Two hundred and sixty years after a deadly weapon wiped out Japan, Leon, along with a group of criminals, is sent to retrieve that very weapon in exchange for a pardon. However, as they’re being transported, their plane crashes.

When Leon’s attacked by ape-like creatures, he’s rescued by a mysterious bird-legged girl and a lion.

Now he must find a way to survive the year and complete his mission if he has any hopes of seeing his wife and child again.

Tsugumi Project, Vol. 1 by ippatu paints an imaginative post-apocalyptic survival thriller that uniquely blends sci-fi with fantasy.

I think what first jumped out to me about this series is how incredibly well-detailed the landscapes and background architecture is. The artwork really transports you to a derelict, post-apocalyptic Japan where crumbling buildings are being reclaimed by nature.

Now, Volume 1 very much feels like an introduction. We know next to nothing about the bird girl (Tsugumi) at the moment or what happened to life in Old Japan. Are the creatures’ mutations caused from radiation?

I’m not sure, but I’m intrigued enough to want to find out the answers.

A great first volume which introduces the world and the story. It immediately grips the reader and pulls them in. The artwork is good too. This first volume is all set up to become a great series.

This was definitely an interesting read. I very much enjoyed it. I hadn’t heard of Tsugumi Project before reading this so I basically went into it blind and I’m honestly really glad that I did. Since I had no expectations, I think I enjoyed the story more than I would have otherwise. Just from the cover I thought there would be more violence but I liked that it was more of a cerebral experience, though the book wasn’t without its violent moments. Overall, I enjoyed it a lot and will be reading the rest of the series as it comes out in English.

I would like to thank the publisher, author, and Netgalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Fun and very interesting story. Loved the futuristic story line. The art was spectacular and writing keeps wanting you to find out more. Looking forward to more in this series.

This book has some cool action, cool creature designs and cool worldbuilding. Unfortunately the protagonist is quite bland. The only thing we know about him is that he was falsely imprisoned and has a family. As a result I didn’t really quite care if he survived or not. That being said, I was quite curious about what other beings existed in this post apocalyptic Japan. I also found the bird girl quite interesting and wanted to know more about her. Giving this a soft yes over a soft no because I appreciated the level of detail that went into the art.

This title has a lot of interesting things going for it. Starting off with a group of prisoners who will be pardoned if they complete their mission, we follow one as he traverses a strange, post-apocalyptic urban jungle. The reader doesn't get much explanation this first volume, and I'm okay with that. The art carries a tense, suspenseful mood, showing off vast cityscapes and hybrid creatures. I have a feeling nothing is really what it appears to be in this world, and I dig that potential.

"If you distinguish yourselves during this mission. . .the nation promises to absolute you of your crimes."



Leon is forced to go on a suicide mission in hopes of gaining his freedom. He must venture forth to a large island once known as Japan. Over two hundred years since the nuclear war has left the landmass to mother nature and other things. There's a hidden weapon somewhere in the midst of the wilderness and it's a race against other nations to retrieve it!



Leon has been formerly trained but nothing could prepare him for what he finds. The man must adapt fast or fall victim to the creatures that thrive in old Japan. But what stands out to him the most is a girl who seems to be surviving in this environment and she's not fully human. A new species? Was she born here? Is she connected to the secret weapon? Leon dives further into the unknown.



"I never know what's around the next corner. . ."



First of all, the artwork! I was utterly blown away by the detail put into the artwork and just the beauty of it all! Japan has returned to nature after having undergone nuclear war and the panels depicting what's left of the cityscapes are stunning. I really loved how everything was depicted and the amount of effort the author put into the work.



Leon is an interesting man, and I loved the twists with his character just from this first installment of the series. He understands what he must do to get his freedom back even if he doesn't like it. Leon has a plan for how he can go about finding answers and clues to hopefully lead him to the weapon known as "TORATSUGUMI".



Only as he's trying to survive, he finds himself in trouble and is saved by a child! One who is clearly only half human along with her terrifying partner. The girl and the beast keep an eye on the human but from a distance. Leon wants to understand more about her but small steps. He has to first get a grasp for his surroundings and secure the essentials. Along the way he discovers more oddities and wonders.



Leon doesn't have the best time with the landing, there are panels depicting his POV in a plane crash. This manga is about survival in a post nuclear world along with being viewed as a prisoner. Military clearly utilizing the men as pawns in their mission to obtain a weapon. Bloodshed and violence are shown pretty quickly within the first few panels. Some language along with scenes of animals hunting other animals, fighting, and more.



I'm really interested to see where this story goes! We do get a cliffhanger and I want the next installment! I really loved that there was an author interview at the end of the book and getting to see how the author started out. Fascinating story and I really love the path the author took with their writing and art style!



Enjoy the beautiful artwork and gritty story in this science fiction manga! Don't forget to give the author some stars!


shutupandbookup.com

I had a great time with this title as I am a sucker for post-apocalyptic stories. Whether it's Fallout, Children of Men, that Metro novels; if the world as we know it has ended, then I'm in. Now this series takes place some two and a half centuries in the future after the entire country of Japan has been nuclear Armageddon'd, it actually looks a lot like a PUBG map and the main character arrives by dropping out of a cargo plane. Our protagonist, Leon, is a French death row inmate who has been tasked with recovering a super weapon from Japan in exchange for a pardon so he can return to his wife. He will be left on the ground to search and survive for one full year and if he misses the pick-up, he will be declared dead. Leon has to deal with the usual suspects of starvation and radiation poisoning plus anything that has made the wasteland its home.

As much as I like the story, ippatu's artwork is the real star of the show here. The illustrations are a heady mix of Tsutomu Nihei's environmental design, Keisuke Itagaki's extreme physicality and musculature distortion, and some character faces that wouldn't be out of place in a work by Kentaro Miura.

Set during post-apocalyptic Japan, soldiers from the European military are embarking on a secret mission. About 200 years after the island of Japan was abandoned, a soldier named Leon is dropped on the island to recover a mysterious and dangerous weapon only referred to as Tsugumi. He and the soldiers accompanying him are all facing charges of treason and given the option to find the weapon within a year in order to regain their freedom. Except, over the years, there seem to be beasts of a different kind living on this post-apocalyptic shell of a country. One of them, an eagle-taloned half human girl seems to be related to the situation. But will Leon be able to figure out what's going on and survive.

Exciting action-packed sequences, fantastical sci-fi creatures, and plenty of violence to go with it. The story is starting off a bit slow, but I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes.

A solid introduction to this world. My interests have certainly been piqued and I'm sure to come back for more volumes!

Great artwork! Good monster design. I do have some concerns over how DouDou is drawn... But perhaps I'm projecting and there is no intended malice...

Leon, falsely accused prisoner, is sent to apocalyptical radioactive Japan along with other felons to find a powerful weapon. They have one year. If successful, Leon will be able to reunite with his family. This world is full of unknowns, creatures that may be friend or foe, a hint of kaiju. Many plot components serve as teasers I'm hoping get explored in Vol 2. Some text is difficult to access sue to lettering layout.

This manga was beautiful! First and foremost, that needs to be said. It is a triumph of artistic endeavour and deserves to be seen. What an amazing achievement for the mangaka - the details are exquisite and the world is so richly presented that the post-apocalypticsetting is easy to sink into making this a believable SFF story.

We follow Leon, a soldier, who has been falsely accused and sent on a year-long suicide mission as his only chance of being pardoned and sent home to his wife and child. The mission is to make his way through the wastes of Tokyo 200 years since it was last inhabited by humans and discover the secrets of mysterious weapon known as Toratsugumi. He must survive and make it home somehow.

For fans of AKIRA, I am Legend, and The Walking Dead, this is intriquing and engaging in equal measure and Leon is instantly likable and I couldn't help but root for him from the second he was on the page. This is worth reading for the story but it is worth buying and having in your collection for the art!

4 stars

Thank you to Kodansha Comics and Netgalley for providing me with an eARC copy so that I could give an honest review.

This title is so different than what you would typically expect in the manga space. The flow and art style have a very distinct western comic influence that gives it a grittiness that fits the dystopian setting quite nicely. Very unique, I’m definitely going to be picking up physical copies of this series for my personal collection. '

I thought this manga just blends into the background we have the rest of the books that I was reading. It wasn’t very entertaining, but I also didn’t absolutely despise it or I would remember it more. I just feel like this was an average run of the mill manga, and it just didn’t capture my attention enough for me to want to read more. I think the art store was actually really good and that doesn’t seem to really be much of a plot or much of a character arc, which kind of is probably what put me off.

A very interesting start to a post-apocalyptic manga series. A falsely accused prisoner is among a group given a mission 260 years after Japan was decimated in a nuclear war - find the missing nuclear weapons on the mainland. When they land, he discovers that there are monsters and creatures beyond his imagination there. This felt very much like the start of an action packed and gritty manga - I like the main character (and find all introduced characters interesting actually) and his motivations and I think the world of post-nuclear Japan (aka Old Japan) is very cool and a lot can be done with it.

The art sometimes blended in with the text a bit which I didnt think was the most accessible choice, but still legible if you looked closely enough. I do think the art style was also quite dark - with some panels having a lot more detail than others.

Overall I could see this being very interesting going forward and it's enough to get your appetite whet! Not really my cup of tea so I may pick this back up when I'm in the mood for post-apocalypse literature.

<i>I was provided with a complimentary copy of this volume by Kodansha via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, which I leave voluntarily</i>

This was pretty epic!

We basically have criminals sent on a mission to retrieve something from a city in ruins. And our main lead, Leon, is about to survive some crazy situations in Japan. Creatures mutated beyond belief, a little girl with a lower half of a bird, and a gigantic fire looking dog creature, and plenty of more. This is a fast paced, post apocalyptical, brutal and bloody adventure.

And I really enjoyed this. Was refreshing to have a 30+ year old lead in a Manga. On top of that the action flows nice with some really great fights and deaths. I also am intrigued on who is who, especially the girl who's half bird. I'll be checking out volume 2 for sure!

Tsugumi Project is super interesting and it looks amazing! The cover got me interested in this and the insides are something else too. Our main character is Leon, who's captured and send to Old Japan to recover a secret weapon all the countries want. He and the rest of the team have a year to complete the mission, but the airplane crashes right away leaving Leon to survive alone. I love it that the government behind this mission is France! That was a great choice. Leon only knows some Japanese, which is awesome too. It seems he's innocent too and no one knows why he was captured in the first place, or at least we don't know yet. The mystery is thrilling as the creatures of the Old Japan are weird and creepy.

The art is amazing and the details of the city under destruction is something else. This is a great dystopian series and we get inside Leon's head too and have to survive with him. The story moves slowly and reminds me of Last of Us. I'm very much interested in seeing where this will go, since we've only seen a glimpse. Such a beautiful series and ugly at the same time.

I LOVED the art style and the premise. I think it was executed really well overall and I cannot wait to read the upcoming volume(s).

Great manga! Cool story, weird characters and universe. Good actions and drawing as well. Well done!

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Kodansha Comics for an advanced copy of this graphic novel that mixes science fiction and the styles of both Japanese manga, and European comics.

Two hundred years from now the world seems a kind of familiar. Nation states are trying to gain power over their neighboring nation states, and war seems like a perpetual state. Governments are still treating their populous horribly, using control and fear to keep the people loyal. Humans still treat each other horribly, and the Island of Japan is overrun by monsters. The last statement might not be true, but I read a lot of manga and watch a lot of anime and kaiju movies, so I'm going to keep that open as a possible truth. Tsugumi Project Volume 1 by by rising star write and illustrator ippatu is a story about a man trying to beat impossible odds to get back to his family, and the creatures that are pursuing him, or maybe even helping.

Leon is a former soldier living in France with his wife who is pregnant with their first child. Leon is arrested , convicted and sentenced to death, but given a choice. Die now, or travel to the nuclear wasteland that was the Island of Japan. Find an object, a war weapon that can change the state of constant warfare that is the future, secure it and get it back to us. Failure will be death, either by dangers encountered in the mission, or by a bomb planted in Leon, that will detonate after one year passes. Leon is not the only one given this option, as he finds when he is loaded on a cargo plane with others. They are also criminals, though one loudmouth talks about being set up by the government, and that that they are not the only team. Something goes wrong and the cargo plane crashes, leaving Leon alone without supplies on an island that is radioactive and loaded with strange creatures. Creatures that want to kill Leon, though there is on creature a girl with odd legs and feet that seems helpful.

A story that might seem familiar to a lot of readers. Escape from New York, the Professional, Jurassic Park, Italian science fiction movies and more. All mixed to tell a good story, that has a lot of acton and mystery as well as a very interesting character in Leon. Leon is more a tactician than a straight out brawler. Leon looks at a situation, comes up with a plan and goes with that. When the plan goes wrong, yes he can fight, but his whole reason for being is getting home to his wife and the child he has never met. This is Volume 1 so there is a lot of introducing the story, but what is here is good, and makes one want to know more. Why Japan. Are these creatures mutants? Who is the girl? Who survived the plane crash, and what other forces might be on the island. The art is excellent. A mix of European 70's with 80's and 90's manga influences. The creatures are scary, the girl is different and Leon shows a lot of wear and tear, even in the short time he is on the ground in Japan. There is a confidence to the writing and art, and really carry the story forward. ippatu has an idea where he wants the story to go, and I want to find out also.

Akira meets Valerian with a lot of different kaiju in the mix. A very interesting story that can go a lot of places. Recommended for manga fans, and for science fiction fans in general. Some of the plot might seem familiar, but the writing is good, and the art really carries the story. I'm excited for Volume 2.