Extremely quick read. I like the artwork, however the dialogue was minimal. I don't know if I'm going to bother reading the rest of the series, but I do like the gun-wielding bear. ( )

[b:BIOMEGA バイオメガ 1|624705|BIOMEGA バイオメガ 1 (Biomega Vol. 1)|Tsutomu Nihei|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327877209s/624705.jpg|611064]

whenever i show my friends--who are not manga readers--they say that the artwork is too sketchy. one of them said, "i could draw that." sometimes the panels sequences are too jumpy and, yes, the ending was too cliched (for me), but the ideas (artificial humans, cyborgs, AI motorcycles), the style, the pacing, the characters are just excellent. ( )

If there's anything wrong with this story so far, it's that the first volume might have been too quickly read. It was an absorbing read with surprising depth for the first volume of a manga, but when I finished the first volume I felt like it had gone by too quickly.

I generally like manga with dark themes. It seems like those with darker themes and warnings of mature content are usually the only manga in which the authors give themselves permission to write with depth and thought-provoking ideas, thoughtfully explored. The first volume of Biomega is an exemplary case of that, even leaving out the cutesy/comical touches here and there that seem like an irresistible lure for the majority of even the best manga authors, despite the fact they often just distract from the substance of a good story. None of that here.

I've seen the Blame! anime based on work by the same author, and I see a trend already: synthetic human man as the certified badass protagonist, slender blonde artificial intelligence woman working with him, and "innocent girl" type with some kind of central role to the story. So far, I have no problem with this repeated pattern (and I have only seen it in two works, one of which was an anime adaptation; I have not read anything by Tsutomu Nihei yet other than this volume). It seems well-handled so far, antagonists are not just tissue paper for the protagonist to brush through with ease, and as long as it serves to carry a good story I'm happy with it.

This seems like the kind of story with mature themes that is actually for readers with some mental maturity, which is really what I'm looking for most of the time in manga, and the characters are pretty comprehensible and understandable given their apparent motivations. The villains of the piece seem especially evil, which often leads to cartoonish, unbelievable motivations, but in this case they tend to make some sense so far. The only thing that seems like it might be out of place in the whole thing is the bear, but I suppose that will make sense in time as well if I keep reading the series (and I certainly intend to keep reading it).

In short, I quite liked this, and look forward to the next book. ( )

This was pretty good, and it was a bit of a different take on the zombie genre. It was different in the sense that the full outbreak of the epidemic has not happened yet. The hero is hoping to help stop it. However, the odds seem slim as he searches for a girl who may hold the key. In a way, this kind of story is not new. And yet, the pacing, the action, and the very gritty, dark art all come together to make a pretty good story. This manga is also interesting because it relies more on the visual; there is not as much text as other mangas, and yet I think it works pretty well. And this is the first volume, so it looks like things will go a bit deeper as well. I hope to continue reading the series. ( )

Biomega reads a lot like a late '80s-early '90s OVA, in the sense that the manga has an incredibly tight focus on action. While there is a narrative there, the story spends more time on the action sequences. To be fair, there isn't anything wrong with that - the manga gives the action sequences the time they need to flow properly, and allow the reader to keep track of everything. There are a lot of manga artists who could probably learn something form Nihei. ( )