Tsutomu Nihei

Complete Deluxe Edition

Abara

Montgomery Pierce

Visually beautiful but lacking most elements that make an engaging story. Somewhat disappointing as there's a lot of frameworks to set up an intriguing story: this concept of ancient structures and beings that seem to be somewhat parasitic, secretive government agencies who know the history of these beings, human-monster combinations created specifically to combat said beasties, main character baggage...

And yet, nothing is done with it. The actual story and world-building is so thin and vague that Abara feels more like a picture book with an underlying story than a fully-fleshed (and finished) manga bind-up, and what little we get from the characters reads like this is a volume of manga that comes in the middle of a series as opposed to a complete series. 

This edition specifically is very beautiful, particularly with the two pull-out full sized art pages and (I believe) three color pages at the beginning of the second part. I wish that it was more than just a collection of pretty pictures, however.

Abara Complete Deluxe Edition

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