Art:
So first off, the art is amazing. Since it is mostly set at sea the artist must have had a fair amount of time to add detail to the ships. They manage to capture the historic grit of WWII ships and merge that with a sort of cyber-neon interpretation of AI if it had a physical form.The effects and battle scenes are pretty easy to follow while keeping the detail of the ships and occasional landscapes and facilities. Of course the mental models themselves are expressive and pretty nice to look at too.
Plot/Setting:
The beauty of this manga is in the details as it is essentially a simulation of how 2 different main plot lines intersect and the consequences on the world.
The 1st plot line follows our human heroes as they attempt to help breach the blockade of the Fog and reunite human nations to stand against a seemingly impossible enemy.
The 2nd plot line is a consequence of the 1st and follows the Fog in their attempts to understand human adaptability and motivations, and in doing so they become more human and want to find purpose beyond their programmed objective.
This style and setting creates a good mix of thrilling action, political drama, peaceful character exploration/development, and a hint of mystery that still has me hooked and waiting for volume 20 to release.
Characters:
You could call this a deep manga, but I feel "fleshed-out" is a better term. There are many on-going characters introduced, some not so important, some that aren't important till later, and some that remain important throughout. They all get some level of development that feels natural within the story and sub-plots, and there are no instances of sudden, direct character growth. Growth is gradual and tied to actions and consequences rather than off-panel events and backstory. This is why the overarching plots take so long to tell and can be both very immersive as well as frustrating at times due to slow plot progression, but tends to work in favour of the manga.
Enjoyment:
I thoroughly enjoy reading this manga. It is immersive with the characters, and they learn from events that the reader sees. Everything matters, and in manga format this style works well given we can read at whatever pace we desire. That said sub-plots might not come together for several volumes, so you probably won't enjoy this one if you prefer short sharp and to the point styles of storytelling.
Anime vs Manga notes:
The anime adaptations are vastly different to the manga in plot and characters. The anime starts diverging from the manga near the end of episode 1, and the finale is equivalent to volume 13 of the manga... but you might as well read from the beginning.
The anime has significantly more fanservice and the drastically changed plot allows for a beach episode which could not happen in the manga. It is a more fun and focused man against the world sort of story that excludes many details, events, and characters in order to be more generally appealing.
The manga is far more complex as it imagines how the consequences of various events and actions affect the world instead of just Japan, as well as how events from around the world might affect Japanese politics. As a result it introduces characters from around the world, including other Fog fleets.
