アバラ

ABARA

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
2
RELEASE
March 19, 2006
CHAPTERS
13

DESCRIPTION

A vast city lies under the shadow of colossal, ancient tombs, the identity of their builders lost to time. In the streets of the city something is preying on the inhabitants, something that moves faster than the human eye can see and leaves unimaginable horror in its wake.

(Source: Viz Media)

Included one-shot: Digimortal

CAST

Digimortal
Denji Kudou
Nayuta
Tadohomi
Ayuta
Lataris
Halogen Übler
Sakijima
Tolaris

CHAPTERS

REVIEWS

Aetherys117
87/100
Proto Chainsaw Man, inspiration majeure de Fujimoto
Première mise en bouche de l'univers de Nihei, première incursion dans la vallée de l'étrange, mais aussi plongée en eaux sombres dans l'une des créations SF les plus étrange que j'ai vu, Abara ne laisse pas indifférent.

Au travers d'un coup de crayon nerveux et brouillon et de traits noirs ultra saturés, un univers malaisant apparaît. Derrière ce griffonnage intensif, on y découvre un monde gothico-cyberpunk où des constructions filiformes se dressent sans réelle logique architectural. Les humains tentent de mener une vie normale dans ce monde, mais l'apparition d'êtres monstrueux, des Shirogauna, massacrant tout sur leurs passages, les amènent à la panique.

Mais il existe une légende narrant l'existence d'êtres semblables à ces créatures faites de vertèbres et d'os, les Kurogauna, et qui serait capable d'en venir à bout. En suivant plusieurs personnes dont les histoires vont s'entremêler, les contours de la vérité apparaîtront ils ?

Si il y a une chose dont on doit faire de suite l'éloge, c'est bien le travail ironiquement monstrueux sur les apparences des créatures, dont les contrastes dévoilent chacun de leurs os. Certaines pages donne la pose à ces êtres démoniaques dont on peut admirer toute la complexité de détails.

Le rythme est, cependant, complexe à tenir au début. En effet, Nihei prends un malin plaisir à ne presque jamais communiquer avec son lecteur, le laissant ainsi seul responsable de l'assemblage du puzzle scénaristique. L'action, parfois illisible soyons honnête, reste quand même diablement énergique et use d'une violence sans nom pour rythmer des affrontements bestiaux.

Le format one shot laisse très peu de temps pour développer ses personnages, mais permet d'être concret et d'aller droit au but. Ceci laisse donc un immense théâtre pour laisser libre accès à la rage de ces proto-chainsaw Man à la carapace indestructible.

Sans entrer dans de grandes thématiques, Abara ne cherche pas à raconter une histoire transcendant le genre même de la dark SF, et reste modeste dans son objectif : offrir de superbes combats dans de nombreux paysages cauchemardesques.

Au fur et à mesure que l'humanité semble se consumer dans ces grandes citadelles vides, on observe donc son extinction inexorable pendant que ces êtres surnaturels se livrent à des affrontements sanglants.

Ce récit est accompagné de Digimortal, une sorte de Abara alternatif jouissif, court et ultra violent avec une inspiration gothique plus prononcé.

Merci encore à tout ceux qui lisent mes reviews et me font des retours, ça me fait grandement plaisir, j'ai l'impression qu'il y s peu de reviewers français sur Anilist, manifestez vous, J'adorerai lire vos écrits et avoir vos recommandations !
Continue on AniList
Benkei
60/100
Spoiler-free review of Abara. One of the mangas that influenced Chainsawman, but with too many problems.
════ ⋆★⋆ ════ Considerations ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ ● __This is a spoiler-free review.__ ● __60+ in my rating means below average.__ ● __This review includes The Digimortal One-Short.__ ● I've got to read this work on a friend's recommendation. He said it was one of the mangas that inspired Fujimoto to write Chainsawman and I wanted to check it out. I didn't look too much into the synopsis and just started reading. ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ The Story ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ In the streets of the city something is preying on the inhabitants, something that moves faster than the human eye can see and leaves unimaginable horror in its wake. The story of Abara has really bad pacing in my opinion. When you start reading, it feels like someone threw you at an already going story, and for that reason, it took me a lot of time to start to understand the story of the world, and even after I finished the manga, I was still confused. With, believe it or not, __Wikipedia being the one helping me at that point.__ For a manga without a prequel or sequel, it's just really weird how the author aims to deliver the information about the world he is creating. ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ The Art Style ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ The art style is mixed; at times it's absurdly good, especially when drawing entities and combat. I felt like reading another work by Fujimoto. If I were to analyze this point alone, I could easily say that the art-style is worthy of a 9. ‎ But when I consider character design, it's really weird. Whenever the panel is detailed and he does proper shadows, you really feel impressed, but in normal panels, the eyes are often too far from each other and without the drawing of the nose bridge. Everyone looks like they have a fish-face. The backgrounds are absurdly well done. Panels are, in their majority, full of dark spots and give a really creepy vibe sometimes. Besides character details, everything else is really pretty. ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ The Characters ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ There are a small number of characters in this manga; the main character, agents, and a few others. I don't feel any real depth in their creation and I wasn't fully able to comprehend each character's mentality and motivations. They just seemed to go with the flow. ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ Conclusion ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ If you're like me, you skip everything and read only the conclusion because you don't want to get spoiled with other themes. So I will try to be brief on this point: __Maybe read it.__ If you like Chainsawman or Firepunch, you might find some similar panels in this piece. If you enjoy gruesome manga, you may enjoy this work. __If you're looking for characters with depth and a more developed story, I recommend that you look for other works. __
Continue on AniList
Artanis88
90/100
"ABARA is a bitter story. But one of those not lasting bitternesses, of which, when finished, one wants more"
WARNING THE REVIEW CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS

First of all, this is the first work I've completed by Master Tsutomu Nihei. I tried to read Blame! but honestly after the first 5 chapters I decided to pause it... for several reasons that I won't list here..
Let's begin by saying that Tsutomu Nihei as Kentarō Miura ( Berserk ) is an author who succeeds in what other mangaka would like to do or have desperately tried to do, namely to make the drawings speak, full of details almost to the limits of madness!

Abara is a two-volume miniseries and explores a claustrophobic and synthetic world that nevertheless retains the apocalyptic atmosphere. In a large city, there are towering hills that hold a disturbing secret that the population has always ignored. The worker Denji Ito is called by Tadohomi, an old acquaintance of his, who informs him of the appearance of a terrible monster that feeds on humans, the White Gauna.
Although at first the boy wants to stay away from the facts, it soon turns out to be him self the Black Gauna, a kind of arch-enemy dedicated to fighting with superhuman strength and speed.

Why "Abara?" Abara can be translated as "ribs."
あばら abara. Parts of speech noun (common) (futsuumeishi) rib; rib cage.

In fact, the Gauna initially manage to transform themselves by stretching the ribs into a sharp armor, which becomes a real armor by deforming and spreading. If Blacks Gauna are beings that keep humanoid features, the White Gauna can devour so many people and change their original form and mutate into horrible and huge creatures.

Black Gauna Trasformation:

Final form:

As the story continues, some background about Todohomi and Denji's past are revealed. With the exception of Sakijima, we can said that all the main characters already know each other, and that the story is nothing more than the development of earlier events, starting from a plot that has already begun.

When the manga was finished, I really found it to be a science fiction genre that indeed tends to descend into the darkest and most terrifying horror. It's definitely a full-fledged manga that completely deviates from the trivial fighting genre that is full of nonsense and heroes. It'll be difficult to follow the logical thread of the story, as it's slightly truncated from the beginning of the manga. The setting is, in my opinion, the greatest strength on which the entire manga is built; and the author has managed to make the most of it, rendering it down to the smallest detail.

So what can I say...this manga... IT'S EXTRAORDINARY, the problem is that I can't explain in depth really why. Graphically impeccable, the only problem, if you can call it a problem at all, lies in the plot. Barely mentioned and incomprehensible to say the least, but fascinating at the same time.

My rating is 90 - 5 stars
Continue on AniList