Re:Anima, Vol. 1

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

I find the idea of an unlivable world because of climate change and the fact that now people have use this synthetic bodies to be able to live on the surface while the real bodies are confined underneath very very interesting. When I realized the manga would be about a police group that fights against moded synthetic bodies I was really excited for the infinite fighting posibilities. Instead, the three episodes that compose this volume were quite underwhelming in my opinion. The bodies are not real and they can't even feel pain and you can use mods and programming to make them do anything, but the fights are just... not that interesting? That's a death sentence on a fighting manga.

I have to be honest and say that I find the pacing quite slow. The episodes feel like they are a bit too long and drag on. I don't know if I would rather the manga was serialized weekly but I do think it would benefit from tightening the chapters (either by adding more content or by making them a bit shorter, or perhaps adding subplots? Although to be fair, it's still a bit early to do that, we're only three chapters in)

Regarding the art, I think it's quite good? It's not super original in this genre and demographic but I do enjoy that women aren't super stylized (so far) to have gigantic breasts or hips, that's always a bonus point for me. 

I think the plot of the manga has a LOT of potential, but it needs to be exploited FAST.