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Turned out to be a rather fun manga which could have easily been an 8/10 or higher with a few tweaks.

The main draw here is the art. It is dated and shows its age, but often in ways that are enjoyable. The designs are unique, characters are identifiable from one another, and it has a fun style to it. Paneling is really great, and you get some really well-done scenes (especially in Vol 2). For the most part the action scenes are easy to follow, I did find towards the second half of the story as things are wrapping up, we had more skipping ... around during the fight where it was harder to tell what exactly was going on.

That flow of combat is one way in which the story could have been improved. Too many times I had to re-read the last page to ensure I was really following what was happening. There are at least 2-3 panels I still *am not sure* what was being shown in them, usually some explosion that I cannot really figure out how it plays into things.

In the design category, I wish the mangaka had not incorporated old tank designs so prolifically. For a story 500 years in the future, it feels odd to have old WW2 tanks all around. As the story gets more sci-fi in the middle and end of it, the world improves for it. I wish the tanks had been some fictionalized wheeled vehicle that fit the world better and did not feel so jarring (same with the weird baseball helmets throughout). This feels like a gripe, but it really does a lot to break the world feel.

The story was fair to good. It could have been done better with a less episodic start, but overall, it wasn't bad. The concept of man and machine is interesting and thought provoking, but not as deeply done in this story as it is in many others. The character does not go through much growth but given the length of the story that is not too bad. One thing I did really enjoy about the story is it does not pull punches, there is death it in - in ways that will subvert your expectations.

Overall, I recommend it so long as you know what you are getting into. The art is old (pro and con), the story is short and direct (pro and con), and a bit of the designs are both jarring and unique (pro and con). In the end I liked it, but it barely passed into the 7/10 rating I gave it.

The art is absolutely wonderful and overall, I enjoyed the book. Spoiler section clearly outlined.

I read other reviews that this was hard to follow, and while correct it isn't to the level that it is impossible to follow. The paneling itself is remarkably easy to digest, there is no difficulty in being able to follow the flow of events and nothing feels "jumpy" between action sequences.

The majority of the hard areas to follow is in how the story unfolds as well as the introduction of new characters. The story feels like 50% of a full story, where you are reading maybe every other chapter ... of a longer manga. You still get the start and end though. You have to piece together events that played out between the chapters, though it is easy enough to determine what the conclusion of events was based on in-world dialogue and situations.

The second is the introduction of characters, which has a very "flow-like" style. It will follow from one event from the previous story tangentially to the next event. To use an example, two people end up on a highway due to the events of our protagonist. A car narrowly avoids them by swerving. The story then takes us to the driver of the car and introduces those characters - leaving behind the protagonist and the previous story. All the characters end up melding together into one homogeneous story, but the way it can hook onto a new character and dive into them for a chapter can be jarring.

With those two understood, I still think the story was overall fun. It touched on humanity, aliens, etc. It had an ending of sorts - more so than a random anthology would. There is humor imbedded throughout the manga based on some character references as well as interactions. I don't quite get the other reviews where they say the stories are random - they all certainly tie together.

Anyway, I recommend the book so long as you know the unique structure of the story and character introductions going into it.

SPOILER ALERT
For those who cannot seem to understand the story, here is how it all links together:

Humanity on Venus ruled by computer, Nemesis. -> Humanity transitions to being ruled unfairly by Zeus (robot). -> Nemesis creates Duna Typhon to guard humanity (all humanoids) against Zeus -> Zeus tries to kill Typhon -> Battle almost results in the crash of Duna Typhon's friends, the staff of the "Onimal" restaurant -> Luna is given sword by Nemsis and "activated" -> Zeus sends robots to kill Duna and Friends who escape -> We go to a secondary story about Zeus trying to setup a colony on Earth -> Nemsis had setup an artificial sun to heat the earth up for new colonization -> Zeus sends an undercover agent to blow up the artifical sun and stops mammals from developing -> this kills most life on earth but we learn not all of it (start of our ice age) -> [Inferred] Zeus does not want Humanity to expand and is working against them -> Introduced to new characters + gag chapter -> We go to a new story and there are "rogue" robots on the loose trying to be stopped -> [Inferred] Zeus has released these robots to kill humans -> Luna learns about this and goes to stop them -> We follow some human spec-ops who are able to take out a few, but it shows the superiority of robots to humanity -> New robot model under control of humans is launched to try and stop old robots, Luna sees the danger in this new model and alters events to show humanity's danger of relying on robots tos olve their issue, the new model escapes into the city. -> Humans stop the new model with much difficulty, discussing more philosophical concepts about humanity versus robots and user versus tool -> [Inferred] Zeus is looking for more ways to stop humanity's spread and testing concepts -> Zeus sets up a program to ship humanity off Venus to new colonies -> Plot is discovered by Luna and staff of "Onimal", they foil the plot with the help of the Captain and save the ship -> Ship returns to Venus to spread the news of Zeus's betrayal of humanity -> Zeus is overthrown and humans take over as leaders of humanity, with Nemesis as an advisor -> Duna Typhon leaves guardian of humanity leaves -> Epilogue tells us a Bioroid War of Liberation breaks out and kills both humanity and robots on Venus, turning it into how we see Venus today.

So pretty standard ending, it wraps up the story, we have our main protagonist traveling the stars (to maybe return if the author wanted a new story), but Venus is destroyed. Was it Zeus who came back? Was it Nemesis? Luckily guessing is part of the fun.

I think this is a fun manga to read if you go into it with appropriate caveats. Without any spoilers, these are as follows:

- It is hard science fiction with dated humor (this doesn't mean it doesn't work though). You have to accept what is happening and going on at face value.

- The story is not complete. Probably due to how it was serialized and its release alongside the show version, the three parts are not themselves complete nor does it conclude in an overall story arch. Story 1 kind of "wraps up" but is missing quite a bit at the end - it gives ... you a conclusion as an "after the event" situation - but you have to just accept that all those events got wrapped up. Story 2 and 3 are connected, with a better pacing but an even worse "ending" - as in there is none. The last two chapters have continuity issues and it just kind of ends. Some people are much more unhappy with the open ended/uncompleted story aspect of certain manga - and if so you will not find this to be a 7/10.

With those caveats aside, if you are willing to accept them it is a fun manga with great art. The story is engaging enough, and the characters are fun. It is still a 70/80s manga, which means it isn't a deep story masterpiece like a lot of manga are shooting for today. It is more along the lines of a fun scifi comic run. The art really appealed to me, and the characters/humor worked for me. About as much as I can cover without any spoilers! If the story was more overarching completed and didn't do some scene jumping, it would be a firm 8/10.

I write this from the perspective that I have not watched the Anime. Since they are different stories anyway, I don't think that really matters.

I went into this really wanting to like it. A mystery about forgotten memory, a noir story throughout it with big giant mecha! That checks so many boxes for me - but its execution is dreadful. First let's work back from the giant Mecha. The art is cool, but the battles are indecipherable. The art is done in a way that you have to constantly be trying to piece together what the machines are doing in the worst possible way. It ... makes the fights probably the worst part of the whole manga - you dread to see the Mecha come about. There is also no tension really, the main mecha is always going to win and it's not even really hinted at otherwise.

The characters are okay. The main character is basically just "negotiator batman but a big mecha instead of batman equipment". You have the butler who is basically your Alfred, and randomly brutal as hell. Dorothy gets added in the second book and she is the best of the story. There are times where they explore her and add comedy to the situation - those are the only worthwhile parts of this manga which stop the score from sliding even further.

The story itself are a bunch of one shots with lame villains. One or two are recurring, and with the "main" recurring one being the lamest one. I didn't care at all for them, there are no real story arcs besides surface level crimes, and you already know how they are always going to end.

The mystery remains unsolved really by the end. I was hoping for a mystery noir with cool robot fights. I got undecipherable robot fights, no mystery solved, and lame characters. Pass.

What an unfortunate series to not have completed. The manga is technically "finished" but it is one of the "finished by cancellation" mangas. I had read some other reviews saying it was a rushed ending - but this has indeed *no* ending. I found that a bit dissapointing.

The manga has many good qualities to it. The one that stands out the most is the art, which when it comes to the jets is absolutely fantastic. The actual people are drawn well enough, with enough distinction character to character to not get confused during paneling. The paneling flow is good, and even with frantic "aerial combat" ... you do not get lost in what is happening. I was pleasantly surprised to see that. The characters were generally good, with the main cast having interesting personalities and interlocking dynamics with one another. You also get to learn some neat jet facts throughout things which was enjoyable.

The story itself is kind of hokey, but not necessarily in a bad way. A girl who has a 1000-year sentence can serve it out by being an ace pilot of a secret organization. You get what you expect with that. It isn't something that is going to drastically tug at your heart strings, but overall it is fun with good action, interesting storylines you want to see progress, and some comedic arcs worked in. There are quite a few scenes of fan service (nudity) which didn't add anything, but hey if that is your jam you have that to look forward to as well. Not sure if this was a pro or a con, but it was funny seeing the SU series of jet said to be superior to the F-22. Maybe bias in the mangka there!

Overall the only real disbenefit the manga has is that it is not finished. This is really unfortunate, as it read like a manga where the mangaka really knew where they wanted to go with things. If I had finished I think it would be an 8/10 territory, but with the lack of a definitive finish (or using the last chapter to even try and wrap up anything at all) the best I can give it is a 7/10. The last chapter is a flashback for one of the protagonists. It was nice to know, but I would rather have gotten something where the main protagonist post time skip with her contemplating events that have passed - at least giving a bit of closure hints to the story threads. Maybe this got cancelled without any heads up, it certainly feels that way.

Even with the abrupt cancellation, I had enough fun to read through it and recommend others check it out.

A fantastic and almost all-around superior rendition of the store when compared to the manga. The only negative is Book 1 feels rushed and needed to be 2 different books. In other reviews, you will see complaints of this of the entire series. This is not the case, it only really happens in Book 1 and specific to some of the paneling being rushed and the relationship developing between Heero and Relena. That is not too hard to piece together, but it is unfortunate that it wasn't fleshed out more.

Once you get over Book 1, it is all positives from there. The art is great, ... the action is well paneled, and just about every character gets additional background that makes them far more interesting. The original anime suffered in this regard, but the manga has filled in that issue quite well. There were a few iconic scenes which were re-imagined and I would not have minded if it stuck more closely to the anime for those scenes (Epyon and the Colony "cut", Tallgeese II and the epic standing pose with the gun as well as the Tallgeese II's final fight, etc.) but overall the replacement for those scenes was almost just as good - I'm just being nostalgic there.

I think many manga adaptations of anime-first material can suffer for that - but I think on its own this is a very solid manga that is worth the read even if you have not seen the original Gundam Wing Anime. It very likely even is the superior method of receiving the story.

I am writing this review from the perspective of someone who loved the manga and found the anime did not do it justice. You will already find plenty of reviews about this anime just as an anime or as an overall storyline concept. I was pretty excited to see this manga get an adaptation - I should not have been.

A huge part of what makes the Spriggan manga great is the art. So many of the interesting mythical creatures and areas are intricately drawn and wonderful to observe. It gives the world a huge amount of depth and feeling without having to say it ... using words. This goes double for major event reveals or monsters which have a style unto them which greatly enhances the story. The story was never going to be anything insanely complex or heartfelt, but it was a vehicle to get you to these interesting places and see wonderful art/interesting mythology and have a fun action fight mixed in.

The CGI elements and their heavy-handed use ensured none of this charm carried over. This leaves the story to fend for itself on the aspects of storyline and character development - characteristically where the Spriggan manga is weak. Another area the story telling in the anime format fails at is humor. The Spriggan manga is often more humorous, taking itself less seriously and having a lot more humor built in whereas the anime tries to make itself "cool" and a bit more serious. That just cannot work when you over the topics the way Spriggan does - which is silly let's be honest.

Without the wonderful art and beautifully detailed world nor the humor, the Spriggan anime is a shell of its manga self. I highly suggest anyone who did not like this anime or is potentially interested in it give the manga a shot instead.

What a truly fantastic manga.

The art is extremely well done. There is little action, and when there is it is over in one or two panels - but this fits well into the story. A lot of the faces are similar but do not fall into the common issues some manga has where everyone is indecipherable. You can clearly tell who is who throughout the story. One of the areas the art excels at is in visualizing subtle emotion, truly one of the best I've seen where a range of emotion can be applied to the characters face with such nuance and lack of ... over exaggeration. Many other elements about the character style are unique and fits well into the "slow burn" groove of things. It is beautifully done.

The story is just as fantastic as the art. Each character really feels alive with their own emotional scale and investment. None feel overplayed, and even the side characters feel just as much like they exist as the main cast. Unlike so many other manga, there is conflict / doubt / love/ etc. but through a realistic subtle tone with nothing being overblown or yelled in your face. The progression of the story and its elements are really beautiful and have a satisfying ending while not feeling out of sorts with the pacing and tone of the story itself.

Absolutely recommend this as one of the best, mixing mystery / slice of life / time-period / drama genres into a great samurai story.

I am writing this having not read the original Appleseed series yet, though I have flipped through book 1 of it to get a feel before reading Appleseed Alpha. The art style of the two are radically different and I think for someone who has read the original Appleseed first this could be bothersome. Whereas Masamune Shirow's original work is highly detailed and very precise, this one has much more of a casual sketched tone to the art. This personally did not bother me and sometimes I even enjoyed it as it kept everything feeling very easy going - but if I had clear impressions ... of what characters and scenery should look like it may have been bothersome.

The art pacing is pretty well done, and the characters are interesting to look at. Humans do not all look the same which is nice. Paneling is decent to good, though I would say there were still a handful of times where I had to trace back to figure out what was trying to be implied as having happened. This occurred more frequently towards the end of the book.

The actual story itself is fun, approachable, and imaginative. Based on the end commentary by Masamune Shirow - it seemed he liked it too. It isn't too serious of a story and has genuinely humorous elements to it. I think each character had a good life to them, even the ones firmly relegated as side characters. For a shorter story, I was happy to see this.

If I could, I think I would rate this a 7.5/10 due to the paneling issues. However, I've rounded up to an 8 as I still enjoyed it considerably. I certainly recommend it!

Yikes. I wish I had trusted the negative reviews here more - but so often in the past I've seen negative reviews and they do not play out. This is one of those times that it would have benefited me to have trusted them!

The first important thing - the first 2-3 books in this series don't set the readers expectations properly. For longer series like this I tend to read the first two volumes before I jump in and the first two to three volumes of this are the best ones. The manga has its ups and downs from there in so far as being ... okay and being terrible.

ART
I will start on the art side of things. It is interesting but with two major problems. The mangaka cannot draw enough different unique faces for how many characters are in the story. They are great at general work but feel more like they need to be a primary assistant rather than the main artist. It becomes very hard to tell people apart as every guy and every girl kind of look similar outside of hair colors.

Worse though is a lot of the art is "implication". Whereas you would have 5 panels in other works explaining events, this will jump from panel 1->5 and expect you to fill in the rest. Not only does this make you sometimes pause and go "what?", it also leaves a significant number of events feeling unfulfilling. This isn't just fights, but character randomly showing up or people losing limbs where you have to just "assuming" it got cut off mid fight or something.

As the series goes on, I think the impact of computer assistance in the art style becomes more of an issue and makes the art feel boring. By about book 10 I felt no appreciation for it anymore and it was just a sprint to get to the end of the meager story.

STORY
Yep, it is edgy. Edgy isn't necessarily bad though, but this often is groan inducing. The book seems like it will have consequences due to how the first 2-3 books are written - but nope. Everyone of any consequence who dies will come back somehow through some introduced rule that seems to contradict all the other established lore. Everyone will have new abilities from nowhere (enemies and allies) without it being built atop something previously laid out. Just out of nowhere, the story will pull something from its pocket. This can sometimes a be a fun literary element if done in moderation and at the right time - but every book has something like this.

For how much backstory is dedicated to people, it often does nothing to really make you understand their motivations for often irrational behavior. Everyone gets a backstory page, and often they are boring and suck. Couple that with the aforementioned lack of impact to their predictive actions and the story really is a slog.

There are many threads going on at once - too many. It negatively impacts the story. It would be like hearing a song where the artist thought that more notes makes a better sound and just crammed as many of them together as possible without any real thought for how they should meld together.

CONCLUSION
Somewhere in here was a good manga. Book 1-2 had a good grove, and the story needed to be distilled and strengthened. Interestingly enough, Book 12-14 are also great as these books for whatever reason are both far more flesh out (both story and art wise) as well as being somewhat comical. The whole book is absurd but it struggles to hit a level of balanced between "seriousness and comedy" outside of these 12-14 books which works for it. If the author and mangaka had been able to take the fun that is in 14-15 and back it up with the story of 1-2 we'd have something worthwhile.

This is not though. Avoid it.