OCTOBER - 31 Days Of Horror: CRUELER THAN DEAD Manga

CRUELER THAN DEAD Volume 1 by Tsukasa Saimura, writer and Kozo Takahashi, artist (Ablaze Manga, September 2021) Paperback, 208 pages. ISBN # 9781950912414  

Summary on the Goodreads website . . . . .

No one knows where it started ... But when the world finally realized what was going on, it was already too late.

When Maki Akagi wakes up in a lab full of corpses, she learns from a dying soldier that she is the result of a last-ditch experiment to cure humans of a virus turning them into zombies. Accompanied by a young boy who also miraculously escaped, she will have to try to get to the very center of a devastated Tokyo filled with bloodthirsty monsters. The dome located there contains the last survivors of mankind. And humanity's very survival depends solely on a few drops of this miraculous vaccine...

Inspired by Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira), The Walking Dead, Romero classics, and new zombie films like 24 Hours Later, Crueler Than Dead delights in the meticulous detail of decomposed flesh, with a wicked and hungry eye...evoking a modern vision of a zombie world that is terrifying and tension filled.  

My Four-Star review on the Goodreads website . . .

     I’ve tried several times to become interested in manga and picked up some first volumes here and there, but nothing really has grabbed me so far. Considering the wide range and genre diversity within manga, I decided to focus my future explorations into horror manga since high quality horror comics are my favorite. 

     CRUELER THAN DEAD, I'm happy to say, meets the criteria. I especially appreciate that the story is contained within two volumes, not requiring me to purchase volume after volume to get the complete story. 

     This is just different enough from the abundance of zombie stories to hold and keep my attention. It's the story-telling and the visuals that make this memorable. The art is detailed, the panorama scenes are extremely revealing of post-infestation Japan, and emotions and facial expressions are depicted without the exaggeration I've seen in many manga. 

     There are two things that I most appreciate about this story, told in four chapters with a zero chapter that serves as a side-bar to the main story.

1. There's a theme of hope that runs through the entire storyline and starts right at the beginning. Main character Maki Akagi learns that she is a cured zombie, brought back to normality by a last-ditch experiment. If she can get the remaining vaccines to the right authorities, there's a good chance for survival for everyone. 

 2) As you might expect, as Maki and her young boy companions travel through the devastation to make their way to the Tokyo Dome they will encounter threats from not just the zombies, but also roving bands of desperate survivors. Because she's female, these rogues have sexual exploitation on their agenda. What caught my attention was having a seemingly despicable character hear new information that makes him change his mind, become empathetic, and switch sides for the good of the cause. That defies conventional zombie tropes, and I appreciated seeing that here.