Plot

Middle schooler Akira Sengoku and his class are flying back to Japan from their school trip to Guam, along with other classes from their school and various passengers. But their trip takes an unexpected turn when their plane hits turbulence and crashes on a Pacific island. After recovering from being unconscious, Akira learns from his friends that they are on a mysterious island filled with extinct prehistoric creatures and plants. With nowhere to go, Akira leads a small group of survivors to find others like them. They search for a way to get home, fighting off the island’s savage creatures and encountering other survivors who have gone mad. Along the way, they will discover the mysteries of the island. Was their crash really an accident? What secrets lie buried underground… and will they survive long enough to find out?

Publication

Written and illustrated by Yoshinobu Yamada, the manga Cage of Eden was serialized in Kodansha‘s Weekly Shōnen Magazine from November 26, 2008 to January 23, 2013. Kodansha collected its chapters in twenty-three tankōbon volumes, released from February 17, 2009 to February 15, 2013.

On December 12, 2010, Kodansha USA announced that they had licensed the manga for English language release in North America.

Reception

Katherine Dacey of The Manga Critic reviewed the first manga volume saying while she disliked the characters for “doing and saying things that defy common sense”, she praised the author for “populating the island with scary-looking monsters and staging thrilling action sequences that temporarily erase the memory of the clumsy dialogue and panty shots”. Brigid Alverson of MTV Geek reviewed the first manga volume concluding “The story has been told before, and Cage of Eden is no literary or philosophical masterpiece, but taken on its own terms as an action-suspense story, it delivers the goods and leaves the reader wanting more.

Rebecca Silverman of Anime News Network enjoyed the first manga volume and gave it a B, saying, “Despite its slow start, Cage of Eden becomes deeply engrossing, so that once a certain point is reached, it is nearly impossible to put down.”