JYU-OH-SEI Volume 1 by Natsumi Itsuki

JYU-OH-SEI Volume 1 Reviews

• 
  Nisha

  I don't read much shounen-like manga, but I feel like this is a class of it own. I'll start with the art, its old-school shoujo, so its very appealing to me. Kinda reminds me of Escaflowne, with the noses, but much more beautiful. The story is superb, tackling not only the sci-fi element, but human flaw and politics, through skillful narration of suspense.
  
  The story begins with a pair of blond-haired, blue-eyed 11-year-old twins, Thor and Rai, who find their parents murdered and are immediately sent to a secret prison planet. This planet is unique in that the plants are the dominant species and deadly to human survival. One must become a "beast" to survive its horrors. While Thor, our protagonist, steps up and fights for his survival, his younger brother, Rai, is weak and spoiled. Thor eventually loses his brother, but not his goal to leave the planet and confront his parents' murderer, Odin. But to do so, he must become the Beast King, a status that he can only gain with the help of Third, a mysterious stranger whose motives are yet to be seen, and Tiz, a native girl determined to have his first child.
  
  I love all the characters. They are nicely developed and exhibit humanity in a very realistic way. While Third is by far the hottest and the most interesting, Thor strength and reactions are beautiful. I liked Chen, surprisingly, despite how annoying she first seemed.
  
  This is a great start to the series. It's a bit thicker (and more expensive) than normal manga, but its totally worth it.
• 
  Vicki

  These notes cover vols. 1 - 3 (the complete series)
  
  Delicate white-haired, white-skinned twin brothers Thor and Rei are kidnapped and left to fend for themselves on a dangerous prison planet after their politician father is killed. Can they survive on a planet populated by criminals and giant man-eating plants, and will they ever be able to get back to their home and find out why this happened to them?
  
  This series is presented as 3 chunky volumes, each at least 1 1/2 times as thick as a normal Tokyopop manga volume.
  
  The story may sound a little harsh but this is no Battle Royale: its more action/drama than horror/thriller.
  
  The two elements I loved most about this series were:
  
  - There plot is well paced and the story wraps up very satisfactorily over its 3-volume run. It really feels as if the author knew her ending before she started writing the series. Also, no character is safe from injury/death so any peril keeps you on the edge of your seat.
  
  - Characters grow and evolve over the course of the series. The main character, Thor, especially is almost entirely unrecogniseable by the final volume as he has grown from a child to man. Seeing as so much time goes by, other characters also age and change their appearence over the course of the story.
  
  The artwork is proficient: environments are very imaginative as the settlements characters live in are built to withstand some pretty scary weather conditions, and species of man-eating plants.
  
  Extras:
  
  I was delighted to find a section at the back of volume two with design sheets for some of the vehicles, objects and settings that turn up in the comic. In volume 3 I was surprised to find the main story finished a couple of chapters before the end of the book. In this extra space there is a side story featuring some of what happened to a couple of important secondary characters in the middle of the main story timeline. Initially I was a bit dissapointed to have finished the main story early, but the side story did fill in some info and its a big plus that it was within the Jyu-Oh-Sei world and timeline, not completely unrelated (like most of the random 'bonus' stories you get at the back of manga volumes).
• 
  Lord

  As an old fan of science fiction, I had high expectations from this manga, as space operas are not that common in this genre. Well, it starts as a space opera but the story takes place mainly on the planet that resembles Deathworld from Harry Harrison. I must say there are some very original elements, not that common in manga where even distant planets and often depicted like Earth's twins (Please Save My Earth). So, the setting and characters are intersting, the art manga standard. The story is a little bit immature and childish, though, and cannot be compared to masterpieces as Planetes or To Terra... I'm not sure if I'm gonna buy the second book from these series but we have two volumes here in one book for nice price so I can recommend buying this.
• 
  Triston Sowles

  This is a sci-fi shounen story seen through a shoujo lense. If the shoujo artstyle ever put you off, this would be a good gateway.
  
  The plot is classic SF. Prison-planet, laser-swords, time-skips, love triangles and the whole nine-yards. In a way, it feels like Japanese Dune but on a jungle planet.
  
  All in all, very unique and compact. Worth the time to read.
• 
  Dani ❤️ Perspective of a Writer

  I was really taken with this story - I love twins - but this is really about one boy, Thor, who must push on and survive no matter what adversity he must face. It was really exciting and unexpected. Of course, I really loved Third, just like everyone on the planet does! Zagi was also really intriguing, putting a face to the brutality of life on Kimaera.
  
  I really liked the world building - marriage is at 13.8 years old; day is for 181 days and night time the same! We jump right into the action and the first chapter alone is packed with info from the status quo to Thor's new life. I love survival type of stories and this is the ultimate planet you must survive. The ring politics were incredibly well developed and I liked how Thor fell into the "trap."
  
  The art is of an older style but that didn't detract from the story at all. In fact I loved the musa plant frames and how Third was drawn! Really though the whole idea of musa plants was very good.
  
  BOTTOM LINE: Third's machinations rock!
• 
  Maverynthia

  Men are beasts
  
  
  This manga is terrible. I have no idea how this is some kind of award winning piece.We are barely introduced to Rai before he's killed... OFF PANEL as if the artist/author had a plan for him and scrapped it.Women are "" and they are constantly bested by men, and their whole existence is reliant on a man. It's made to seem like they have some kind of power, but really they don't which is why their rings are the exception "FEMALE Sun Ring" etc.Of course Thor is super good at everything he does, so much he has to save the women. When he shows up, everyone moves over for him.Really it's a shallow story about violent men fighting each other.
   
   
  
  
   
  
• 
  Ayu Prameswary

  Saat membuka manga ini sekilas di toko buku, kostum yang dikenakan si tokoh mengingatkan pada salah satu anime di animax yang tidak pernah saya tonton, kecuali iklannya ^^. Dan ternyata benar, buku ini adalah versi manga dari anime tersebut. :D
• 
  Lea

  This looks to be the beginning of a good series! I really enjoyed the story and the characters, and want to see what will happen next. Also, the art style is really nice, it reminds me of "From Far Away", which I loved. ^^
• 
  Feby

  Dapat dari diskonan Gramedia. Tetapi lebih dulu nonton anime-nya.
  Ceritanya sih keren. Fantasi campur-campur survival dan science fiction. Tokoh-tokohnya digali cukup baik. Tetapi kurang suka bagian romance-nya. Diselipin kurang pas dalam alur ceritanya.
• 
  Mely

  Colorful and improbable pulp sf reminiscent of Moore, Kuttner, and Brackett. AWESOME.
• 
  InfiniteLibrary

  So far the anime follows this pretty well!