Manga Review: Metro Survive Volume One

[Jason]

Title: Metro Survive
Volume: One
Mangaka: Yuki Fujisawa
Originally Serialized In: Play Comic (Akita Shoten)
Genre: Seinen
Published by: DrMaster
Rating: Older Teen (15+)
Price: $9.95/US

I'm going to start this review off by saying I'm not usually one to read more adult-aimed, dramatic manga. So, while the description of Metro Survive sounded interesting, I didn't really know what to expect going into it. In fact, given the older teen rating for American audiences, I didn't even know it was a seinen story. However, make no mistake, the story of Metro Survive is as gripping and dramatic as any top-selling novel.

The tale starts off innocently enough, following our lead character, Mishima, through his dead-end job as a repairman for the hottest new high-rise in Tokyo. Unfortunately, disaster strikes one late morning as Mishima heads home, after forced overtime, when a massive earthquake destroys Mishima's subway tunnel. From this point on, we follow Mishima and the handful of other subway survivors as they struggle and try to reach civilization from a hundred meters below the surface.

The plot might sound like any typical disaster movie, and it probably is. Even so, Metro Survive surprised me from page one with its quality, and I can't wait to pick up the second volume. Even the artwork was refreshing. While the cover art turned me off slightly, every panel in the book bears a realistic style very suitable for this subject matter, and it's all very clean and crisp without any exaggerated effects.

Fujisawa--with the help of DrMaster's translations, of course--also does an excellent job of making you love and hate the characters. Mishima is instantly likable, as are a few other characters, and you can't help but feel sorry for some of the less capable victims stranded underground. Even secondary characters that come late in the volume evoke strong feelings, with one scene in particular actually making me do a double take and feel slightly ill. It's been a very long time since a manga managed to convey villains so despicable as the ones you'll find here!

Really, I can't say a single negative thing about Metro Survive as a whole. Everything comes together to make an excellent package that any fan of more dramatic, adult stories would do well to pick up. It's another perfect case of not judging a book by its cover!

Reviewer: Kiara
Proofer/Editor: Lissa Pattillo