenue · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't even comment on this book because all my impressions of it are overwhelmed by the talking Russian bipedal bear with a shotgun. Whose presence is never explained. Despite being a TALKING BEAR WITH A SHOTGUN.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

A science fiction zombie apocalypse. Very pretty artwork and a universe that operates by Rule of Cool, but there's not much substance there, and what there is I've seen before.

[Karl Fischer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very intriguing first volume, fast-paced, and visually stunning.

[⭒Christie ☽✯➳✯☾ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great illustrations! Interesting and action packed storyline. Excited to read the next volume. :D

[Abdulla · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't like this as much as I thought I would.

[Paul Spence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zombie apocalypse and talking grizzly bears … yep, it’s the end of the world as we know it.

I am indeed a sucker for a good zombie apocalypse story and I’ve seen my share of them and loved just a handful of them that struck me as brilliantly original. So, you see, Biomega is the type of manga I would rush out to buy and seeing as the talented Tsutomu Nihei is involved it peaked my interest even more. Volume 1 of Biomega might have its flaws but it is still a zombie series with some, well, bite.

In 3005 A.D., a space mission to Mars has astronauts exploring the remains of an abandoned station when the astronauts make a most startling discovery. Six months later, a lone figure on a sleek futuristic motorcycle is heading towards the gates of a massive city on lockdown. The city itself is industrial-like and uninviting but the young man clad in black named Zoichi Kanoe is determined to get inside.

His mission is to locate a girl that his employers at Toa Heavy Industries call Eon Green as well as the help purge the city of the zombie horde that is infected by a virus known as the N5S virus. The zombies, or Drones, are everywhere and as Zoichi kills his way along the stretch of road in the city, he runs into the very person he was sent to find. Unfortunately, he literally runs into her at high speeds with his motorcycle. The impact of the collision leaves the girl badly injured and to Zoichi she looks dead but she begins to heal right before his eyes.

Zoichi’s motorcycle comes complete with a digitized intelligence holograph named Fuyu who tells him that that the girl is most definitely Eon and the fact that the zombie drones seem drawn to her confirms it. On top of that, a grizzly bear appears and is aiming a rifle at Zoichi. Oh, that’s not all, the grizzly actually talks and is watching over Eon like an overprotective father.

It seems that Eon and the talking grizzly named Kozlov have holed up in a sort of fortress but when a dangerous agent from the Public Health Services’ deadly Compulsory Execution Unit who fights Kozlov and leaves the poor grizzly to his fate at the fortress begins to fall apart. Thankfully, Zoichi arrives on time to save Kozlov but the agent, a being that looks just as freakish as the zombie, manages to get away with Eon Green. Kozlov also finds out that there’s more to Zoichi than meets the eye because he can certainly take quite a beating.

Determined to get Eon Green back, Zoichi makes a number of discovers including the fact that getting Eon back is important thanks to the fact that she is an Accomodator that not only has the N5S virus but she hasn’t turned into a mindless zombie in the process. This also makes her the target of the Public Health Services who have their own plans for Eon Green and others like her.

Unfortunately, time has run out for Zoichi as Earth discovers that the astronauts that headed out to Mars have attempted to reach Earth. The trouble with that is that the crew was infected with the virus and are floating above the planet spreading the deadly virus spores down to Earth. Missiles have been launched to destroy the last populated areas and it is up to Zoichi to stop the missiles before it wipes out everything in its path.

The story is told visually rather than filling each panel with heavy dialogue to advance the story along. While this is acceptable enough, we really don’t learn anything about the characters or their personalities. When a talking bear seems more interesting than the hero of the story you know there’s something wrong. Then again, this is but the first volume and it’s over-the-top violence and interesting visual style make this an intriguing series with a lot of promise.

Volume 1 of Biomega certainly isn’t without its problems but would you really want to miss out on awesome zombie carnage or a talking bear with a sniper rifle? Bizarre as it sounds, the series does manage to be original and strikingly easy on the eyes and you can bet we will keep our eyes on this one.

[Tachan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Appréciant ma redécouverte de l’univers de Nihei avec Noise, j’ai eu envie de replonger dans ses œuvres présentes dans ma bibliothèque. Biomega m’a ainsi semblé parfait avec son espèce de chevalier noir à moto, sa demoiselle en détresse et son ours. Une revisite cyberpunk de Boucle d’or ?

Dès les premières pages, j’ai apprécié de retrouver le style Nihei : vastes étendues vertigineuses dont le vide pèse et effraie, créatures malades, crayonnés sombres laissant pourtant passer une fine lumière, nous y étions. 6 tomes de mystères nous attendent ou 3 selon l’édition, pour un récit, je l’espère, aussi ramassé et nerveux que ce premier tome.

On y retrouve un homme à moto, Zoichi, pénétrant une zone infestée par un virus qui a transformé les gens en sorte de zombies cannibales. Tous les hommes ? Non, l’une d’eux résiste : la fille d’un riche magnat qui ne semble pas contaminée, semble pouvoir se régénérer et vit avec un ours ! Le mystère est posé.

Pendant la moitié de ce premier tome, c’est avant tout une orgie graphique que nous offre l’auteur avant de nous présenter son projet et de nous donner quelques explications sur ce virus et la menace qui plane donc le rôle à jouer par Ion, notre Boucle d’or post-apo. Une orgie visuelle qui montre bien qu’on n’a pas besoin d’un scénario poussé pour prendre son pied et être happé. Un huis clos dans une ville étrange, un virus, des zombies, une santé publique qui dézingue tout et une duo demoiselle en détresse – héros solitaire sur sa moto, façon cavalier post-moderne à la Akira suffisent. Les révélations sur le lien avec Mars intriguent mais ce sera pour plus tard. Ce premier tome nous introduit à l’aide d’une course folle dans l’univers et on la suit à la vitesse de la moto de Zoichi parti à la rescousse d’Ion. Tout est encore loin d’être clair mais c’est déjà très prenant malgré cette opacité. On veut la suite !

Sa marque de fabrique reste tout de même les univers graphiques forts et marquants. C’est bien le cas ici. Il nous fait une véritable démonstration avec une virtuosité folle dans l’économie de cases pour décrire la violence des actions, en mode réalisateur de cinéma avec influence de Matrix et Tarentino. On prend cette explosion de découpages sobres, percutants et efficaces et c’est une vraie leçon de style. Les effets de ralenti scotchent et happent le lecteur, le capturant au sein de cette ville désertique et vertigineuse aux allures post-apocalyptique rappelant la suite de Blade Runner, dont on attend presque la voix dans les échanges entre Zoichi et l’image projetée (l’IA) qui le guide. C’est incroyable.

Je me suis sentie happée par ce crayonné entêtant et dérangeant, dérangeant et glaçant, vite effrayant. Nihei reprend vraiment tout ce qui fait sa marque de fabrique dans cette nouvelle histoire vertigineuse et mystérieuse où il semble réécrire Boucle d’or à la sauce post-apo punk avec zombies, cavalier noir et Santé plus violente que protectrice dans sa recherche d’une solution à ce virus. C’est à nouveau un univers sombre dont il a le secret qu’il met en scène avec une efficacité virtuose qui ébahi. J’ai adoré !

Article complet: https://lesblablasdetachan.wordpress....

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

If there's anything wrong with this story so far, it's that the first volume might have been too quickly read. It was an absorbing read with surprising depth for the first volume of a manga, but when I finished the first volume I felt like it had gone by too quickly.

I generally like manga with dark themes. It seems like those with darker themes and warnings of mature content are usually the only manga in which the authors give themselves permission to write with depth and thought-provoking ideas, thoughtfully explored. The first volume of Biomega is an exemplary case of that, even leaving out the cutesy/comical touches here and there that seem like an irresistible lure for the majority of even the best manga authors, despite the fact they often just distract from the substance of a good story. None of that here.

I've seen the Blame! anime based on work by the same author, and I see a trend already: synthetic human man as the certified badass protagonist, slender blonde artificial intelligence woman working with him, and "innocent girl" type with some kind of central role to the story. So far, I have no problem with this repeated pattern (and I have only seen it in two works, one of which was an anime adaptation; I have not read anything by Tsutomu Nihei yet other than this volume). It seems well-handled so far, antagonists are not just tissue paper for the protagonist to brush through with ease, and as long as it serves to carry a good story I'm happy with it.

This seems like the kind of story with mature themes that is actually for readers with some mental maturity, which is really what I'm looking for most of the time in manga, and the characters are pretty comprehensible and understandable given their apparent motivations. The villains of the piece seem especially evil, which often leads to cartoonish, unbelievable motivations, but in this case they tend to make some sense so far. The only thing that seems like it might be out of place in the whole thing is the bear, but I suppose that will make sense in time as well if I keep reading the series (and I certainly intend to keep reading it).

In short, I quite liked this, and look forward to the next book.

[Nathaniel Wonderful · Rating 4 out of 5]

V Biomega střídá akce akci. Hrdina je neustále v pohybu a řítí se na svém motocyklu (velmi podobném tomu z profláknuté série Akira) liduprázdnými ulicemi, po střechách opuštěných budov i po nebezpečně úzkých cestičkách nad hlubokými srázy. Zástupy zombie i nepřátelských agentů, kteří se mu stavějí do cesty, přemáhá s pomocí futuristické pistole, jejíž schopnosti kombinuje se svým digitálním zrakem, pro boj zblízka se pak nebojí chopit rozkládací sekery a v případě nejvyšší nouze má v arzenálu ještě pušku s lineárním urychlovačem částic.

To vše vypadá opravdu krásně, efektivně a čtenář díky tomu přelouská těch 200 stránek prvního dílu jako nic. Jenže právě proto, že je manga doslova nabušená akcí, souboji a atmosférickými výjevy post-apokalyptické Země, nezbývá v ní už místo na hlubší vysvětlení všech souvislostí příběhu a představení jednotlivých postav. To je bohužel ta slabší stránka Niheovy tvorby, kterou se mu dosud nepodařilo překonat.

Přestože se Biomega vysloveně nesnaží kopírovat práce jiných autorů, nelze si nevšimnout podobnosti s nejedním slavným snímkem. Filmoví nadšenci si při čtení nejspíš vzpomenou na Terminátora, Vetřelce anebo Věc. Starší generaci otaku se naopak vybaví Akira, Battle Angel Alita, Trigun, Gantz, Gyo nebo video hry typu Resident Evil. Mně osobně u jedné scény vyvstalo na mysl Lukjaněnkovo Bludiště odrazů.

Jelikož jsem si tuhle mangu vybral z větší části náhodou ve výprodeji a primárně kvůli autorovi, od něhož jsem v minulosti viděl a četl Blame!, měl jsem poměrně jasnou představu o tom, do čeho jdu a co od toho mohu čekat. Z hlediska příběhu se rozhodně nejedná o nic hlubokomyslného a spousta použitých prvků není nijak zvlášť originálních, na druhou se tato manga ani nesnaží hrát si na něco víc, než čím ve skutečně je.

Čtenář totiž na stránkách dostane přesně to, co slibuje anotace i obálka, která je snad jedinou větší snahou autora o líbivě vypadající a propracované postavy. Jakožto dlouholetého fanouška Akiry i Niheiovy předchozí tvorby mě první díl Biomega rozhodně nezklamal, ač bych se vůbec nezlobil, kdyby té akce bylo trošku míň a autor dal větší prostor charakterům jednotlivých postav.

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure if this is meant to be a literal prequel to Blame! or just a spiritual reboot, but it feels like the same story in almost every way. The protagonist is a laconic bad ass android with a super powerful gun looking for people with a special gene in a bleak cyberpunk/bio punk dystopia where humanity itself has been completely marginalized by apocalyptic and transcendent but poorly defined biotechnology. And the narrative is just as incomprehensible and bizarre as Blame!'s too. At the halfway point, the entire solar system just disappears, replaced by an enormous filament, and all of the characters and factions are inexplicably transported 1000 years into the future. Side characters are introduced, then dropped, then brought back as extremely important elements with no explanation. The protagonist was swapped abruptly for an interchangeable female version somewhere around the halfway point. Etc. The difference is, this time it feels like Nihei really *wants* you to follow the plot. Every issue opens with a paragraph of recap, and there are all of these weird tags of the beginning and the end, things that would be very familiar in a Western comic book are but baffling here, like "oh no, how will our heroes ever get out of this jam?" when the story itself has done exactly nothing to sell the stakes or even the mechanics of the situation. I suppose if you were trying to follow along, the recaps would be helpful, but they're still woefully inadequate, because the storytelling itself just isn't up to the task. It was a fool's errand to ever make it the focus of the manga.

But unlike Blame!, Biomega doesn't have all that much to offer without it. The art is similar in a sense, with the same stark black and white bleakness to it, and some of the same sense of scale. But the architecture and monster designs are so, so much less inspired and evocative here that I never felt they made up for the lack of narrative by cohering into anything worth exploring on its own.

[Ruskoley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Volume 1 has ten "chapters," and I read this volume very slowly - sometimes re-reading chapters a couple of times. As I noted while reading this, the artwork is really good - and I wish it was colored. However, the artwork is really good and the story is a bit gruesome, so I am also glad that it is not colored.

Readers all seem to comment on how good the artwork is. But isn't most published artwork good to some degree? In this case, the scenery is good. For example, in chapter one, there are some frames of Kanoe and his bike that present the daunting scope of the background - the world. The bike is racing alone on an open highway/bridge toward a huge, ersatz-megalithic structure. And when Kanoe screeches his bike to a halt there before the gate to the structure, you know he's made "an entrance." There is a full-page frame of Kanoe on the bike as smoke/fog swirls around it. Its great artwork, because it makes the reader feel engaged with the setting.

Because the plot is sketchy at best. Its difficult to write, I think, a great involved plot with spare verbiage. Its difficult to tell a story without info-dumping and backstory and commentary. So, the reader is thrown into this mess in media res and all the reader knows is that there is a cool motorbike and there are "infected drones."

Artwork probably is not enough in this case to want to read onward. But there is just the barest hint of a storyline - with enough mysterious/weird characters (Cp. bear) - that I want to read on into the second volume. I think the whole series is six volumes - and good or bad, I know I can get through six volumes.

[Adrian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maxi-Security Containment Facility purification activities continue in South District 17. A large number of N5S-infected individuals are now surrounding MSCF 7. The Public Health Service has dispatched its Compulsory Execution Unit to the scene. Despite their extraordinary efforts... those infected with the N5S virus continue to gather as if drawn by some unknown force...

I do like it when I find a complete Manga series in the Oxfam Bookshop. When I saw this series it only took a few lines of the description to convince me to buy all 6 volumes.

In the year 3005AD the Earth is infected with a deadly virus that turns the infected into empty zombie-like shells. Some, however, retain their human form and memories. These 'Accommodators' are sought after by the Public Health Service's Compulsory Execution Unit as they seek to start a new 'human' race. However, one man, a synthetic human called Zoichi Kanoe, from the Toa Heavy Industry, is seeking to save the 'Accommodators'. Riding his heavily armed motorcycle, he is aided by an artificial intelligence, Fuyu. When he comes across one such 'Accommodator', Eon Green, he must try to save her from the grasps of the Public Health Service.

A very faced paced Manga offering which is really easy to read. Beautifully drawn in black and white, it draws you in quickly and then hits you with a talking bear! Because, why not!

[47Time · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, that was a fast read. And the comic isn't bad-looking either. The words are few and rare, the action is explosive, the vistas are spectacular and setting is futuristic and relatively accessible. I guess I should have picked this manga up sooner. If the rest of the series is half as fun as the first volume, it's still easy to recommend the whole thing.

After 700 years mankind returns to Mars in the year 3005. They unwittingly bring back the N5S virus that risks infecting the whole world in days. An android named Zoichi who is working for Toa Heavy Industry is looking for a girl named Eon Green. She is an accomodator for the N5S virus that is sweeping the Earth. Employees of the Public Health Service, a subsidiary of the Data Recovery Foundation which sent the survey to Mars, also want her for her rare condition. The race is on. Both sides utilize spectacularly destructive ordinance in their mission.

A PHS inspector captures Eon. Zoichi heads for the prison where she is being held. He is too late, but his helper Fuyu deduces that the DRF want to purge the Earth with nuclear missiles to get rid of the virus, then repopulate it using the captured accomodators. The coolest scene so far is when Zoichi destroys the launched missiles using a high-powered rifle that creates a massive shockwave around him. The Earth is safe, though the virus is still active. Next he aims to save Eon.