No Guns Life

Walking down the dark metropolis is a man with a gun head. A man without conviction. A man filled with righteous. A man with unrivaled pride in his work. From the cyberpunk world where cyborgs exists, this man is a private detective and resolves to rid of it of corruption. He is Juzo Inui, a gun head who is here to help the helpless. Mangaka Tasku Karasuma is not fairly well known to most audiences although some of his work incorporates the usage of futuristic worlds and science fiction. No Guns Life is no exception as we are introduced to a cyberpunk setting. Humans are nowcyborgs and are called “Extended”. Crime is rampant and on the loose in the city. With such technology, you can just imagine how chaotic society has become. Juzo is an Extended problem solver who relies on his mental and physical skills to deal with other Extended. From the very beginning, the audience should pay full attention to Juzo’s character behavior. Despite being an Extended, he has the personality of a private detective and always seeks to complete his tasks for the right price. With the motto of “wipe your own ass”, Juzo prefers to work alone and isn’t afraid to take big risks. From a personal perspective, Juzo is not just the poster boy of No Guns Life but also a symbol. He is a symbol for people to take their own responsibility for their actions. Now I won’t deny No Guns Life is somewhat of a niche anime. Even as a paranormal detective show, the anime leans more into sci-fi and action. The story flows with each episode introducing ongoing problems in a city and corruption. We also meet characters who Juzo associates with including Mary Steinberg and Tetsuro Arahbaki. These two collaborates together with Juzo although they also have their own personal goals. (for instance, Mary hopes to reunite with her brother) Nonetheless, Juzo acts as more of an anti-hero throughout the series. Even though he performs heroic deeds, he’s also a mercenary who takes cases for money. For the right price, Juzo does his job regardless how difficult it may be. But on some occasions, he also helps the Extended in need with his own conviction. In essence, he helps the helpless and comes across as a fairly reasonable man. Some associates occasionally assists him in his tasks although the main course of his job is undertaken by the gunhead himself. Speaking of which, how likeable are the other characters? The bottom line is that Juzo overshadows them but they do possesses unique roles in the show. Mary works as a mechanic and is important to his well-being. Tetsuro has an ability to control other Extended’s bodies making an invaluable asset. Even Olivier Vandeberme, a law enforcer, provides freedom for Juzo so he can work without disturbance. The fact is, these characters are important to the core of the show and without them, Juzo would have a harder time to achieve his goals. But an important question remains. What is your goal for watching No Guns Life? What are you hoping to get out of this science fiction story taking place in this deluded cyberpunk world? It’s ambiguous question because No Guns Life is an unconventional show with its own identity. Sometimes, you have to wonder what the author wanted you to experience. Juzo, the gun head reminds us how the potentials of Extended and their limitations. I mean, isn’t it funny how he can’t actually fire the augmented gun on his head without assistance? In fact, many Extended in the series carries some sort of burden in the aftermath of the great war. A major social issue relating to poverty also exists as some Extended resorts of violence to survive. On the other hand, we have mega corporations such as Behruen, standing as a symbol of power and bureaucracy. It reminds of the old classic 1987 Robocop where futuristic technological inventions are treated differently than others. Crime remains a major issue in the story as Juzo deals with corruption. He finds out the hard way after facing off against rogue cyborg Gondry, the very first Extended. Standing out as a powerful individual but also victimized by the result of the war, Gondry is a poster boy of experimentation. An arc dealing with him is one of the climatic clashes exploring the ethnics of technology. And to be honest, I think it’s one of the highlights in this season. Meanwhile, No Guns Life also gains support for eliciting emotional appeal to the audience. Characters such as Olivier has their own motivations and in one of the later episodes, we find out her purpose in the story. If you made it this far, then I can say it’s safe that you’ll be staying the rest of the way. Serving as a celebration of Madhouse’s creative works, No Guns Life has distinctive elements in its artwork. The dark and noir-style backgrounds inspire a cyberpunk look for the main setting. Most noticeably, the backgrounds are animated with the Unreal Engine to make them as polished as they can be. By rendering the visuals and fuse them with the character models, it makes both parts stand out sharply. It’s not too often we get to see a game engine being used for an animated series so perhaps this opens doors more to future projects of similar nature. The Extended are also decorative with unique augmentations and modifications to the body, so much that you’ll see them more than regular humans. Characters that stand out the most includes Juzo, Gondry, and perhaps Olivier. Their character expressions sell a variety of human behavior ranging from comical, emotional, and diabolical. And if you’re in for some light comedy, there’s that too. Character interactions sometimes goofs around with their cartoony expressions. Then, there are also light jokes thrown around that pokes fun at technological themes with dry humor. We can’t also ignore how often Juzo needs help to fire his own gun, can we? No Guns Life is a unique piece of work with its own identity. As someone who has read the manga, it’s easy to get used to even if you’re not familiar with its ideas. The more I watched No Guns Life, the easier it became to understand what the author wanted to show us. Trust me, go watch No Guns Life and experience a hallmark of unorthodox beauty.

I don't really get it why uninnovative cyberdunk dystopian stories always get the flak of it being unimaginative and impromptu of its massive storytelling coupled with world-building, but I'd can say that while No Guns Life is one of the more uninspired stories out there in a sea of mech stories both old and new, it's slow-burn and the entire plot universe around it is what keeps me glued to this show of infinite proportions of its many directions it could head towards, and it's sad that not as many people are as intrigued to the settings and such, and heck, this show still hasa 2nd cour (or more appropriately the 2nd half) to go! Always been wondering about the editorial remarks on No Guns Life's cover? It says here: “SF hard boiled the gun smoke drifts muzzle talks” (just like that, without commas). To quote someone who knows the source well, it’s surprisingly accurate: Protagonist "Resolver" Inui Juzou, is a rogue private detective part of the "Gun Slave Unit" assigned to eradicate Extendeds, who's always smoking cigarettes, is smoking hot, smokes with gun smoke, because he is an (Over-Extended) cyborg made of revolvers, his head for a gun (revolver), and being the the spirit of the noire revolver embodied: bitter, badass, with a dark history, seeking to break away from the hands that try to subdue him, actually a weapon. And due in part of Juzou being half-human and half-weapon/tool, he always tries not to force a bad hand in situations that call for it in the best possible way he could, and his motto is to "wipe your own ass" i.e. clear your own shit the way you know how. And in this post-apocalyptic world, the seemingly formed relationships are barely legal depending on which side of the case it leans on: the "righteous" side of Juzou and his workhorse people, or the retro-futuristic cyberpunk setting, which in turn is also a proper one – with an evil cybernetic corporation, a brutal police force tasked with keeping the modified Extendeds in check, with questions of transhumanism and alienation, along with the punk part – bodies being spliced and spruced up in backdoor-alleyway undercity clinics, body horror and brain hacking. So the world in No Guns Life literally has not both start and end lines, but rather, everything is a process in and of its end onto itself. To sweeten the deal, the anime's background of a war does best to interlink both sides, where due to the war happened before the world ever came into a consensus, humans and mech Extendeds are like owners and tools before all rules and regulation broke down. In essence, it's the interesting characters that both make or break the series in accordance with the many issues at hand, and here's where Juzou's life gets more exacerbated from Tetsuro Arahabaki, the son of the CEO of the evil Berühren Corporation, who is heavily wanted for experimentation for a device that is heavily implanted within him that could control and take over Extendeds in range to amass their reach beyond areas of influence. Add in Tetsuro's annoying and bratty behaviour, along with company associate-cum-mechanic Mary Steinburg and the EMS agency which regulates Extended and Over-Extended beings like Juzou and keeping them under check that they don't flout the law, all this becomes one massive problem that Juzou just couldn't afford to shrug under the rug. To commend this show on the storytelling and the over-arching plot, it is pretty much a perfect 100% 1-to-1 adaptation of the manga into the anime, which says a lot about fans not wanting to lose out on anything even remotely minor, and No Guns Life definitely benefitted from series composer Yukie Sugawara taking no liberties and adapting the manga's entirety to good use. And sure, the story will not win any awards with some of its cheeziness, but for pretty much creating hidden crannies and hooks that'll intrigue us to dive even deeper, I'd say that it has done its job well. Not great mind you, but not bad for a valiant effort. And who to bring that classic 90's stylized feels and visuals other than Madhouse, I truly love it when such works like this call back the old aesthetics that give seasoned studios to stretch on their legs for visuals that have been long gone in time past. The modern world, made old with the entire cyberpunk. scrapyard setting really gives it a feel for some of the older classics that we've come to know and love (i.e. Trigun, made by the same studio). Coupled with the great animation, I'd say that Madhouse has done a good job in replicating the entire world to its core. Factor in the great music with the background music and especially the OST, which was a complete surprise that the entire ED is done in Unreal Engine 4 by Cyclone Graphics to aid that gamer-futuristic look. That's superb and unheard of by any standards, with the cool jazzy OP and ED that made up the experience overall. This show's truly boring you say, and I'd agree to an extent, but take a deep dive under the rabbit hole and you'll see that No Guns Life truly is a fascinating show with as many of its layers waiting to be delved into a story that is initially hard to pick up but even harder to drop. Can't wait for the 2nd half to drop in Spring 2020, and if you need a binge, do pick this up before the 2nd half commences if your interest hasn't waned yet.

No Guns Life? Yes, no guns should ever be brought to life. Spoiler warning but I'll just give you one small one, it's not good. Don't bother watching this series because it is downright awful. I know for a fact that at face value this show seems 'cool' and 'radical' with the main character having a head of a revolver and the world taking place in the future. I know this because that was my initial thoughts when going into this show, honestly, the show was fine until everything changed when that Tetsurou annoyance entered the scene. Right away that kid alone just place this showin the negative zone, he is literally the embodiment of kid Naruto and that's not a nice thing to see. This is literally his format for his character for scenarios, Juno is busy with an issue, the boy's a busybody and has to 'help', in turn of 'helping' Juno he fucks up and gets beaten up, Juno saves him and the boy just apologies, then the cycle continues. This is utter trash writing from the people behind this series, even if is a copy from the books, they do not even try to make scenes or plot interesting. I am going to be straight, the reasons why I didn't give this series a 1 because I love the concept and I like Mary and Juno, that's all. The music sucks, the art sucks (especially coming from you Madhouse), plot uninteresting and unfocused, just the show is a complete mess. Like if they just focus the whole plot on Mary and Juno alone, I bet it would come for a much enjoyable series, 'Mary and Juno's Bizarre Adventures'. That I would dig. It is so obvious the studio is placing this series out for the sake of filling the anime seasons slots, I know for a fact that Madhouse is not using the full production team due to them also working on Chihayafuru 3. Either this shows the saturation of anime titles the NHK demands to studios or that Madhouse just got lazy and they decided to just shit out series without any dazzle on them. This doesn't come off super disappointing as I can clearly see the show's flaws at the near beginning, so it really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that this series is bad. I do want to call out the ambitious aim the show was trying to go for, like the issue with robots living aside humans and the struggle to maintain peace after a long war. However I just think the studio didn't actually understand the sheer size of what they were aiming, there were tons of technological gaps in the show, not very innovative ideas despite the place being in the future, social system is like messy and politics are just obsolete. I am going to stop here, but if you watch it through yourself you would be able to intake this pile of under-produced crap. -SCORES- Characters- 4/10: Fuck the kid and almost everyone else, Juno and Mary are the only acceptable ones. Art- 3/10: Boobies are big but the physics is so bad that every oppai seems dead to me. In majority of the scenes, especially when the characters turn or look somewhere else, it looks as if the turning animation was made on Windows XP. Face are fucked, environment's boring and the whole show is just trying to mimic shit. Only thing to praise them for is the use of Unreal Engine 4. It's true though, some of the visuals are pretty 'unreal' to believe in. Writing- 2/10: Ooooweee did this part had a blast, since there is so much bad shit to ramble about I'll just say one good thing. Which is errrrrrrrr... Nevermind I can't think of anything. The show is bad at choosing whether this scene should be serious or that scene should be funny and whatnot. Sound- 5/10: For the most part is fine, everything does it's job but not super well nor super bad. Everything is alright except the god awful outro, like seriously what is with that outro. It feels as if the singers just muttering a script with the beat off some Eurovision song. Overall, trash. Plus there is a second season coming up, what a joke. I guess the only way Madhouse and the writers can prove themselves is by delivering their utmost best in the next one. But to comeback from a ditch as deep as this would take a miracle. Strong 2 to a light 3

This show has no sauce. The first episode tricked me into thinking this might be good. Stylish MC, a looming megacorp that owns people's bodies, and a unique mystery. Unfortunately, all three of these points get dropped in like... episode 2. You are promised a hard boiled detective series, but then fails to have the detective do any sloothing. No villains are uncovered, they are all happy to explicitly state that they are evil. The mysteries, if you could even call them that, basically solve themselves with the answer just falling into the lap of the b-plot character for that episode so they can showup to the main plot and actually do something for exactly one scene before taking the background to sauceless action sequences. The aesthetic is interesting on a surface level with next to nothing lying behind it. Dudes just have fucked up bodies that look evil if they are evil or cool if they are good. There's no consistency or themes. If I vaguely state stuff that happens in the story it almost sounds interesting. A megacorp makes all the cybernetics (called extensions in this series) and own the world. There's an anti-extend group killing innocent people who have cybernetics. The main character was made to be a weapon in a war and is now a private eye. Sometimes extends (people with extensions) experience discrimination (despite literally everyone we see in the series being extended.) The problem comes in on how these aspects are executed. The megacorp is just comically evil, because if they weren't then the show would actually have something to say. Idk how you have a corporation that owns everyone's physical bodies without even the slightest attempt at commentary on capitalism. The anti-extend group is also just evil with no subtlety, they just kinda hate extends and just like to murder people to make extends look violent. Don't think about how stupid that is. They don't really have any philosophy besides just cyberpunk racism. The main character is just op in the most boring way possible, there's never any tension because literally nobody could ever threaten him in any meaningful way. He gets on the megacorps bad side and the only consequences are like one attempt to spite him and a minor inconvenience. The discrimination against extends bit never actually has consequences for anyone. The main character is never denied entrance somewhere because he looks like a gun. At most a few characters act slightly shocked at the fact he looks the way he does. Best we get is a girl in the final arc who won't talk to him, but it's all hand waved by the end of the episode with the main characters just stumbling into the thing that progresses the plot. The story is painfully passive. Nobody does anything. Things just kinda happen to the characters and then the resolution just kinda happens in the same way the conflict just kinda happened at the start. The music is forgettable. I genuinely can't recall how a single track sounds and I literally just finished watching it. The sound is bad, half of everything in this show sounds like stock audio effects. The action is lame, it's a slideshow with no weight or consequences. Visually you get everything from the first episode with no actual variety in the locations, colors, or sets. Nobody interacts with the world, it's a wholly unappealing backdrop (and not in the intentional way that cyberpunk likes to do) A remarkable lack of sauce on display. Don't waste your time.

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