Despite the anime world’s current fantasy renaissance, a fantasy series that truly feels singular is hard to come by. Nine times out of ten, whatever I pick up ends up echoing something I’ve already read or watched, triggering the urge to revisit the older thing instead. Comparison is the thief of joy, and all that jazz. Although A Garden of Spheres doesn’t fully shake my mind goblins’ impulse to map its narrative beats onto other fantasies I adore, its sheer scope of myth-making and confident artistry left me oohing and aahing with every page turn to the point I felt genuine FOMO for its utterly alien world.

Created by Swedish illustrator and comic book author Linnea Sterte, A Garden of Spheres follows an immortal demigod of destruction with absolutely no memory of who she is. As such, she wanders the lands searching for who she is. She’s far from the most unique being roving the lands. Like its unnamed “unmaker,” A Garden of Spheres isn’t in a rush to railroad itself to any set endgame story goals. Instead, the graphic novel reads like a series of vignettes that shift focus among characters and across time, expanding its mythos as it lays tracks and takes the scenic route through its vivid, Moebius-esque world.

If titles like Scavenger’s Reign , Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End , Monstress , Primal , or To Your Eternity make you sit up in your chair, A Garden of Spheres is both a pastiche of their vibes while being utterly batshit crazy in its own way.

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