The symbiote will organize your life
The title of this manga suggested to me that it would be something very melancholy and also taking into account the dichotomy of humanity vs individuals. After all, we all know what the number 7 billion is associated with (even if it is long out of date). The direction was right, but with this melancholy I did not quite hit the mark. Nobuaki Tadano’s manga is an adventure story referring rather to the superhero genre. Yes, there is a theme of school life and problems with integration in it, but every superhero lives among other people, even Dr. Manhattan. The comic may not say much new, but sometimes it does it in an interesting way. Tadano’s manga simply has some elusive but unmistakable charm.
Hikaru Takabe was unlucky – she wanted to be alone, and she got a symbiote, and as talkative as Venom himself , the most famous representative of intelligent … parasites? Certainly annoying people constantly explaining to the carrier that he is obliged to change his behavior to more appropriate to what he is wearing. Somewhat fortunately, the alien inhabiting the body of a high school girl has no taste for brains. He just wants to save life on Earth from… you guessed it, another symbiote. The nasty one.
Everyone will be eaten!
Did you miss the mighty monsters that don’t so much absorb their victims as build them into ever-increasing bodies? Another classic motif will be used here quite neatly, although the evil symbiote is not about growing, but about smashing everything to smithereens. He is the destroyer of life, the great purifier of the cosmos, and the opposite of the one who took up residence in Takabe. The fight is inevitable, but first the opponents have to track each other – after all, they don’t even know if they went to the same high school … I know, it all sounds too corny. So why didn’t I rate this manga a three on rails?
Nobuaki Tadano knows perfectly well that he uses classic tricks, and regular readers of the shounen genre will be able to anticipate key plot twists. And very well – that’s what he’s all about. There is a slight morality play hidden in 7 billion , because before setting out on the road, Takabe will have to take off the headphones in which she will not gather any team. what are you saying? That it already was? Well, yes, this manga speaks mainly of the lightness of the style and the predatory line. And the fact that it does not prolong duels and does not multiply monsters.
In the afterword to this volume, Krystian Kruk calls Tadano’s line “specific”. Schematic realism is mixed here with delicate grotesque, some twisting, twisting and simplification that makes even ridiculous monsters acceptable. The reader immediately understands that their bodies are not meant to be fit and adapted to earthly conditions. Symbiotes simply don’t care about conditions and don’t have time to tinker. The apparent carelessness of aliens and lines disappears when you take a closer look at the composition of frames and pages. Sharp foreshortening works best here, where the terrible clawed limbs are only hinted at, and the unnaturally calm faces of the bearers are best seen. The style reminds me a bit of Zvyrke zines (albeit in 7 billionthere are definitely fewer flakes).
The slogan “you are not alone” opens Nabuaki Tadano’s manga and clearly defines its character. The need to be with others is the heroine’s greatest nightmare (and if you believe the reports, also a large part of the Japanese). At the same time, it is her only hope for a positive change and overcoming her own passivity. There is a deeper meaning in this, that the symbiote, which is supposed to protect life, introduces its host back to the patterns characteristic of the gregarious species, which, by all indications, is man. 7 Billion Needles is a simple story drawn in a cheeky style. And at the same time ironic enough to justify the classic character of the plot.
