Red Eyes

Dex-chan lover
Joined
Jan 6, 2019
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2,671
i wonder if anyone will ever pick this up again, it was really good.
 
Aggregator gang
Joined
Apr 14, 2019
Messages
352
I remember reading this back in 2005. This is good stuff! Hope it will continue!
 
Member
Joined
Nov 17, 2019
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74
How do i support the author directly?
I read this manga ever since i was still in high school.
 
Group Leader
Joined
Jun 7, 2019
Messages
29
@krellio The only way I know would be supporting the official releases by purchasing them, though they aren't in english. There are links in the description under Retail for the Japanese versions, looks like for book form and ebook. They may or may not require you to be from Japan to order as well (or using a VPN).
 
Joined
Jun 24, 2018
Messages
144
...why does the current cover art look like someone spray painted that power armor as if it was a super robot?
 
Joined
May 11, 2018
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5
Thank you soooo much for updating this manga. I consider this as one of the under rated legendary mangas. I love the story about war & politics. Hope there will be more updates coming 🖖
 
Joined
Dec 16, 2018
Messages
66
Chapter 17, Page 35. That's where I broke down laughing.

This is a manga with extremely in-depth worldbuilding and great attention to technical detail (although they do occasionally draw an eotech backward and the size of the SAA firearms and their man-portability is inconsistent due to what I suspect is the lack of foresight they had in making them all Real Guns But Bigger). It unfortunately uses that detail, worldbuilding (the author even includes maps! so many maps! it's amazing. I wish more milhist mangas had this much commitment to illustrating an actual conflict) and liberal use of footnotes to tell a story about Special Forces Goku, the highest speed, lowest drag, tightest pantsed operating operator to ever operate. There are regular people in the manga too, and the average lifespan of characters in the manga that aren't plot critical is about 5-10 panels by my estimate, before they get used to show us why either Our Boy Mills (Goku) or Bad Guy Of The Chapter is good/bad.

These problems aren't particularly new for the genre. I'll accept that there is a quota of mooks getting got that must be satisfied for the personal honour of the main character's cool robot. If I like the main characters' cool robot enough, I enjoy these scenes. If the atmosphere is well done, I can enjoy that instead. However, this manga has a problem in that it can't decide if it wants to be about the world (the war) or the plot (our boy Mills). In order to build up the mythos of the main character as the superest soldier that ever tossed a throwing knife at 15 meters into the ring of a grenade and pulled it perfectly while also somehow not having to engage the spoon (I'll let you decide if he actually did this or not), the atmosphere has to take a back seat. On the other hand, if you're into overpowered protagonists for whom the greatest danger is giving screen time to people without plot armor, this could be right up your alley. The fights are in fairly varied places and the plot is barebones enough that the primary form of plot development is someone delivering a monologue and then getting shot. A lot of people get shot. The plot moves fast.

The other thing that holds the scanlation (not the work itself) back is the dodginess of the translation. Shouts to Manga-Sketchbook for actually going in and doing their best to translate what must be intimidating monoliths of text that look like they come out of a particularly bland history textbook, but it looks like they were a little in over their heads regarding the english equivalents to japanese terms for political & military organization. The actual manga itself reads fine, though. It's readable with very little confusion, perhaps helped by the simplicity of the dialogue itself when it isn't in full military gearwankery mode. Maybe one of the other groups that picked this up after retranslated those sections, I don't know yet so this isn't really a statement of the experience, just my experience so far.

I'm most likely reading this to the end because beggars cannot be choosers. Also, I am actually interested in seeing where the story goes, even if each chapter feels way too long due to the ratio of plot-relevant dialogue:gearwankery and monologues about characters that are about to die. Also maps.
 
Dex-chan lover
Joined
Jun 2, 2019
Messages
2,002
I read the synopsis and know less than when I started.
That was like someone asking “what’s the basic plot was of Skyrim” and then you get all kinds of stuff about Alduin and Akatosh and Men and Mer Aedra and Daedra. The Warp in the West, Red Mountain! The Heart of Lorkhan!!!
Can’t you just say “the man with the war mech gets really mad and doesn’t stop fighting”?
 

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