Re:Anima, Vol. 1

Gr 8 Up–A young woman is hit by a car on the busy streets of Shibuya, Tokyo, and no one bats an eye. Kara and his partner, Shinano, go to investigate and find the young woman is not seriously injured but needs repairs. Like most people in the world, she was using a Re:Anima—an androidlike avatar that allows humans to exist on Earth’s surface. Ever since the ozone layer was destroyed, humans have had to live underground to escape the intense surface heat and use Re:Anima to maintain a semblance of “normal” life. The story follows Kara and Shinano, who work for the Enforcement Bureau: a division of the government that regulates the use of Re:Anima to ensure they are not being augmented with illegal mods that give them superhuman abilities. Kara is the best the Enforcement has, but he harbors a secret that makes him more dangerous than most. Matsuoka plugs readers into a world that is futuristic but doesn’t feel implausible. The blending of genres is seamless, and the narrative set up in this first book has the scope and capacity to explore many possibilities in future volumes. Though Kara is reminiscent of a few other prominent shonen protagonists, his still-to-be-revealed backstory gives him an air of mystery that will make him hard to ignore in the manga realm.