What This World Is Made of Tells the Reader ‘Just’ Enough

With all the isekais appearing in the last few years, I was delighted to see the manga What This World is Made of. It’s a fascinating concept, to be certain. What if what we know about our surroundings aren’t as definite as they seem? Add in a touch of unexpected use of technology and an identifiable situation, and Shin Yamamoto does a great job of setting up the story and creating a scenario where a reader ight be desperate to see what’s next.

Kaname and Kanade Nakata are orphans. Their grandmother died. They lost their homes. All they have is a van, and even it is in wretched shape. Not to mention Kaname’s only 21, and Kanade is still 16 and in high school. The series begins with Kaname losing his job after his company closed due to tough economic times, and they place they were living is demolished. They’re sharing a phone and broken down on the side of the road, checking apps on said phone for some sort of opportunity when an ad for a strange app called Six appears.

Six, as it turns out, is an application that sends people to find Worlds monsters at various real-world locations. Their phone generates a weapon for them. They get a bounty if they finish the job. However, there are catches. While on their first contract to Take Down the Dungeon’s Thrasher at a parking garage, they meet a more experienced high school girl named Tohko Susuki who’s there to assist them on the fight. It’s only once things get going that they realize this is very real, very dangerous, and maybe not as lucrative as it seems. While the fee for that bounty said it was 1,668,990 yen, it ends up being 123,880 yen after damages and other fees.

But what I really loved about this series is the hook. Usually the first volume of a manga ends with a cliffhanger of sorts, and the one for What This World is Made of really delivers. We’re seeing hints about multiple characters and plotlines. It left me wondering what happened, why things where going on, and how things can be resolved in a way that maybe gives Kaname and Kanade a shot at a better life. Even better is that it’s handled in a way where I can tell it could be some time before we get answers. Like the execution of some of the hints being dropped clearly show situations where one could be resolved more quickly, but others will take more time and character development.

In short, What This World is Made of is quite a promising series, and I really love how the manga handles things. It feels like a story that is great at conveying the proper amount of information at the right time, while still hinting at various mysteries and plot threads. It made me wonder what’s next for its characters, especially given the immediate situations surrounding Kaname, Kanade, and Tohka. It’s a situation where perhaps you hope for the best for the cast, but maybe need to be prepared to brace for the worst.

Yen Press is handling localization of What This World is Made of, and volume 2 of the manga will appear on August 22, 2023.