Eden: It’s an endless world! (named best manga of 2007 by Wizard magazine, January issue) is the most complicated and well-written seinen (aimed at 18-30 year old men) series I have ever read. The basic storyline is that a virus has broken out and wiped out 15% of the world’s population, while some have emerged immune. It’s a vicious disease that turns your insides to soup, and hardens your skin because your cells rapidly multiply and eventually your skin is like glass, and just as fragile. Most of the world is controlled by Propater, the main “government”-like group, who are far from innocent or kind. The world is in constant turmoil because of the pain those left behind feel, the way they’re treated by Propater, and the growing poverty crisis.Much of the world is heavily integrated because of the virus, and the creator, Hiroki Endo, manages to throw them all together in a cultural melting pot that creates tons of tension. There’s a specific neighborhood with poor Africans and slightly more wealthy ethnic groups, and one of the African boys talks about how you really only have two choices in their area – join with a local gang or join a sports team. One of the most prolific scenes in the whole comic was when an Incan descendent and an African soldier discussed their pasts and ended up on common ground. As for discrimination, a Korean character briefly recalls being called “kimchi breath” in an all Japanese class, even though he was in the same income bracket. A lot of what goes on in Eden are references to things that have happened in the past – for example, there’s a woman from the Uyger clan (an ethnic group residing in China) who talks about how her group is the victim of ethnic cleansing (comparing it to the Jews in the Holocaust).
The title itself seems to be a religious reference, and there are a lot of biblical names in the series – Elijah, Cherubim, and the title Propater (the latin name for God the Father in the Holy Trinity). Sophia, a human-turned-A.I., said: “Before the human beings worked together with him, but the Bible and the Qu’ran left him alone, and he went crazy. God is trying to be a complete being. Everybody needs to believe in something. Some days I don’t believe in anything; God went crazy, but he still loves us.” The point of view is very interesting because quite a few characters believe the virus that killed off a good chunk of mankind was put there as an “extinction mission”, which would explain God going crazy. The title seems to imply that the human race has broken some sort of natural law and needs to be punished, as the biblical story suggests.
As for the last arc of the series, it focuses on a new virus that emerges and works as a sort of “natural computer” called the colloid. When someone dies because of the new virus, the colloid absorbs their subconscious, therefore retaining their memories and personality. It’s almost as if this is a second virus sent in by God to send people to a sort of Heaven, because the colloid is said to transport their subconscious to another galaxy via Maya, the “savior” if you look at it from a religious point of view. Maya, an A.I., is immortal in a sense that as long as there is a computer available, he can keep copying himself.This whole series seems to be a big, complex statement about the flaws of mankind. Everyone is focused on overpowering the next group that they refuse to accept the fact that we are all born equal, and we will all be the same in the end when we’re dead (which is what the colloid tries to prove). There are two main powers in the story – Propater, the government figure, and NOMAD, the mercenary group that occasionally works with Propater, but is an independent group. Basically power, money and guns, which is what seems to run the world of Eden.
