Unfortunately, I don't think I'm well-versed enough in reading horror manga to give a very telling review of Alien Nine. The art is compelling and the characters are cute and interesting (very junior high) and scary and it has a plot you can follow... but I'm not sure if I liked it or not. I just didn't really understand it. ( )

Read by Jodine, Spring 2006:
"It is Japanese manga, and I chose it to get a feel for this cross-cultural literature. The back cover says, "Age 16+" but I think a much younger reader could enjoy it. The story is about a futuristic group of kids who form a club that has to do with aliens. Then an actual alien monster flops over the roof and one side of their school building and ingests one of the girls in the club. The other kids have to figure out how to save her. They find that everybody is experiencing headaches, they believe to be caused by the alien. Someone eventually figures out that the alien is not only causing the headaches, but also making everyone feel isolated and lonely. The message is that there is power in group unity and togetherness. This genre is actually harder for me to get into than I expected. The characters all pretty much look alike, and their names are all strange to me, so it's hard for me to keep them all straight in my mind. The kids in this alien club wear these symbiotic helmets to help them fight the alien. There is talk of the alien assimilating one of the children, and using the girl's memories against them. The alien also shoots off these things that look like corkscrew noodles or spiraled ribbons. I'm not sure what that image is supposed to mean, but it is used so frequently that it must have some major significance."

I quite enjoyed this. Interesting that the writer cites Larry Niven and Robert Heinlein as major influences when the comic reads so clearly as one of those characteristically Japanese exercises in fantastic-elements-as-metaphor.