Forum - View topicREVIEW: Cage of Eden GN 1
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driverstart
 Posts: 214 Location: America |
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I really enjoyed this one. It's sort of has a vibe to one of my all time favorite series, The Drifting Classroom in it, and has my favorite type of scary in a series, what happens when people close control of their mind and morals. Freaky stuff.
I do agree with the cheesecake shots being unnesseary. There's one scene where a kid gets bitten in half by a dino monster and it is a really creepy scene, until you notice the girl in the shot (The second most notable thing in the 2 page spread) has her panties shown. Really took away from that effective scare. Other than that, I hope to continue with this series and hope it stays good. Behind looking forward to a new series to read. |
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Saphiro01
 Posts: 71 Location: California |
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I humbly disagree on the cheesecake. For now it seems like shallow pandering but in later chapters, the vulnerability of being a woman in a survival situation is quite realistically portrayed (at least as realistically plausible as a manga written by a man can be anyway).
I don't want to spoil anything, but situations later down the line are explored in detail that; at a deeper glance, seem scarily plausible without degrading into the typical 'every male is a helpless animal to sexual desires and without rules will become a serial rapist' mentality. I'll just say it's my opinion, but I looked forward to the occasional cheesecake. And for the ladies there is even some beefcake moments in there too. Looking forward to more people reading this series in English. I just hope that the comparisons to Lost don't cause the manga to lose it's identity. Lord of the Flies and even Land of the Lost were around a LONG time before JJ Abrams pretentious writing came around. (Yes I went there  ).
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Sewingrose
 Posts: 579 |
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I've always found it difficult to get into the "Stranded on an Island" style of story-telling, it's usually just the same thing with the same characters, the same vaguely explained mystery, and even the same scares. The stories I like in that genre often have to work to overcome it and be compelling in ways that don't feel re-hashed and actually use the full capabilities of the setting.
Cage of Eden is definitely not the later, at least for me. I read the first volume of this at the same time as Bloody Monday, and while Bloody Monday just disappointed me (I wanted a fun smart hacker thriller, to bad someone forgot the "smart"), Cage of Eden re-affirmed my suspicions that it wasn't for me. However I will say that the fanservice in Cage of Eden bothered me less then in Blood Monday, but that's not saying terribly much. |
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Princess_Irene
ANN Associate Editor
 Posts: 2657 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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I hadn't thought of it in that way, but it makes sense. So the women are being deliberately objectified because that's how the guys see them? That's a good interpretation and one I'll keep in mind!
Yeah, I only mentioned "Lost" because I figured that more people would then know what I was talking about.  I was much more reminded of Lord of the Flies and "The Most Dangerous Game," with maybe a bit of The Hunger Games thrown in for good measure.
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Ari-chan
Posts: 215 Location: Florida |
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For some reason when I first started reading I was reminded of "Lord of the Flies" mixed with a little bit of "Jurrasic Park minus the dinosaurs." Either way, I've been reading this before it even came out in English, and loved every page of it. It really becomes quite compelling in later chapters with some of the twists it makes, such as spoiler[the man-made mountain and the place not being an Island.]
Though Yeah, the cheesecake can get rather ridiculous and unnecessary, but I do like how some of the fan service can feel integral to a point sometimes. |
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One-Eye
 Posts: 2267 |
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I agree with pretty much everything in Rebecca's review. I think one of the strengths of the series is that after a slow start it has quite a bit of momentum. The characters have goals and keep moving towards them. This keeps the story moving forward and interesting for the reader. At times it has a decent amount of horror, but then it sometimes drops off in part because of its shonen qualities. I think the art gets better as the series goes on and its pretty decent overall.
I have some problems with the series though. For example, most of the adults are depraved while some of the female adults seem to enter into a "you Tarzan, me Jane" type of situation with some male junior high students. I found the cheesecake shots to be unnecessary and yes pandering. As the story goes on the girls constantly end up taking baths and many of these junior high girls are built like porn stars. Furthermore, the male lead is your typical perky hero, who suffers numerous blows to the head which result in no real damage whereas other people in the story become seriously impaired. So, I guess his head is just harder. There are other things I could go on about, but in general I would say it's a decent series with occasional flashes of better than average parts. I think how the mangaka deals with some of the mysteries in the story will determine whether ultimately it is just an average series or an above average series. |
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