Last year, the eighth main title game in the Resident Evil series, Resident Evil Village, was released. RE Village created a ton of buzz online, particularly in relation to one of the game's main antagonists, Lady Dimitrescu. As a sequel to Resident Evil 7, many fans were also excited to see how the playable character, Ethan Winters, fared in this new environment.
Resident Evil Village is full of gross biological horror, just like most RE games. However, unlike other Resident Evil titles, Village also embodies the Gothic, with Castle Dimitrescu and House Beneviento serving as prominent locations throughout the games. This particular combination of gothic elements and zombie biohazards makes for incredible storytelling, something fans also look for in other media, such as manga.
Cradle Of Monsters
A group of teenagers embarks on a cruise called the Ocean's Cradle. The cruise eventually capsizes, and a hostile individual attacks the teenagers and their teacher, who is bitten by the intruder and becomes infected. The group is thrown into a zombie outbreak and must survive the chaos that takes place on the ship.
In Resident Evil Village, Ethan Winters has faced his fair share of zombified individuals. However, he has only recently received professional training from Chris Redfield regarding how to handle the infected, but he was a novice in Resident Evil 7, which is generally considered one of the best Resident Evil games. Like these students, Ethan is often in isolated places with minimal resources on how to survive the zombies and has often survived due to dumb luck.
Resident Evil: The Marhawa Desire
Of course, any die-hard RE fan would want to explore some of the manga that has been created from the franchise. Resident Evil: The Marhawa Desire (also known as BIOHAZARD marhawa desire) is a manga series about a biohazard outbreak in Singapore. BSAA advisor Doug Wright investigates these incidents at the Marhawa School.
Chris Redfield makes several appearances and has some amazing quotes throughout RE: Village, as he does throughout much of the Biohazard franchise, including The Marhawa Desire. With the primary backdrop of the manga set at a prestigious school, locations are also similar to the grandness of several of the buildings in Village, which takes place in Romania.
At The Mountains Of Madness
An adaptation of the work by H.P. Lovecraft, the manga At The Mountains of Madness is another great read after playing RE: Village. At The Mountains of Madness is about an expedition team that explores a desolate and uninhabitable region in Antarctica. They come across a group of corpses that have been rather violently killed across the landscape.
The grimness of this manga is befitting of any RE story, but especially Resident Evil: Village. As Ethan explores the isolated village in Romania, he also comes across gruesome and eerie sites. Both works are horrifying in many aspects, and they both deal with beings that aren't quite human.
Descendants Of Darkness
Descendants of Darkness explores the supernatural. It is about shinigami, which are spirits of death in Japan and are often portrayed in Japanese storytelling, such as Death Note, which gave rise to one of the best anime of the 2000s. In this particular work, they are Guardians of Death and deal with strange arrivals in the Underworld as they work under the King of Death.
One of the main characters, Kazutaka Muraki, experiences horrific memories of the porcelain dolls his mother owned. They are drawn in disturbing proportions throughout the manga and are just as creepy as the dolls found in House Beneviento in RE: Village. Overall, the manga matches the creepy tone of the video game.
Alice In Borderland
The manga, Alice in Borderland, was recently adapted into a Japanese drama for Netflix, the first season of which made many fans eager for season 2. The manga's story follows a high school student named Ryōhei Arisu, or as he is later called, Alice. Arisu and his friends end up in an alternate world called "Borderland," where they must play games or die.
Arisu is similar to Ethan because they both did not really wish for the situations they found themselves in. Ethan just wanted to save his wife, Mia, and later, his daughter Rose. Both characters do what they must in order to survive and protect their family and friends. Arisu and Ethan have become pawns in a game they never asked to play.
I Am A Hero
After playing both Resident Evil 7 and Village, fans will be able to see the similarities between Ethan Winters and the protagonist of the manga I Am A Hero. The main character of the manga, Hideo Suzuki, is already experiencing a difficult period in his life as a manga artist, along with dealing with his strained relationship with his girlfriend. One day, he visits his girlfriend to find that she has become a zombie, along with many others.
Just like Hideo Suzuki, Ethan discovers his wife Mia has also been infected. In RE: Village, Ethan is depicted as a lone hero who must deal with the effects of the biohazardous curse. Although their personalities are different from each other, Ethan and Hideo must become heroes and even a leader within their groups in order to save the survivors around them.
Manhole
As fans have experienced multiple times throughout the Resident Evil universe, biohazard outbreaks occur often. In the manga series Manhole, investigators study mysterious incidents as the BSAA agents do in RE. After investigating some gruesome and disturbing deaths, investigators in Manhole are led to a lethal and threatening biological agent.
While Ethan is preoccupied with attempting to save his daughter throughout Resident Evil: Village, he comes across the products born from the horrific biological element that created the zombies that players see throughout the entire franchise. This element comes from "the Mold," which has caused chaos for over a century.
The Promised Neverland
The Promised Neverland centers around a group of children at an isolated orphanage, one of many orphanages in the "human world." They are raised to be very intelligent by "Mother" since they will be fed to the demons found in the "demon world." However, the children have knowledge of this "promise."
On the surface, The Promised Neverland does not seem to emulate much from Resident Evil: Village. However, the mother figure plays a very important role in both stories. While the Mother at the orphanage must raise the children for their service to the demon world, one of the primary antagonists in Village is Mother Miranda, who has had a role in creating many of the other creatures that players interact with throughout the game and the franchise as a whole.
Manga Of The Dead
Another manga about the zombie apocalypse, Manga of the Dead, follows two siblings who are encountering the terrifying catastrophe that has affected their world. While they have not been infected, their parents have turned into zombies. The scenarios they experience are abominable.
Resident Evil: Village is full of disturbing scenes and body horror. Ethan Winters has lost his hand multiple times, and his infant daughter has been separated into flasks. In both stories, characters deal with the terrible lasting effects of a biohazard outbreak.
Hideout
Hideout is a psychological horror about a couple on vacation. Seiichi Kirishima is a former writer, but his life has spiraled out of control. In desperation, he takes his wife on a trip to an island as he writes his final novel. He has decided that he will murder his wife on this island.
While Ethan Winters has dealt with loss himself, he would not voluntarily murder his own wife. However, his wife, Mia Winters, is no longer human. She has been infected by the Mold and violently lashes out against him multiple times. After RE7, she was never the same, and eventually, he realizes that these events have placed himself and their daughter in danger. Throughout Village, players experience Ethan's turmoil regarding Mia, since his anger about their family's situation seems to always return to her.