Ranked #4310

Abara (Manga)

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. read more

You have to be a true blue fan to enjoy Abara. This manga is not recommended for people who cannot appreciate an intellectual manga where much thinking is involved, for Tsutomu Mihei's style is to let the pictures tell the story rather than the dialogues.

This story like most of Tsutomu Mihei's work (Creator of Blame!), consists of few dialogues. His work is fabulously beautiful, the intricate style of drawing and minute details never ceases to amaze me.

Abara's plot is fairly simplistic, the man saves the world typical plot. With the short 2 volumes, Tsutomu Mihei weaves its subplots into its simplistic plot adding flavour to it. While his plot is interesting and his art work is fabulously, he lacks character development. The characters are simple and what you see is what you get.

You'll probably get a different opinion on everything, every time you re-read this too. read more