Husk of Eden

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Husk of Eden is in itself, a war story that has very untypical setting. The whole cause and reason for these conflicts are vague and uncertain, we rarely see or hear any motives of the higher-ups for the whole situation, and the story is traced through the eyes of many foot soldiers, usually in their teens.

This work, however, is masterful in one thing, the genuine portrayal of these young people's psyche, their emotions and thought as they go through the motions of being soldiers in a war that they hardly find sense in themselves to wage. As they live in ... this reality, they do get close and attached to their fellow soldiers, and bit by bit, they do share their life stories, as their melancholic thoughts of the past mixes up with their anxieties of their current lifestyle.

The focus of the story is clearly, the portrayal of the mental state of the people who are forced in the reality, in which war is the only option for resolving the conflict. In this world, teenagers are being recruited out of desperation, to protect the sacred city with the symbolic name of El Dorado. In fact, the story is imbued with a lot of religious symbolism, starting from the character's names, and the fact that this is war, which suppousedly is being led for religious reasons. There is mystery surrounding it's importance and origin, but the orders are absolute, the protection of the holy city, despite the costs of life.

The ambience of this manga is one of somberness and one of tragedy. A lot of personal fates are destroyed, families ruined and lives forfeited, all for this one grand cause that has zero to no personal significance for any of the combatants. They are drafted to join the fray either for their own personal reasons, which they try to justify through their months spent in patrolling, skirmishes and recuperating from the traumatic experience they're witnessing on a daily basis. Despite the fact they're guarding holy site, there is nothing that signifies their dignification - they live, die or try to exist in the boundaries between these two absolutes, fighting for a cause that's never theirs and suffering on their own.

A marvelous war drama that focuses on the effect, that death and its proximity has on people, and actually manages to address these things in a very profound and meaningful way. It is a captivating, but very dark and depressing story, the most prominent feature of it being its uncompromising cruelty towards the characters.

The plot shows us both sides of the war, raging around the ancient sacred city of Eldorado, – the teen soldiers from The World Government troops and the insurgents. The story builds itself slowly, but piece by piece a complicated relationship starts to form between those involved in the conflict, one that ... won’t be easy to unravel. There are some hints on mysticism, which will, probably, be more important in later chapters.

The central themes of Husk of Eden are fear of death, acceptance (or unacceptance, for that matter) of loss, readiness to sacrifice one’s life. There is this ever-present feeling that a terrible dark secret lurks underneath. Biblical references also help to create a strong sense of foreboding – most of the names are taken from Bible and Babylonian history.

The art is very clean, crisp and beautiful. Much attention is paid to the designs of military uniforms, which look both futuristic and ritualistic. The terrorists on the contrary are designed with fantasy and tribal motives in mind. The contrast is very well done, though I, personally, find some of the rebels’ designs going overboard with showing skin.

The worst part are the fighting scenes, completely illogical and unrealistic. Expect a lot of Matrix-style pirouettes, jumping right into middle of enemies’ formation and cheesy one-liners. But that’s the price it is worth to pay to see how the protagonists deal with their pasts, their bleak futures and consequences of their actions, how they try to bond together with their fellow-soldiers and how they remember the ones, who they have already lost.

I would recommend this series to those interested in military themes and those in for a very heavy drama.