The third volume of this slow-pacing (semestral) series has just come out in Italy. This however is a kind of story well suited for this slow pace: it does have fantascientific or thriller elements, but anyway mostly evolves on character introspection and reflection.
ES (the title printed on its cover) is one of the most interesting adult manga title currently coming out in Italy, and Fuyumi Soryo one of the most promising authors published by Star Comics, standing out from other "minor" titles in a continuum which is well known for little variety instead.
Published about once in six months on Point Break, the "mature" heading in Star Comics publishings (opened as a twin sister for Storie di Kappa to publish works a little less popular than bestsellers, though not always and not always so interesting).

Enough small talk. ES evolves around a few main characters: Mine Kujo, researcher, Sakaki, former researcher, and Shuro, former matter of a research... a young man with uncommon powers, but he seems to just wish to lead a normal life among normal people. Shuro is an ES, a genetically modified human being... pity though there is another ES, Izak, less quiet than Shuro...

Soryo's artwork is neat and precise, not too caricatural but not exactly realistic either. Lines are few and essential; screentones effectively enrich them, but it's not just screentones for instance in backgrounds, in some panels definitely well detailed and in any case they're always adequate to panel construction. In Es we don't see much of stylistic evolution as for Fuyumi Soryo it has already taken place: I'd say she seems "settled" for now.

Script flows in a clean and precise way too; not exactly linear, but with few plot twists, good starting in medias res, but more or less we know everything we need to of characters past. The focus is mostly on characters feelings, expressions and reactions: Soryo is very good at digging in human soul and often chooses characters away from average people and not truly integrated in their surroundings (not just misfits, anyway, but also simply people with a bit of dissatisfaction). Right now the story is going on at a good pace; but we still have to see whether it keeps interesting after some more volumes. Soryo in fact does tend to conduct experiments with her characters, just as researchers who are protagonist in this story, and especially tends to conduct experiments with strong emotions; but since she focuses on few characters at a time, the risk is to lose credibility in between (everything seems to happen around these poor guys) and to lose interest, as a consequence. We shall see.

In conclusion, for now a very good reading I recommend without thinking twice about it, yet waiting to get sure this story keeps its high level quality.

A few comments more: Fuyumi Soryo is known in Italy as shojo manga author (we got to know her with Mars, published on Amici), but ES is not shojo manga, appearing in Japan on Morning magazine, which is definitely not a shojo manga magazine. That we do not evidence great stylistic changes from Mars is proof, if we had ever needed it, that in fact "shojo" has nothing to do with content of a work and very little with its style (after all not that all the rest fits just oine category, shonen manga are for boys).

Other works by Fuyumi Soryo seen in Italy (in short):
Mars, 15 volumes, published on Amici (Star Comics). First volumes were excellent, unfortunately it got a little lost in between.
Mars Gaiden, single volume, published on Amici (Star Comics). Contains just one short story tied to Mars (but fully readable per se) and a few other short stories. All of which good. Recommended.
Sole Maledetto, single volume, published on Point Break (Star Comics). Contains four short stories, each one showing strong emotional conflict. Probably Soryo is especially good at writing short stories. A must read.