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A super-natural action series penned by the man behind Chrono Crusade.

Title: World Embryo, ワールドエンブリオ

Author: Moriyama Daisuke

Genre: Seinen, Action, Drama, Mystery, Supernatural

Serialized in: Shounen Gahosha Young King Ours

Total Volume Count: 8 (ongoing)

License: Dark Horse (US), ChuangYi (SG)

A deadly virus is spreading across mankind, turning humans into gruesome monsters known as ‘Kanshu'. Yet no one knows of their existence, except for the organization called ‘F.L.A.G.', dedicated to hunting down and destroying the source of the infection. Its members possess extraordinary powers, capable of unleashing righteous fury on their enemies.

One day, a cell phone message from a dead relative leads estranged youth Riku Amami unwittingly into the conflict between F.L.A.G. and Kanshu - and to a mysterious cocoon that would change his life forever, for better or worse…  

Kenn's Comment: I started this series many, many years ago and haven't caught up to any of the latest chapters. It's probably one of my first seinen series, and boy did it have an impact. Unlike what I was reading back then (Naruto, Bleach, etc.), World Embryo's main character is a mess. He trusts no one, and wouldn't exactly be in the right most of the time...nor would pretty much anyone in the series. It's rather dark, and has chock full of lies, betrayals and a small serving of death.

The brief chapters with Nenee (together with Arisugawa) lighten up the mood, but the series quickly gets back to it's usual tone.

For those who know the ending of Chrono Crusade and are reading this/plan to read this, you probably want to prepare for the worst.

From spoilers of the latest chapters, this and Guilty Crown (anime from last season) seem to have quite a bit in common, though the latter has had certain...problems in execution up until now.

All in all, I'd say it's a great read. If you're in North America, look for it in bookstores. Dark Horse is a pretty good imprint name. Though I swear I remember this series being licensed under ADV at one point or another. Hmm. Just goes to show how long ago I started this.