(AfroGamers.com) I love martial arts anime and manga. Not really “I’m powering up, look at my aura flames! Ahhh!” martial arts manga–although I watch it–but more along the lines of series that depict pretty realistic interpretations of martial arts.
However, this isn’t about martial arts manga, this is about another genre of manga I’ve gotten into lately: post apocalyptic horror. I’m not even that big of a horror fan. Sure I like old school horror like Friday the 13th and Evil Dead, but I’m not really seeking out horror.
As it just happens, I love post apocalyptic-everything. Fist of the
North Star is my favorite anime of all time, Mad Max is one of my favorite movie franchises, Fallout is one of my favorite video game franchises. Let’s not get started on TV, people. Maybe that’s a topic for another week? Anyway, here are two post apocalyptic horror series to check out.
GREEN WORLDZ
The interesting thing about GREEN WORLDZ is how only a few months took place over 100+ chapters. There was something of a timeskip after the first group of survivors fight the first big bad but even then, so little happened between then and the end–and it’s just three months.
So, GREEN WORLDZ takes place in Tokyo–surprise! A biological event has occurred that resulted in the world being covered in plant-life and a dangerous pollen taking over the breathable air. Many of the remaining survivors have taken shelter underground in the subway system but have been sharing food between stops.
When a hybrid-human arrives in one of the tunnels, everything get turned upside down until a mysterious stranger steps in and saves everyone. This stranger establishes a group of survivors who will travel out of the tunnel for food and weapons only to run into more trouble along the way.
That’s basically the first few chapters of GREEN WORLDZ in a nutshell. What we find out as the series goes on is that the mysterious stranger is actually the main character–Akira–from 30 years into the future. He’s basically here to make sure Young Akira is able to prevent a slaughter that takes place a few weeks’ time at the hands of a hybrid human.
Trash Characters
Without going more into the story and ruining it for anyone interested let’s get into some trash characters. The humans are all mostly likeable. They just want to survive and will go to great lengths to make sure their friends survive–but there’s two that honestly should’ve been eaten by the plants.
Early on, Miu was a stone cold-sociopath who manipulated two of the male survivors to protect her. They were both killed of course but the second was pushed out of a window–by her–and left to his death at the hands of a giant dung beetle. She was also a jerk to Rei who considered her like a sister. Miu does eventually come around but she’s just unlikeable for the first fourth of the series.
The other trash character is Otokuro. He’s a bit of a coward–excuse me. He’s a huge coward who doesn’t want to travel out into green world of danger. He’s also very pessimistic and just a dour character. In the timeskip, he is with a group of criminals or leftover survivors from the station who have turned to kidnapping. Otokuro is one of the people who separates the men and women and tells Rei that men who aren’t useful are shot and that the women won’t be hurt if they cooperate.
Now, he’s also trash because the series continues without addressing that Otokuro was over prisoner and sex slave holding. The book just kind of moves on from that and mixes him back in with the hero survivors. It was weird.
Other than those one and a half trash humans, this is a choice manga to check out. It ran for 112 chapters and there will probably be a part two! Here’s hoping there is more and here’s hoping that you enjoy GREEN WORLDZ.
Staff Writer; M. Swift
This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.