A marvelous war drama that focuses on the effect, that death and its proximity has on people, and actually manages to address these things in a very profound and meaningful way. It is a captivating, but very dark and depressing story, the most prominent feature of it being its uncompromising cruelty towards the characters. The plot shows us both sides of the war, raging around the ancient sacred city of Eldorado, – the teen soldiers from The World Government troops and the insurgents. The story builds itself slowly, but piece by piece a complicated relationship starts to form between those involved in the conflict, one thatwon’t be easy to unravel. There are some hints on mysticism, which will, probably, be more important in later chapters.

The central themes of Husk of Eden are fear of death, acceptance (or unacceptance, for that matter) of loss, readiness to sacrifice one’s life. There is this ever-present feeling that a terrible dark secret lurks underneath. Biblical references also help to create a strong sense of foreboding – most of the names are taken from Bible and Babylonian history.

The art is very clean, crisp and beautiful. Much attention is paid to the designs of military uniforms, which look both futuristic and ritualistic. The terrorists on the contrary are designed with fantasy and tribal motives in mind. The contrast is very well done, though I, personally, find some of the rebels’ designs going overboard with showing skin.

The worst part are the fighting scenes, completely illogical and unrealistic. Expect a lot of Matrix-style pirouettes, jumping right into middle of enemies’ formation and cheesy one-liners. But that’s the price it is worth to pay to see how the protagonists deal with their pasts, their bleak futures and consequences of their actions, how they try to bond together with their fellow-soldiers and how they remember the ones, who they have already lost.

I would recommend this series to those interested in military themes and those in for a very heavy drama.