The Fall 2024 Manga Guide

After God

What's It About? 

Thirty years after the gods reduced Tokyo to rubble, survivors set out to answer a seemingly impossible question—how do you kill a god?

Japan has been invaded by gods—and they've left nothing but death and destruction in their wake. With entire cities now classified as uninhabitable danger zones, researcher Sachiyuki Tokinaga is determined to find a way to take down the gods and save humanity. When chance leads him to high schooler Waka Kamikura, the two may just end up changing the fate of the world forever.

Desperate for answers about her friend's disappearance, Waka breaches the Tokyo danger zone in search of clues. Instead, she finds Tokinaga, a researcher with the Anti-God Scientific Research Institute. While Waka tries to decide if she should trust Tokinaga, he quickly realizes Waka is hiding a dangerous secret of her own—one that may just be the key to killing off the gods once and for all.

After God has a story and art by Sumi Eno, with English translation by David Evelyn. This volume was lettered by Evan Waldinger. Published by Viz Media (November 19, 2024).

Is It Worth Reading?

It's no surprise to me that this manga was nominated for a 2023 Next Manga award. With a haunting aesthetic of mysticism and a high-stakes post-apocalyptic setting, After God is brimming with creativity. Set 30 years after terrifying yet alluring titans called Gods made landfall in Japan, changing life there forever, it's a story that's both beautiful and dangerous. Innovative action mechanics and suspenseful worldbuilding draw you into this mysterious world. What's more, Sumi Eno's distinctly female gaze portrays a variety of female characters, plus a world newly ruled by towering feminine creatures, in a refreshingly original style.

The most gorgeous part of this manga is also the most deadly. The gods are colossal female forms, wearing intricate Indian jewelry and teeming with organic shapes (flowers, coral, feathers, scales). Humans, who look tiny in comparison, are immediately frozen in their gazes for the rest of their short lives—before bursting into liquid nothingness. For the past 30 years, they have ruled over Japan. Now it's the job of Anti-God researchers like Tokinaga to patrol what's left of Japan and keep people out of Danger Zones, where Gods await to lure any human suicidal enough to worship at their feet. He finds Kamikura Waka attempting to peer through the protective fence behind her sunglasses. But Waka has secrets that could transform Tokinaga's entire career. When he takes her back to the Anti-God Science Institution for safekeeping, he discovers a power dangerous enough to face not only his lab's most formidable biotechnological constructs, but perhaps the gods themselves. As the volume continues, it slowly ekes out answers to this world's mysteries, but it has barely scratched the surface of the enigmatic Waka. How did Waka acquire her godlike power? And why is she here in the first place?

With an art style that borrows from Hindu, Shinto, and New Age religious aesthetics, After God portrays one of the prettiest post-apocalyptic landscapes I've ever seen. I wanted to compare this story to something else, perhaps Evangelion or From the New World, which both feature characters exploring the mysteries of religion in a treacherous setting, but neither is quite right to compare with After God's combination of high-octane action sequences and mysterious intrigue. I don't want to give this manga too high of a rating when so many of its secrets are still tightly locked up, but it's a very promising start.

I wanted to like this one more than I did because it has a fascinating premise. Many areas in Japan are now a no-go for humans because the gods have descended, and they are dangerous. These aren't sanitized, nice, loving deities, but inscrutable, selfish, vengeful gods of old. Meeting the gaze of a god causes instant hypnosis, so those foolhardy people who venture into gods' territories must wear masks to hide their features. In that respect, After God reminds me of Dorohedoro.

Some of After God's horrific character designs and brutal plot twists are more than a little reminiscent of Chainsaw Man but don't quite evoke Tatsuki Fujimoto's effortlessly bonkers charm. There is a genetically-engineered talking cat, inexplicably with two anuses, if that's your thing.

The volume takes an extended lull in the middle where not much happens, and I admit I found myself losing interest. Thankfully the latter section starts ramping up the craziness, violence, and body horror again, but not enough to really engage me. I did not feel at all interested in the unmemorable characters. At least the art is excellent (and gross at times), which may be enough for some readers.