The art style of the series was beautiful, which is to be expected from such a veteran as Takeshi Obata. Each of the character designs represented in the series were unique in their own way, and were honest to the character they represented. The backgrounds used in the series were quite pretty, and they complimented the foreground artistry just as well. And finally, the action scenes throughout the series were dark, yet intensely surreal and vivid. I could honestly not take my eyes off the pages during these sequences.
Each of the characters in the series aside from a few were each interesting in their own light, and every single one of them were likable to some extent. I wished that would've enveloped into some of the side characters in the story just a tad more, but that's alright since they decided to focus more on the primary objective. Our main protagonists, Kiriya Keiji and Rita Vrataski were both very captivating based on their development and story arcs. Our male protagonist, Keiji, is a likable person with genuine emotions. The development of a scared, worried soldier who is unaware of the future to a badass hero was quite a beautiful thing to see. Not only this, but his main contemporary, Rita, was just as developed as he was. Her backstory was (while conventional) heartbreaking to see, and it gave you a bit of insight on the character and her motivations. Not only were these characters great on their own, but the brief bond that they shared in the series was genuine and real. I wish it had more time to be polished, but hey, I'll take what we got.
Finally, the story of this series was incredibly serious, but oddly motivational. This tone of serious trauma that occurred in each of the characters represented was legitimately hard to see, but it was so incredibly real. It made me feel genuine emotions toward each of the characters that were explored upon in the story, and it made me wish to read it again to feel what I felt the first time around. This story was captivating enough to get me to read it in one night, so does that say anything?
However, what bogs this otherwise brilliant manga down a huge peg for me is... unfortunately... the incredibly rushed ending. It broke me in half to see the story wrapped up in such an unprofessional matter, that I almost considered stopping just to sulk in how poorly it was executed. Yes, it was one issue. However, this one problem knocks this series that was on it's own fantastic down a whole grade point. I'm sorry, but it just had to be said.
Overall, though this series' ending sucked ass, the rest of the manga was absolutely fantastic. If you like kickass series' in the shounen genre, then this is definitely up your alley. Give it a try, you won't regret it.
