【Cage of Eden】An action-packed, psychological manga sets in the age of dinosaurs!! A must-read for fans of survival genre!!

Eden no Ori (Cage of Eden) is a manga series written and illustrated by Yoshinobu Yamada. It was serialized in Kodansha’s Weekly Shonen Magazine from November 2008 to January 2013, with a total of 21 volumes. Cage of Eden has also been licensed for official English release by Kodansha USA in North America.

The manga has been well received thanks to its thrilling action sequences, and gradually becomes deeply engrossing as the story progresses. The critics at Anime News Network even said that once a certain point has been reached, it would be nearly impossible to put down!

Cage of Eden started on the flight from Guam to Japan. The main protagonist Akira Sengoku, and his friends were returning home from a school trip. The plane was cruising smoothly while Akira and the rest of his class passed their time.

Next to Akira were his childhood friend and the school idol – Rion Akagami, as well as his best friend and the star of volleyball team – Kouhei Arita. Comparing to them, Akira was not so popular and he would always feel lacking. It showed that Akira has had a crush on Rion but tried to hide his feelings. The only one who would notice was Kouhei.

The three of them was talking so loudly that one of the students – Shirou Mariya, who was sitting in front, asked them to quite it down. At that moment, Shirou was programming on his laptop as he was smart and a top student for nine years straight.

On the other part of the plane, a rookie flight attendance, named Kanako Oomori, accidently spilled some drinks on the homeroom teacher’s shirt.

She quickly apologized and pulled her drink cart away. The teacher, Miss Kurusu Motoko, was wiping the spilled drink on her shirt when her colleague complained about one of her students. His name was Yarai Kouichi. It was briefly revealed that Yarai had caused some trouble while in Guam and involved in fights with the local thugs.

All of them were enjoying their peaceful and normal lives. “Nothing has changed”, Yarai thought, “This insignificant, boring world......”.

The plane suddenly started to shake. Everyone was flying off their seats throughout the plane as fear erupted. A moment later, the shaking finally stopped. The pilot and co-pilot were trying franticly to send SOS signal because the control board inside the cockpit has gone haywire.

Back on the passenger’s cabin, they also noticed that the sky has went pitch black. They couldn’t see the sun or the moon, just total darkness, even though it was noon at the time. The plane began to rapidly drop down and sent everyone into panic.

Akira immediately rushed to find Rion and saw her on the cabin floor. The moment Akira’s hand has almost reached Rion, a weird and giant beak that would belong to some sort of a monster appeared between them. Akira tried to call out Rion’s name but he lost consciousness shortly after.

Akira slowly woke up to find himself in the middle of a jungle. Akira looked up and saw a cloudy and blue sky, with a Notharctus – a type of extinct lemur species, closely observing him. What is going on, where is everyone......

...... uneasy thoughts rushed into Akira’s head while he started to look for his friends. The search was long and unfruitful. Akira then follow another animal that he thought was a beaver type – a big Eumegamys. Lucky for him, the animal led Akira to a nearby waterfall.

After drinking enough water, Akira spotted another type of animal. Four Hyracotherim, also known as the dawn horse, were drinking water on the other side of the waterfall.

With no way out of the island, Akira tried to use his phone to call for help, but there was no signal. Disappointed, Akira began to think back to his friends and their last moment of the plane. Just then, he heard someone’s voice calling for help.

Akira rushed to the source of the voice and on his way, he saw a giant bird. That was a Diatryma. He tried to take a photo of it using his phone, causing the animal to react at him. Diatryma kicked the phone out of Akira’s hand and retreated to its nest.

Then Akira heard the voice called out for his name and discovered one of his classmates – Shirou. Shirou was lying on the ground, his face grimaced in pain. Diatryma has hurt Shirou’s leg.

Asides from Shirou, the rookie flight attendance Kanako was lying nearby and also got attacked by the giant bird. Seeing that Diatryma has caught Kanako and tried to drag her to its nest, Akira bravely charged in to save her. He ducked and slid under Diatryma’s legs. The animal got angry and attacked both of them but it missed, biting on the tree instead.

A lucky chance for Akira to carry Kanako on his shoulder and quickly made his escape. Kanako was hurt badly and couldn’t walk. Akira grabbed ahold of Shirou and the three of them ran for their lives while Diatryma chased closely behind.

They found a crevice on a rock and hid inside. After a few unsuccessful attempts to catch its prey, Diatryma finally gave up and walked away. For now, the three of them were safe.

They returned to the waterfall where Akira drank water earlier. There, Kanako cried in fear and Shirou opened his laptop to check something. Inside his laptop, Shirou was able to identify Dyatrima’s picture in an encyclopedia of “Extinct Animals”. It also listed all of the animals that they have encountered and the animals were supposed to be extinct millions of years ago.

Shirou also tried to find their exact location on the map of the world and discovered that the map showed nothing but vast ocean. They were on an island that shouldn’t even exist.

How would they face this terrifying discovery? Will they survive the dangerous, life threatening jungle full of pre-historic animals?