Jul 31, 2020
This is a very well constructed manga. Rather than getting into detail on why it's so great, I'd rather just discuss the major critique of it I had.
Its a story that is on par with any of the anti-war greats, something that never holds back its critique and depicts its subjects unflinchingly. It has beautiful art, well-composed plots, and realistic character development throughout. It is a true realization of many staples of the mecha genre. Each arc is its own story- with the setting being one of the only shared traits throughout (more on this later)- that explores different themes and perspective. It would be
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too hard to summarize each one, so its best explored for yourself. Much of it strays from romanticization, though thats an inescapable byproduct of the format and its definitely present. Whats important is that it does not overly try to rehabilitate its subjects. Its a war story done quite right.
Yet, disappointingly, what threw me off was one central aspect of the entire series- the gimmick that would serve as the "connecting thread" between the disparate stories and characters of each arc. I am talking about the character of Kenichi Inuzuka, the deviant war correspondent who chronicles everything thats going on in the war-torn Huffman Island.
He serves as an important character in-universe who's actions have ostensible political weight- he is a rogue wartime filmographer who takes pictures of the various conflicts as well as all sorts of war crimes and brutality and then uploads them to the internet free of any government regulation. His work serves as an expose of the horrors of war and an important framing device for many of the messages of each arc. His own motivations are far less scrupulous however- he is an unabashed pervert, a total hedonist and self described war otaku who just wants to film all the mechas and soldiers.
This character is incredibly annoying both as a distinct personality and a plot device. Of course this is a futuristic mecha anime about a global conflict that has absolutely no basis in actual geopolitics. Yet the suspension of disbelief involved with this character often serves a gigantic plot hole in what is otherwise so well constructed. He is seemingly omniscient because he is an "information broker" and journalist, somehow seeming to know everyone and everything on a very personal level. He can appear everywhere at once, with no sense of scale as to the distance hes traveling between each location or time that has passed. He is seemingly indestructible, running around live gunfire and explosions that is shown brutally dismembering armed soldiers. He appears to exist almost as a godlike figure in this universe, and its unbearably corny when scenes that have emotional weight are interrupted by this nerd showing up in front of soldiers inside giant mechs and somehow communicating with them. The scenes where he appears in front of characters as a sort of messiah, offering them gifts of super deadly military ordinance are awful. It almost feels like the editors forced the writers to include him more. Or theres maybe the off chance they actually felt this guy was some sort of clever mysterious figure. Either way it sucks.
Because of the tangential nature of the arcs, nothing is really explained about the logistics of Inuzuka's operation by about 3/4ths of the way through the series. He is shown to be receiving equipment from a disheveled looking journalist in Japan, who obviously has money and connections. But how much? How much of this is funded? He's shown looking dirt poor and needing money for bus fare at some point. Yet at other points he's just cavorting around with top military brass and offering weapons to people like he controls every financial channel within these governments. The wild inconsistency is perhaps meant to contribute to the mystique of his character, but it feels juvenile when juxtaposed against much of the grounded content of the rest of the manga.
Inuzuka's personality and perverted disposition isn't in question here at all, though he gets old 30 chapters or so in. He is still as layered a character as any other- and the arc that focuses on him is perhaps one of the best in the entire manga. I'm sure theres a statement to be made on his character- that its kind needed to be a journalist in that situation, and more generally, its probably the kind needed to survive at all. If he was as powerless as he looked or perhaps wasn't give the seemingly infinite resources he had, I would definitely have enjoyed this sort of brunt appraisal of journalism. As it stands, he feels to much like a product of a mangakas attempt to make a noteworthy character more than a sincere piece of storytelling.
The manga is not fully scanlated, so I cannot give an overall appraisal of the work at this time. Please read it for yourself, I think whether or not you agree with my evaluation of Inuzuka, you will thoroughly enjoy this manga if you are anti-war and a fan of the mecha genre.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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