No Guns Life

The manga sets out to deliver a quirky, stylish, action-packed, tech noir thriller detective story and it mostly succeeds in that the end result is undeniably cool but also somewhat vapid and stodgy. It's unfortunate for a premise with so much potential but the manga does start to overstay its welcome by the later chapters. The overall plot, character motivations, flashbacks and regular exposition become fairly convoluted and you'll find that around halfway through you end up caring less about what's about to happen from a story standpoint and more about treating your eyes to the author's creative and dramatic artwork. On the artwork, it iseasily the best part of this manga. Very much in S-tier territory. The character designs are clean, sharp and eye-catching. It manages to keep just enough of the rough linework to be charming while also coming across as super polished and refined as a final product. Karasuma certainly didn't cut corners here and it is fairly obvious that the art style and technical quality of the art together do much to carry this otherwise very average story. No where did I feel the linework was rushed for a less important scene or that the author was particularly better at the start or at the end of the series - the art is just consistently gorgeous with a very premium feel to it. The series does a decent job at worldbuilding but despite regular exposition there is a very strong sense of disconnectedness from the setting that these characters are inhabiting. There isn't much in the way of inhabitants in the backgrounds or wide shots of bustling futuristic cities but rather close angles of alleyways, run-down apartments, and nondescript sci-fi lab facilities and the like. This is a very personal, intimate story that the author is trying to elevate through higher stakes but it just doesn't fully come together in my view. The writing is not bad though... the dialogue for one thing is excellent, hitting both the dry humor you expect from a noir-style story but also some very satisfying one-liners and very personalized dialogue for each of the characters. The characters themselves are for the most part likeable and the protagonists feature some very grown-up, believable friendships and endearing interactions. Overall though the story is a bit too messy, foggy and needlessly intricate to be truly memorable or unique and the attempts at social commentary around topics like body modification and the treatment of war veterans feels half-hearted and clumsy. Still, there is enough good here to recommend a read through for anyone who wants a Blade Runner-esque action manga with top tier art.