By Toshimi Nigoshi
CMX, 3 volumes
Rating: T+

Sometime in the future, humans have created a type of artificial human called a ravant. Ravants are like robots, only not robotic: they are made to order, they serve their masters until the end of their pre-programmed life cycle, and they have no rights. Jihai is the story of Aoi, a ravant who has lost his master and is set to die in one year at the age of eighteen. He’s is looking to spend the rest of his life hunting down a war hero named Arcline Cole, the man responsible for destroying his entire household.

When the story starts, Aoi is in trouble with the police for being a ravant without a master. He is saved from imminent imprisonment and destruction by a pair of passersby named Tris and Dis, an unlikely pair who take the down-and-out Aoi to the one place on Earth ravants can live freely. Dis is a melancholy cook with a dark past and Tris is an unusual priest that runs an orphanage full of orphaned ravant children, most with special powers.

Jihai is average in almost every way imaginable. It doesn’t do anything badly, but absolutely nothing about it distinguishes it from any other mediocre sci-fi manga. Near-future Earth? Group of children with special powers? Android-like beings? Story about the futility of war? Characters with hidden agendas? Characters with mysterious pasts? Revenge trips? Normally a series like this will have one or two good ideas to add to the mix, or try extra hard to develop one or two of those concepts well, but Jihai lacks any sort of hook. Admittedly, the concept of humans that are like robots is unique, but nothing is done to develop it further.

The characters are pretty vanilla, too, although I did appreciate the small cast. Aoi is a pretty typical brooding teenager, and in addition to his revenge trip, he also frequently talks about his impending death. Dis is a sad bishonen with a dark past, Tris is a chipper side character with something to hide, and there’s also a recurring character named Doctor Shirakusa who plays the role of sarcastic good guy.

There are a few surprises to be had, but none of characters develop too terribly much over the course of the story, and the twists are more like reveals to the reader than they are actual character development. There is a strong friendship that develops between Dis and Aoi (one with possible-not-really shonen-ai implications if you look hard enough), and there is some depth to those segments of the story, but even their bond is overshadowed by the politics of the main plot marching on. Shirakusa was my favorite character in the end, but only because his sarcasm provided some much-needed humor. A subplot involving him digging around for some dirt on Tris was also quite good.

The main plot jumps around a bit, but mostly deals with the ill-defined wars that seem to go on between smaller countries and the Military Dictatorship of Hayesgald. It’s hinted that Tris’s ravant orphans are somehow a government interest, and there’s a possibility they are being used as part of the Hayesgald army. There’s also a subplot involving quelling Aoi’s need for revenge and getting him to see the value of life rather than dwelling on his inevitable end. Dis is the one who helps Aoi through both of the rough patches he goes through, and the second volume is mostly the two of them bonding. The first volume introduces the story, and the third moves more into the politics of war and shifts the characters around for that purpose.

There’s also the fact that Aoi has a special power of his own, the ability to move through the magnetic sea that covers a vast amount of the Earth’s surface and kills humans and ravants alike (I believe the title comes from the name of this magnetic sea), but his special ability only serves to keep him connected to the subplot involving Tris’s orphans. It doesn’t really come up all that frequently, another missed opportunity. There’s also two sides to two of the characters, and time is spent investigating both of them, damning and praising their actions as necessary, something that was a big part of the series but I don’t want to go into too much for fear of spoiling things.

It’s a good read, a nice length at only three volumes, and there are some things to like about it, but I’m not great lover of sci-fi stories in general, so they have to reach out a little more in order to hold my interest. Jihai doesn’t do this, and it’s at best a middle-ground title, but it might be something sci-fi fans will want to pick up.

All three volumes of Jihai are available now.

Review copies provided by the publisher.