Kamiyadori


Kamiyadori is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kei Sanbe. It was serialised in Kadokawa Shoten's Shōnen Ace. The manga is licensed in North America by Tokyopop, in France by Kurokawa, in Spain by Planeta DeAgostini Comics, in Italy by Play Press and in Germany by Carlsen Verlag.
The sequel, Kamiyadori no Nagi, was also written and illustrated by Kei Sanbe and published by Kadokawa Shoten.

Plot

Set in a dystopian future, the world has been ravaged by a biological disease that transforms humans into monsters called the Kamiyadori. The Right Arms is a military peacekeeping group whose members have been infected with a strain of the virus, granting them superhuman strength. To prevent the spread of the virulent disease, all the people that are infected by the disease have to be executed. When Right Arms agents, Jil and Vivi, cannot kill a young boy and his sister, hope is created in the dystopian world.

Characters

Kamiyadori is written and illustrated by Kei Sanbe. It was serialised in Kadokawa Shoten's Shōnen Ace. Kadokawa Shoten released the 5 bound volumes of the manga between March 1, 2004 and March 25, 2006. The manga is licensed in North America by Tokyopop, which released the 5 tankōbon of the manga between December 12, 2006 and March 11, 2008. It is also licensed in France by Kurokawa, in Spain by Planeta DeAgostini Comics, in Italy by Play Press and in Germany by Carlsen Verlag.
Kadokawa Shoten released the first tankōbon volume of the manga's sequel, Kamiyadori no Nagi on December 26, 2008. Kamiyadori no Nagi was serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's Ace Assault before being transferred to Shōnen Ace in March 2009 when the Ace Assault ended in Japan.

Volume listing

Reception

's A.E. Sparrow criticises the artwork of the manga and "too many nude or semi-nude scenes" of the protagonist. Mania.com's Jarred Pine criticises the manga on its use of "scantily clad women" and "bad ass men with even badder weapons". Jason Thompson's appendix to compares the manga artist's earlier work Testarotho with the manga with "Sanbe focuses less on the monsters than on human-human violence and dark moral issues. ". He also commends "a whole cast of shady, above-the-law characters, distinctively depicted with Sanbe’s excellent figure artwork." However, he criticises the "third-world setting" being drawn in "too much detail" as well as lack of plot movement.
ActiveAnime's Scott Campbell commends the manga by saying, "the art is dark and grungy like the world being depicted, but can just as quickly become quirky and funny as the story offers a bit of humour here and there." Campbell further praises the "potential for movement" and animation with "speedlines explosions." He commends the extra at the end of the third volume, where the artist relates to his trip to Nepal, stating "it’s fun to see the artist break out from the expectations of the manga they are drawing and just draw in a less serious way." Scott praises the identifiable characters with "everyone looks fairly different and it’s easy to recognize who is who due to how much actual detail has been put into each of them."