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Joshikouhei has a jaw dropping beginning, sloppy and somewhat unnecessary middle, and fantastic end.

Apparently it was originally a short story, and was only written to be longer at the editor's encouragement. So it starts out very tight and inspired, but stumbles around for a while until the author figures out where to take the story. He does figure things out eventually though and ultimately it's seriously worth the read.

Highly recommend if you like sci-fi, existential horror, edgy ultraviolence and degeneracy, and life philosophy.

I'd describe the beginning as Gantz meets Getter Robo and Devilman... with a touch of Mirai Nikki. The setting also takes minor inspiration ... from Gundam, so you'll have a fun little "pointing leonardo dicaprio meme" moment if you're familiar with it.

By the end Joshikouhei shapes up to be its own thing. I have some comparisons but they're spoilers and don't quite do it justice anyway. I've seen some people compare it to Freesia, the author's major work to date, but I haven't read that yet myself.

Sorry if this sounds vague but I would rather you learn the details yourself. Honestly if you're still reading this review you should probably just check out Chapter 1. Joshikouhei has very strong first impressions and if you like it you can keep reading. It carries its initial momentum strongly until at least around the end of Volume 2. After that point I wouldn't blame you if you dropped it, but trust me when I say the ending is worthwhile.

Aposimz is a mixed bag, but I'd still recommend it to Tsutomu Nihei superfans.

Tsutomu Nihei has an incredible ability to craft unique sci-fi worlds that function on their own rules of nature. He then crafts epic stories that slowly reveal those rules to you through exploration and character interactions. Sometimes, on the way, events lead to those rules fundamentally changing, requiring you to figure things out all over again. To me, this is the main appeal of Tsutomu Nihei manga.

So will you find this in Aposimz? The short answer is yes, but it takes a while to get going.

I'll say right now that if you ... love Tsutomu Nihei and you're thirsting for more of his work, you're gonna want to read this. If you've never read anything by Tsutomu Nihei, you should probably check out his more polished work first. Blame!, Biomega and Knights of Sidonia are all great.

If you're interested, I recommend you stop reading this review now and just start. But I'll share my spoiler-free thoughts below anyway.

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The biggest difference between Aposimz and other Nihei works is that, here, the main driver of the plot is the characters' emotional motivations (at least at the beginning). This is in stark contrast to Blame! and Biomega, where the characters barely have emotional motivations - and if they do, it's something larger than life like "become god" or "see heaven." Even in Knights of Sidonia, where the characters' emotions were on full display - the primary motivator of the characters from a plot perspective was the existential threat of extinction, and any cheesy romance tropes were intertwined with unique sci-fi concepts. But Aposimz isn't like that.

Unlike most Nihei works, Aposimz starts out as a simple revenge story, entirely driven by the main character's motivation to get back at the bad guys who crossed him. There are hints of the epic Nihei sci-fi plot going on in the background, but that takes the backseat for the first good chunk of the story. This makes it awkward to read since, in my opinion, Nihei really struggles to write characters you're supposed to empathize with. This makes the first act feel like a generic plot with generic characters in an interesting world.

However, about halfway or a little over halfway through the story, more actors enter the mix which makes things a lot more interesting. This continues into the rushed ending, which many reviewers here disliked but I personally enjoyed. It was very reminiscent of other Nihei works which I love. That's all I'll say about the ending to avoid spoilers.

One other thing to comment on though is the fight scenes. Many of the fight scenes in Aposimz take the opposite approach from Nihei's typical "show-don't-tell" style of writing. This manifests in many ways including shounen-style narration, and the moment-to-moment thoughts of both characters engaging in battle. It usually reads pretty cheesy, but it helps you appreciate the decisions the characters make in a way you otherwise wouldn't.

That's pretty much all I have to say. Nihei takes a very different approach to storytelling and writing in Aposimz - mostly for the worse, but it does shape up by the end, and the uniqueness does make it interesting to read as a Tsutomu Nihei fan. That's why I only recommend this series to existing Tsutomu Nihei fans, and say everyone else should read his better works first and come back when you run out of Nihei content to consume.