I’ll admit, there is something sadistic about going back before the Crunchyroll Original anime adaptation of a frankly mediocre GITS rip-off made sure EX-ARM was a name known for all the worst reasons.
Yet, curiously while searching for more used volumes of the EX-ARM manga, i realized there was actually a previous iteration, written and illustrated by Shinya Komi alone this time (so writer HiRock wasn’t involved yet), simply called EX-VITA.
Yeah, eventually (roughly 2-3 years later) they remade EX-VITA as EX-ARM, which ran for Shueisha’s Grand Jump and Shonen Jump from early-2015 till mid-2019, and eventually ended, rereleased then over 14 volumes/tankobons.
I do wanna eventually cover that, but i figured we took a look at EX-VITA first, also to celebrate the new Ghost In The Shell anime launching on Amazon Video… well, yesterday (or today, in some regions)!
It’s gonna be a relatively quick review since this original iteration of the concept ran for just 2 volumes.
That said, what it sticks out even before reading it is the lack of “MC in da future brain”, the guy protag whose name eludes me and i think it’s because it’s not worth remembering (Akira? Something like that, doesn’t matter), he’s not here and so the focus is on the main female duo, Minami, a schoolgirl and the newest member of the police force, and Aruma, an experimental gynoid with an advanced IA module, doing the odd duo, that buddy cop thing, literally.
The premise is still similar, as in, they are involved in facing obscure machinations and crimes perpetrated by shadowy organizations in the “cyberpunk japanese future”, escorting important political figures as needed/requested by the government, facing off terrorists, the usual shebang you’d expect from the genre.
Unsurprisingly, the vibes of this are still of an obvious – yet far less ambitious – Ghost in The Shell knock-off more interested in doing fanservice than action AND tackling the classic cyberpunk philosophical dilemma with any class, and instead running more on shonen manga logic with the power of friendship and stuff in full swing the more it goes on.
Where is the realization of the digital self without the also real cyber lesbian threesome sex?
Are you even a cyberpunk manga at this point?
Aside from fumbling that, it does have a lot of fanservice or cybernudity and saucy sordid robosexual activities, and even if there’s nothing incredible about it in terms of themes (it’s actually pretty basic in this regard, it even uses the old Asimov “3 laws of robotics”), and the type of situation the format showcases also are what you expect, it’s not badly illustrated or incompetently put together.
I do think it’s a pretty good looking manga, i do like the mechanical designs, which is mighty important to get right in a cyberpunk manga especially, though the overall character designs are fine, honestly, they’re typical but solid, if unoriginal.
The main plot device to further cement the relationship between Minami and the gynoid Arima is that Arima has a limited timespan (VITA is Latin and Italian for “life”, after all) built into it despite being so advanced, due to a law made exactly to avoid more and more androids having their IA reprogrammed to go against the 3 laws of robotics, so advanced androids like Arima basically will just live 4 years before they’re – for lack of a better word – terminated.
As i said before, it’s pretty basic, not bad, definitely not trying to innovate or break any ground, but the focus is on Minami and Aruma relationship and how it shapes them both, makes for a typical but still decent pairing of opposites, with the limited lifespan of Aruma putting some actual stakes aside from finding out who’s behind the androids being reprogrammed to be more human and less beholden to the 3 laws, and why.
Again, since its just 2 volumes (12 chapters including the prelude and bonus chapter), there’s not much to it, and it feels exactly what it is, a first opus by a new author… and a proof of concept, at least in hindsight.
There is a last second new character made to be a wedge between the oddball duo, but again, it happens and it’s resolved in the very same chapter, the other characters aren’t anything worth writing home about, we get to know the main villain’s motives… also pretty stock, not absurd, actually kind of understandable in this day and age, but it is pretty generic nonetheless, and even the main stake of Aruma life to expire in 3 years due to the aforementioned law is left unresolved, a thing to deal in the future.
In conclusion, it is exactly what you would expect, a slightly above average GITS knock off heavy on fanservice, more interested in a shonen manga approach to the usual themes of the “man machine-interface” kind, bit generic also in terms of the main protags “oddball buddy cop duo” dynamic (Minami is a clumsy energetic human, Minami is “robo-stoic”), but also a very well drawn one that delivers a lot of action and entertains enough to scratch that cyberpunk itch.
I do think it makes for a decent proof of concept, so i can see why Shinya Komi went back and remade EX VITA into EX-ARM (alongside HiRock)… and frankly i’m not even sure if EX-ARM was much of an improvement, in some cases i’d argue it was a regression, but i’ve not fully read the manga, i’ve seen the anime and allegedly it hits all the major scenes, but also cut many others, altered some and added some original content, not that it would change the EX ARM anime being one of the worse thing to ever grace my fuckin eyes, i already reviewed it so i won’t bash it some more here. Even if that dead horse would be deserving another kick, it would be.
I’ll reserve judgement for the manga once i get around to collect all the volumes and read it in full, as for EX VITA itself, it’s ok, nothing special, really, but also not horribly bad, it’s a trashy but palatable little slice of cyberpunk, robosexual encounters, and heavy weaponry for the oddball duo to trash terrorists with augmentations with, more like a cheap shonen-esque GITS clone that is more interested in having the female police duo flash people than ponder on the “digital soul”.
Sometime you just wanna stare at robot butts, so at least i appreciate even the “embryo” version of EX ARM not trying to mask its priorities.
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