Survival

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An epic. A long poem that chronicles the events and deeds of legendary heroes. There are few in anime and manga that truly meet this description. Survival is one of the few manga I have read that, I think, hits that bar. But why? And how? I don't think I can give an answer to either. It is simply a feeling, a raw emotion that cannot be put into mere words. To experience it, you just have to read it for yourself. I cannot promise that you will find Survival to be a good experience, or that the quality is of the highest tier, but ... I can say that I think it is.

What would you do to survive a massive demolition that caused a ruination of your country? Well, this is not a how-to book for readers to follow. But it's a perfect manga that portray a journey, the most epic and adventurous journey about the question on above. This is my very first review here because this manga is happen to be "a diamond in mire". So, I decided to start my reviewing career with is amazing manga. (I'm not a native speaker so please bear with me.)


Story: 9
The story only follows a single person, a clever 14 years old boy, who is unlucky enough ... to leave his family to go adventure but lucky enough to survive in a huge natural disaster that effected whole country of Japan. There's a situation in other countries too, showing how large and effective the incident caused, but just a little. Because the main progress is through the boy's notions and words. So us readers can explore the world with the boy, without knowing anything but how to survive, just like the boy. The starting point is kinda confusing because we "are" with the boy who just survive, not to help or save the world, which is very realistic.
The boy's main quest is "finding his family" from start to ending, but the charm and excitement of this manga isn't destination but on his way to the destination. The story is not that realistic in some point but it still enjoyable. Throughout the story progress with perfect speed and don't let readers down with weird twist. The boy meets lots people along the way, some are good, some are bad, some are good but must be bad to survive, some aren't even human but still need to survive, etc. And endings is perfect and realistic enough to end without any disappointment. The whole story reflect lot's of things such as how humanity effects nature, nature of human beings and animals, desire to survive, nature destruction, desire for authority in both human and animals, etc. This story exactly portray it's name, "Survival".
(Though it still has some plot holes but all of them are unnecessary in the story because the boy can't do anything about that, all he do is surviving. That's all.)

Art: 8
The art is very accurate and shows how wrack and devastation be like in very realistic way. But because this manga was published 40 years ago, all of this is hand-drawn and that's very amazing. Though it's too dark to see the progress in some scene but it did a really good job in describing how deadly natural disaster be like in every place possible. But the worse possible thing I could find in art is character's face and emotion. Some face don't give the realistic expression even the art style is realistic and because the art is in 70's style it makes me feels kinda weird at first, but you will get over it in a few episodes.

Character: 7
The boy's development is very realistic at most points. First he hate discomfort but not too much like an easy 14 years old boy. But after he realized he needs to survive. He got over it in realistic way. But his knowledge is sometimes too much at the time. Even though his feelings in lots of situations depends on many things like his hunger, comrades, stress, survival desire, etc. Make him to be real at most points. For side characters, they don't develop well. I know lots of people in Japan at that time is not civilized like in these days, but some are idiotic, and some have horrible development. This is one of a few let down on this amazing journey.

Enjoyment: 10
This manga will glue you to the seat while you're reading it. It make you feel like it's your journey. You would want to know more about the world and keep surviving with the boy. The experience with this manga is wonderful and makes you realize how tough life can be. I felt "alive" and really wanted to stay alive while reading the manga that made me think "What should I do if I'm the boy?". This manga is that amazing. Some might say I'm over reacted. But it really awesome for me and I can't say any thing other than that.

Overall: (9+8+7+10)/4= 8.5 but I round it up to 9 because I really enjoy every single bit of it.

Thank you for reading my first review and hope my review helps you consider about this manga for being in your reading list and have a good day in this community!

We watch as he awakens far from home to a desolate world where 90% of all japans population is dead(and 7% more died in the following months because of societal claps). He is lost and all alone, struggling to learn to survive and almost died multiple times he barely makes it through his first winter.

We watch as he gains enough confidence and skill that he can venture out from his barely functioning haven into a desolate world corrupted by the scars of an unimaginable tragedy. We see how people have adapted to this new world and how our protagonist deals with these new (yet oh ... so old) ways of man.

We watch him grow into a man and try to find a place he could call home, each time failure finds him, He takes these failers and grows from them, eventually evolving into something more than just a man, he has become a force of change bring knowledge and experience to the last vestiges of humanity scattered around the country just barely hanging on, in his travels we learn what became of the world as a whole, Why no help was ever sent, we see embers of civilizations start to burn we see hope.

The change brought upon this world by such a tragedy may have scarred it, but the knowledge of mankind is still persistent, that knowledge may be abused in a dysfunctional authoritarian society but it brings hope.

Alas, that isn't the story being told, our story is about a boy that grows to be a man like no other and his journey, so I ask you why does he keep traveling? What drives him to survive alone in such a world? what pushes him forward to the point he willingly leaves the one place he found that kindles hope for the future? you'll just have to read to find out for yourself and learn the ultimate fate of the boy who brought such change to those desolated lands.

if you want to see something that gets the general feel of the manga series across check out this video "Fallout lore: the survivalist" by Synonymous.

TL:DR Survival it's free and legal~ to read because it was fan translated and there is no official English version. it follows the life of a young boy surviving a post-apocalyptic earthquake (think the Cascadia earthquake (literally so large that is known in the myths of civilizations from japan to south America to Alaska but x10 worse) it's such a good story that they remastered it 40 years later for a new generation (they botched it though IMO unfortunately)

Another series that I can recommend in this vein is Suicide Island by Mori Kouji (also a manga) (it's also a bit of a battle royale), it's newer just wrapping up in 2016.