Endo, Hiroki 1970–

PERSONAL:

Born 1970, in Akita Prefecture, Japan. Education: Musashino Art University, graduate.

CAREER:

Writer and illustrator of manga.

WRITINGS:

Eden: It's an Endless World! (manga, or illustrated short fiction), twelve volumes, translated by Kumar Sivasubramanian, lettered by Steve Dutro, Dark Horse Manga (Milwaukie, OR), 2005-08.

Hiroki Endo's Tanpenshu (manga, or illustrated short fiction), two volumes, translated by Kumar Sivasubramanian, lettered by Steve Dutro, Dark Horse Manga (Milwaukie, OR), 2007.

Some short stories collected in Hiroki Endo's Tanpenshu were published separately in Japan.

SIDELIGHTS:

Hiroki Endo is the creator of the post-apocalyptic manga, or Japanese illustrated short fiction, titled Eden: It's an Endless World! The series, featuring a dozen volumes, follows the adventures of humans, proto-humans, and intelligent robots as they battle biological and political forces in a struggle to survive. Eden runs several thousand pages and is an ongoing work with multiple plot lines and detailed flashbacks. Endo's other American publication, Hiroki Endo's Tanpenshu, is a two-volume set of shorter manga pieces, most of which are grounded in an everyday, if uncomfortable, reality. What characterizes all of Endo's work is his realistic art style and his comfort with depicting violence and sexual themes; many of his works contain parental advisories for content.

A graduate of the Musashino Art University, Endo began publishing his manga in Japan in the 1990s, while he was still in his early twenties. He made his debut with shorter pieces, including the ones that have since been collected in Hiroki Endo's Tanpenshu. He then moved on to the complex Eden, a work that has become his magnum opus. First published in Japan in 1998, the lengthy adventure jumped to American shores in 2005, with translations by Kumar Sivasubramanian and lettering by Steve Dutro. Dark Horse Manga has brought out all of Endo's translated books as the evolving story line of Eden continues.

Any multivolume saga would defy easy description, but Eden is particularly complicated. The story begins in the future, as humankind battles a deadly virus that gradually hardens the skin until the victim becomes unable to move. The hero and heroine of the first volume, Enoah and Hannah, live in a research laboratory with a scientist who is slowly succumbing to the illness. Somehow Enoah and Hannah have developed immunity, but they are not sure anyone else has survived until their laboratory is attacked by a paramilitary group called Propater. In the wake of the plague, pockets of humanity have indeed survived, but violence has erupted as various factions try to grab the reins of world domination.

Subsequent volumes of Eden introduce Elijah, the son of Enoah. Elijah takes refuge—if it can be called that—in South America, but even there he must contend with Propater, as well as with sordid characters who engage in illegal activities at whim and use bloody violence to settle disputes. The narrative follows multiple levels, flowing from international intrigue between Propater and the United Nations, flashbacks that reveal the nature of the pandemic, and localized battles by renegade bands of rebels, including a cyborg named Sophia who has survived by creating an artificial body to replace her damaged natural skin. Endo never settles for simple "good versus bad" narrative. Instead, his central characters are marked by mixed motives and shifting allegiances. Graphic violence occurs frequently, and some of the material is also sexually explicit, including Elijah's seduction in a bordello. For this reason, some volumes of Eden have been deemed suitable only for readers over eighteen years of age.

In his Booklist review of Eden, Volume 5, Ray Olson characterized the series as "dazzlingly savage." Also in Booklist, Carl Hays praised Endo for creating "a solid, believable teen protagonist." Tomas L. Martin in Stephen Hunt's SF Crowsnest commended the series's "strong narrative throughout," adding that Endo's work "evokes a lot of the best cyberpunk and post-apocalyptic work both in Japan and elsewhere."

Hiroki Endo's Tanpenshu, in two volumes, collects some of the short stories Endo published before embarking upon Eden. These shorter works deal with teens and young adults thrust into testing, even deadly, situations. To quote Olson in Booklist, the work collected in Tanpenshu shares Eden's "manga-realist good looks, young casts, and bloody violence." Writing about the second volume of Tanpenshu in Booklist, Olson concluded, "Since manga boasts no better realist artist than Endo, every panel is eye candy."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, January 1, 2006, Ray Olson, review of Eden: It's an Endless World!, Volume 1, p. 75; March 15, 2006, Ray Olson, review of Eden, Volume 2, p. 37; October 15, 2006, Ray Olson, review of Eden, Volumes 3 and 4, p. 36; December 15, 2006, Ray Olson, review of Eden, Volume 5, p. 32; March 15, 2007, Carl Hays, review of Eden, Volume 6, p. 36; March 15, 2007, Ray Olson, review of Hiroki Endo's Tanpenshu, Volume 1, p. 35; June 1, 2007, Ray Olson, review of Eden, Volume 7, p. 53; August 1, 2007, Ray Olson, review of Hiroki Endo's Tanpenshu, Volume 2, p. 58; September 15, 2007, Ray Olson, review of Eden, Volume 8, p. 55; February 15, 2008, Ray Olson, review of Eden, Volume 9, p. 44.

ONLINE

Dark Horse Comics Web site,http://www.darkhorse.com/ (June 8, 2008), summary of Eden: It's an Endless World!, Volume 10; summary of Hiroki Endo's Tanpenshu, Volume 1.

Lambiek,http://lambiek.net/artists/ (June 8, 2008), brief biography.

Manga Maniac Café,http://www.mangamaniaccafe.com/ (January 3, 2007), review of Eden, Volume 1.

Not So Sweet Manga Reviews,http://citrusmanga.blogspot.com/ (February 4, 2008), review of "Boys Don't Cry."

Popular Works—Kodan Club,http://www.kodanclub.com/ (June 8, 2008), review of Hiroki Endo's Tanpenshu, Volume 1.

Stephen Hunt's SF Crowsnest,http://www.sfcrowsnest.com/ (January 4, 2008), Tomas L. Martin, review of Eden, Volume 1.