It started off okay. I was intrigued by the mystery of Kiyomi’s cells. I wanted to see how things would play out with Toshiaki’s creepy liver cell project and Mariko’s transplant. It was clear that Mariko had a lot of issues where transplants, her transplant surgeon, and her father were concerned, so I also wanted to know what had happened with her first transplant - the kidney she received from Kiyomi was actually her second kidney transplant. The author’s medical- and science-related descriptions were sometimes more detailed than I would have preferred, but I did learn a few interesting things about transplants, particularly how they were viewed in Japan at the time the book was written. I hope attitudes have improved since then.

It does have an intriguing story, yes, and Sena expertly - perhaps all too well - weaves realistic science and biochemistry into a nightmarish scenario - but it's bogged down in too much of the former for the casual reader to enjoy or understand. It was almost so for me - and I don't even consider myself a casual reader. Dr. Toshiaki Nagishima's lovely but neglected wife, Kiyomi, suffers brain death after a car accident. She has signed up on an organ donor list, and with some [presented in the book as a Japanese cultural one] reluctance about the organ donation and letting his wife go, Nagishima finally agrees to the procedure. He just has one odd request: he wants a piece of her liver. He has been working with cell replication and can, through extending her life in a petri dish, keep her technically alive [for very wide definitions of "her", "alive", and "really weird"]. Helping him is his lovely [ish? the book seems a little unsure on how pretty to make her] student, Sachiko Asakura, who is getting ready to publish some of her findings has her own work slightly derailed by Nagishima's mysterious EVE 1 project [dramatic irony, for all you Freshman lit students].Despite its widespread recognition, “The Lottery” has received only a few screen adaptations over the years. The earliest was in Cameo Theatre , a long lost 1950s anthology series notable for its minimalistic production design. Then there was Larry Yust’s ‘69 short-film; this piece of kindertrauma captures the source material’s unmatched ability to go from casual to ghastly in mere seconds. Sena apparently felt the need to ascribe all these qualities to the mitochondria, but in taking that step he moved from the realm of the speculative-real to the purely fantastic.

Dreaming of Things to Come: Mariko. With a twist. She assumed the donor would come to take the kidney from her. Instead she came to implant an embryo into her. Eve 1 conveniently morphs into .. well anything it wants, it seems -- though what it leaves behind often ain't pretty: But Toshiaki also wants to keep a souvenir, to keep not just his wife's memory alive but to keep her alive. At the core of the book, and so much so that it probably has more of a life than any of the characters, is the question about Nucleic DNA versus Mitochondrial DNA, and whether mitochondria could have its own plans for life. As you might guess, the answer here is "yes", and it's kind of puzzling since such competition is not really set up at all except for "just because". It at least makes a fun What-If style story. It is complete with lots of endnotes/citations at the end, and though it suffers from occasionally swinging too technologically dense, it is at least interesting to hear the jargon spoken as though we should be able to understand [and if you don't understand, there is an unannounced glossary to help you out, so find it first]. In fact, the very cold way it handles the transplant early on - presenting the body as a series of little machines right near falling apart at any given time - is one of its best and most chilling moments. It dissects, to use a pun, the very notion of human exceptionalism and paints us as organs and blood pressure. Very well done.Though the novel sounds scientific and dry, it is actually first and foremost a horror story. The reader gets suspense, creepy, and downright scary all rolled into one novel. The science just adds to the realism of the novel. Since the novel is based in science, the reader gets to wonder: What if this really could happen? Don't we have mitochondria in all of our cells? What if someone's body was taken over at the cellular level? These questions and more make up some of the thematic elements of the story. It allows the reader to question whether we really know everything about the human body. Are we even in control of our bodies? It's a creepy thought and is one of many that this novel brings to the table. Aya Brea was created by Hironobu Sakaguchi and designed by Tetsuya Nomura. Aya was originally being designed by someone else, but the original sketches did not satisfy Sakaguchi, who had wanted a long-haired character like Aerith Gainsborough, a central character from Final Fantasy VII. At the time, he was creating another unspecified character for a different project who sported short hair: he got confused while designing them and accidentally combined the two designs, creating the then-current Aya. The original concept for her was to have her as strong, sexy and "bewitching". [32] Her name was taken from Sakaguchi's daughter Aya. [27] The names "Daniel" and "Maeda" were taken from members of staff. [26] Famitsu. December 24, 2010. Archived from the original on September 11, 2014 . Retrieved September 9, 2014.

II」，両作のサントラCDが復刻 (in Japanese). 4Gamer.net. November 19, 2010. Archived from the original on August 4, 2015 . Retrieved February 28, 2016.

Recommended

Still, Eve 1 finds it hard to pull itself entirely together: when getting ready to plant her seed in young Mariko, for example, there are small distractions: "At that moment, one of Her arms fell off, hitting the floor with a splat". This manga features three new characters, and several events are altered from the video game. The first character is Gray Davis, a police man and friend to both Aya and Daniel, he has a romantic interest in Aya. The second is Katharine Anderson, a female cop who has a large heart and is always kind. The third and final is Lazuli, a young man who comes to Aya in her time of need and somehow knows everything going on and how to defeat every creature. The main character is a female named Kiyomi Nagashima and how she is host to Eve as the mitochondria adapts. Like the novel, it also helps go into detail about how Eve is able to do what she does and how she can manipulate others with her mitochondria. Unlike the video game-based manga which uses the characters and follows a somewhat-alternate version of the video game storyline, the novel manga focuses more on Hideaki Sena's storyline. There are apparently influences from the film adaptation as well to make it easier to understand and follow the story. Much like the game, this book was very frustrating and difficult to read at times. The author, Hideaki Sena, is not only a renowned author, but a pharmacologist intent on flexing his scientific knowledge in his stories. Now, I understand why he writes the way that he does. The fine details in this novel really add to the sense of realism, and in turn, making the horror aspect all the more horrifying. For the layman such as myself, however, much of the talk of mitochondria and symbiosis and culture cells and all this other stuff passes beyond my understanding. And the very plot of this novel is founded upon these fine details of mitochondria and evolution. There is a sequel to this book out there, but I will be staying far away and I recommend you do the same.

It is also a very gory book: there are blood and guts and mitochondrial ooze (and people going up in flames) all over the place. I haven't really described the what the actual plot or story is because, well, it's a bit tough to describe. But if you don't mind wading through nitty gritty scientific details to get to a blob monster raping people and making them spontaneously go up in flames, maybe give this one a try. I’m going to start by saying that I’ve never played the game of the same title and I have no idea how its events compare to those in this book. According to Wikipedia it’s a sequel, so my only hope is that it left Mariko and Asakura alone. The Magic Box – 1998 Top 30 Best Selling Japanese Console Games". The-MagicBox.com. Archived from the original on January 26, 2009 . Retrieved December 9, 2008. Keri Russell, whose breakthrough role in the college drama Felicity was only two years away at that point, plays a crucial but difficult role in The Lottery . Popular school teacher Felice Dunbar is unlike other New Hopers, who are more standoffish than usual. No, she greets Jason with a warm smile that hides an unpleasant secret. Having grown up in New Hope, Felice naturally believes The Lottery serves a good purpose, but meeting Jason makes her question everything. And for a minute, it would seem Russell’s character is capable of shaking off years worth of indoctrination.a b c Jeriaska (August 31, 2009). "Interview: Magical Planet– The Music of Hiroki Kikuta & Yoko Shimomura". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on October 17, 2015 . Retrieved October 9, 2009. Wow. Just no. I'm not even going to bother mentioning my affection for J-horror, because this book does not deserve it. It takes a killer premise, that our symbiotic relationship with mitochondria could also be our species' downfall, and stomps on it with all the fury of an enraged bull elephant. Yes, it's mitochondria, and having waited for millions of years to set it's plan in motion it has found in Kiyomi the perfect starting point. a b ゲームの巨人語録―岡本吉起と12人のゲームクリエイター"[ Game Giant Words – Yoshiki Okamoto and 12 Game Creators] (in Japanese). MediaWorks. 2000. p.43. ISBN 4-8723-3907-X. That being said, it was quite an interesting read. I found it to be oddly appropriate for the season, albeit a bit more disgusting that actually frightening. I’ve certainly never come across anything like it.