Psyren

A manga where humans who use a mysterious phone card are chosen by psychic Nemisis Q and sent to a post-apocalyptic world of Psyren where they must fight with psychic powers to survive.

Revisiting this series recently. I really enjoyed this manga while it was serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump. Toshiaki Iwashiro‘s previous work Mieru Hito never caught on and ended prematurely so I was glad Psyren was much better received. Still, it struggled to gain popularity as it was being pitted against titans like One Piece and Naruto. If it ever got an anime adaptation it might’ve been a bigger hit but that never happened. And that’s strange considering a battle manga with a solid premise wouldn’t be adapted to an anime.

Rereading this I now see how Psyren seems to be a combination of a lot of other series. Having human participants teleported and being forced to fight monsters is very similar to GANTZ. Extreme sadistic villains and allies are also very similar to Bleach. I still find this series to good but besides Iwashiro’s ability to draw creepy antagonists, nothing stands out as exceptional.

~dakazu