I am fairly new to the world manga. Besides the seriously incredible 20th Century Boys I haven’t read all that much; it’s a genre that I’m still learning about little by little.
So far, my method for picking a new series to read has been to literally judge a book by its cover and grab whatever looks cool off the shelf. Luckily, this lead me straight to 7 Billion Needles.
From the publisher:
Hikaru Takabe may not be the most social of teens. Always sporting her headphones, she gives off an aloof aura that rubs her classmates the wrong way. But her not being part of the crowd takes on a different dimension when she becomes involved in an intergalactic game of cat and mouse.
Inspired by Needle, the Golden Age hard sci-fi classic by the late Hal Clement, Nobuaki Tadano’s debut work brings a unique take on alien invasion up to date and into the maelstrom that is the Japanese high school girl.
7 Billion Needles is emotionally intelligent science fiction in a compact four volumes.
The art is both beautiful and, at times, grotesque (reminds me a lot of what Travel Foreman has been doing on DC’s Animal Man.) The story is fun, emotionally gripping, and totally bonkers. The series is definitely a good first step into manga if you’re a newbie like me, but I’m sure it would satisfy the most hardcore manga fan as well.
-SHQjulie-
