Technically speaking, the story is decent and simple for the most part, boy meets girl, some hidden supernatural powers here and there, zombies, mysteries, destruction, the whole plot revolves around Tsutsuki trying to find his twin sister and the dangers and the friends that come along the way. It's basically Highschool of the Dead without ecchi and High Rise Invasion without panties.
A very good element that Shikabane has is the gore and violence which is unlike to Segawa-sensei, prepare to get sick because the art is impressive in this aspect, it's a good touch, we need to see brains, guts and blood flying around when our main characters cut the zombies to pieces, it will certainly get a strong reaction from the audience. The tone is serious with some occasional light hearted-moments and drama, I think the atmosphere fits, it doesn't seem forced and the dialogues come out clearly but don't expect that much in such a short work.
Nothing much about the art style, it's Segawa at his best, awesome backgrounds and cool character designs (almost copy pasted from Tokyo ESP), a thing to notice is the thicker lines compare to his other manga when the characters are in close-ups, I liked the idea, it's a small change but it's refreshing and looks imposing (if you remember Shingeki no Kyojin season 1 then you know what I'm talking about).
My only complaint is the main characters' designs, they look like 14 year olds, Tsutsuki is short, same as Karina and she wears glasses, she's not that special when thinking about the mangaka's past girls who were literally beauty queens.
The monsters and the fights look impressive, people will love the fight scenes, I have no worries here.
But all good things come to an end, for some reason the manga got axed and the author managed to give us some closure in the last 2 chapters, it looks forced, it looks choppy, it looks fast paced but it is a conclusion, we got to know some overall secrets, it's not like we read this for nothing.
I think there are better zombie apocalypse manga out there and some may even be complete, Shikabane is not the best thing ever and the ending will disappoint lots of readers, but if you have time to waste and you're into these types of stories about fighting zombies, then why not.
