Resident Evil: The Marhawa Desire Volume 4 manga review

Manga
Resident Evil: The Marhawa Desire Volume 4 manga review
By Leroy Douresseaux
May 12, 2015 - 21:57

Viz Media
Writer(s): Naoki Serizawa, Joe Yamazaki, Stan!
Penciller(s): Naoki Serizawa
Letterer(s): John Clark
ISBN: 978-1-4215-7375-5
$12.99 U.S., $14.99 CAN, £8.99 UK, 176pp, B&W, paperback
Rating: M (Mature)

Resident Evil Volume 4 cover image is courtesy of barnesandnoble.com.

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Rated “M” for “Mature”

A horror manga, Resident Evil: The Marhawa Desire serves as a comic book prequel to the story line of CAPCOM’s bestselling video game, Resident Evil® 6. This iteration of Resident Evil introduces the highly virulent C-virus, and the manga explores the origins of this new outbreak.

The story begins with Doug Wright, a professor in the Department of Sciences and Engineering at Bennett University. Wright, who specializes in bacteriology, receives a letter from Mother Gracia, headmistress of Marhawa Academy, Asia's largest and most prestigious school. Wright, who had a past relationship with Gracia, rushes to the school, with his nephew, 20-year-old Ricky Tozawa, in tow. Deep in the jungle, Marhawa Academy is located within a giant, self-contained and self-sufficient complex. There, Prof. Wright and Ricky find themselves caught in a deadly and growing tragedy that is an epidemic of zombie proportions.

As Resident Evil: The Marhawa Desire, Vol. 4 (Chapters 24 to 32) opens, Chris Redfield and his B.S.A.A. (Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance) unit finally arrive at Marhawa Academy. Redfield, Merah Biji, and Piers Nivens find a full-blown zombie outbreak at the school, but they begin their search, hoping to find survivors.

The transformed and evil Bindi Bergara targets the sanctuary of a small band of survivors, but Merah decides that it is time to put a stop to her. Redfield finds Ricky Tozawa, and the latter is forced to make a hard decision about his wounded Uncle Doug. Meanwhile, the hooded woman lurks, when she isn't observing her handiwork.

THE LOWDOWN: I have never played any Resident Evil video games, nor have I read previous Resident Evil comics, although I am a fan of the Resident Evil live-action film franchise. Now, I wonder if I should learn to play video games so that I can get my Resident Evil on, because the Resident Evil: The Marhawa Desire manga is making me more interested than ever in Resident Evil.

Resident Evil: The Marhawa Desire Volume 4 is at the point in the zombie outbreak narrative in which many characters to whom we are attached are dead or undead. Writer-artist Naoki Serizawa makes the readers like the characters, so their demise or transformation matters. The remaining characters are in trouble, and it is a shame that this manga is about to end.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE: Fans of horror manga and zombie comics will want the VIZ Signature title, Resident Evil: The Marhawa Desire.

Rating: A/10