James Nicoll Reviews

2021’s After God, Volume One is the first tankōbon of Sumi Eno’s Japanese fantasy web manga series. After God (Afutā Goddo) has been serialized on Shogakukan’s digital manga services MangaONE and Ura Sunday since August 2021. The English translation was published in 2024.

Tokyo is just one of a number of Japanese¹ cities to enjoy the benefits of the Gods. Eye contact with a god delivers rapturous paralysis. Extended contact is usually fatal. Consequently, Tokyo is quarantined.

“Gods” is merely a slang term.

Other terms include ​“massive lifeforms” and ​“Idolatry Prohibited Organisms.” ​“Eldrich abomination” would also be appropriate. Whatever they are called, the Gods are the source of chaos and death, so it’s just as well they do not seem inclined to wander.

A prudent government would kill the Gods. However, soldiers who try to attack the Gods are enthralled, often killed. Mundane weapons fail as well. Quarantine is the best of the bad options available and even that is not entirely satisfactory. Suicidal Japanese sneak through the quarantine, seeking swift death.

Since mundane methods do not work, Japan needs unconventional weapons. It is the Anti-God Science Institute’s mission to find these weapons. Researcher Tokinaga is one of many Institute employees.

While patrolling the danger zone perimeter, Tokinaga encounters schoolgirl Kamikura Waka trying to breach the quarantine. As she is wearing none of the recommended protective equipment, the sensible conclusion is that she is just another suicidal girl, looking for a divine death.

This is not the case. Waka is searching for her friend, Shion, who previously ventured into Tokyo. If Shion was, as seems likely, a victim of the Gods, Waka will take her vengeance. It’s a vainglorious goal for a mere teen, but as Tokinaga deduces as soon as Waka shakes off a catastrophic head injury, she is no mere teen.

Waka might be the weapon the Anti-God Institute is looking for.

~oOo~

There does not appear to be a range limit on enrapturement². Sensible employees who could find themselves with a line of sight on a god wear masks to prevent eye contact. Inconvenient but not nearly as inconvenient as being paralyzed and then liquified.

Tokinaga makes two astonishing discoveries. Discovering that Waka is nigh-invulnerable (among other… gifts might be too positive… abilities) is the second discovery. The first is that not every human who meets a god dies. Some, like Uzoki Yon, choose to serve the Gods, in return for which they are imbued with useful abilities, which help them survive evangelizing to the humans.

Readers may wonder to what degree the Anti-God Institute feels limited by basic ethical concerns, working as it does in an environment where researchers could have the same life expectancy as UXB staff, and facing as it does an existential threat to Japan and possibly the world. The answer is not at all! The ends justify the means and the means are very creative.

After God​’s art is very eye-catching, sometimes in the same way that fish hooks are eye-catching. Volume One does a nice job of introducing the characters, setting, and stakes without bogging down in exposition. Because it is only the first volume, far more questions are raised than answered. I don’t think readers will mind.

After God, Volume One is available here (Viz), here (Barnes & Noble), here (Bookshop US), here (Bookshop UK), here (Chapters-Indigo), and here (Words Worth Books).

1: USA is not so much delenda as irrelevant.

2: Gods do not show up in artificial images, which is super-lucky for anyone with access to satellite telemetry.