Two symbiotes are not enough – a review of the comic book “7 billion needles”, vol. 2

The end of the world is a movable feast

I stole the subtitle from a (very good) presentation by the translator Radosław Kot, which he conducted at Copernicon ’22. Yes, the specter of total annihilation returns from time to time with the regularity of Easter – this month or that doesn’t matter much. It most often circulates over the US and Japan, so it was only natural that this resulted in the second volume of 7 Billion .

High schooler Takabe now hosts her greatest ally and their common mortal enemy in her own body and mind. At the same time, the latter seems to have become a bit civilized and softened, something like our favorite symbiont , there will even be a poultry motif. The society has a peaceful existence in the heap, enriched with meetings with Hikaru’s friends, chemistry tests and whining, what a slacker and a thug the underage carrier is. But we know! We know, we expect and we get! Something breaks down in the ecosystem, as if color came down from the skies and glued the animals together into spooky “things”.

Everyone will be integrated!

The end of the world this time will be different – instead of destruction and annihilation, integration. How total? Earth will become the thinking ocean of Solaris? Only very ugly? Will the symbiotes take matters into Tanabe’s hands and set evolution back on a more human-friendly track? Or maybe one of them is already looking forward to the sabotage of the heroic efforts of the rest?

This volume is more interesting than the previous one in places: more dialogue here, above all the interaction between symbiotes, which is appropriately virulent, ironic and detached from the life of ordinary greyhounds. The main character is no longer a passive and always pissed off girl, she has gained some personality. In addition, you will find here at least two successful meta-jokes, one wonderfully concludes the potential fan service, which, by the way, this time is less than one. The second is a rather bitter conclusion to the poor repertoire of frames with my aunt. Nabuaki Tadano’s line retains its predatory, feisty character, but … Without spoiling, a specific kind of destruction means that instead of dense frames we get wide, empty spaces in which the original mangaka style is completely invisible.

Hikikomori in headphones

I can’t say that I didn’t like Nabuaki Tadano’s manga. That I will allow myself a review classic – I had fun, although I realize that this is not a manga for everyone. Mainly because it cannot be approached as a typical adventure fantasy, ultimately the mangaka not only uses the patterns of the genre, but also consciously comments on them. The cosmic dimension of the sequel to the end of the world and the presence of dinosaurs make it impossible to avoid associations here, for example with Devilman , which today cannot be taken seriously either. Finally, the metatextual jokes really captivated me and made me laugh. It’s obvious that with the second volume, the author gained courage and momentum, even if you can’t see it in the visual layer.

With all this, 7 billion needles retains a slightly moralizing character, because somehow it is that friends and getting out of your head to reality help with misfortunes. Nabuaki Tadano, in turn, developed this thread charmingly and lightly much earlier, in a short story where the prototype of Hikaru appears. At the end of the second volume you will find this novella – this time the level of melancholy (which I complained about in the previous review) absolutely satisfies me.

If you are intrigued by 7 Billion Needles , buy both volumes right away, you can even start reading with the bonus story that closes the second. Enjoy the specific line of Tadano, disgust monsters, laugh at the incessant monologues of symbiotes. Plot? Well, you already know it, you’ve seen it many times. Somehow, there is a problem with these ends of the world, someone will always try to stop them. Not a very lucky holiday.