With most manga, whether you read them digitally or in print, it comes down to personal preference, or maybe budget and space concerns. But every so often one comes along that simply begs to be read in print. Luciole Has a Dream is absolutely one of them. Set in a post-apocalyptic version of our world, the story's art is complex and beautiful, filled with rich layers of detail that reveal more and more the longer you look at it. Seemingly shapeless bundles of vines and tangles of trees slowly prove themselves to be buildings reclaimed by nature or other scraps of human life, and this encourages us to study them as if we were in Lu's shoes, desperately searching for a way to make sense of what we're seeing.

The story itself is similarly wistful. It follows Lu, a boy who looks to be around ten years old, as he travels with Claude, a man who claims to be a wizard over five hundred years old. Lu isn't sure what to make of Claude's assertions, or even of the man himself, but without Claude, he'd have no one: by all appearances, they are the last two humans on earth. Or at least, the only two left awake. Lu was rescued by Claude from a cold sleep pod, one that either malfunctioned or simply ran out of power. Claude heard Lu screaming from within and manually opened the vessel. Lu hopes to find more pods, bringing more people back to life.

He's not entirely sure why he wants to do this. Lu has no memories and isn't even sure that “Lu” is his real name. This may be due to his pod's malfunction, as we see in the two-chapter story arc where he finds a functional pod and successfully awakes the man within. Bruno, as his name turns out to be, is one of the engineers who created the coldsleep pods, and he explains a bit about them to Lu, including the fact that each pod has its owner's name written on it. Between that and the title, it seems likely that Lu is his name, or at least a nickname for the one on the cover: Luciole. This is the French word for “firefly,” and it feels very symbolic in the context of the story – a small light, flitting about a darkened world.

The symbolism increases when we learn more about Claude, something that is unique to us readers. Claude sees what looks like terrible, looming black humanoid shapes in the twilight, and his words imply that they're people he once knew. To Lu, they appear as small lights fluttering by; Claude, seemingly aware of this, tells him they are fireflies. This insect has varying meanings in Japanese folklore, but two seem particularly apt: that they are the spirits of the departed and they represent the transience of life. Even if Lu's name doesn't turn out to be Luciole, that may be what he symbolizes to Claude, a man who, as we see in this volume, truly cannot die.

Much of the volume is simply Lu exploring the world while Claude naps elsewhere. While this may sound dull, it truly isn't, and that's down to both Yuu Morikawa's art and the mystery of what happened to the world – and when. Morikawa is a creator with a varied bibliography; in English translation, they're also behind Mr. Villain's Day Off and My Gemini, both of which are very different from Luciole Has a Dream in tone and content. I believe this is their strongest work, incorporating the slow pace of Mr. Villain with the dreamlike unreality of My Gemini to create a uniquely interesting world and narrative. We don't know precisely what happened or what will happen, but watching Lu's world unfold on the page is immersive in a way that the best fantasy should be.

If you're looking for action, you aren't going to find it here. You may not even find answers to the questions posed by the text. But as the old saying goes, sometimes the object of climbing the mountain is not to get to the top but to enjoy the view along the way. Luciole Has a Dream is that kind of story, and what a beautiful climb this first volume is.