is a Japanese fantastique manga series written and illustrated by Yuji Iwahara. It was published by Enterbrain in the seinen magazine Monthly Comic Beam between October 2002 and October 2005 and collected in six bound volumes. It is licensed in North America by Tokyopop, with the final volume published in November 2008. The series is about a group of people who are put in suspended animation to escape a mysterious plague that turns people to stone, and upon waking there appears to be only seven survivors in a world run wild—including a Japanese teenage girl named Kasumi Ishiki and a British man named Marco Owen. The survivors soon discover that the entire ruin is filled with strange, dinosaur-like creatures and other monstrous aberrations of nature. Thinking that a great amount of time passed since their arrival on the island, soon the survivors discover not only that their sleep was indeed too short to label such dramatic changes as natural occurrence, but also that the situation in and of itself is far greater than they could imagine.
A feature anime film adaptation produced by Sunrise and directed by Kazuyoshi Katayama was released on May 1, 2010.
Plot
King of Thorn is a science fiction survivor drama. After a viral infection known as the Medusa virus lands in Siberia and spreads contagiously throughout Earth, 160 humans are chosen as candidates to experiment a cure against the virus by an organization called Venus Gate. As the story begins, Kasumi is selected as one of the 160 people for the experiment. She is forced to enter treatment and cold sleep without her twin sister Shizuku, whom she cares much about.
However, 48 hours later, some of those put in hibernation abruptly woke up, only to find the facility where they were supposed to be treated in a total state of decay, invaded by a lush jungles of trees and especially strange vines covered in thorns, which appear to have something of a mind on their own. Not only that, but the survivors soon discover that the entire ruin is filled with strange monsters and other aberrations of nature. Thinking that a great amount of time passed since their arrival on the island, soon the survivors discover not only that their sleep was indeed too short to label such dramatic changes as natural occurrence, but also that the situation in and of itself is far greater than they could imagine.
The Medusa Virus One pivotal role in the series is that covered by the Medusa virus, a mortal disease so named after the Medusa from Greek Mythology, the Gorgon whose eyesight could turn anyone and anything into stone at a mere glance. The virus itself is extremely virulent, infecting its victims' cells and causing seizures while drying up the body, turning the infected into a solid, stone-like corpse.
While perceived as a terrible malady by the world, in reality the Medusa virus is not a virus at all, being a shapeless presence brought to Earth from outer space. It landed in Siberia during a meteor shower, by chance near a young boy and his pet deer, enough to instantly infect both him and his animal. Unknowingly bringing the concentrated thing to his home, he infected his whole family and his sister Alice. She unknowingly uncovered the true nature of Medusa when her imaginary friend, a cat-boy hybrid, came to life by erupting from her back. Terrified by the death of her family and the fact that the newborn creature devoured her brother's deer, she trapped it in her house and set it on fire, thus spreading Medusa all over the world through the fire's smoke.
It was then that the people affiliated with Venus Gate, a religious sect, showed themselves and approached Alice, believing her ability to turn imagination into reality to be a gift from the heavens. Experimenting on her and Medusa, during that time they employed a hacker named Zeus as their security specialist, though in doing so they doomed themselves when he, pursuing his crazy dreams, developed an artificial way to force dreams into suitable hosts and, thus, fabricate mind-created realities at will to accomplish his plan to force the world into a primal survival game to amuse himself.
Characters
Kasumi is the main protagonist of the story, which for the most part is told by her point of view. One of the 160 people around the world lucky (or rich) enough to be chosen as potential cure testbeds for the Medusa virus, she left the world leaving behind herself and her twin sister Shizuku, who was also a victim of the virus, though until the end encouraged Kasumi to accept such an opportunity and be cured. She was the first of these people to be awakened and the first to find the ruin that struck the medical facility they were treated in. A shy and gentle girl, she was notable in that she was the only one who actually supported the thuggish-looking Marco when the survivors started their escape, something that eventually turned into a crush, though ill-advised by more than one of the other characters, who saw Marco as dangerous and untrustworthy. Occasional glimpses are offered on Kasumi's life prior to her being chosen: she was quiet and reserved, the foil of her twin sister in mind, though identical in body, save for the fact that she wore glasses. These flashbacks show that Kasumi was strongly attached to Shizuku, to the point of borderline obsession, which in turn not only fueled unstable thoughts, such as wishing to die in the same way at the same time, but also gave birth to suicidal tendencies that manifested themselves when Kasumi, while bathing, tried to take her life by slitting her wrist with a razor, unable to accept the idea of living in a world without her beloved sister. Shizuku was nearby and saved her sister, though their bond was greatly shaken. Only at the end of the series, it was revealed that Kasumi was dead all along: before parting, she and Shizuku shared a brief moment together on the cliffs near the castle that housed the medical treatment facility, and during this instance Kasumi, still unwilling to be the only one to survive, wished for the two of them to die together by jumping down the cliff. Rejected by Shizuku, Kasumi was accidentally thrown over the edge during the ensuing struggle and killed, an event that unleashed her sister's Medusa powers and, with them, the chaos that would envelop the island and the world itself. The Kasumi the viewer sees during the entire story is, in fact, a Medusa-produced entity created by Shizuku, who wished for her sister to be alive no matter what, even at the expense of the world. In the film version, she and Tim are left as the only survivors at the facility, with Kasumi vowing to help him reunite with his parents.
Marco is the main male character of the series. He is a fearsome-looking man with a muscular frame and many intimidating tattoos all over his body who is also an expert hacker, so much so that he was able to crack through the CIA's computers – and those of Venus Gate, something that had him arrested and incarcerated for more than half a century (during the events of the manga, he still had 60 years to serve in prison). While a prisoner he was approached by the NSA, which offered him complete parole for his crimes in exchange of his help in dealing with the Medusa affair. Becoming a de facto spy for the United States, he was sent as a patient to the gathering at Venus Gate labs, the same where all the other main characters were sent, in order to assess the objectives of the gathering, gather evidence on the mysterious Level 4 labs of the island, and also to pursue a personal vendetta against his old friend Zeus, who framed him for crimes he did not commit before vanishing. He was trying to accomplish what he was sent to do when the Medusa outbreak and Shizuku's awakening occurred, and in the ensuing chaos he was left unconscious. Thus, he was able to present himself to the other survivors as one of them. During most of the series Marco acts tough, and his overall appearance and mannerism leave the other survivor highly suspicious of him, especially when they discover that he never had the Medusa virus in the first place. Nevertheless, given the fact that he is the most skilled of them all, Marco is silently accepted as the leader of the group, at least until he goes on his own to try to find Zeus. He was also the first of them to encounter the ghostly apparition of Alice, and on more than one instance was seen arguing with her. Also, he himself was suspicious of Kasumi after seeing video footage of her twin sister Shizuku trailing after the wave of monstrous beings that erupted from Level 4. During the climax of the story he died once, killed by Zeus's artificially created beast soldiers, though his corpse was later found and resurrected by Alice, a deed for which she sacrificed her life. He was thus able to face Zeus head-on by literally hacking into him and, finally, completely erasing him for good. What happened to him and Kasumi after they saved themselves is left to the reader to speculate, though apparently their feelings for each other were mutual. In the film version, he succumbs to his injuries after making Kasumi promise him to live life to the fullest and to not take it for granted: "Please, grant a soldier his dying wish." She then kisses him goodbye and thanks him for all he did for her, intending to follow her promise.
Katherine is a pretty young woman in her late twenties and the worst Medusa case among the survivors, being the most infected one of them all. Since their encounter she acts in a motherly way towards Tim, the youngest of them being only a little boy. Before becoming infected, Katherine was an alcoholic and was prone to abuse her son Michael, until he was taken away from her and placed in foster care. This events shook her greatly and left her with bitter disgust for herself, prompting her to try to be a true mother for Tim as she wasn't for her son. Later in the story, the Medusa infection in her completely consumes her body, which starts to crumble apart during an assault of monstrous creatures. On the verge of death she deliberately stabs herself, triggering the Medusa inside her and becoming what she believed was the figure of an ideal mother, a harpy-like creature. While still capable of recognizing Tim and the other survivors, she herself was nothing more than what Katherine's heart and memories were at the moment of her death. Nevertheless, she still showed the same attachment to Tim and fought against the monsters threatening him, though she was seriously wounded and was left with the boy to recover. Later captured by Zeus' soldiers, she was set free during the end. In the film version, she succumbs to the Medusa virus during a helicopter crash.
Peter was an engineer and doctor, the creator of the cold sleep capsules used by Kasumi and the other people gathered by Venus Gate. Despite his success in creating stable prototypes of the capsules, a sudden crisis of the electronics market left him without financial support, until Venus Gate expressed interest in his project and hired him and his colleagues. He succeeded in perfecting the cold sleep capsules and gained access to most of Venus Gate's labs, though he never clearly understood what the mysterious Level 4 was for. However, after developing the capsule he was suddenly withdrawn from the project, which was in turn passed to Level 4 and left him bitter with resentment, so much so that his only obsession became to retrieve his cold sleep capsule from Venus Gate. He apparently succeeded in discovering the Level 4 data, though in doing so he was discovered and taken prisoner, after which he was infected with Medusa.