Yuji Iwahara

King of Thorn Volume 1 (King of Thorn)

Geoffrey Froggatt

I had a friend in high school who loved this series and I always meant to get into it, and I was pleasantly surprised that I liked it almost as much as she did. The plot follows a group of survivors who wake up from cryogenic sleep after an unspecified amount of time after the world falls prey to the Medusa virus, a virus that causes human beings to become petrified stone before dying. I loved the world building and the characters seem interesting despite not knowing much about them in this first volume. I think that this story hits much differently after experience a global pandemic of our own, but I do think that people looking for an escape from thinking about the pandemic can still read this story as it is different and interesting enough as its own story and doesn’t reflect too much on our current climate. I liked the hints of backstory for the protagonist character although things were left intentionally vague in this first volume to create a sense of mystery. I vaguely remember what happens next in this series but that hasn’t impacted by enjoyment so far. Overall, this was very surface level with not much story progression but I liked the short introduction and I’m excited to see where this story goes.

Wynter

February 13, 2019: King of Thorn is one of those mangas that I started reading at the height of my fascination with Japanese graphic novels - back in high school. To give you a perspective, I still remember the times when this was considered a fresh release. I only read maybe half of the first volume, and I couldn't really recall the name of the series, so over a decade later, I had to do a little digging to find it again. But the post-apocalyptic setting with strange monsters and deadly disease that turns people into stone stuck around enough for me to finally track down King of Thorn. 

I used to be more lenient to manga's tendency to rely a lot on stock characters, but today I find myself a bit annoyed. There are a lot of females that get hysterical and overtly cute/helpless, which is somehow admirable. There is a tough man of few words with a mysterious past of crime, and an evil politician calls him "bastard" every few panels. The main character obsesses over her twin she was forced to leave behind, and there are pages of "I can't go on", interlaced by random bursts of courage, over and over again. I can't get over how annoying she is. 

But the world is so compelling I want to find out what happened to it. The art is also great, even though some action panels are a bit confusing. The dialogue is stilted, of course, as to be expected, and comes with the territory of shounen manga. I'll be reading further, since there are only 6 volumes in total, and it's a very easy, fast read.

King of Thorn Volume 1 (King of Thorn)

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