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.