The story focuses on a boy named Ageha Yoshina who after witnessing his elementary friend Sakurako Amamiya disappear decides to investigate in the strange game called Psyren. After arriving in the world of the game he discovers that the massive wasteland he was transported to is actually the future of Japan. Together with his companions, Ageha must find a way to prevent this future destruction from occurring using his new abelites of PSI.
The mystery presented makes for an engaging read, as new details unfold of the coming downfall of the world. This allows for slow build up of events and characters as the coming dread of the end slowly creeps up on them. This is accomplished due to the limited time and rules place on them by the seemingly omnipotent figure named Nemesis Q. Q makes it harder for the group to accomplish their goals. This is due to the rule that anything talked about in the present about Psyren will turn that person to ash instantly killing them. The rule makes the series more tense, since the group cannot tell the people who are in danger of the coming travesty about to befall them. Leading to a griping narrative where the truth of the world is left with only a small group of people fighting to change the future.
Like many Shonen manga this one contains many high action battles, and Psyren does not disappoint in this department. The fights are based on a PSI system specifically three types called rise, burst and trance. Rise, boosts the power of a persons senses and reflexes giving them greater speed, strength and awareness of their surroundings, Burst, allows the user to create mental images and turn them into psychical things like fire or a weapon. Trance is the manipulation of another destroying them mentally or controlling their senses or even body. These three types can also be combined leading to some compelling action scenes that fully utilize the ideas of the systems potential.
Even though Psyren presented a compelling story and great action the series was rushed due to low readership. Due to this, many of the setups presented in the beginning either never came back or were gone over with little explanation in order to give the series an ending. Many new characters and abilities are also thrown in in order to give the manga an ending before it was pulled from the Weekly Shonen Jump Magazine. This sadly lead to a rather lackluster ending which didn't fully deliver on the ideas presented in previous chapters.
However, Psyren is still an amazing manga. Many of its faults were due to the competitive scene of manga creation and the sad reality that many amazing series fall into. Even with this Psyren still is able to deliver a more mature and unique story with themes of incoming devastation due to the treatment of those different from regular people. I hope many more people read and enjoy Psyren and maybe one day we can see a truly realized version of this story.
