Not Lives

So, when I first started reading this manga I found it very cliche, and thought I knew exactly where it was going and what was going to happen. Thankfully, I was totally wrong. Not Lives is a strange name that doesn't get explained until the manga seems nearly over. It never reveals all the tiny details, but I found that to be a positive more than a negative. I like stories where I can make my own theories and try to figure things out for myself. Are there things that don't make a lot of sense? Yeah, but I was never bored, and I found myselfgasping in shock at certain plot twists that I never saw coming. I found myself really caring about the characters and what would happen to them, and I really appreciated and loved the ending. There are a lot of stories that are great the whole way through, but have terrible endings, this was a story that I felt started off kind of average but got much better and had a fantastic ending. And to be able to finish off on a high note is always best.

While a bit underdeveloped plot-wise, Not Lives is a fun read with a unique take on the concept of being stuck in a game - a tough thing to do in a genre which has been done so many times. The art is stellar, the fight scenes are fun, but you won't find yourself too engrossed in the story or attached to the characters. All in all I give it a 7/10 - if you're looking for a light read in the isekai genre, it's enjoyable even if it's not deep, and worth a read. Story: 6/10 With the amount of manga out there having the conceptof being "stuck in a game", it's hard to come up with something original. And yet, Not Lives manages - with death in the game resulting in a player becoming an avatar to be controlled by another player being a pretty unique take on the genre. Besides that though, the story is unfortunately nothing special, primarily focusing on the MC and his avatar's attempts to clear the game and opting for action over plot. No explanation is ever given about what the game is, how it exists, or why it exists. Art: 8/10 I really love the character design of Amamiya, and the fight scenes feel very crisp and easy to follow, not overly busy like some series. Most of the male characters though are not nearly as detailed or spectacular, which is a given since the MC is a bit of a self-insert character. Character: 6/10 Most of the characters are pretty shallow. The MC himself has basically a single character trait: that he obsessively likes games and designing games. He's given no further character development beyond that, and the only things driving him to clear the game is that he wants to understand more about it and fulfill his avatar's wish purely out of altruism and curiosity. Amamiya on the other hand is initially very mysterious with little actual character development, but towards the end is more fleshed out becoming the one truly developed character in the story. Most of the villains and rivals are, unfortunately, entirely one-dimensional as well though. One thing I will say is that the author didn't descend into harem or ecchi tropes too often, and when they did, it was always tongue-in-cheek - usually with the MC commenting that he needs to take notes for when he develops a dating sim. Enjoyment: 8/10 It's a fun series. It's not the most profound thing in the genre by far, but the fight scenes are among the best I've seen in an "isekai" manga and the pacing of reveals about the game and Amamiya's backstory are perfectly timed. You definitely won't be bored by Not Lives.

tl;dr: A manga with a good though predictable plot with solid action, but pretty shallow characters. This is a manga centered around the standard premise of featuring characters that live in the real modern world for the most part but occasionally have to enter into supernatural battles as a part of some sort of competition. As far as this goes, it felt that it didn’t use this setting all that well, in that it spent essentially all of its time past some parts in the beginning completely focused on the supernatural battles part. These early parts were pretty amusing with good comedy stemming from the strangeaspects of the main characters and definitely made the main characters more likable, and I think the manga could have definitely used more of such parts during the latter half. I feel that this was a missed opportunity because it may have helped with better developing the characters, who for the most part all felt pretty shallow and didn’t go through any major character development. And while a relationship did develop between the two main characters, it didn’t feel built up to all that well. Still, I guess in exchange for that the part focused on the supernatural aspect was done well. The plot has various twists and turns that often don’t get explained immediately, but in the end it manages to tie most of them together into a cohesive endings. There are still various things that aren’t fully explained, but they don’t really feel like plot holes, but rather things that in the end simply weren’t all that relevant. The battle system was fleshed out pretty well in the outset, but then it seemed to not use a lot of those aspects all that well most of the time and instead go in random directions. Still, despite that the various mechanics it did continue to use, mainly those stemming from the player-avatar duality, as well as the randomly new introduced ones did make the battle scenes pretty interesting. The ending all around was done pretty well, in that it was predictable, but satisfying. The art was solid and felt high quality, though style wise it was a bit generic.

One might glance at the cover of "Not Lives" and think it was a manga that involved dating sims more than it actually does. Believe me; that's what I thought when I first picked the first volume up at a certain bookstore back in 2016. Although the actual content of the manga wasn't exactly what I expected, I did enjoy it enough to buy the second volume later on. For some reason, however, I ended up stopping collecting the volumes there, and I never got around to reading the rest of the series....until now. I mean, just like how a lot of gamers like to100% their favorite games, I've got to 100% a manga that I at least thought was decent, right? Anyway, I bought the last eight volumes and read the entire thing from the beginning. Now that I've cleared this manga, what do I think of it? Let's find out! Not Lives primarily follows Shigeru Mikami, a high school student with a deep love and appreciation for video games. He doesn't like just playing games, however; he has developed quite a few games of his own, even a mobile game that his childhood friend had been playing without even knowing he made it. One day, while gathering research materials for a dating sim he was requested to develop, he stumbles onto a disc for a game called "Not Alive". One finger press to the middle of the disc later, he has taken control of a girl named Kyouka Amamiya, an avatar in a mysterious real-life fighting game. From there, Shigeru and Kyouka must work together to clear the game....which turns out to be a real fight for survival. At the start, Not Lives seems like the kind of manga that would follow a specific formula. Shigeru and Kyouka get challenged to a fight, they win, and onto the next. However, sooner rather than later, the story starts getting into longer story arcs that actually introduce player-avatar teams that aren't just there to be an enemy to the main duo. Unfortunately, the supporting characters aren't too memorable either way, and although they seem like they'd serve a real purpose to the story, they aren't utilized to their fullest potential. It's even worse for characters that aren't a part of the game, such as Shigeru's aforementioned childhood friend, Itsuki; not having her somehow get caught up in Not Alive was a mountain of wasted potential, and her obvious crush on Shigeru never got properly explored, either. What does get explored quite a bit, though, is the relationship between Shigeru and Kyouka, as well as their own characters. Okay, maybe not so much for Shigeru, but that doesn't stop him from being a very likable character; I really enjoyed his determination and his passion for games. Kyouka is, by far, the character who gets the most development; we get to see what her family life is like, her skillset in and out of battle, and bits and pieces of her backstory. In the end, there is a major reveal about who Kyouka really is, and while it definitely took me off-guard, I can at least say that it was properly foreshadowed. The relationship that forms between Shigeru and Kyouka, while not particularly substantial, was ultimately very sweet. The battles in Not Lives are very fast-paced and well-drawn, although it can be a little hard to follow for those who are not seasoned action manga readers. The way the battles are drawn definitely adds to how fun they are to read through. Something that particularly interests me about these battles - well, the first two real battles, specifically - is how the defeated avatars are removed from the game; the way those scenes are drawn really utilize the medium of manga that the story is being told from. Another thing about the art that I liked is the character designs; Wataru Karasuma really has a talent for drawing cute girls and not-too-bad-looking guys. Yeah, that's all I really have to say about the art. Overall, Not Lives isn't a game-changer of a manga, but it's a fun read nonetheless. I recommend it for anyone in the mood for a manga that gives off the same energy of fighting games. At the very least, you should read it for the bonus chapters at the end of some volumes, which pay homage to beloved titles in a way that a manga with a true love for video games can!