Au début, il se fait appeler Minoru. Puis il se fera connaître sous celui de Ryôsuke Akiba. Mais ce ne sont que des noms d’emprunt. Car ES est un être à part, capable d’entrer dans le cerveau des gens et de leur faire croire ce qu’il désire. Par le biais de ces suggestions télépathiques, ES peut faire ce qu’il veut. Il peut aussi lire leur esprit, ressentir ce qu’ils ressentent. Et vivre leur drame. D’où vient-il ? Que cherche-t-il ? La jeune Mine Kujô, spécialiste en physiologie cervicale, se posera les mêmes questions lorsqu’elle parviendra à établir les preuves de son existence.

Sur un rythme lent, indolent, ES progresse dans des décors vides qui mettent en exergue, par contraste, les plongées dans la psyché des personnes qui côtoient le personnage principal : violentes, baroques, débridées, elles offrent un paysage mental tourmenté et fascinant. C’est un manga dans lequel il n’est pas facile d’entrer, très dépouillé, tant dans la mise en page que dans les dessins. Il prend sa valeur dans les visions oniriques des territoires de l’esprit et dans la quête des origines de cet individu tout-puissant qui se mêle aux hommes comme pour mieux se repaître de leurs fantasmes, et dont on ne comprend pas, pour l’heure, les objectifs.

Après un long chapitre introductif, les 6 autres, au rythme plus rapide, nous dévoilent une partie des circonstances qui ont amené à la création de ES, nous apprennent que certains humains sont, sinon insensibles à son pouvoir, du moins très difficiles à manipuler. Et qu’il y en a eu au moins un autre comme lui.

Troublant ( )

Originality
Being able to alter a person's memories isn't terribly new. Furthermore, the unveiling of the scientific cause of the main character's psychic powers lacks enough in-depth scientific reasoning to be able to suspend one's disbelief.
Artwork
Clear, realistic and professional artwork. Excellent surrealistic images.
Story
Took just a little while longer than usual to get going in the beginning, but it picked up after the introduction of the second major character. However, the conflict between these two characters has only been just begun when important characters and motivations are introduced and then the book just ends. On an aside, background was provided in a blasé info-dump--in fact, these info-dumps occurred a little too often.
Characterization
The main character is interesting but still flat; he performs good deeds that are at the same time self-serving. With such amazing powers, he still doesn't go out of his way to help people. The second major character is a trope of the objective, socially challenged, genius scientist but adds needed sympathy to the character landscape.
Summary
The story has potential, but isn't executed that well. It's difficult to develop a morally ambiguous and mysterious person as the main character from the get-go without going into his motivations or developing a solid conflict to drive the story forward, neither of which is accomplished sufficiently. ( )

What a fun book! I discovered this series in the adult graphic novels section of my library. This seems to be the largest manga series so I took a chance with volume 1. I found it really interesting. The story is of a handsome young man with extrasensory perception who is nameless at the beginning of the book. He can read the minds of others and change what they are thinking. Farther along in the book, he becomes acquainted with a young woman named Mine Kujyou who is a research investigator at the Touhou Medical University research lab. What was most interesting to me was when these two characters met and how they interacted.

There were other things I liked about this book. One was the art work in which some known places of Tokyo, Japan, were drawn realistically and I loved the intricate details in other drawings. I appreciated the annotation at the end of the book which explained how translation from Japanese has to take into account cultural differences between Japan and the west. What a fun exploration of another culture. Of course, I do distinguish between reality and fantasy!

I fully intend to read the rest of this series because the end of the book was a cliffhanger. ( )

ES is a being able to enter the minds of people and rearrange or create memories to it's liking. The product of a scientific experiment, it survives by taking on the identity and entering the family of a dead boy named Ryousuke till it comes in contact with Mine, a neurological researcher who turns out to be one of the occasional "thick headed" individuals ES is mostly unable to manipulate the thoughts of. Sensing something odd about Ryousuke, Mine endeavors to find out more about him, discovering his frightening power and background and continuing to become more involved in a situation she does not fully understand...

My reaction to ES seems to be similar to one I've had to a lot of seinen I've seen well reviewed and tried myself: mature, interesting plot, well written for what it is, probably something I'd very much like to watch a movie about, but not something I'm emotionally engaged in enough to follow for more than a volume or two. Though Mine shows more emotion and has her share of personal/emotional concerns, both she and Ryousuke have a calm, detached feel to them. I can see how this quality might be used as a similarity between the two and something they will perhaps eventually bond over, but in the end I don't feel sympathy for the characters and end up reading in sort of a detached manner myself, interested in the history of ES, its creation and the others involved in it and how it will turn out, but feeling only a vague interest in the humans it is connected to.

My disappointment is entirely connected to my personal preferences for character-driven things, though. ES starts with an interesting concept that shows signs of expanding into interesting ways near the end of the volume. It's well written and fairly nicely paced, and other than my confusion as to why ES would suddenly take on the life of Ryousuke when he'd been wandering before, I've no complaints at all other than my personal wish for something less stoic. It saddens me that all the seinen I pick up with the most interesting psychological/sci-fi concepts all tend to have this same tone, though. ( )