Subete no Jinrui wo Hakai suru. Sorera wa Saisei Dekinai.
Destroy All Humans. They Can't Be Regenerated.

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A manga that truly is a magical experience for me.

"Destroy all humankind. They can't be regenerated.", is a manga that takes place in the 1990s where the central theme behind the manga is a popular card game that took the 90s and 00s by storm, Magic: The Gathering. A game which I played a ton with my friends when I was a very young boy myself, and a game I cherished back in the day.

This manga is also created by Katsura Ise and Takuma Yokota, the combo that created one of my favorite manga of all time, Onanie Master Kurosawa. Hell, Takuma Yokota also created ... Chikan Otoko by himself, another one of my favorites, so clearly I have had experience and trust with their successful works from the past, so when I saw that they did a magic surrounding Magic, I immediately stopped what I was doing and read this till I caught up. And by the time I did, despite its few number of chapters released, I was amazed.

I won't review it like I did my other reviews in the past due to the lack of chapters, but I just want to talk a few things about why I absolutely love and cherish this manga.

1. The main characters

This manga focuses on the two main characters of the story, Hajime (a lovable but very shy geek) and Sawatari (a girl who's confident and smart, but also has a hidden side to her that she loves) and how their bond with each other develops over time with the power of Magic... the game.

I love their characters. Their individual personalities are incredibly likable and charming, but they truly shine whenever they are together. Whether they're playing against each other as rivals or supporting/helping each other improve not only as players but also as people in general, they both have amazing chemistry that just drew me into the manga.

The manga focuses a lot on them and whilst there are side characters who may not have been the best written, they still have likable personalities that contrast well with the main duo and overall, creates a great atmosphere to enjoy.

2. Takuma Yokota's artwork

I've always admired Takuma Yokota's artwork. From the incredibly rough, sketchy yet charismatic and unorthodox drawings for Chikan Otoko, to a gritty yet intense artstyle integrated in Onanie Master Kurosawa, his designs always have clicked for me. And this was no exception.

It's much cleaner and more refined than his previous works, with looking much less rough around the edges as his other works, but it still gives off so much charm and personality here too (especially for the character designs). He manages to keep the drawings simple yet refined, and complimented the 90s setting very well in my opinion (whilst modernizing and refreshing his style to fit the new age of manga).

3. The development and battles themselves

The Magic games here aren't just presented like its a full on battle manga, but it's presented in a way that it mixes the intensity and passion of Magic players with the fun and relaxing atmosphere of the general setting itself in the 90s. It makes it not only easier for people who aren't Magic fans to get into, but also gives the manga more layers to it that make it so much fun to read. If I just wanted to see Magic only, I would just play it myself. But by using it smartly and not forcing the battles down our throats and mixing it with light hearted romance, it creates such an engaging atmosphere. It has its intense moments, and its light hearted moments and both harmonize superbly. I recommended it to some of my friends in real life who weren't even into Magic since I couldn't stop talking about this manga to them, and even they managed to get into it due to the chemistry of the characters themselves, and were charmed by the battles too after.

Overall, this manga is excellent. One of my favorites I've come across that started in the past couple years, and it's definitely worth an attempt. Whether you love Magic or whether you want a nice, simple romance/slice of life with engaging characters. There's so much charm that the potential is high for it to be one of the best in my opinion.

For me as a Magic fan myself from when I was young, the mixture of amazing characters, an interesting setting and narrative, and pure hype from nostalgia just creates a wonderful experience.

I can't wait for more chapters to be released in due time but till then, hope this review convinced some of you to give it a chance.

As someone who’s of the younger generation and didn’t even play Magic The Gathering back then, I didn’t expect to like this manga so much. I’m sure if I did experience similar events and played Magic as well, then I’d probably even consider this as a 10/10.

However. despite me not being able to directly relate to many of the events in the story. I still felt very nostalgic over every single chapter. It just seems to portray this one time in the past so well, with so much love and appreciation that I can't help but feel the same melancholy as the characters might've felt ... looking into the past. It's as if I was transported back into that time and put in the shoes as someone who lived in that time and treasured the moments they made during that time.

It feels like such a 90s nostalgia feelstrip for nerds and otaku at that time. I could even feel it even if I barely knew anything about 90s otaku culture in Japan or even nerd culture anywhere in the world, I didn't live through it after all. And I think it's insane that it's able to make me feel so strongly about a time and generation I didn't even get to experience or interact with much.

The sheer passion and love both the author and characters in these moments just infect you and make you feel the same as they do. It comes through in every page and chapter of this manga and it's absolutely wonderful. If you've ever been passionate about something niche then you can easily relate to this story.

It isn't just a story about Japanese kids in the 90s playing Magic the Gathering. It's a story about otaku, whether they hide it to stay popular or revel in it despite being treated as an outcast. It's a story about how these people come together because of their niche interest and make unforgettable memories with each other because of it. It's about how their love for this niche thing that everyone considers weird and different causes unbreakable bonds to form.

This is Otaku. This is why the culture has survived and flourished for so long despite being so strange and bizarre to outsiders. It's because of the sheer love and passion people had and still have for all things niche. Whether it be Anime, Card Games, Fighting Games, Comics, or even Imageboards. They bring people together and these people eventually grow together with stories of their own to tell, stories of Love, Passion, Redemption, and Friendship. Stories like 'Destroy All of Humanity, It Can't be Regenerated.'

I personally like it a lot for this reason: This is a time capsule of late 90s otaku and pop culture disguising itself as Wizards' shill. There are a lot of really beautiful moments in this manga, and there's always this sense of every moment being so fleeting as though everything can be taken away at any moment. The romance is also well written, but can get stale at times. What I really enjoy is just how accurate it is, characters are listening to actual songs that were popular at the time. They reference television and actors that were in at the time. They comment ... on the world around them in ways that fit each character's perspective. In a sense of being able to feel and live in these people's experience, that helps a lot for the setting. There's something tragic about it and I'm still unsure just what it is. Sure, they have the usual flashy duels commonly expected of a shonen but all the downtime between that is where the magic is. Maybe I'm alone on this, I don't know.