365 Days of Manga, Day 67: Kieli

KIELI (Kieli: Shishatachi wa Arano ni Nemuru, “Kieli: The Dead Sleep in the Wasteland”) (キーリ死者たちは荒野に眠る) • Yukako Kabei (story), Shiori Teshirogi (art) • YEN Press (2008) • Akita Shoten (Mystery Bonita, 2006) • Occult Science Fiction Drama • 2 volumes • 16+ (brief language, violence)
Adaptation of Yukako Kabei’s Kieli light novels. Kieli, a young girl who can see ghosts, lives a lonely life at a boarding school in a conservative religious state on a sandy planet. Then one day she meets Harvey, a man who looks about her age but is actually one of the “Undying,” bio-engineered immortal soldiers who have been hunted down by the Church since the great war ended 80 years ago. Kieli joins Harvey on his mission to put to rest the ghost of a fellow soldier (a ghost who speaks through messages on Harvey’s handheld radio), and together they wander the world. A tight story in two volumes, this is a surprisingly well-written, and decently drawn, story of ghosts and adventure. The ghosts Kieli encounters are scary and sympathetic at the same time, diverging from the manga norm, and Harvey’s dilemma–he’s reluctant to get close to people because they age and die faster than he does–seems real, not forced. The story’s message of atheism, or at least skepticism for a thinly disguised Christianity, is explicit even by manga standards (”God…you can just drop dead.”)

Today’s winner is Ashley H. of Louisiana! Congratulations, Ashley! Come back tomorrow for Yaoi Sunday at 365 Days of Manga!