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i didn't like it at all, i thought it wasn't necessarily pretentious, but way too ambitious for it's own good
it was okay for the first 6 episodes, then every episode after lost this show a good point
>story
i hated how unfocused it was, first we talk about technology, but then we have this "lain = God" thing coming out of nowhere, we have random philosophy babble taking up literally 1/3rd of the episode, we have dropped plot points like the whole KIDS thing and the professor associated with it
and honestly, for a show that talks about technology for the good half of it, it seems pretty ... technologically illiterate, granted it was released in 1998, and it was probably more or less logical to assume such development in technology at the time
>characters
none of the characters here are good, save for maybe lain
they are glorified tools for lain to grow, the fact that lain has 14.5 THOUSAND favorites against the second most popular character's 180 at the time of me writing this review speaks louder than words, compare this to texhnolyze's characters and the times they've been favorited on this site, which is more or less balanced
granted, i liked the feds in black suits, they had the coolest line in the show: "time to pay the piper", which is probably the only thing i'll remember about this show
>art
the one department where the show is pretty good, i liked the atmosphere and the animation and artstyle both look pretty cool to me
character designs are forgettable though, save for lain and the antagonist with long black hair (i forgot his name because he's a non-character)
sound design is also alright
>enjoyment
i was watching with my friends, so it's kinda hard to rate it in this regard, i had fun, they sure as hell didn't
i was fairly locked out after episode 6
>overall
i think 4/10 is a fair score, there might be some merit in the show upon rewatch, but ultimately it's boring and bites off more than it can chew
i don't love evangelion, but i would recommend anyone to go watch it instead, it's similar in terms of theming and atmosphere, AND it has actual characters besides the main one
i can also recommend texhnolyze, which, in retrospect, feels like a correction of mistakes of lain - it has a more coherent, thematically consistent plotline with all the main characters responding to the main theme of the show

I don't like this manga. I think it's overrated and very poorly written. I've no idea how it receives 10's and 9's from other people, I simply don't get it.

>Story
The story in this manga is actually... decent. It has a cool and relatively unique premise, and it's (sometimes) interesting to see what happens next. However, the author has no idea how to properly move with it. The structure of the story itself isn't dynamic at all, it's too slow for its' own setting and there's a lot, and I mean A LOT, of filler and just stuff that isn't very interesting to look at in ... a world where Parasites exist. Also, apparently, now that I have finished this manga, the author doesn’t even want to come up with an interesting explanation to Parasites, dismissing their existence to “lol they just came from space”. 5/10.

>Art
It's very bad and disappointing, and the few color pages at the beginning of each volume don't save it. The art is bland, everything feels so empty and soulless most of the time because of the lack of backgrounds. All we get is characters in an actually neat-looking artstyle in front of a white square (https://i.imgur.com/fzG6Lrv.jpeg - perfect example of what I'm talking about, laziness like this is all over the place). Riveting. Is this your award-winning manga?
While I'm on the topic of art, I'd like to touch up on the subject of the designs: they're repetitive as hell. I mean, come on, the mangaka creates a world in which there are intelligent parasites that can shape a human's head in any way, shape, or form they want once they inhabit it, and all he does with that is just draw the samey-looking stripes and blades over and over again. There was a breath of soul in terms of design somewhere near the beginning where the characters meet a Parasite-infested dog that transforms his head into a pair of giant bat wings, how cool is that? I wish this manga had more unique and interesting stuff like that, but, unfortunately, the mangaka doesn't seem to share my wish. 3/10.

>Characters
WHOOOOO BOY, HERE WE GO! Lots of spoilers in this bit, so be sure to skip it if you still want to read this manga.
The characters here are one of the stupidest I've ever seen in a manga. And to explain why, I'll just write about the two examples which frustrated me the most:
1) The case of the sukeban girl (I forgot her name because of how bland of a character she is, more on that later). So, you're trying to tell me that when there are rumors of Parasites going around all of Japan, that when these rumors are being even further explored in national television, that when the MC tries to tell this girl the truth about Parasites and actually explains what they are in great detail, that when said girl can literally SENSE THEM WITHOUT KNOWING WHAT SHE EVEN SENSES OR WHY, SHE DOESN'T BELIEVE THE MC AND SIMPLY DISMISSES HIS WARNINGS!? I'm sorry, but this is atrocious. To top it all off, because she doesn't believe the mc, she proceeds to die right in the same chapter by the hands of a TOTALLY RANDOM parasite-infested human. Absolutely brilliant.
And when she dies, am I supposed to feel sorry for her? Am I supposed to feel sorry for her because she's in love with the MC and is jealous of the girl he's going out with? Am I supposed to feel sorry for her because she got an "embarrassing" dream about the MC once? Those two things are the only things I remember about this filler of a character.
2) The case of the detective (guess why I don't remember this guy's name either). Alright, I can give the girl the benefit of the doubt, maybe there is some human out there stupid enough that wouldn't believe in the existence of Parasites in the sort of sutiation she is, but this guy? This guy? You're telling me this guy only "half believes" in their existence WHEN THERE WERE TWO OF THEM RIGHT BEFORE HIS VERY EYES A DAY AGO THAT ALSO THREATENED TO KILL HIM!? He got told not to meddle in this kind of business by two people: his wife and a woman he fears, and he still goes to investigate the matter of Parasites further with the help of his detective friend. To top it all off, not only have the humans told him to buzz off, one of the Parasites that he saw ALSO told him to mind his own business. And only when his detective friend gets killed by a Parasite, only then he realizes that hey, Parasites are actually dangerous! Who would've thought? God, what a joke.
The main villain of this manga is laughable. He barely gets any development, he barely has his ideologies shown and the final fight with him is just extremely underwhelming. Then again, at that point I was speedreading the manga because I was so bored of it, so maybe I did miss a few crucial points of his character.
But, it's not all that bad, I found the MC and his partner relatively interesting. The MC's development in partucular was interesting to watch, so there's that. But even he isn't safe from mediocrity, because he only gets a clear-cut goal by the 38th chapter, which is more than half of this snoozefest. Unfortunately, even with his flaws, I think that Shinichi is the only decent character in this manga. Every other one is just a stupid device to incite forced drama in the story. 2/10.

>Enjoyment
I didn't enjoy this after the first few chapters in the slightest. This manga is very stupid, and it really boggles my mind how stupid it is. The mangaka expects us to care about characters when he can't properly set them up for us to care about them. The art and the general designs are too boring for the premise the author created, becoming more and more repetitive as the manga goes on. I honestly hated it. The underwhelming villain, the stupid characters, the bad art that gradually got worse and worse (honest to God, defend this https://i.imgur.com/ECj2fQo.jpeg), it's all just terrible. 2/10.

>Overall
The story needs to be more dynamic in order for the story and the world to work and coexist. The art is borderline painful to look at. The characters are stupid. I didn't personally enjoy it, and I think it's highly overrated. What is there to look for in this manga when the only good thing about it is the distinct atmosphere of the 90's it has? I really just don't get it. 3/10.

Really didn't expect this to be good for some reason. Probably because this is a very unusual style for someone like Nihei, but he somehow manages to pull it off either way. Good stuff.

>Story
It’s fairly decent. It’s your classic revenge story in an interesting, but sometimes way too subtle world.
The story follows our protagonist, Etherow on a quest for revenge against the oppressive Empire for slaughtering his comrades and destroying the settlement he lived in.
The world-building elements get the Nihei treatment, as in: most of the stuff gets left out unexplained, like the origins the relics, or the automatons, or the regular frames. Where does ... all this come from? Well, at least we get explanations as to how these things actually work and affect the world, unlike in Abara.
Then again, this manga IS ongoing, so I’m waiting to be proven wrong on the statements I made. But for now, especially after Abara, I’m not a fan of this style of world-building. Although, to give it credit, it’s miles better that the stuff I got while reading Abara. 6/10.

>Art
I’ve been hearing some people say how Nihei’s art degraded, but I disagree. He’s trying out a new style, which is very fitting for the sort of world he has created on top of being gorgeous. Even if it’s objectively less detailed, I think it’s got its’ own soul to it. Simply put, the art is fantastic. It gives of a clean, fragile, almost crystalic kind of feel, and its’ simplicity works to its’ advantage.
My only gripe with it, is that the character designs, albeit cool, are starting to feel a bit same-y, since most of the characters wear uniforms and their regular frames are made out of the same material. But that’s barely a problem, since they’re still very good. 9/10.

>Characters
I’m really torn on them. Most of the enemies, apart from maybe Yiyu, Biko and the main baddie are blank slate jobbers and the protagonist is way too OP. He barely even struggles when he deals with his enemies. This has been a problem in Blame as well, except in Blame it’s not a problem at all, because Killy isn’t out to get his revenge on a supposed powerful and oppressive government, unlike our MC here.
The characters in general have goals and motivations. Etherow wants to get revenge on the Empire because they killed his friends and his mentor, whom was like a father to him. Titania wants to stop the Empire from conquering The Core. The Emperor wants to conquer Aposimz. But what do they have going on besides that? Barely anything. Maybe the main villain doesn't count right now, since he's just barely been introduced, but the MC and Exposition-chan over here have no excuse. The only thing I can remember about Etherow and Titania besides their common goal is that one likes grape fruits and the other has two scenes in where she "pisses" and makes the MC drink that in order to restore his abilities. Phenomenal.
What about them having their own unique philosophies? What are their personalities about? What are THEY about? Say, what about if Etherow wasn't fond of being a regular frame? What if him becoming that was a split second decision that he regrets? Wouldn't that make for a more interesting story? You could also develop this trait towards the end, where he would realize that being a regular frame doesn't get in the way of being a human, or something cute like that. Just feels to me like something like that would make Etherow a more complex and deeper character, but that's just my imagination going off. Anyway, I really hope the author touches up on the feelings and personal qualities of the characters more in the later chapters.
It’s got some good characters in it too, though. Like Kajiwan, a village ruler who’s jealous of Etherow and Keisha for their regular frame abilities, he works very nice as a side character. Titania and Keisha show potential to be great characters, as well as Biko. 5/10.
[MILD SPOILER]
Edit: right as I write this review, chapter 21 has Etherow actually fail and fall into a coma of sorts, on top of that we get a little more time to look at the supposed main villain of this story, which was really nice to see. Kajiwan is also becoming a much more interesting and vital character now, with all the cult stuff going on. I'll bump the score up to a 6/10.
[MILD SPOILER END]

>Enjoyment
So far this manga has been amazing to read, quite honestly. I love the vibe it gives off, you can actually immerse yourself in the atmosphere of it so damn well. Maybe it’s the style that’s giving it this unique type of feel, or maybe it’s all the quiet moments that we get to fully observe the locations this world has, or maybe it’s all the creative and fun, albeit quite lacking in explanations of them, abilities that the characters have.
There’s really a lot here to enjoy in this manga, even if I can’t in good conscience ignore all the technical mistakes of it. 9/10.

>Overall
I like Ningyou no Kuni. I like it a lot. Sometimes it gets way too shonen for me, but I can forgive that. All the cool designs, all the gorgeous and interesting locations, all the soulful covers. Even if the story and the characters may be just a tad lacking, It’s still very interesting to read, at least for me. And it’s definitely so much better than Abara. 8/10.