Black God

Keita Ibuki is a game programmer who is a master moocher around his childhood friend Akane Sano, who looks after him. One night, he decides to buy some ramen at a noodle stand but ends up giving up his meal to a cute girl. As she introduces herself, she is attacked by someone of her kind who is hunting her down. Keita doesn't realize that she is a super human being called a mototsumitama however, he gets caught in the cross fire and loses his arm. Keita wakes up the next day in his apartment finding that his arm is intact. He believes that this was a dream until he sees the girl from before invading his fridge; this makes things more complicated!

Keita soon discovers that this cute girl, called Kuro, saved his arm by exchanging her arm with his, therefore establishing a pact. Kuro, being a mototsumitama, is a protector of the coexistence equilibrium and she explains about the doppeliner system.

Doppeliners are three humans who share the same fate, therefore sharing an earthly capacity called "tera". Even though they are born in different places around the world, hold different genes and are different in just about every way, they all share the exact same face and the same fate. Doppeliners are three souls that share one fate on the same line e.g. "Three spaces, one existence" or a "doppeliner". However, if two of these humans meet each other, they follow the laws and are both annihilated through natural disaster, illness, accident or for some other reason. After this, the last remaining human absorbs all of the fate of the two annihilated and becomes a "root".

This manga series is ongoing (currently 10 volumes in Japan (March 2009)) and has recently been adapted into an anime called "Kuromaki: the animation". The creators of Black God are both from Korea and had to research about Japan before starting the series; they often make jokes about this in the author panel at the end of each volume. The manga falls into the following genres: drama, action and fantasy.

I really like this series because of the interesting story line. The drawings are excellent, including high action fighting scenes. I would recommend this book for any gender and for older teenagers. It is a really good read.