Volumes: 4/4 (Complete), Going OOP, getting hard to find but still available in eBook
Seinen
Genre: Scifi, Body Horror, Horror,
Summary: After the death of her father, Hikaru shuts herself out from the world with a big pair of headphones and wants nothing to do with other people. But one night, while looking at the night sky on the beach, a giant meteor-like object crashes into her and burns her up to a crisp. Soon, finding herself back in class, she dismisses it as a bad dream, but a voice speaks in her head.
An alien named Horizon crashed into her by accident, and repaired her body. But he needs a favor in return- there’s a murderous alien criminal just like him who can possess people and he has got to find him before he drives all life on this planet extinct!
Review: I loved the concept of two body hopping parasite-type aliens, one an intergalactic cop and one a criminal, having their cat and mouse game taking place on the vast Earth. But then this storyline ends abruptly at the end of volume 2, and then a new antagonist is introduced. I really felt cheated. This is not an adaptation of Hal Clement’s story, more like “Inspired by” than a direct adaptation. And the second arc is completely original.
The second arc of the story, while it wasn’t terrible, seems to revolve around a lot of creative uses and abuses of the idea of evolution, which I know will bother many Hard Scifi fans. But it was alright. In the end there’s still some good parts of the story, and the art is pretty impressive, if you like Scifi horror.
Hikaru has a good emotional arc in the story, going from a lonely girl who lets no one into her heart, into someone who actively cares for her friends and family. That part of the story was the most rewarding. Of note, the fourth volume ends with a short story that is a pilot for Hikaru’s character, and it is interesting to see how she changed.
Recommended: The first two volumes are the strongest part of the manga and tell a complete story. So I would definitely recommend those. Volumes 3 and 4 are OK, and do contain a further resolution to Hikaru’s story, at least.
Not Recommended: I can’t say this concept was all that hard Scifi to begin with, but it got much messier than the original story and they’re only vaguely related. Also this is full-on horror, so if you don’t want to see people half morphed into other creatures, then I wouldn’t recommend this.
Age Rating: Older Teen: for horror content, gore and a lot of fairly graphic violence
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