Nurse, use the defibrillator. Infected Island (Kansen Rettou) is nowhere near the levels of stupidity on display in Emerging, but in exchange, it’s much more boring. Though it has the same premise of tracking a plausible super-virus outbreak, the one-volume restriction hurts it a lot. The focus of the story is almost entirely on the virus’s impact on a single hospital, and thus doesn’t take the concept anywhere close to its full potential.

Without looking at things like the virus’s evolution or resulting political drama, Infected Island loses a lot of breadth and suspense. We already know the death toll at the start of the story and can assume the virus is stopped by the end. There’s not much to keep reading for, other than to see the growth of two barely-defined characters.

All in all, pretty dull. Nothing insulting like Emerging, but not as fun, either. Just goes to show the complexities of judging art. However, don’t believe for a second that I respect Emerging more after reading Infected Island (Kansen Rettou)—this one was just out of its depth from its beginning, before even considering its execution.