Abara

Again this is another shorty. Only 11 chapters and it stops way to abruptly.

~SPOILERS~

Well here we go again, a nice premise, a good art style, and then it all falls apart and ends. Like Digimortal an armored badass gets to fuck-up these crazy white-armored monsters that people turn into. Why???, What is this placenta that some of the white and black ghenana have? What was the previously mausoleum destruction a previously ghenana war? None of this is answered or even close to being answered. You have some bad ass cop who can chop a thugs arm off barehanded how? Who knows this series is full of questions and no answers and the Authors style of no dialogue this, is number 2 of the no read confusion story. Maybe an hour worth of reading not even.

I'll add a digimortal separate review as well.

7/8/4/9=7

~SPOILERS~

Well there's not much to say about a 1 chapter 46 page manga other then, it was good much better then the Abara with which it was paired. I found a copy for Digimortal by itself, in order, so that settled some werid misplaced pages in the compilation. It was intriguing with a Beserk like armor that makes "them"(heretics) better faster stronger than even a group of 11 guards and 2 trained "sisters". Very good and gory but not unnecessarily so. It was a one shot a good premised one too. Worth the 3 minutes to read.

Story 5/10 :
I guess this is supposed to be a story about a dystopian world or post-apocalyptic world where humanity's destiny is doomed because of monstrs called Gaunas. How would I know if the story is so confusing and little to nothing is explained? What's the history of Gaunas? What's their purpose? How were they created? We understand nothing thus feel nothing. I turned pages hoping everything will be explained but.. sigh
Characters 3/10 :
Mediocre characters with literally zero character trait and emotions.
Art 9/10 :
Excellent art, very well drawn characters. The art is the only reason I kept on reading.
Enjoyment 5/10 :
I didn't enjoy this manga because confusing your readers and putting mystery without explaining what's going on is not a quality.
Overall 5/10 :
Do not recommend.

So this is the first work of Nihei Tsutomu that I've read . I have to say it was pretty enjoyable for me at least.The author seems to use little dialogue and tries to make the readers understand the world through his magnificent imagery and he does that pretty well I believe.
The story is a bizarre world in which there seemed to be some huge buildings called mausoleums that were destroyed by some monstrous things called Gauna , only one remained and it was really important for humanity's survival.The things that are showed to us are at the time when only one remains and it is endangered.

There are many mysteries about the story ,but I would consider that fact kinda charming .The ending felt like a cliff hunger ,but it's understood what probably happened

I honestly can't wait to read more of this mangaka's works

I would recommend it Abara, as it is a really small and enjoyable adventure to this bizarre yet beautiful world this mangaka created
7/10

To me this is one of those manga that offers quite an enjoyable ride but nothing more. I can not see myself coming to back to Abara as it does not offer a lot.

Story:6
Not the most original thing I ever read but it is enjoyable. The story is told without much exposition or explanation from the characters. Not a lot of explanation behind the power system or the events that take place. I don't mind the lack of exposition, as it gives the story a cinematic feel (kind of like that movie 'The Angel Egg'), but there will be times when you will be confused and you will wonder if you accidentlly skiped some dialogue. When you get to the end you will probably have the story figured out, so all I said here does not really mean anything. I like the climax.

Art:7
Not much to say about the art. It's great, although some fights are a bit confusing. The flow could have been fixed with 2-3 bonus panels here and there.
Cool monster design. Really sells a parasitic like figure.

Characters:5
They exist only so that the story can move forward. I forgive this because, just like the story, the characters don't show what they think and feel. Again, a cinematic feel.

Enjoyment:6
As I said in the begining, despite being a bit confusing, Abara is enjoyable and worth your time. It's a fast read since it's short and there is not much dialogue.Recommenddddddddd

Story
The story is not bad but is kind of boring and unoriginal. It feels like the story jumps to quick from one point to another. I do like the way it is presented, with little dialogue and exposition.

Characters
I don't have any problem with the characters. There is no background for the characters that is shown to the reader but it doesn't feel like the characters don't have one or they have a bad one.

Art
By far the best thing in Abara. The action scenes are a bit hard to understand sometimes but no other problems. I would recommend you reading this for the art only.

Enjoyment
I have enjoyed this but I think that is mostly because I love Blame!(another manga done by the same author)

Overall
A very fast read(15-20 minutes) so you don't lose much even if you end up not enjoying the story.

Abara is a succinct work of art by Tsutomu Nihei that accomplishes what it sets out to do; to create a world, to tell a story within that world, and to end it. Like most of Nihei's work, the story and plot details are left vague and interspersed through the information given among the occasional dialogue. It's up to the reader to piece the puzzle together and eventually the plot helps to tie these pieces together by the end.

When I initially read Abara I didn't really understand what was going on and ended up dropping it. Upon a re-read I was able to appreciate Abara for the short story it is. The story is relatively simple and most of the information of the story is given, even more so than Blame!.

All of the information relevant to the story is eventually known, and that is that white gaunas are hostile creatures that cause destruction and black gaunas are artificially created weapons made by humans in order to counter them. This is pretty much all the knowledge needed; in a work of fiction not every single thing needs to be thoroughly explained, an example being where the white gaunas came from - a question which is irrelevant to the enclosed story. So it does not make much sense for others to not understand what happened in the story, other than a few glossed-over details. However, those unfamiliar with Tsutomu Nihei's storytelling methods may come away confused so I believe it's best to read his other works first.


Abara is great for what it is. Obviously it isn't some profound story where you expect to come away with a newfound favorite fiction or expect to find some extremely deep plot. It's a 11 or so chapter story that makes an interesting world wherein human weapons exist to fight terrible creatures. And it's cool as hell. The art is fantastic, some of it even exceeding those found in Blame!, and there is enough information about the world given to feel the visceral, living, and yet dreary atmosphere.


If you want to read a short romp with excellent art, sick designs, and cool fights in a uniquely vague world, Abara is for you. However if you're expecting a crystal clear story with a deep plot, you're better off looking elsewhere.

OK let's jump in and get to my review of Abara.

Story 6
The story of Abara is strange and for the first time in my life I'm not sure that's a good thing. The introduction to the story seemed really cool but after that I got lost in basically a lot of talking that wasn't all that interesting and didn't help me figure out at all what was happening til I was about done.

Art 6
The art for Abara was a bit hit and miss for me some things looked cool while others didn't. The style looks really old school in ways but doesn't do much besides sort of look old without the coolness that it should have.

Character 4
The characters for this were really a let down. The manga basically hates main characters because I didn't feel like this story was about any one person. It starts off with a guy that seems kinda cool and quickly (as you'll see) tosses him and switches to another. You don't get a feel for anyone in this short time and I barely remember anyone's name.

Enjoyment and Overall 6
I had parts in the manga were I thought things looked cool and sounded cool but it all amounts to nothing. The manga overall didn't do much for me I didn't enjoy reading the 13 chapters I read almost at all and this really just felt like a waste for me.

After reading several of Tsutomu’s stories, I have come to the conclusion that the major flaw keeping me from enjoying any of them is the way the characters are presented and developed throughout the story. Short, long, it doesn’t seem to matter; the characters are introduced all at once and in a manner that makes it impossible to remember who is who. We get the names in roundabout ways without any characterization, making it very difficult to follow the plot. Abara is no exception.

This is because Tsutomu prefers to tell his stories using visuals rather than dialogue. Despite this, he does not flesh out any ways the reader could become attached or interested in the characters, even with the dialogue we have to work with.

The art is the high point of the manga. If I were to observe some of the pages as objective, apocalyptic, gritty stills, I would find them fascinating. Reading this as a coherent story, however, is just plain confusing. The motive of the characters is obscured, replaced by vague reasoning and urgency used to spur the action forward.

I understand that withholding information is a plot device, but Tsutomu keeps everything to himself but names and basic terms, leaving the reader with little beyond cryptic drawings to unearth some motive along the way. While people praise this as a “deep, psychological” manga, the reader simply has to work harder to uncover why anything is happening, hiding an exhausting guessing game behind psychological intrigue.

The author wanted to draw gritty, sci-fi-esque monsters and fight scenes, and the plot and characters were sacrificed because of that. Beautiful art aside, my score is low due to sloppiness. There was no reason why the author couldn’t add in a detail here or there to help the reader keep the characters in order and understand the plot.

I will say this: I am aware that I am impartial to character development and a fleshed-out story. If you don’t mind feeling a little confused or detached from the characters, this is a grungy and action-packed read that you may enjoy.

Set in the same universe as all Tsutomu Nihei's manga are: the nondescript urban landscape of our nightmares. The architecture is as suffocatingly bleak as usual; the story is faster paced than Nihei's most well known work, Blame, due to this manga's short length. Maybe it would be a good litmus test for newcomers to his world.

This time the Akira vibe is heavy, with body horror at the forefront. Expect human transformation and ugly metamorphosis aplenty. Though unlike Akira, I doubt Nihei's aspirations are as lofty as commenting on Japan's relationship with technology in the post Meiji-era. No, he just wants to immerse you in something completely alien, and burn his surreal Kafka-esque inspired imagery into your brain, while thankfully kicking your ass at the same time.

What we have here are a guy in black and a girl in white who are compelled to beat the shit out of each other while destroying everything around them. The beauty as ever, is about revelling in the graphic detail of Nihei's universe, not necessarily what's driving the story. How were these sprawling structures built in the first place? Something I've been asking myself ever since reading Blame. It always takes my breath away. Tsutomu Nihei's scene composition is masterful, regularly showing the scope and perspective of structures that are inhuman in their massive presence.

Nihei is a master in 'show don’t tell'. You won’t see long monologues or rambling dialogue. You won’t see narrative clichés rampant in mainstream manga, in his works. Nihei lets the images do the talking, what you see is what you get, and luckily for us there's a lot to see here. Painstakingly detailed environments reveal a lot and nothing at the same time. Ironically sound is more of a narrative force than dialogue from characters. Sounds such as doors sliding open, objects falling down stairs, all combine to lead you along the way.

Characters only talk when they need to, and usually mumble meaningless words that only become coherent if we use our imaginations too. Characters that look like they'll be mainstays are introduced briefly, but then are promptly decapitated.

Oh what decapitations! You will not see any as swift and graceful, as humorously mundane as the ones in this manga. The action is striking, occasionally a mess of clouds and lines, but often crowd-pleasing with clarity, and all building to a shattering climax that even Nihei has to introduce with dialogue.

Abara is a great sci-fi actioner. A little diversion from a master of the craft.

Fusing technotheistic religion and government repression, Digimortal creates a slaughter of ideals and ideology in true Nihei style. The Church of Transfiguration has launched an Inquisition to exterminate the sinful use of technology used in attempt to perfect physiological immortality, while Nihei's nameless hero is contacted by the resistance, seeking to strike back by assassinating one of the Inquisition's most powerful members.

Impressively drawn and awesome to the core, Tsutomu Nihei has once again proven his impressive mastery of sequential expression in this short-but-no-less-powerful manga.

Because of how little reviews there are of this manga, I have read all of them and noticed that everyone was talking about how the author uses pictures instead of words. I can agree with two things; the art is amazing, and the author uses little dialogue. But that's it. Many people say that you would understand the story more if you took a closer look and analysed the artwork, but that is simply false. The art is amazingly detailed, but few of them actually portray something important to understanding the story. Now, with that sorted, I will begin my review.

Story - 6/10

The story was quite decent, and it would probably be even higher if it was clear enough to understand. After analysing the artwork, I could finish the story with barely any extra understanding of the story. And the only part that I completely understood and enjoyed was the ending, and the ending was a masterpiece; To the eye and to the brain. I will not speak of the story since I want to keep this spoiler free.

Art - 10/10

The art in here is amazing, though the characters may put many people off. This is due to their eyes being too far apart, otherwise it would look amazing. But that it just part of the author's style and personality, and I respect that. When I say amazing, I absolutely mean it. Not only is it detailed on every aspect, but it actually communicates emotions with me. However, there is one thing I don't like very much about the artwork... The battle scenes. Most of the battle scenes confuse me, because the author skips quite a lot of actions in them. The sketchy drawing style also doesn't help point out what the author really wants you to see. I also don't like the style of the sound effects, it is a bit plain, but I guess that is also part of his style.

Character - 3/10

The characters are low for a reason... They had little to no introduction or insight. We couldn't really tell what they were feeling and what their personalities were... I felt that most of them were emotionless. Except for one, which I'm sure you all know if you have finished the manga. I feel like the author could have put a lot more depth into his characters to make them loveable, or at least unique.

Enjoyment - 2/10

The entire manga wasn't very fun or addictive to read. Probably because the author didn't mean for it to be. I like to read more fast paced manga, and this one was fast paced... Just not in the right way. The story accelerates quite fast, but you would have to read slowly due to the intricate artwork. This feeling contradicts itself and I just felt like rushing the manga the whole time. To be honest with you, I had to force myself through the manga.

Overall - 5/10

I gave it a 5 for an overall score, I was originally going to give it a 6 or a 7 while I was reading it. However, the part I was reading was probably the only part I found interesting, and the rest had disappointed me. With that said, I think this manga had quite a lot of potential. The manga-ka had just focused on some of the wrong elements to try and bring it alive.

You have to be a true blue fan to enjoy Abara. This manga is not recommended for people who cannot appreciate an intellectual manga where much thinking is involved, for Tsutomu Mihei's style is to let the pictures tell the story rather than the dialogues.

This story like most of Tsutomu Mihei's work (Creator of Blame!), consists of few dialogues. His work is fabulously beautiful, the intricate style of drawing and minute details never ceases to amaze me.

Abara's plot is fairly simplistic, the man saves the world typical plot. With the short 2 volumes, Tsutomu Mihei weaves its subplots into its simplistic plot adding flavour to it. While his plot is interesting and his art work is fabulously, he lacks character development. The characters are simple and what you see is what you get.

You'll probably get a different opinion on everything, every time you re-read this too.

Before I begin I will say that I don't know if there was a movie or something that this is based on. If there is I would gladly watch it and consider changing the score here.
*sigh* so lets' begin:

Story: 6
It had potential. I like reading apocalyptic stories, but I can't help but think this wasn't done well. It reminds me of some other apocalyptic series', only more cliche and watered down. It's almost like the artist wasn't allowed to draw any more than two volumes worth of material, and everything was forced into the series; that adds to the confusion. For the longest time I had no idea what was going on and I had to read many sections over a few times.

Art and character: 2 and 3 respectively.
I'm putting these two together because they both make little sense. The mangaka knows how to draw, and I can see that, but the extra lines almost hides the story behind them. There were times when I had no idea what was going on because the weird lines were everywhere. The characters were good, but what they looked like confused me to no end. A good many of the "normal looking" characters looked identical to each other. On the other hand, the "bad looking" characters were all had disfigured faces and wrinkles where there shouldn't be. If you want to read something where the "good guys" and the "Bad guys" can easily be identified by how awful they look, then this is the series for you; that is if you can find the minute details that make each "normal" character unique(I've yet to find them).

Enjoyment: 1
There were way too many ideas crammed in the series to make it enjoyable. That, and the weird art ruined the series. There were many times when I just wanted to leave the manga alone, but I kept thinking that it will make sense at the end. Unfortunately I was let down.

Overall: 1
There's nothing to see here. Everything about this series could have been done much better with the exception of the story. This is probably one of the first times I've read a manga where the story couldn't possibly help it.

Please don't flame me or anything. Like I said in the beginning: if this was based off of a movie I would like to see it. If this manga actually did the movie justice then I will honestly change this review to reflect it.

The story is fast-paced and not really well explained. The animation is terrific, it seems as though the author tells the story through his animation. The world is dark, bleak and controlled by guanas (black is good, white's bad) that metamorph into Akira like super beasts. There is a counter organization that never really gets fully explained, but is the main defense for mankind. The action was epic, with heads and bodies being ripped apart. Overall, it was a pretty good sci-fi short read.

SPOILERS AHEAD! TL:DR: It's bad, but you can read if you want, there is some great art and its short.

While Blame! Manages to create a compelling narrative with little to no dialogue, Abara is too rushed, concepts are not build up, if the white Abaras invaded earth, who are the monsters that activated the tower? What is the tower? Did the city blow up in the end? Did the white Abaras died? Then why there were two out of place chapters about with the two women? What happened?

At the end of the scan I read, there was a glossary explaining all the concepts, names and events that happened in the manga, I don't know if that was in the original manga, but I know that in Blame!, a manga by the same author and that also used less dialogue, didn't have one, that was because unlike Abara, Blame! actually builds up the world, the characters, the machines, the technology, everything, Abara starts with a man turning into a monster, killing another monster, then gets beheaded and comes back in the end, then we see other types of monsters? But what are these monsters? Weren't the Abaras the ones that invaded earth? What was that skeleton-cyborg-man that activated the tower? WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE?

"B-But you have to see the symbolism! And you must interpret your own opinions!" Nah Nah Nah, the greatest writers, movie directors and mangakas showed that you can't make symbolism and interpretation the basis of the history, you can add them as much as you want, but they can't hold the entire thing together alone, there has to be characterization, themes, world building, tone… etc.

This was rushed, weird, nonsensical and disappointing.