Manga: Zero by Yamazaki Takako
Mar. 25th, 2011 06:34 pmTitle: Zero
Author: Yamazaki Takako
Number of Volumes: 11
My Rating: 4/5
This manga combines a couple of my favorite things, reincarnation and post-apocalyptic scenarios. The story is set in the year 2017, seventeen years after a nuclear bomb was "accidentally" dropped on Japan. Most of the country is destroyed and the remaining citizens live in a US-controlled base called ZOO. Recently someone has developed a drug that if you take it, you will see visions of the year 2000. For sixteen-year-old Geo and his friends, who weren't alive then, the visions are of what they can only assume are their past lives. When one of their friends is killed and Geo is implicated in the murder, he has to go on the run. From there, things only get more complicated, as it turns out he and his friends are the reincarnations of the only people who can stop Project Zipangu, a massive computer that will allow the current dictator of Japan to take over the world.
In many ways this manga was made for me. I love this sort of story, and really enjoyed it a lot. I read the first few volumes years ago, but it wasn't being published regularly and eventually I lost track of it and had to start again. I'm glad I was able to read it all in one go this time, as it's definitely the sort of thing where you don't want to be forgetting stuff between volumes. There's a huge cast and a bunch of different threads and all sorts of intrigue.
I was afraid the ending might be super disappointing, but I was pretty happy with it. The one thing I really didn't like is the same thing I didn't like in her other series, Ppoi! She loves teasing with slashiness, but is relentlessly heteronormative when it comes down to it. For example, (this is majorly spoilery) the main character and another character are the reincarnations of a boy and a girl who were in love in the year 2000. However, instead of being reincarnated into a boy and a girl again, they were both born hermaphrodites (I use that term deliberately rather than intersex, because this is sci-fi hermaphroditism, not anything realistic) who each have part of the boy and girl's souls mixed in them. The main character became a boy when he was five, but the other character, Julia, remains physically neither male nor female even as an adult, but he identifies as male. However, at the end of the manga, he decides to become physically female so that he and the main character can get together. He basically says "I waited for you to turn female, but you never did, so I will instead". *headdesk* There is one minor good character who's gay (though I think he died in the end; last we saw him he was shot and bleeding, but there was no mention of him after that; many, many people die in this manga, so I wouldn't put it past her to kill him, but maybe I will choose to believe he lived, because I really liked him), but mostly the only time queerness appears is the teasing slashiness of her male characters (she writes almost entirely male casts) or bad guys who grope/rape the good guys. Oh, and another good(ish) character was maybe sorta gay, anyway he had a crush on the main character, but he was also female in his previous life (and had a crush on the guy the main character used to be) and went crazy in this life, so that's not really a positive representation of queerness there. The lack of female characters bugs me, too. And the few who she does have mostly die and get taken captive and stuff like that.
Volume one has been scanlated, but the series appears to have been abandoned (the group that did it is no longer active). I've put it on my list to scanlate (or perhaps just translate) eventually.
I am also selling my set, all 11 volumes for $20 plus shipping (I'll ship anywhere). They are all very good condition. The earlier volumes are a bit yellowed from age, but the more recent volumes look almost new. Please comment if you're interested.
Author: Yamazaki Takako
Number of Volumes: 11
My Rating: 4/5
This manga combines a couple of my favorite things, reincarnation and post-apocalyptic scenarios. The story is set in the year 2017, seventeen years after a nuclear bomb was "accidentally" dropped on Japan. Most of the country is destroyed and the remaining citizens live in a US-controlled base called ZOO. Recently someone has developed a drug that if you take it, you will see visions of the year 2000. For sixteen-year-old Geo and his friends, who weren't alive then, the visions are of what they can only assume are their past lives. When one of their friends is killed and Geo is implicated in the murder, he has to go on the run. From there, things only get more complicated, as it turns out he and his friends are the reincarnations of the only people who can stop Project Zipangu, a massive computer that will allow the current dictator of Japan to take over the world.
In many ways this manga was made for me. I love this sort of story, and really enjoyed it a lot. I read the first few volumes years ago, but it wasn't being published regularly and eventually I lost track of it and had to start again. I'm glad I was able to read it all in one go this time, as it's definitely the sort of thing where you don't want to be forgetting stuff between volumes. There's a huge cast and a bunch of different threads and all sorts of intrigue.
I was afraid the ending might be super disappointing, but I was pretty happy with it. The one thing I really didn't like is the same thing I didn't like in her other series, Ppoi! She loves teasing with slashiness, but is relentlessly heteronormative when it comes down to it. For example, (this is majorly spoilery) the main character and another character are the reincarnations of a boy and a girl who were in love in the year 2000. However, instead of being reincarnated into a boy and a girl again, they were both born hermaphrodites (I use that term deliberately rather than intersex, because this is sci-fi hermaphroditism, not anything realistic) who each have part of the boy and girl's souls mixed in them. The main character became a boy when he was five, but the other character, Julia, remains physically neither male nor female even as an adult, but he identifies as male. However, at the end of the manga, he decides to become physically female so that he and the main character can get together. He basically says "I waited for you to turn female, but you never did, so I will instead". *headdesk* There is one minor good character who's gay (though I think he died in the end; last we saw him he was shot and bleeding, but there was no mention of him after that; many, many people die in this manga, so I wouldn't put it past her to kill him, but maybe I will choose to believe he lived, because I really liked him), but mostly the only time queerness appears is the teasing slashiness of her male characters (she writes almost entirely male casts) or bad guys who grope/rape the good guys. Oh, and another good(ish) character was maybe sorta gay, anyway he had a crush on the main character, but he was also female in his previous life (and had a crush on the guy the main character used to be) and went crazy in this life, so that's not really a positive representation of queerness there. The lack of female characters bugs me, too. And the few who she does have mostly die and get taken captive and stuff like that.
Volume one has been scanlated, but the series appears to have been abandoned (the group that did it is no longer active). I've put it on my list to scanlate (or perhaps just translate) eventually.
I am also selling my set, all 11 volumes for $20 plus shipping (I'll ship anywhere). They are all very good condition. The earlier volumes are a bit yellowed from age, but the more recent volumes look almost new. Please comment if you're interested.