Mishima is your average spineless pushover, working as a repairman for the Exopolis Tower, Tokyo's largest and hottest high rise business and entertainment building.  He promises to come home in time to celebrate his son's birthday, but when he lets his pushy boss saddle him with overtime, the task takes him all night.  On the morning subway train heading home, a massive earthquake strikes and collapses Exopolis and its underground train lines.  Now Mishima is trapped deep underground with the other passengers of the train, some of whom are less than cooperative.  Will he be able to take the initiative for once and lead them all to freedom, or will they starve in their underground prison?

Metro Survive is a disaster story following in the tradition of 70's disaster flicks like Earthquake and Posiden Adventure.  A diverse group of people survive a natural disaster and must find a way around the insurmountable odds to get out alive.  What makes this story different from those 70's flicks, is that you could actually see something like this happening today.  Exopolis Tower is a disaster waiting to happen.  The collapse is foreshadowed as we follow Mishima during the day as he does his maintenance, such as having to repair doors that won't close due to warped frames.  We even know that the building wasn't properly reinforced for Earthquake safey, and that it would be "retrofitted", just so the building could be completed in time to be Tokyo's tallest for a little while.  It's very believable that a construction company would skimp on safety measures for the sake of time, caring more for their bottom line than the welfare of the building occupants.

Our group of survivors are the passengers in one of the subway cars that had it's door jammed due to the train derailment.  They are interesting cross-section of society.  There is an old couple that had packs of climbing gear, a young couple and their son who were going to the amusement park at Exopolis, two loudmouthed guys, a quiet young woman, and Mishima and a conductor.  Because it took longer to get out of car, they are still in the tunnel when Exopolis collapses, so they are the ones trapped by the cave in and must find a way out.  The interaction between these people, and if/how they decide to work together is the core of the conflict of this title.  For the first half of the book, as the survivors are trying to get out of the subway and up to the surface, a lot of time is spent trying to assign blame to someone for their current predicament.  The loudmouths and the young father are especially quick to try to get someone else to accept blame.  But as it becomes more apparent that all escape routes are cut off, responsibility for who got them into the situation becomes less important, and who will get them out becomes more important.  Mishima, because of his generally calm demenor and maintenance knowledge becomes their defacto leader.

A leader turns out to be someone they need, as they reach the ticket platform, and meet another group of survivors, people who were waiting for the next train.  From this point on, the book becomes an "us vs them", instead of just mere survival.  The people on the platform are all people that could be considered the dredges of society, and are portrayed as such for the most part.  Night Club Hosts who are more interesting in their appearance than conserving precious water, leacherous salary men who try to take advantage of the young women from Mishima's group, clubbing girls filled with spite, and a judo club who was up all night playing mahjong.  With only the food from a convenience store to feed the now 27 survivors, dissent grows in the platform group against Mishima's group.  It's almost a like a "light" vs "dark" situation.  Not only do Mishima's group have to fight to survive, they have to also fight off darker forces that are trying to get rid of them, and by the end of the volume, it appears that the darkness has won.

I really enjoyed this volume.  The drama and tension was intense, especially in the second half.  You can practically feel the tension as you read.  There's also the feeling that something more is going on.  It's only hinted at, but there seems to be conspiracy to keep the survivors from Exopolis from escaping and possibly exposing *all* of the safety violations.  As Sachi points out, there  should be some sort of radio signal that they could pick up on.  The complete lack of signals implies that something inside Exopolis is blocking the radio waves getting in or out.  Mishima, though he starts out as seeming like a pushover, he turns out to be a real leader.  Sachi, the quiet young woman, makes a good co-leader, with her intelligent observations, and calm demenor supporting Mishima.  One thing I really appreciated in the volume, as a native Californian, is the people's reaction to the earthquake.  No one paniced after the initial shake, with the loudmouths ever getting excited about the size; it was the highest on the Japanese scale.  This was definitely written by someone who's been through their share of earthquakes.

The presentation of the volume is high quality.  DRMasters gave it a larger size, with a glossy cover that has fold-in sides, giving the appearance of having a dust cover, like the Japanese release would have had.  The art is mostly realistic, with some of the characters having a more cartoonish look.  These looks fit their personalities though.  They are mostly applied to the older couple, though more so to the trouble makers of the loudmouths from Mishima's group and the leacherous salary men from the ticket platform group.

I highly recommend this title to anyone looking for a good drama.  The story is well written and the characters interesting and easy to relate to.  It's the believability of their situation that really makes the story so compelling.  With so few mature titles coming out with a wide appeal, this title stands out as a good example of an adult offering should be.

10