15/2/2022: disaster/survival manga to make it till recess week!

We always find this part of the semester to be an absolute disaster, so maybe you’ll be able to relate to the characters in these manga who are struggling to survive. Please enjoy!

1) Convenience Store of the Dead ~ The Convenience Store Clerk Will Get Rescued in 100 Days ~

A convenience store clerk finds herself stuck at her workplace when the zombie outbreak begins. Thinking quickly, she barricades herself within the store and prepares to survive until rescue comes. The plot gets lost towards the end but it starts out pretty good. I like how she manages her supplies in the store and how the author shows her mental breakdown in some chapters. Short chapters make for very light reading.

2) Isekai Yurutto Survival Seikatsu: Gakkou no Minna to Isekai no Mujintou ni Tenshitakedo Ore Dake Rakushou desu

It’s an isekai manga where a class gets dropped onto a mysterious tropical island with an unnaturally-diverse ecosystem. One boy, who’s normally teased for being a survival nut, finally gets his chance to shine by using his knowledge to take care of his classmates. It is a harm manga so it’s a whole bunch of girls to one guy, but I thought it was quite good that the author didn’t make the girls useless since some of them have skills that the boy doesn’t have (e.g., using ancient weaving methods – it makes sense in context – to make clothes; an athlete being faster and stronger) and they all pull their weight by working hard so it’s not like a male savior taking care of a bunch of damsels without agency. That said, the survival tips here are a mixed bag. Some of the stuff written here won’t get you killed, but I wouldn’t necessarily do it that way if I were stuck on an island.

3) Houkago Assault Girls

This is more of an action manga but it’s kind of like survival. It’s an isekai where a classroom full of schoolgirls gets teleported to a strange dimension by a wounded catgirl dressed in WW2 GI attire, and they have to fight Nazi zombies. Yeah… Anyway, there’s a lot of gunplay and the powers are quite cool because the author explains the rules such as extra lives, how resupply works etc. The powers help you follow the action and keeps the story tight, since it effectively excuses what might otherwise be considered plot holes in a more realistic story.

4) A Spirit of the Sun

A massive earthquake strikes Japan, causing untold destruction and countless fatalities. Worse, the nation splits in half and there’s a power grab for control of the archipelago between America and China, with the Japanese stuck in the middle. It becomes a political thriller that’s supposed to be a retelling of the Three Kingdoms (I don’t see it), with several individuals shaping the destiny of the nation. It’s pretty scary and it made me think about the refugee crisis because climate change and natural disasters are getting worse and the writer does a good job of alluding to these things without detracting from a tight, tense but grand narrative.

5) Dragon Head

A bunch of people get stuck in the Tokyo subway network when a terrible earthquake strikes. Some of them go really crazy while our MCs (a guy and girl, obviously) work together to survive. The art is a bit stylized which accentuates the terror of the situation and it looks really uncomfortable, so it makes you think about what you would do to make it out of a situation like that.

6) Suicide Island

In a future Japan, people who commit suicide repeatedly become a social problem so the government throws them onto a deserted island. What proceeds is a sort of Lord of the Flies scenario where the main group of survivors are just doing their own thing and then a bunch of assholes want to ruin it for everyone. This conflict occurs in the background and most of the chapters are focused on actual survival like hunting, cooking, preparing water and that sort of thing. There’s a very diverse cast with a lot of the skills and cool scenes spread out nicely. It’s educational and exciting!

7) Metro Survive

It’s kind of like Dragon Head but mixed with that Dwayne Johnson movie about skyscrapers. Basically, a big-ass tower collapses and everybody has to struggle to survive. There’s not much actual information, but the characters react quite realistically (in good and bad ways) and it’s pretty scary to imagine yourself in the scenario, which is what we want from a survival manga.