Manga Review: King of Thorn

King of Thorn is a sci-fi manga which, after a rushed start, 160 people are about to get put into cold sleep (due to an incurable illness), a small group of characters must try to survive after they wake up to find thorns everywhere and dinosaur-like creatures all around them. The entire volume basically involved the characters running from these creatures, and little to no time was spent on any other development. I still don't even know the names of most characters because the names haven't been provided!

Out of the 5 books I ordered on a whim, this and Kieli were the two I had doubts about. But, nonetheless, I still went ahead and ordered it because I hadn't experienced a horror manga before reading King of Thorn.

The series might improve later and not just be a dull battle to survive against weird creatures in an uncertain future, but at this point I have no real desire to see what happens next. It isn't any fun watching characters you don't give a damn about trying to survive in an impossible situation - there has to be some emotional attachment for there to be feelings. It's comparable to watching Lost without the flashback episodes that fleshed out the cast.

I *might* pick up volume 2 to see if it gets better since it's only a 6 volume series -- I'm not sure at this point. All I know for sure is that I wish I hadn't spent around £6 without reading a chapter or two online first.

- Aion