Manga Review: Zero the Beginning of the Coffin 1 story by Dall-Young Lim, art by Sung-Woo Park
Shuu and Sumire live in a remote cottage well away from the nearest town with their little sister/daughter Katsumi. They’re hiding from the government agency E.C.S., as they escaped from that sinister organization’s secret laboratory a decade or so ago. As espers, they have to be careful not to let others know of their powers. But now, the director of the E.C.S. and his secretary have found them. What now?
Well, not what you might at first expect. Turns out that ECS underwent a massive change since the kids escaped; it’s now a legitimate government agency devoted to the welfare of espers. Also, it turns out that the director just got himself and the secretary lost while trying to find a place for them to shack up for the night (he’s cheating on his wife) and finding the fugitives was a huge coincidence.
But there’s still danger, because the unethical bureaucrats, scientists and espers that worked for ECS back in the day have formed a new splinter group, LEED, dedicated to using ESP for world domination, and they desperately want to have Shuu, a Zero-level esper, on their side or eliminated. So in each chapter, LEED sends attacks.
This Korean manwha was a tie-in to a video game, meant to explain how the characters got to the point they’re at as the game begins. Three volumes were adapted by Infinity Studios before that company expired.
Good: exciting esper battles! The art is decent.
Not so good: Since this is a prequel, players of the game will feel little suspense about who lives and dies.
For a young adult title, this volume is on the icky side sexually. Shuu and Sumire refer to each other as brother and sister (using Korean words even though they’re Japanese and have never been to Korea or been exposed to Korean culture) but are clearly acting as a married couple–Katsumi is described as having both their genes, but she’s probably a lab-created clone and they are acting as her parents. In the backstory, a father impregnated his daughter to create the first Zero-level esper.
Natsuko is having an affair with her married boss Kenji, and also flirts with Shuu, though it’s not clear if she’s being serious with that. (Her character file says she prefers either men older or younger than herself, not peers.)
And then there’s a “seriously?” moment I’m going to put in a separate spoilers section.
So: incest, dubious consent sex, physical/emotional abuse, sexual abuse, just being up front about that.
Shuu’s very much a “hero does everything important” character. Though Sumire and Katsumi are hinted at being powerful espers themselves, we never see them using their powers.
If you played the video game and enjoyed it, you’ll probably like this expansion of the lore, but I can’t recommend it to anyone else.
SPOILERS
One of the LEED agents is Shira, a man who’s had himself transplanted into a female clone body for the surprise value against opponents, and because he’s really turned on by the female form. He’s introduced having rough sex with his girlfriend Shizuka (on page! You know, for kids!) and is generally abusive to her and other women.
Except that about 2/3rds of the way through the battle, once Shuu finally gets the upper hand, it turns out that Shira is in fact a flesh puppet being controlled by Shizuka. So that means that Shizuka for some reason gets turned on by roleplaying that she’s got an abusive boyfriend with severe gender issues. Yeah.
