Sumi Eno’s dystopian fantasy manga is a criminally underrated hidden gem that’s writing circles around its contemporaries.<\/b>
\nWith newer and newer crops of manga vying for fans\u2019 attention every waking second, sifting through the noise to find something with the staying power of a hidden gem is pretty much the perpetual endeavor of fans. One gem I\u2019ve recently set my peepers on and can\u2019t get enough of is After God, a manga that\u2019s quietly been building one of the most intriguing fantasy premises I\u2019ve seen in a long time.
After God, created by Sumi Eno, is a dark-fantasy manga that takes a dystopian spin on polytheism in the modern age. In it, the world is suddenly invaded by creatures known as gods because there\u2019s honestly no better description for them with how inconceivably powerful they are. Their rules, as far as humanity has tried and errored in figuring out, are as follows: they can\u2019t be captured by cameras because then their image would be that of a false idol. So, the only way to see them is, well, to see them.
But once you do, it\u2019s already too late. Rumors have it that when you look into the eyes of a god, what you see is the most beautiful being you\u2019ve ever laid eyes on in your entire life, leading to a sense of euphoric bliss. But what\u2019s actually happening is more akin to an anglerfish luring in its prey. Once you\u2019re captured, they basically blow a kiss at you, and you\u2019re turned into water. That\u2019s it. Done.
In their wake, these gods have developed a bit of a split following. On the one hand, there are anti-god researchers dedicated to finding a way to kill these gods, whom they refer to as Idolatry Prohibited Organisms (IPOs). On the other hand, these so-called gods are at the center of social upheaval because they\u2019re treated like deities by folks who practice religion, are agnostic, or pledge their lives to science, yet have no choice but to bend the knee to IPO\u2019s awesome might and influence. They\u2019ve got acolytes and all kinds of zealots following their mysterious wishes. Those who don\u2019t ascribe to drinking the Kool-Aid wear garments and masks to cover their faces to protect themselves on the off chance they encounter a god in the wild.
In that same vein, they\u2019re great for the worst content creators you know to enter the uninhabitable danger zone\u2014locations where gods have been quartered off in Japan, leaving ecological disasters in their territory\u2014to shoot Logan Paul-esque suicide forest videos for the views. In summation, society is fucked.
All that is just the groundwork for the series\u2019 premise from chapter one. The story proper follows Waka Kamikura, a high schooler who travels to the city in search of answers about her best friend\u2019s disappearance (she\u2019s the lady in the above image). To do so, she almost wanders into one of those aforementioned danger zones before a researcher named Tokigawa Sachiyuki stops her. Their chance encounter leads to both of them running into an acolyte who seems to kill Waka by piercing her skull with a support beam of a playground swing.
But because this is all still chapter one, the other shoe still has to drop. What we discover, as the Viz Media trailer scooped, is that Waka has the eyes of a god. What\u2019s more, she also seems to be harboring a more bloodthirsty identity under her unassuming disposition. Thankfully, Waka appears to be fighting on the side of humanity and swears, in no uncertain terms, that she wants to kill every god for their involvement in her best friend\u2019s disappearance.
Granted, much of After God\u2018s plot progression is one that fans, present company included, have sworn to keep under an unspoken bond of spoiler secrecy. And for good reason; the series is one best explored without having one iota of an idea of where it\u2019s going. Not since picking up Kasumi Yasuda\u2019s Fool Night (another dystopian manga folks should totally read, about people volunteering to be transformed into plants to save a world engulfed in eternal darkness) have I encountered a series whose story is so entrancing. Its big double-page spreads of gods are equal parts grotesque and breathtaking.
Eno\u2019s artwork comes as close to what those biblically accurate angel meme trends would look like as if it were inside a hauntingly gorgeous manga. And a lot of that feels by design, with how ingrained the manga is in the hyperspeed discourse of a media cycle trying to make sense of IPOs and how social media flattens them into an amorphous meme to be taken lightly. That sinking feeling of distrust practically emanates from chapter to chapter as everyone\u2014gods, acolytes, Waka, Tokigawa, and the anti-God researchers\u2014all have ulterior motives at play and will use each other to their own ends to pursue them.
But the series also balances its dour, weighty plotting and body horror with a fair share of humor that actually lands. These elements (like the herd of cats seen below) somehow don\u2019t detract from the story\u2019s overall weight but add another wrinkle to how off-kilter and vexing the whole thing is. They\u2019ve kind of got a Pluck from Berserk quality of making the read less depressing, and they\u2019re greatly appreciated.
So if you\u2019re fiending to check out a manga series with an adult cast that\u2019s equal parts endearing and detestable, world-building that doesn\u2019t feel like it\u2019s spinning its wheels, and drop-dead gorgeous art, you should definitely add After God to your shelf.<\/p>\n