LEVIATHAN – Lord Of The Flies In Space (REVIEW)
Shiro Kuroi’s “Leviathan” is a flagship title by Kana, the new imprint from Abrams ComicArts, devoted to publishing manga series’ in English.
Leviathan Volume One tells the story of the titular spaceship, an enormous transport that disappeared one day and is discovered an undisclosed number of years later by three shipwreck raiders. When one of them discovers a student’s journal they try and piece together what happened to the ship.
The story is split into two perspectives. In the present the raiders make their way through the ancient wreck searching for valuables, while they read through the journal, looking for clues. Their hopes of finding something worth salvaging are tempered by the numerous booby traps that appear to have waited for people like them. The second perspective shows the past immediately after the incident that marooned a class of young children, which is told from the perspective of the author of the journal, Kazuma Ichinose.
Kazuma is a naturally nervous and shy student, prone to anxiety attacks, and avoidant of confrontation. He is traveling with the rest of his class and a couple of teachers on a field trip when the ship is struck by asteroids and they are left stranded. Kazuma’s inner strength is gradually brought out and tested to the extreme as the gravity of the situation becomes clear. A fellow student, Futaba Nikaido, is with him when they overhear the senior teacher, Senri Senda assess the damage.
Senri concludes both the bridge and engineering were destroyed, so oxygen is limited and there is no way to send a distress signal. Furthermore there is only a single sleep pod available, which means only a single person will be able to wait out the disaster for as long as it takes for someone to discover the ship. To prevent panic, and ensure his survival, Senri decides to keep all this information secret. A secret he’s willing to kill for.
If this weren’t bad enough, Kazuma finds Futaba’s resolve is even worse. She has the same idea as Senri, but an even greater capacity for violence and manipulation. However, due to Kazuma’s nervous disposition, the secret is impossible to keep forever. As the bodies mount up and the panic for survival sets in, everyone’s loyalties are tested.
The story has a similar intensity and brutality that I’d gotten used to from reading Junji Ito. However, Shiro’s Leviathan has a much more grounded setting, unlike those outlandish tales. It is, however, no less harrowing. The characterisations are spectacular, everyone is so rounded and complex, even the side characters and additional students who get introduced and fleshed out almost immediately before they are killed off. The dialogue, narration, and expressions through the art are a masterclass in rapid characterisation. You can be invested even if the character was only introduced in the panel before they brutally die.
What was particularly surprising about this story is the mystery is so simple but so engrossing. There is so much cliché and stereotype stacked on everything through the story. The whole school group is all standard models from the outset: the bully students and their regular victims, the group of girls who are all best friends to each other, the cruel head teacher, the kind-hearted junior teacher, the psychotic introvert, and the pushover protagonist. The plot is all-in-all a conventional stranded/survival plot, where the ticking clock is the oxygen, and the critical decision is who should get to be the only person who survives. Even the shipwreck raiders primarily exist as a framing device for the flashback plot of the initial disaster. All of this should feel run of the mill, and yet it doesn’t. There is a profound subtlety and encroaching tension for both the students in the past and the raiders in the present which makes you want the end, but never want it rushed because the process of getting there is never boring. This can be largely attributed to the characterisation mentioned before, but also to all the little details with how things specifically play out. Even when you feel you know the broad strokes, it is the unique events that link it all together that make it a truly compelling read.
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