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ノー・ガンズ・ライフ [No Guns Life] #3
No Guns Life, Vol. 3
Ex-soldier Juzo Inui has one question—who turned him into a cyborg and erased his memories?
After the war, cyborg soldiers known as the Extended were discharged. Juzo Inui is one of them, a man whose body was transformed, his head replaced with a giant gun! With no memory of his previous life—or who replaced his head and why—Inui now scratches out a living in the dark streets of the city as a Resolver, taking on cases involving the Extended.
When his investigation into the Gondry murders hints at the possibility of another killer, Juzo faces some uncomfortable questions. What is the emotional and psychological cost of having most of your body replaced with cybernetic Extensions? What does it mean to be a living weapon? What if the people who created you realized they had made a mistake? The answer is different for every Extended, including Juzo. As his medication wears off and his control begins to slip, he closes in on the truth. Facing the ugly reality may require suppressed power Juzo would rather not have.
After the war, cyborg soldiers known as the Extended were discharged. Juzo Inui is one of them, a man whose body was transformed, his head replaced with a giant gun! With no memory of his previous life—or who replaced his head and why—Inui now scratches out a living in the dark streets of the city as a Resolver, taking on cases involving the Extended.
When his investigation into the Gondry murders hints at the possibility of another killer, Juzo faces some uncomfortable questions. What is the emotional and psychological cost of having most of your body replaced with cybernetic Extensions? What does it mean to be a living weapon? What if the people who created you realized they had made a mistake? The answer is different for every Extended, including Juzo. As his medication wears off and his control begins to slip, he closes in on the truth. Facing the ugly reality may require suppressed power Juzo would rather not have.
232 pages, Paperback
First published March 18, 2016
6 people are currently reading
56 people want to read
About the author
Tasuku Karasuma
39 books15 followersTasuku Karasuma (カラスマタスク; Karasuma Tasuku) is a japanese mangaka.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 25, 2020
This series is still a diamond in the rough. It has the potential to be near perfect but there are too many flaws in how the story is executed, both the script and the art.
On the flip side, there are many plot threads being laid down and they are very interesting, sometimes making the story damn near irresistible. The art also has amazing sequences.
The protagonist is so much like Hellboy, I love him and this volume gave a lot of space to the supporting cast which I enjoyed. A tighter script and more consistency in the art is all this book needs to go from a 7/10 to 10/10.
On the flip side, there are many plot threads being laid down and they are very interesting, sometimes making the story damn near irresistible. The art also has amazing sequences.
The protagonist is so much like Hellboy, I love him and this volume gave a lot of space to the supporting cast which I enjoyed. A tighter script and more consistency in the art is all this book needs to go from a 7/10 to 10/10.
July 4, 2020
In volume three, Juzo and Kronen have to work together to figure out who is trustworthy, and no one is as they seem. After Juzo’s latest mission, Mary and Tetsuro get settled in, and Mary moves in next door to Juzo. Then, an old client of Mary’s, Colt, passes out on the street outside their building because he’s out of medicine to help his sub-brain handle all his mechanical parts. Mary helps to revive him, and Colt repays her by stealing medicine and involving Tetsuro in his next job, a dangerous mission that pays handsomely. But the plan goes awry and Tetsuro has to decide whether Colt can be trusted with the knowledge of the Harmony device.
Juzo is an interesting, dark-and-twisty protagonist, very similar to Batman. Several characters ask the important questions, like where are his eyes within his gun head, but we never really get a straight answer. For some of these technologies to work, Karasuma is asking the readers to suspend disbelief and just go with it all. After the initial shock within volume one and the realization that some of these technologies will never be explained, I found myself following Karasuma and not asking how things work. The world-building for this series is intense and grim. There are only a few characters who are altruistic and don’t have ulterior motives. This collapsed civilization is reminiscent of Blade Runner and Mad Max in its scarcity of resources, violence, and emphasis on technology “bettering” the citizenry. The art style is similarly blackened and very grim. It can be a little rough at times, especially with non-extended humans, because of over-exaggerated facial features like pursed lips or rough noses. This makes the Extended look more beautiful and smooth than the humans, and draws the reader’s attention and affections towards those imbued with technology, rather than normal humans.
There is a lot of violence and some gore during the fight scenes. The use of cigarettes is a constant as Juzo needs them to suppress his technology system from overloading. There is also experimentation on humans, particularly children, that contribute to the grisly themes. There are some suggestive themes between many women and Juzo, who is oddly irresistible, and mention of human trafficking and prostitution. VIZ rates this as Older Teen, and it’s part of their VIZ signature line that has more mature storylines.
Sara's Rating: 8/10
Suitability Level: Grades 11-12
Read more graphic novel reviews at www.graphiclibrary.org
Juzo is an interesting, dark-and-twisty protagonist, very similar to Batman. Several characters ask the important questions, like where are his eyes within his gun head, but we never really get a straight answer. For some of these technologies to work, Karasuma is asking the readers to suspend disbelief and just go with it all. After the initial shock within volume one and the realization that some of these technologies will never be explained, I found myself following Karasuma and not asking how things work. The world-building for this series is intense and grim. There are only a few characters who are altruistic and don’t have ulterior motives. This collapsed civilization is reminiscent of Blade Runner and Mad Max in its scarcity of resources, violence, and emphasis on technology “bettering” the citizenry. The art style is similarly blackened and very grim. It can be a little rough at times, especially with non-extended humans, because of over-exaggerated facial features like pursed lips or rough noses. This makes the Extended look more beautiful and smooth than the humans, and draws the reader’s attention and affections towards those imbued with technology, rather than normal humans.
There is a lot of violence and some gore during the fight scenes. The use of cigarettes is a constant as Juzo needs them to suppress his technology system from overloading. There is also experimentation on humans, particularly children, that contribute to the grisly themes. There are some suggestive themes between many women and Juzo, who is oddly irresistible, and mention of human trafficking and prostitution. VIZ rates this as Older Teen, and it’s part of their VIZ signature line that has more mature storylines.
Sara's Rating: 8/10
Suitability Level: Grades 11-12
Read more graphic novel reviews at www.graphiclibrary.org
December 18, 2022
Still action packed with gorgeous scenes. Still with six depictions of women including new half naked robots with machine heads. There’s a section about Juzo saving sex workers and they had more clothes on than half of the other Women characters.
Mega reveals himself to be a villain, he doesn’t want news of his past actions (of how they were testing on people and how they used Gondry as a weapon to kill innocent people) and attacks.
Kronen (the EMS squad leader) gets knocked unconscious in the fight. Sai is killed by Pepper and the new gun extended, they were hired by Chief Cunningham (fat guy who threatened Juzo) and it’s revealed that Berühren is controlled by a large machine with people’s consciousness inside it??
Olivia gets to know the truth about how her father was killed. Juzo gets knocked into a hyper mode where he can’t really control what is happening and nearly gets killed in the process.
The terrorist organization against extended arrange an attack on the Mega Sai statue but it doesn’t go as planned.
The second story is about a man for hire named Colt. He recruits the help of the mechanic Mary in order to fulfill a bad mission and in the process trades her a infamous part by her long lost brother. He unfortunately dies in the process.
—-
“Is that really what you wanna do?”
“Only people with bright futures get to have that choice.”
—
Robert Browning's poem Pippa Passes is 'God's in his Heaven/All's right with the world! ' Such is the profundity of the line that one could by mistake assign it to some biblical source. The poem, of course, is dedicated to the harmony and bliss of nature.
Mega reveals himself to be a villain, he doesn’t want news of his past actions (of how they were testing on people and how they used Gondry as a weapon to kill innocent people) and attacks.
Kronen (the EMS squad leader) gets knocked unconscious in the fight. Sai is killed by Pepper and the new gun extended, they were hired by Chief Cunningham (fat guy who threatened Juzo) and it’s revealed that Berühren is controlled by a large machine with people’s consciousness inside it??
Olivia gets to know the truth about how her father was killed. Juzo gets knocked into a hyper mode where he can’t really control what is happening and nearly gets killed in the process.
The terrorist organization against extended arrange an attack on the Mega Sai statue but it doesn’t go as planned.
The second story is about a man for hire named Colt. He recruits the help of the mechanic Mary in order to fulfill a bad mission and in the process trades her a infamous part by her long lost brother. He unfortunately dies in the process.
—-
“Is that really what you wanna do?”
“Only people with bright futures get to have that choice.”
—
Robert Browning's poem Pippa Passes is 'God's in his Heaven/All's right with the world! ' Such is the profundity of the line that one could by mistake assign it to some biblical source. The poem, of course, is dedicated to the harmony and bliss of nature.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 19, 2022
The adventure continues with Juzo and his friends. I love seeing the new characters added to the series as it goes along. This one had some fun arcs and intrigue with Mary, whom in particular I adore. A great read. Can't wait for more.
August 2, 2021
Juzo is so cool!!
I'm liking the characters so much as the story advances, that I'm thrilled to know more about them!
I'm liking the characters so much as the story advances, that I'm thrilled to know more about them!
November 2, 2022
Ah Juzo is so cool, but I wish more people would have his back.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 4, 2020
3.5 stars.
March 30, 2020
Finishing up where the last volume left off, Karasuma's No Guns Life hits us with plot twists, the concept of morality, and once again, more questions than answers.
With the previous volume giving us slight hints of who the real villain was this whole time, here everything is laid bare - the horrific truth that even the heroes that do wear capes, may not be real.
While there were 2 stories squeezed into this one volume, both of them delved into the question of morality, and what is considered good and bad, and how context affects it.
While the 1st part was the one with the flashy, beautiful, gruesome action scenes, plot twists and tension, the 2nd part of this book really hit it home for me. We finally started seeing development in Tetsuro as a character, and not in the way that the usual weak and naive Shonen Characters do.
Here we are introduced to Colt, a man who is ready to be a terrorist and have a huge amount of kills under his name, just so he could provide for his two sisters. While he only appears for half a volume, he's a very well made character, who leaves a mark not only on Tetsuro, but on me, the reader, as well. And let me remind you, that making a character grow to the reader in such a short span of time is a skill to be proud of as a writer.
As always, the art is flashy, horror-like, but also calming at times. Karasuma starts introducing the hierarchy of Beruhren in this volume, and while the company were already a vague reference to the Nazis, now he even adds a religious, fanatical element to them, making their whole concept more creepy and provoking.
Once again, a great volume, full of surprises, and yet again, even more questions.
With the previous volume giving us slight hints of who the real villain was this whole time, here everything is laid bare - the horrific truth that even the heroes that do wear capes, may not be real.
While there were 2 stories squeezed into this one volume, both of them delved into the question of morality, and what is considered good and bad, and how context affects it.
While the 1st part was the one with the flashy, beautiful, gruesome action scenes, plot twists and tension, the 2nd part of this book really hit it home for me. We finally started seeing development in Tetsuro as a character, and not in the way that the usual weak and naive Shonen Characters do.
Here we are introduced to Colt, a man who is ready to be a terrorist and have a huge amount of kills under his name, just so he could provide for his two sisters. While he only appears for half a volume, he's a very well made character, who leaves a mark not only on Tetsuro, but on me, the reader, as well. And let me remind you, that making a character grow to the reader in such a short span of time is a skill to be proud of as a writer.
As always, the art is flashy, horror-like, but also calming at times. Karasuma starts introducing the hierarchy of Beruhren in this volume, and while the company were already a vague reference to the Nazis, now he even adds a religious, fanatical element to them, making their whole concept more creepy and provoking.
Once again, a great volume, full of surprises, and yet again, even more questions.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews