| Average |
8.6 |
| Design |
7 |
| Story |
10 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
| CMP manga release, very good overall including an interesting interview with the mangaka. Havent watched the anime yet.
This is another good sci-fi manga. H. Tomizawa said he was influenced by the works of American sci-fi authors Larry Niven and Robert Heinlein when creating the story for Alien 9. Havent read their works but even if it just slightly resembles them, this manga has one of the best and intruiging sci-fi stories for a 3 volume manga (Alien 9 Emulators reviewed separately).
The story starts with a 6th grader Yuri Otani, who's forced to become a member of Alien Fighters. She's the ordinary/shy type of girl and is very afraid of aliens.
The other two members of the Alien Fighters are Kumi Kawamura and Kasumi Tomine. The former is an independent type who relies on knowledge and scientific reasoning to overcome obstacles and the latter is the energetic and cheerful type, full of talent and genius.Under the guidance of their tutor Megumi Hisakawa their goal is to capture aliens that roam free in the school and have the tendency, some of them, to merge with pupils. To their help are one mysterious type of aliens, the Borgs who get attached like hats to their heads.
All the characters are cutely drawn and they act cute too, though dont be deceived by it, since the manga is overall sinister and disturbing, even if the cuteness makes it even more so.
Now to describe the feeling of the manga and how the story developes: if you've read Elfen Lied (without the ecchi,) and Narutaru (though with a little less psychological violence) and watched Figure 17 Tsubasa & Hikaru, Alien 9 has some of the features of the abovementioned titles, combining them in a unique and original way. One reviewer of the anime at anidb mentioned also Evangelion and Hitsugi no Uta, though I couldnt find many similarities.
If you've watched the anime, it finishes just before the end of volume 2, so volume 3 and Emulators are necessary to grasp the whole story.
The design, though it leaves a lot to be desired, combines cuteness and violence in a funny and disturbing way.
For the most part there is psychological tension while reading the title, and the last volume guarantees some of the best plot twists, regarding sci-fi manga. Though fans of sci-fi literature wont be surprised, at least the manga shows the way of how a good sci-fi story should be adapted to a japanese graphic novel.
As other reviews elsewhere mentioned, this title is different and worth a read and a buy if you like peculiar and out of the ordinary titles like Narutaru.
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