The Color of the End: Mission in the Apocalypse, Vol. 1

Gr 7 Up–A devastating war and deadly pandemic has destroyed the planet and possibly wiped out all human life on earth. Against this desolate landscape, Saya’s mission is to search for survivors and to eradicate traces of the plague Crystallosis—the pathogen that caused all humans to sprout crystalline growths and become petrified. Saya moves from quadrant to quadrant, encountering robots and other remnants of life from before the crisis, never ruling out that there might be survivors yet uninflected. The urban cityscapes are meticulously detailed with crumbling facades and nature reclaiming the spaces, indicative of humanity’s retreat post-apocalypse. As Saya’s missions take her to new sectors, the story flows like a slice-of-life episodic adventure with a hint of action and intrigue mixed in. In her search for survivors, Saya also tries to discover what it means to be human. This is the sci-fi answer to the more fantasy-leaning Luciole Has a Dream, both similarly exploring a de-populated world, desperately seeking survivors.