 Hey everybody, welcome back to the channel. Today we're gonna talk about Sugumi Project, one of my most anticipated books of the first half of 2023. I finally have it in my hands and I can talk a little bit about it because I do think it's gonna fly under people's radars. So let's get started. Sugumi Project is being put out by Kodansha. We have the first volume here. This is drawn and written by Ipatu. I hope I am pronouncing that right. And it tells the story of Leon, which you're seeing here in the front cover. He is wrongly accused of a crime and is now on death row, basically. But he gets the opportunity of a lifetime as the government is recruiting all these criminals for a top secret mission. They are currently searching for the Toratsugumi. This fabled weapon is located in Japan. Now this is 200 plus years after a nuclear fallout in Japan that decimated the country and things are not what you would expect. In this first volume, we're not told what exactly happened, the cause of it. All we do know is that everybody sort of believes the story that you can't set foot in Japan because of the radiation levels and the mysterious creatures that are now living there. The landscape is unrecognizable. It literally looks post-apocalyptic. I mean, I guess that is going to happen if we're talking about the devastations brought upon by nuclear war. So before other countries can get to this supposed super weapon, France has moved ahead and created sort of this suicide squad. They have exactly one year to retrieve this super weapon and if they fail to meet up, they'll be left behind, regardless of what happens. Now what little we know of Leon's past gets somewhat explored in a couple of pages and it deals with him being framed for espionage even though he didn't commit anything. So he's promising his wife Marie to get out of this hellish predicament. Long story short, they're playing crashes in Japan and what's left of this squad disperses and Leon is left to fend for himself. He is being stalked by mysterious baboon-like creatures. Thankfully, our protagonist is rescued by two particular characters which you see in the cover for the book. One of them is called Sugumi, a young inquisitive, heartbeat-like young girl and she is accompanied by Tora who looks like a freaking giant tiger mixed with a lion. So we don't know about them in this volume. They appear sporadically as they're keeping tabs on Leon. Again, we mostly follow Leon's journey and how he's going to get some supplies wherever he can find them and some clothing to combat the supposed radiation and all that cool stuff. And that's sort of the gist of the book. Most of it is just a huge introduction to this world. I am very interested to read volume two to find out more about why the Japanese population became transformed, mutated into these chimerotype beast or if they're really extinct and what really happened there. It's no coincidence that the manga is called Sugumi Project and we have a character named Sugumi. So I'm pretty sure she's going to be integral to the main plot of the story. The art on this thing is breathtaking. I love the sketchy nature of it. Ipatu just knocked it out of the park. I love looking at all the ruined buildings and the skyscrapers that have fallen and the vegetation that has taken over the city. It all looks super realistic. The character designs all have a level of grit and griminess to them, but can also be quite beautiful. For example, Sugumi with her long hair and bird-like features look really striking in the pages of the book. Unfortunately for characterization, aside from a few story beats, we don't really dive deep into Leon's psyche and why he's agreed to do this. Obviously, they were all basically forced to do it, but you know what I mean. His convictions aside from being proven innocent, we wanna learn more about him and how he's going to play the role of the protagonist in all of this, because I assume we're gonna follow him all the way to the end, fingers crossed. And obviously he is either going to befriend or form a truce with Sugumi and Tota. Now there are secondary characters that are introduced in this and it is as expected with a story like this where you have this rogue mission and they all get separated. So eventually they meet up again and you don't know if they're going to form this alliance between each other, if they're gonna stab each other in the back and go their separate ways. So that tension while a little cliched is still fun in a book like this. There's a sense of urgency to their mission. They only have a year. So yeah, that's gonna be interesting to see how the story progresses and if the characters can get along and proceed accordingly or if we're gonna follow different story lines or plot lines. Either way, this is just a first impressions. I think this is a fun action packed sci-fi story with wonderful artwork that should not be missed. If you like sci-fi and action and stuff like this, you're gonna have a fun time with it. And even in the back, I laughed because as I was reading the book, I said, man, this reads like Hell's Paradise. And there it is, a lushly drawn post-apocalyptic action manga for fans of Akira, Hell's Paradise and the Southern Reach trilogy. So yeah, if you like those three properties, you're gonna love a Sugumi project. Thank you everybody for tuning in. If you've read Sugumi project, let me know in the comment section down below what you thought of it. And if you haven't, what are some of your favorite post-apocalyptic manga that you would like for me to read and review on this channel? Very interested to find out. Thank you everybody for tuning in. Thank you for the likes, for the comments, all the subs, I truly do appreciate it. That's it for now. I've got to go. God bless, stay safe out there. I will catch all of you on our next video.