From Naoki Serizawa, creator of the manga series “Saru Lock” comes a prequel to “Resident Evil 6″ as students at a private academy are being turned into zombies. Can a professor and his nephew prevent any more students from turning into zombies”. Find out in volume 1 of “Resident Evil: The Marhawa Desire”!
© CAPCOM/Naoki Serizawa 2012. All Rights Reserved.
MANGA TITLE: Resident Evil: The Marhawa Desire Vol. 1
STORY AND ART BY: Story by Takaya Kagami, Art by Naoki Serizawa (芹沢直樹)
FIRST PUBLISHED IN JAPAN: Akita Publishing
PUBLISHED IN USA BY: VIZ Media, LLC/Shonen Jump Manga
RATED: M for Mature
RELEASE DATE: November 18, 2014
At the prestigious and elite Marhawa High School in Singapore, a female student suffers a horrifying transformation. Called in to investigate, Professor Doug Wright and his nephew Ricky find themselves caught up in a deadly and growing tragedy. As things get rapidly out of hand, Chris Redfield and his team from the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance arrive on the scene – while behind it all, a mysterious figure looms.
From Naoki Serizawa, the creator of “Saru Lock” and “Samurai Man” comes “Resident Evil: The Marhawa Desire”, a prequel manga series to the video game “Resident Evil 6”.
The series begins in Singapore at Bennett University as Doug Wright (a Professor, Department of Science Engineering) and his nephew Ricky Tozawa (a Science and Engineering Major) are discussing Ricky’s grades.
But Doug receives a letter from Mother Gracia from the Marhawa School and he is shocked to see the letter. He asks Ricky to join him on a three-day project in Asia’s largest and most prestigious school, Marhawa Academy which is in the middle of a jungle.
Immediately, Ricky is greeted by Bindi Bergara, the Student Council President and Alisa Lin, Student Council Vice President of the school. And seeing all the beautiful girls on campus, Ricky feels he may be in heaven.
Meanwhile, as Doug and Ricky meet Mother Gracia, the headmaster of Marhawa Academy, they are taken down an underground room where they see a student who has become zombified by the T-virus.
Immediately, Doug pleads with his friend, Gracia to call the B.S.A.A. (Bio-terrorism Security Assessment Alliance) immediately but she does not want any outside interference. She called on Doug to solve the problem and find out who the source is.
Meanwhile, at some part of the world, the B.S.A.A. are taking on various monsters. Piers Nivans of Alpha Team North American Branch, Chris Redfield – Alpha Team Captain or the North American Branch and Merah Biji of the B.S.A.A. Far East Branch.
As Merah is supposed to report the incident to Professor Doug Wright, since Chris Redfield also knows Doug, the three decided to head off to Singapore to meet up with him.
Meanwhile, back at the home that Doug and Ricky are staying at, while Ricky is sleeping, Alisa Lin sneaks into his bedroom. But when Ricky sees her face, Alisa is now a zombie and bites into Ricky. The security manage to capture Alisa but as for Ricky, Doug is concerned that he may turn into a zombie and pleads with Mother Gracia to contact the B.S.A.A.
Hours later, Ricky surprisingly is not showing any signs of turning into a zombie and Doug feels that perhaps Ricky was not changed by the T-Virus at all.
But knowing that they have no way to call the B.S.A.A., knowing that they have no vehicle to escape the school and the jungle, the two are prisoners who have no choice but to find the source of who is turning students into zombies.
When I read that “Resident Evil: The Marhawa Desire” was a prequel to “Resident Evil 6” series, suffice to say, I was interested in seeing how the manga series will connect to the video game.
While the manga series feels like watching a popcorn action/horror zombie flick and the dialogue reads like a B-movie horror flick, I can’t help but find the manga series entertaining because of my bias of having played “Resident Evil” video games for since the very first video game was released.
The story follows a professor and his nephew/student going to visit an elite Catholic Academy somewhere in Asia, in the middle of a jungle and find out that a few of the students have turned into zombies.
And to make things worse, the professor and student have no way of escaping the area as its headmistress, Mother Gracia, rules the area with an iron fist and will do all she can to make sure no one knows what has happened at her school, despite the number of people being infected is starting to grow.
So far, the primary connection to the video game series is showing Chris Redfield and Piers Nivans in the manga series as both, along with a character named Merah Biji going to Singapore to visit Professor Doug Wright, to find out that he and his student have gone missing.
But as this first volume is more or less introducing us to the main characters of the manga series, I look forward to reading volume 2.
As for the manga, Naoki Serizawa is best known for his work on “Saru Lock” (which has been made into a film and a live-action drama series), so it’s very interesting to see him take on a “Biohazard/Resident Evil” storyline. His artwork is quite unique as it is his own style, which features a lot of detail and for the most part, very cool to look at, especially a story geared towards horror.
While the dialogue is not the greatest (as Ricky comes off as a naive and dumb character), the whole premise is quite creepy and seeing Doug and Ricky pretty much stranded in a school with a headmaster trying to prevent the public from learning of its secret of students being turned to zombies and being killed.
So, the story does have a creepy side but also something for the fans of “Resident Evil 6”. But I look forward to seeing where Serizawa takes the storyline to in volume 2.
If you are a fan of zombie horror flicks or even “Resident Evil”, then definitely give “Resident Evil: The Marhawa Desire” vol. 1 a try!