Kajio Shinji and Tsuruta Kenji «Memories of Emanon»

Menories of Emanon

good manga for girls - 16+

This seinen manga is written in the genre of science fiction with a dramatic and philosophical bent.

Emanon is an assumed name of the manga’s heroine, it is the invert of the words «noname». She presents herself as Emanon when she meets a young student on whose behalf the story is narrated. Emanon is a seventeen years old girl who often behaves like a child. She has a sense of humor and charisma, which at once attracted the youth. Emanon tells him an incredible story that she is the repository of 3 billion years of memory on the world’s existence. These memories are transferred in her family from generation to generation at the DNA level, and the one who passes that memory recalls afterwards nothing but his or her own life. Emanon recognizes that she did not understand immediately what was happening to her, whether these memories she saw were real or just a hallucination.

Graphics of "Memories of Emanon" deserve special attention. You should start with the fact that the  manga artist used a specifically casual style of drawing in which the jagged lines and fragmented hatches were used. However, characters and detailed backgrounds are at a very high level. Most striking is how realistic the scenery looks even if the drawing is negligent. It should be noted that a lot of attention was paid to the backgrounds and scenery, which in today's manga does not happen very often. Characters’ design does not give rise to any comment. Highly detailed and realistic style is perfectly executed, especially considering that the graphics are in the same careless style, like large strokes. In this sense, the graphic style is in harmony with the artistic means that the author used in the story. The only thing that may be considered as a “minus” is the lack of emotional facial expressions of characters, although this does not interfere with the perception of the story.

In this manga the character appears in more than one incarnation and at the same time his personality remains almost unchanged. This device is not new to the genre of science fiction, and even more so for the Japanese comic books. However, in complex with philosophical overtones, this technique gives the impression of something fresh.

"Memories of Emanon" is a story without beginning or end, impregnated with Eastern philosophy and mythology. Notes of sadness and something mystical appear in it creating a vague picture of the cosmos and human history.