Manga Seer

[Guest Hanashi Haru]

This is my latest idea for a manga series. It's called Seer, and it takes place in Tokyo in the year 2032. Please tell me what you think. If this is liked I will post chapters of the novel version here.

Although the story is set 26 years into the future, very little has changed. The only industry that has progressed noticably is the weapons industry due to World War 3, which began in 2013 as a direct result of aftermath of the war in Iraq and ended in 2029. Medicine, fashions and education remain relitively unchanged from 2006. Around the world people have been having the same, strange dream. Although the dream seems to be little more then a jumble of random images(A dancing panda in a top hat for example, followed by an image of a grassy meadow with a red sky), for some reason they can't stop thinking about it. They become obsessed with the dream and search for its meaning. These people quickly discover that because they have seen the dream they now posses incredible power. The power to lift cars and punch through brick walls, the power to run at near mach speeds, the power to leap impossible distances... and the power to see what others cannot.

Bizarre monsters have started appearing in major cities around the world, usually at night, and only those who have seen the dream can see them. Terrifying freaks of nature that seem to exist only to kill and destroy. They can look like anything, from a 50 foot tall poisonous frog to an acid-spitting psychotic clown with razor sharp claws. They cause as much chaos and death as they can and then vanish without a trace, to reappear in another city the next night to begin anew. They show a special interest in killing those who can see them.

What is the meaning of the dream? Is there a meaning? How are these monsters connected to it? The game begins.

The story has a bit of every Genre in it. I guess the biggest part of the story would be the mystery of the dream, which gradually unfolds as the story progresses.
These are just a few of the characters in the story. This isn't even all of the main ones, just the ones that appear in the first few chapters.

Haru Hanashi: The protagonist of this story. He is 16 years old. His parents were murdered when he was a child, and the killer is still at large. He lives with his uncle, Aguri, an alcoholic who hasn't been able to hold onto a job for more then a week for the last four years. He has very few friends and cares only for himself, spending his days wandering around aimlessly. When Haru had the dream, he dismissed it as a bunch of nonsense. Nevertheless, he couldn't get his mind off of what he had seen. One night on his way home from school, he is greeted by a person who looks exactly like him and wears the exact same uniform. "Let's play a game" he said, and disappeared.

Akira Ishikawa: A 17 year old boy. He lives by himself in a small apartment in a run down part of the city. He sees his incredible new powers as a blessing from above, and takes great pleasure in killing monsters. He is a violent man who lives only to kill. He doesn't care about other people and would let them all die without a second thought. He is the first person Haru meets who shares his mysterious gifts.

Mizuki Fukushima: A 19 year old girl who has spent most of her life fighting a mysterious disease that has kept her bedridden and unable to speak. She has spent the majority of the last 10 years in a hospital, and having been raised by foster parents that have long since abandoned her, has never met her real family. Then very late one night she felt worse then ever, and felt her life slipping away. She blacked out, and it was then that she saw the dream. She awoke shortly after and found herself feeling stronger then she had ever felt before. She could walk again after years of being restrained to a bed. She snuck out of the hospital that night and has now come to Tokyo in search of her family. Despite seeing the dream and regaining the use of her arms and legs, for some reason she remains mute.

Daichi: A 5 year old boy who follows Mizuki around. He will not tell anyone how he came to be without a family. He met Mizuki shortly after she arrived in Tokyo, and has stayed with her ever since, no matter how hard she tries to convince him to go to the police. He is surprisingly calm despite all the bloodshed that follows Mizuki around because she is a Seer, and has never cried or complained once in his life.

Tsubasa Nakamura: One of Haru's classmates. They have known each since they were very young, and he is one of Haru's only friends. Tsubasa is 15 years old. He is a gentle and very intelligent person who is always helping people. He is well liked by everyone. When he saw the dream several weeks after Haru, it had a very strange effect on him. When he saw it, something buried deep inside him was set free. A second personality that lives to kill, and doesn't discriminate between humans and monsters in it's killings. When Tsubasa is unconscious, this demon of a man awakens to satisfy it's desires. Both personalities posses the powers of the dream. Tsubasa is slowly becoming aware of this second personality, and must someday soon come to terms with all the crimes he has committed.

???: The night he discovered his powers, Haru ran into this man, who looks exactly like him. This man can be anywhere at anytime and possess seemingly infinite power. Haru seems to be the only one who can see him. Who is he really, and how is he connected to Haru?

Well, what do you think so far?

[Chikara Kokoro]

So far I am really enjoying the concept of this story. The dream stuff seems so dark, and it feels like a really fresh idea.

I have two complaints.

Why is this taking place in Japan? It's a pet peeve of mine, and I just have to now why this story must take place in Japan. There are so many other amazing countries and places in the world that haven't been appreciated in this medium. Surely at least one of them could work for this plot line.

Secondly, the whole "dancing panda in a top hat" seems rather.... how should I put this? It seems rather bizzare. Perhaps you're trying to go for a surreal feeling, but it seems far fetched. The dream idea is good, but pandas in top hats?? It might be a bit much.

Despite these two, kind of nitpicky, things it's a great concept. With good dialogue and art this promises to be a very interesting suspense story.

[Guest Hanashi Haru]

Time to answer both questions. Japan won't be the only setting. There are characters and strange events and monster attacks taking place in Germany, America, Britain, and just about every other country with major cities. Japan is merely where Haru and most of the main characters live at the begining.

The dancing panda in a top hat is in the dream to show just how random the images in the dream are. None of them seem to have anything in common, but each and everything in the dream has a meaning, even the panda, to be revealed slowly throughout the series.

I have chapter one of the novel version is just about finished. I wanted it to be really long since it is the first one. I'll be sure to post it here when it's done. The actual manga could take quite a while to get done, as I'm nowhere near as good at drawing as storytelling, and need to work on my art considerably before I can post actual manga pages.