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!
