Print Review: King of Thorn volumes 1-4

Review King of Thorn volumes 1-4Written by WarpshadowRating good/ very good

King of Thorn is a manga that reads like an action movie, It’s not that deep and the characters aren’t that great but It’s still fun to read.

The Medusa virus was a bizarre disease which turns it's victims into stone. Such a strange and new disease was an affliction far beyond the ability of modern medicine to handle and so a plan was concocted to build cold sleep capsules to store victims until a cure could be found. Kasumi was one such person who is also troubled by the fact that her sister Shizuku also had the disease but was not selected for cold sleep. When Kasumi and the other patients woke up it is not to a happy future where the Medusa virus was cured but a strange nightmare world where the was strewn with thorny vines and was the lair of giant man eating monsters.

Although there are those that would argue that action slash horror stories are best told through a more fluid medium like anime King of Thorn does a more than serviceable job of telling such a story in manga format. Given that much of it's genre competition is your typical shonen adventure King of Thorn also has the advantage of having better artwork than most manga of it's type. Characterization usually isn't that deep but this manga does a good job of defining characters in a short amount of time giving them verisimilitude without dwelling on them at the expense of the main plot. If you want to read something that is a bit more like a Hollywood action movie say like Aliens, in manga format then King of Thorn is one to check out.