Some time ago, I read and reviewed the first volume of Eternal Sabbath, and the verdict was that while it didn’t get off to the best of starts, the series did at least have promise. Now, all of the subsequent volumes have been read, and so the question must be asked- did the series ever live up to its potential?

At the end of the first volume of ES, Mine had made contact with not only ES himself in the guise of Ryousuke Akiba, but also with Sakaki, the sole survivor of the research group that worked on the Eternal Sabbath gene. According to Sakaki, Akiba is not the only one of his kind- he also had an unstable clone named Isaac (Izaku) who killed the researchers and is now at large in society. Sakaki desperately wants to capture Isaac before more lives are endangered, but capturing a superhuman who can control the minds of others is not going to be an easy task.

As I mentioned in my earlier review, it was the mind hacking aspect of Eternal Sabbath that first brought it to my attention, but unfortunately, what once seemed like the series’ greatest draw has long since been relegated to the background by the time we embark on the main storyline. Although both Isaac and Akiba’s special abilities are at the centre of the storyline, they seem to exist more to assist the plot than to be explored in and of themselves. Instead, the focus of the series is more about the game of cat and mouse between Isaac and his pursuer. For his part, Isaac has befriended Yumi, a girl who is immune to his powers, and together they have begun using Isaac’s powers to punish wrongdoers; meanwhile, it is left to Mine and the other to use all the leads they can in order to track down Isaac and find his weakness, all the while being careful of his deadly abilities.

Unfortunately, the upshot of all this is that Eternal Sabbath ultimately lacks any sort of identity of its own, instead reading like a watered down version of superior series such as Monster, Homunculus and Death Note. Is it a story about using mental powers or simple psychology to get to the heart of people’s problems; a morality play about the dangers of taking justice into one’s own hands; or maybe a tale of normal people doing their best to find a flaw in a seemingly invulnerable enemy? In Eternal Sabbath’s case, its attempts to be all of these things ensures that it does none of them particularly well, before eventually devolving into a overused heroes vs. final boss encounter by the last couple of volumes.

Like the story, the characters also seemed to have potential after the first volume, but by the end, all traces of this promise have long since vanished in the face of their somewhat dull personalities. Mine, who takes centre stage for most of the story, is an irritatingly weak female lead who is constantly apologising or agonising how everything that has gone wrong is her fault; worse yet, an important piece of background for her character is arbitrarily introduced some thirty pages before the end of the series in what must be the laziest piece of character development ever to grace the pages of a manga series. It does, however, say a lot about the series that Mine is the most well developed character present- all of the others are bland and stereotypical to a fault.

Some series can use their artwork to cover a multitude of sins, but unfortunately, Eternal Sabbath is not one of them. As initially seen in the first volume, both character designs are simplistic to the point of ugliness, whilst backgrounds are minimal at best. The colour pages, usually a special treat in any manga series, actually look worst of all, with characters often having oversized lips and inconsistent hair colouring (in the black and white pages, Akiba and Isaac appear to have very dark hair, but in the colour pages, it is a very light brown). The acid trip induced ‘mind hacks’ of the first volume never really make a return in subsequent instalments, but there is a fair amount of violence, albeit nothing too graphic or extreme.

Final Thoughts
Although it isn’t really particularly awful, nor does Eternal Sabbath have a great deal to distinguish it from the crowd- it simply sits squarely in the realm of mediocrity. A poor man’s Monster/Death Note cross, reading it will certainly pass the time and may even engage in places, but unless you are strapped for ways to occupy yourself, it will always be something that is best tackled ‘later’.

Whilst using the identity “Ryousuke Akiba”, a chance meeting brings ES into contact with Dr Mine Kyujou, a researcher into the workings of the human brain, and one of the few people able to resist his hacking. Mine is immediately fascinated by ES and his superhuman abilities, but as she attempts to investigate him, she finds herself drawn into the larger events surrounding ES and the very reason why he came to exist in the first place.

Every so often, you’ll get an idea for a theme that you want to write about- only to then find an example of a series where someone has used that exact same theme already. Such was the case with the ‘mind hacking’ of Eternal Sabbath, and for that reason, I decided to investigate the manga for myself. What I was expecting was a series of standalone stories connected by a central character- the reality of the matter was, however, something rather different.

The series begins with a lengthy prologue chapter introducing us to ES and his powers, a section which proves to be less interesting than it may sound from the synopsis. There’s no doubt that the basic ideas here are sound, but somehow they lose something in the execution- the characters that ES interacts with are shallow and uninspiring, whilst his dives into their minds are so bizarre and surreal that it isn’t always easy to follow what is going on.

Fortunately, things soon take a turn for the better when the series switches to Mine’s perspective and the main story begins in earnest. Piece by piece, an actual plot begins to emerge, and although it doesn’t always prove to be the most original of tales, enough intriguing elements are built up to maintain an interest from one chapter to the next.

Although some other potentially prominent characters are introduced towards the end of the volume, this first instalment focuses primarily on the characters of ES and Mine. Like the story itself, neither of them are particularly innovative, but both are well characterised- one a somewhat detached young man using his powers to survive and protect himself best he can, the other a committed researcher who puts all her into everything she does, but often fails to get along with other people because of it. Admittedly, so far there isn’t much motivation to care about the somewhat arrogant and enigmatic ES, but hopefully future volumes will rectify this.

Unfortunately, whilst everything else is solid enough, Eternal Sabbath does suffer somewhat due to the quality of its artwork. Whilst never particularly bad, character designs are simplistic and average at best, whilst backgrounds are either sparse or nonexistent. The result is that many of the pages are rather sparse in both visuals and dialogue, negating the value for money the volume’s 260-odd pages seemed to provide.

Final Thoughts
Although it starts on a weak note, Eternal Sabbath #1 gradually builds up enough momentum to offer an enjoyable read. It’s not quite as original or interesting as the basic synopsis would seem to indicate, but nonetheless this first volume offers a solid story that will leave you wanting to order the next instalment.