E’S, Vol. 1

By Satol Yuiga
Broccoli Books, 224 pp.
Rating: 16+

If I were planning to whip up a fresh batch of E’S at home, the recipe might look something like this:

2 cups X/1999
1 cup Tokyo Babylon
1½ cups X-Men
¼ cup ES: Eternal Sabbath
3 tbsp. Telepathic Wanderers
Pinch of CLAMP School Paranormal Investigators
Pinch of Duklyon: CLAMP School Defenders

Mix all ingredients on high speed until thoroughly blended. Pour into a multi-volume CLAMP mold and bake at 375 degrees for one hour. Sprinkle liberally with cheese and serve.

This recipe might not yield a novel confection, but the resulting manga is still pretty darn tasty, with sharp artwork, brisk pacing, a classic sci-fi hook, and a cast of complex characters, not to mention top-notch production values and a smorgasbord of extras.

E’S takes place—where else?—in a dystopian future. Giant corporations have supplanted nation-states as the primary governing bodies, exacerbating the gap between rich and poor. The tattered social fabric is further threatened by the appearance of genetically aberrant humans (or E’S). These mutants—who possess psychic powers ranging from telepathy to telekinesis—are feared and reviled by their fellow humans; their only refuge is in the criminal underworld or in the service of a mysterious paramilitary organization called Ashurum. And while most E’S reciprocate the hatred espoused by their human counterparts, one Ashurum member—Kai Kudou—questions the received wisdom about human-mutant relations, refusing to use a weapon in the field.

Kai is an appealing—if familiar—character type: the sensitive young man who has yet to come to terms with a powerful, potentially lethal, ability that isolates him from his peers. He’s equal parts Subaru Sumeragi and Kamui Shiro, right down to his wind-whipped trench coat, soulful eyes, and slender frame. Though he has misgivings about Ashurum, he finds camaraderie among his fellow psychics—especially the cute, bubbly Shin-Lu (whose penchant for baking and chattering rivals only Hokuto Sumeragi’s) and the suave, older Eiji (who bears more than a passing resemblance to Seishiro Sakurazakamora, right down to his sunglasses, hairdo, and suspiciously solicitous demeanor). Not surprisingly, Kai’s pacifism and loyalty to Ashurum are put to the test mid-way through volume one. Kai, Shin-Lu, Shin-Lu’s twin brother (and group hothead) Shen-Long, and several expendable characters, are dispatched to Gald, a bombed-out city harboring a guerilla group of E’S. Owing in part to Kai’s naivete, the mission goes awry, pitting Kai against an Ashurum teammate instead of a Gald guerilla. Angstful dialogue and explosions ensue, forcing Kai to examine his loyalty to Ashurum.

A seasoned mangaphile may experience a bit of déjà vu in the early pages of E’S, as the characters, extravagant costumes, and dynamic, fill-every-inch-of-the-page action scenes bear a strong resemblance to those found in X/1999 and Tokyo Babylon. Yuiga mines a slightly different vein of apocalyptic angst than CLAMP, however. Instead of posing questions about man’s custodianship of the Earth, Yuiga asks a question near and dear to Magneto’s heart: is mankind’s existence threatened by humans with supernatural abilities? (Did I mention that Ashurum has provided their psychic strike force with a sleek airplane? Or that some characters have the power to dematerialize and walk through walls? Or that some E’S exploit their abilities for not-so-noble purposes? No?) What distinguishes E’S from other X/1999 and X-Men retreads is the skill with which Yuiga pilfers plot twists, character types, and visual elements from other sources and synthesizes them into something compelling. Though I wasn’t bowled over by the premise, I nonetheless found the characters and story engaging and sufficiently complex to sustain my interest beyond volume one. The tantalizing volume two preview—which featured a standoff between Kai and a kissing cousin of the Terminator 2 assassin—only whetted my appetite for another serving of E’S.