The gunsmoke drifts, the muzzle talks.
Creative Staff
Original Story: Tasuku Karasuma
Art: Tasuku Karasuma
Translation: Joe Yamazaki
What They Say:
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.
Keeping Tetsuro, the fugitive son of the Berühren Corporation, safe is going to take resources Juzo doesn’t have. An old contact at the Extended Management Squad can help, but in exchange Juzo has to bring in the very first noncompliant Extended, Hayden Gondry, the suspect in a number of murders whose victims had their auxiliary brains forcibly removed. Juzo takes the case, but tracking down Gondry will entangle him in a larger conspiracy…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
It’s been a rough couple of days for the group. On the bright side, Tetsuro is all patched up and good to go thanks to Mary. It’s time to relax for a change! In fact, you know what sounds good right about now? Hot pot and luckily for them, Juzo’s apartment manager, Christina, has cooked some up for them. Eating delicious food with everyone sounds nice, doesn’t it? Well, it does to everyone except Juzo. He’s not down with family dinner and just leaves. That’s a bit rude. Mary remarks that Juzo is just like Tetsuro. She’s right, you know? They’re both afraid that people will get hurt if they get too close to them. D’aww, what a bunch of softies. Food tastes much better when enjoyed with others though! Tetsuro and Mary decide to bring Juzo a plate and follow him.
Juzo decides to visit his barber which is hilariously absurd to me. He doesn’t even have hair! He’s not going to get a haircut, that’s for sure. On his way to the barbershop, he rescues the barber’s daughter, Scarlet, from a bunch of lowlifes. By the way, she’s totally into him. Once they arrive at their destination, my questions are finally answered. All the barber does is polish up Juzo’s gun head real nice. If I’m being honest, that disappointed me a little bit. I was secretly hoping that Juzo had some luscious hair underneath his gun head or something. Anyway, things are going peacefully until the EMS shows up and arrests Juzo. That escalated quickly! Tetsuro and Mary show up to witness this scene and are then arrested themselves! That’s some bad timing on their part. Heck, even the barber and his daughter get arrested, too. Everyone’s getting arrested!
I know this sounds bad but it’s really not. Juzo is quite familiar with the sultry director of the EMS, Olivia. She apprehended everyone in order to keep them safe from Berühren. See, she’s not so bad. She also has a strong sense of justice. Although, you wouldn’t think that since she forces Juzo to clean up her messes in exchange for keeping everyone safe. I think she’s also into Juzo. All the ladies seem to love him. It must be his big, thick gun head, right? Dirty jokes aside, Olivia is actually a pretty cool character. She tasks Juzo with capturing two very dangerous Extended prisoners who have escaped. Finding the first one isn’t going to be that difficult since he decides to ambush the group! That’s unfortunate…or maybe it’s good timing? The prisoner is known as Huggy Bear and he likes hugging. Wait, that doesn’t sound bad at all. Oh, he likes hugging people to death? Okay, he’s definitely trouble. Juzo plans to take him on but Huggy Bear is quickly immobilized by the EMS Section Chief, Kronen. That was easy! They only have to deal with one last prisoner, Hayden Gondry. Olivia comments that he’s not going to be as easy to defeat.
Gondry has already murdered three people and it looks like he doesn’t plan to stop anytime soon. During his investigation, Juzo runs into Kronen and they briefly fight. They don’t seem to like each other very much. However, they let bygones be bygones and decide to work together. They discover that Gondry has been killing his former colleagues from the group Tindalos. Juzo finds this very odd. Why would he kill his friends? What they do know is that his next target is going to be Tokisada Mega Armed, the very first Extended. Elsewhere, Olivia is suspended because she failed to eliminate Gondry. We also learn that it was Gondry who killed her father. It seems she wants to learn the truth about that day and that’s why she hasn’t killed him, yet. Her superiors seem hell-bent on killing him to hide the truth though. It’s clear that some shady stuff is going on and Olivia wants to get to the bottom of it.
Juzo and Kronen manage to locate Mega Armed and inform him of the situation. He’s attacked by Gondry who had disguised himself as a little girl. Juzo manages to protect Mega Armed and he starts battling with Gondry. While Juzo does get some good hits in, Gondry manages to overpower him. He’s too much for Juzo alone. Kronen is notified that he’s to abandon this case and just walk away from the scene. He doesn’t listen to the orders because he has his own sense of justice. He decides to team up with Juzo and they manage to defeat Gondry together. These two are going to be good friends, I can feel it. Mega Armed thanks both men for saving him. However, he whispers to himself that they’re going to be trouble and that they must be taken care of. I thought Mega Armed was a good guy!? I guess he’s one of the baddies. Is he part of the conspiracy? We’ll learn the answer to that in the next volume. By the way, there also seems to be another Extended with a gun head. Say what!?
This volume contains an extra chapter and it’s from the initial developmental version of the series. The first thing that I have to say is that this chapter is my favorite of the entire series, and it’s not actually part of the official series! Juzo’s design is slimmer and he shows a bit more emotion. Mary is his partner in this version and she wears a bandage over the left side of her face. She looks like a badass! Why couldn’t this be a thing in the official version? Although, I think the series may move in this direction eventually, sort of. I’m currently watching the anime and Mary does move into Juzo’s apartment at some point. Anyway, this chapter focuses on a job given to them by a client named Catherine. She hires them to kill Cath Weddson, an Over-Extended who was a hero during the war but has been doing terrible things after it ended. Juzo tracks the guy down but isn’t convinced that he’s Cath Weddson. His hunch is correct because Cath Weddson turns out to be the client, Catherine. This was all a trap. She’s a crazy one if you haven’t figured it out yet. She enjoys playing with people’s lives. Right now, she just wants to play with Juzo. She finds his gun head to be really cool and wants to touch it. I’m telling you, the ladies love his big, thick gun head! Juzo ain’t having any of that and proceeds to defeat her after an intense battle. And yes, he does kill her. Savage! Why is this the best chapter of the series?
In Summary:
I struggled to classify this series as a noir story or a parody of one after reading the first volume. Now that I’ve read the second volume, I’m still having trouble classifying it. What I do know is that this series is still absurd. Absurd, but enjoyable. Olivia is an interesting character and a welcome addition to the cast. I hope we get some more of her backstory in the next volume. Juzo and Kronen are going to be best buds, you’ll see. Also, I still can’t get over how much I liked the extra chapter. There was just so much cool stuff packed in that single chapter. It was great and I wish it was the actual first chapter of the series. Lastly, Juzo isn’t the only Extended with a gun for a head. There are two gun heads. What’s up with that!?
Content Grade: C+
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: T+
Released By: VIZ Signature
Release Date: 11/19/19
MSRP: $12.99 (US), $17.99 (CAN)
