7 billion needles

7 billion needles, volume 1

volume 2
volume 3
volume 4
nobuaki tadano
graphic/scifi/horror
vertical, inc.
published 2011

On a clear calm night, while on a class trip to the beach, Hikaru Takabe decides to go for a walk to escape the shackles of school and peer pressure.  While observing the stars above a calm dark sea in an instant she is disintegrated when struck by a meteor.

Flash forward one page, and Hikaru awakes, from what seems like a horrible daydream of sorts, sitting amongst classmates in school without a scratch on her.  The meteor dream seemed so real she cannot believe she's alive, but given her relative aloof nature, she soon shrugs off the events and moves on with life.  However, one thing she cannot shake off is the strange buzzing she hears coming from her new pair of headphones....

This was on the border of being really interesting and making absolutely no sense to me.  Everything was good until volume three when the subspecies and the Moderator were the focal point and things got very science-fictiony.  It was intense.

I think that ultimately the series was about friendship.  It seems so simple and almost cheesy after all that, but when it all came down to it there seemed to be the overriding theme of loneliness.  Once Hikaru was taken in by Nao and Saya she wasn't so lonely and was able to open up more.  Which then prompted her to help Chika who she saw as herself before Nao and Saya.  Hikaru became a spectator (who actually mostly just ignored everyone) to an active human.  She participated in life which ended up allowing her to save the world.

More sci-fi than I usually read, but I enjoyed it thoroughly!