King of Thorns

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Ibara no Ō
いばらの王 (King of Thorns)
Genre	Action, Survival horror
Manga
Author	Yuji Iwahara
Publisher	Enterbrain Tokyopop Germany Tokyopop Germany Tokyopop
Demographic	Seinen
Serialized in	Monthly Comic Beam
Original run	October 2002 – October 2005
Volumes	6

King of Thorns (いばらの王, Ibara no Ō^?) is a manga series by Yuji Iwahara. King of Thorns was first serialized in Monthly Comic Beam between October 2002 and October 2005 and is published in six tankōbon by Enterbrain. It is licensed internationally by Tokyopop, who have published in both German and English.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Characters 2.1 Kasumi 2.2 Marco Owen 2.3 Kathryn 2.4 Peter 2.5 The Senator 2.6 Tim 2.7 Ron 2.8 Alice 2.9 Shizuku 2.10 Zeus 3 Synopsis 3.1 The Plot 3.2 The Medusa Virus 4 References

[edit] Plot

Ibara no Ō is a science fiction/survivor drama. It is told mostly from the view point of a girl named Kasumi. The story begins when 160 people are chosen to go into cold sleep until a cure is found for their mysterious disease, the Medusa virus. The Medusa virus is a disease which, six weeks after contracting it, causes victim to have seizures, and within five hours all of the victim's cells have solidified into a clay-like substance. It is named for the Greek figure Medusa, whose gaze could turn a person into stone.

When some of the sleepers wake up, the world has drastically changed, and there is a veritable jungle running around and through the facility. Massive monsters roam through the facility, and there are no signs of any other human beings. Although at first the survivors assume that many years have passed by, later in the storyline they realize that they have only been asleep for a very short period of time, and that there is far more to the Medusa virus and their situation than they ever could have imagined.

[edit] Characters

[edit] Kasumi

She is the main character, and the story is mostly told from her point of view. She also has the Medusa virus. Her twin sister Shizuku, who also had the disease, was not chosen to go into cold sleep. Part of the manga focuses on Kasumi coming to terms with what she feels was abandoning Shizuku, even though Shizuku was the one who encouraged her to go. Kasumi also has a crush on Marco, and may either be in love with him or falling in love, as Kathryn feels the need to warn Kasumi that although it's understandable that Kasumi would like Marco, she "mustn't fall for anyone" if they can't trust her back^[1].

In the short glimpses the reader is given of Kasumi's life prior to awakening in the treatment center, it appears that she was severely depressed, and possibly suicidal^[2]. She clearly suffered from self-esteem issues, and was frustrated with herself for not being able to live up to her sister's self-confidence and popularity.

In recent chapters, Kasumi is shown video footage that shows her that Shizuku actually was in the treatment center, and it makes her wonder if her twin is the one who caused all the destruction to which the survivors woke.

[edit] Marco Owen

He is the second main character, and by far the most calm. He is revealed to be a criminal who had gotten into trouble with the CIA by hacking into their database for reasons unknown^[3]. However, he ended up working for them, in an attempt to solve the mystery of Medusa and Level 4. He has many layers to him, and seems to know a good deal more than the rest of them do. Despite his criminal history, Marco appears to care very much about what happens to the other survivors, regardless of the fact that none of them have more than six weeks to live. He has regularly put his life on the line without a second thought in order to save the others, even those who resent him. It also arguable that although he has certainly not been upfront with information, he has never actually flat-out lied to any of the survivors.

Marco is also the unofficial leader of the group, partially due to his knowledge and partially due to his natural capabilities. Marco used to be a very average-looking, relatively small computer hacker, until his partner, Zeus, betrayed him to the CIA and got away scot-free, leaving Marco with a sentence over sixty years long. While in prison, Marco built up his muscles, received his tattoos, and acquired a new attitude that makes him come off as more of a thug than a hacker -- so much so that his intelligence with computers surprises Kathryn and Kasumi despite already knowing who Marco is^[4].

Marco came into contact with Alice, who was the 'catalyst' prior to Shizuku, just after the horned monster he was fighting was impaled on the cross^[5]. Because Marco is unaware that Kasumi has a twin, he is currently under the impression that Kasumi is actually Shizuku, and therefore has connections to Level 4 -- despite this, he hasn't tried to press her for information or displayed any less trust in her than he has with the others.

[edit] Kathryn

A pretty young woman infected with Medusa. She is extremely protective of the youngest boy, Tim, and treats him like a nephew or a son. Later, in flashbacks, the reader is shown that Kathryn was an alcoholic before becoming infected with Medusa, and abused her son at least once, which resulted in him being taken away from her^[6]. She despises herself for what she did, and strives to be the mother for Tim that she wasn't for Michael.

In recent chapters, Kathryn, on the verge of dying from Medusa, deliberately stabs herself in the chest. By doing so, she forces her "Medusa" self -- the personification of what she believes to be the ideal mother -- to emerge in the form of a stylized Harpy. In this form, she protects Tim from an attacking beast and saves them all from certain death. The Medusa-Kathryn survives the fight, although badly injured. Tim chooses to stay behind with her in a locked room as Kasumi and Ron go on ahead. It is important to note that the Harpy form is not Kathryn; the real Kathryn died when she impaled herself, and the Medusa simply has a copy of her memories.

[edit] Peter

Dr Peter Stevens is the scientist who created the cold sleep capsules. After Venus Gate took control of his capsules, Peter attempted to hack into the database and find out the secret of Level 4. He was caught, and subsequently infected with Medusa, but managed keep his stolen files by distracting his captors with a decoy laptop. Sadly, as Marco points out later, Peter's efforts were for naught -- if the Level 4 files were accessible so easily, the CIA would have gotten ahold of them long ago. And even if they hadn't been able to, Marco himself was unable to find anything, and he is on par with the creator of Level 4's defences.

Being a scientist, Peter is extremely observant; despite the confusion and the panic, he still took note of the fact that of the survivors of the initial monster attack, only the Senator and Kasumi attempted to run for the elevator. The others didn't, and Peter believed that they may not have attempted to escape to the elevator because they already knew that they would be facing certain death. However, this appears to be a mistaken leap of logic: Kathryn attempted to run, and was knocked down by the other panicked Medusa victims; Peter and Ron stopped to make sure she was all right; Tim was too frightened to run; and Marco, of course, was the only one who had any idea what was happening.

Peter was killed, although not immediately, when the ceiling collapsed and large hunks of rock were dropped on top of him. Although Kasumi dug him out, Peter died anyway. However, his "Medusa" form came back as an entity that looks exactly like Peter, but full of bugs and capable of creating Preying Mantis-like scythe from his face. He, like Kathryn's Medusa form, apparently has full control of his mental faculties and has no wish to harm the survivors -- not even Marco, whom Peter distrusted.

[edit] The Senator

An older white man. From the very beginning, he was cowardly and self-serving. He was the only one to recognize Marco for who Marco really was, and revealed it to the group, causing a lot of tension. He was also willing to encourage Ron to kill Marco in a fit of rage by giving Ron the monkey wrench with which Marco had originally threatened the Senator^[7]. The Senator was devoured by oversized eels in chapter 6 of volume 2. Unlike Peter, he has not come back to life.

[edit] Tim

A young boy infected with Medusa. He appears to be around six to nine years of age, and appears to be very resilient, with even Alice commenting on his toughness. Tim calls Kathryn 'auntie' and treats her as if she really is his aunt, becoming very attached to her and vice-versa, as her reminds her of her son. At the end of chapter 26 in volume 5, Tim elects to stay behind with Kathryn's Medusa form in a locked room until she heals.

[edit] Ron

A black man from Detroit. At first, he displayed a very fatalistic attitude, and was devastated by the realization that civilization had been all but destroyed. He chooses to stay behind when Marco, Kathryn, Kasumi, and Tim venture into Level 4, and as such, is the only one to witness Peter's "revival". Marco inadvertently nearly drowns Ron while hacking into Venus Gate's security systems. At the end of chapter 24 of volume 4, Ron appears again to save Kathryn, Kasumi, and Tim from a tentacle monster. During his time away from the group, Ron appears to have changed his attitude regarding life and death, and decides that he prefers to fight to protect his own life and the lives of his fellow survivors as long as he can before they die. He carries Kathryn as they flee, and protects her from falling debris despite knowing she likely has only minutes left to live before the Medusa virus kills her.

Ron isn't given a name until chapter 27 of the manga^[8]. It's a running joke that the others (specifically Marco and Kasumi) refer to Ron as an older man (Marco calls him 'old man', and Kasumi refers to him as 'ojisan'), which irritates Ron greatly.

[edit] Alice

The only survivor of the first family infected by Medusa. After the death of her family, Alice set fire to her home so that "he" couldn't escape. "He" turned out to be a construct of her mind, made real by the Medusa and stabilized into a permanent physical form by eating the head of Alice's late brother's reindeer. "He" emerged from her back, leaving a massive scar. In the manga, Alice is first seen as an attractive young woman with blonde hair who is following the group, apparently with sinister intentions, but turns out to be more of an observer as she is not the real creator of the majority of monsters. Furthermore, Alice's "body" is merely a projection of her mind -- Alice forcibly leads Kasumi to her real body, revealing herself to be little more than a torso, a left arm, and a head, kept alive by machinery.

[edit] Shizuku

Kasumi's popular, outgoing twin sister, who is also infected with Medusa. Although originally presumed to be dead, as only Kasumi was chosen as one of the 160 to be put into cold sleep, she is apparently still alive and the cause of the horrors released upon the world. She is being controlled by Zeus. According to Venus Gate, Shizuku is even more powerful than Alice. Her current location is unknown, although she is presumably somewhere within the Venus Gate facility.

[edit] Zeus

He is known by the CIA and NSA as the best hacker on the planet. He is also the man responsible for putting Marco Owen in prison. Marco has a strong hatred of Zeus as a result of this, and it is only after the CIA shows Marco Zeus's picture and tells him of his involvement in the Medusa project that he agrees to go to the castle facility and infiltrate Level 4. Zeus continually taunts Marco with the statement "you will never reach my level"; basically taunting Marco that he is better than him. However, it has been noted by the CIA and the NSA that despite being betrayed by Zeus, Marco is apparently on par with him.

[edit] Synopsis

[edit] The Plot

The story begin when everyone wakes up in their capsules, thinking it's sometime in the far future where they can be cured, only to realize the facility is in ruins and there are thorns everywhere. Soon after waking, they are attack by massive monsters, and all but seven are eaten by a gigantic, spiked creature while trying to go through an elevator doorway.

In reality, the survivors have only been asleep a short while and the thorns and creatures are creations from the minds Kasumi's sister, Shizuku, as materialized Medusa bodies.

[edit] The Medusa Virus

Originally thought to be a disease causing people to have seizures and then their body petrifying, it is actually a bodyless sentient being from outer space. It infects people's minds and attempts to form a physical body based on an image in their mind. If it cannot successfully form a body, it breaks down causing the host body to petrify in the process.

It was originally bound to a meteor that crashed in remote Siberia near a boy and his pet deer on a walk. By simply being near the rock, the boy was infected with the concentrated Medusa. He returned home and infected his entire family, who all died, save for his emotionally withdrawn sister, Alice. Her imaginary friend was a boyish figure with a cat tail. When the Medusa successfully formed a body in this image and then stabilized the body by eating Alice's dead brother's pet deer, she was horrified and burned down the family house to kill the creature. In the process of doing this, the girl unwittingly spread Medusa thinly over the entire planet and infecting a lot of other people in the process. However, since there was only a certain amount of Medusa present in the meteor, only a certain amount of people were infected.

The Venus Gate sect then appeared and took the girl to the castle fortress to experiment on her and Medusa, as they first believed it to be a gift from god that would allow them to make their imaginations real. Once they realized the truth, it was too late, as their security specialist (Zeus) had already found a new imagination host (Kasumi's twin, Shizuku) and used her to make new creatures in the facility's Medusa extraction room. He used these new creations in his quest to "amuse" himself and make the entire world an entertaining game of sorts.

The large monster at the very beginning of the manga that devours all but seven of the capsule survivors after they try to go through an elevator door is actually the "mother" monster from Shizuku's mind. After eating people, it has the ability to feed off of their thoughts and use the meat from their bodies to create offspring. Through the offspring, Zeus intends to create "games" in each continent of the world as a fight-for-your-life scenario involving the world's population.

[edit] References