So, this manga is a mixed bag for me. I actually really liked the idea and the mood of the story. It was often fairly interesting and well written(if we consider it as a slice-of-lifeish story), to the point where I wanted to know what comes next and didn’t get tired while reading. It’s essentially just a random story with androids/cyborgs, yuri, some light comedy, sci-fi technology and crazy characters. The mc is a very bright and spirited cyborg girl and the other girl is a combat cyborg/android with cat ears and these people just go around doing whatever they feel like. It doesn’t have any particular depth and feels pretty similar in pacing to a slice of life story, although there are some battles and stuff, but nothing ever gets truly serious, everything is dealt with in a light-hearted fashion and I like that. Most of the characters are likeable, but there are a few exceptions and this story does have a lot of fatal flaws that makes it drop from a 9/10 to a 5/10 for average. Now, here comes a fairly long rant about the flaws, keep in mind that this will make the manga sound horrible, but it’s really quite enjoyable, especially if you skip over certain things.
I never checked the authors, but I knew very quickly that rikudo koshi was one of them and probably a dominant one(which was true), having read "excel saga" before(subpar manga with badly executed gags, horrible cast and worthless story that got especially bad after the first half of the manga). The Excel-copy reporter was a dead giveaway and so was the weird-haired/bearded chairman and the dog designs.
Sadly, that excel-copy reporter(just like the original) becomes more and more annoying the longer you read, only that she’s even more obnoxious since she’s not the main character here. She contributes with nothing, has serious mental issues and is way too hyper. Rikudo koshi seems to believe that such a personality, who only somehow manages to screw themselves and other people over with their idiotic actions and hyperactivity, is hilarious. Sadly, I disagree. It can be funny once in a while, but since she shows up pretty much in every chapter, especially at the start of each chapter(but often pops up several times in a single chapter), only to get promptly screwed over thanks to her own stupidity, it quickly loses its comedic value and quickly starts to generate an obnoxious value instead. It's just eating pages that could've been used for something better. Later on she becomes EVEN MORE invasive and makes me wish she'd just die and stop ruining the story. Well, that’s what one has to expect when rikudo koshi is swinging his weight around.
The confusion about whether Clarion is an android or a cyborg is very frustrating. Seriously, half of the time she's described as an android, half of the time she's described as a cyborg and it seems the author/authors are the ones responsible for this. Nene and most other people think she’s a human being, a cyborg like Nene, she was also introduced as one in chapter one and is always introduced as a human being to everyone, but then she thinks stuff like "my thought algorithm", she seems to be bound to following programs, she doesn't need to sleep, she's being called doll by a certain person and treated like an android by other people, she even has "backup copies", but we don't know if she's special, a cyborg, or not... Does it matter much? Well, maybe not, since we all have experience with the super-AI type that is pretty much as human as anyone else. The issue is that we don't know what to expect and thus can't get a feel on her. Hell, in volume 10, we get a new summary for Clarion different from the old one which said she was a combat android(despite other parts saying that’s not true). It now says "Like Nanakorobi Nene, Clarion has a full-body prosthetic... or does she?", in other words, they're making it confusing on purpose. Seriously, how stupid can they be? Come on. A twist/mystery like this where we don’t even know what she is does NOT mix well with a manga such as this, at least not in the way they’ve written it. There's no reason whatsoever in this setting as to why it should be a mystery since it's just a demerit.
As usual it’s irritating how there's no proper gore/deaths whatsoever, the typical japanese bullsh*t idea that goes "don't kill people even if they're trying to murder you and save others even if it means you'll end up dying or almost dying". Moronic to say the least. I especially despise how villains are never killed(at least not directly, dying from an accident doesn't count) no matter what they do, that satisfaction of watching an annoying character die is the best after all. I get that this is not supposed to be a dark manga with a psycho character, but it seems obvious to me that defending yourself is just a matter of course and it feels way too fake when you throw yourself into mortal danger to save other people that you don’t even know or would rather make the fight much harder and more dangerous than risk killing the enemy. Come on, that's not a good trait, it's just pure foolishness.
The villains in this thing is half-arsed as well, utterly devoid of interesting parts(talking about the humans behind the scenes, not the other enemies). Seriously, they're so bad that I'd just prefer if there was no real mastermind bullsht behind the scenes. Just let people randomly come and cause trouble, that's enough for a story as shallow as this. Well, trying to give forced, unnecessary depth to something that shouldn't have it given its other settings is typical of rikudo koshi, as we could see in the gag-manga "excel saga" that somehow lost itself after a while with bullsht background plots and other crap that just served to ruin a manga that shouldn't have dabbled in anything but comedy and a light-hearted story. Even if we know that they will handle everything pretty easily, it's still irritating when unnecessary “complicated/mysterious" elements intrude into a story like this, at least if they can't even do it properly, the mc doesn't even have the will to get stronger or anything that would justify enemies like that, neither does the feeling/mood of the rest of the story. Not saying comedy and light-heartedness can't mix well with drama and battle(because it can), it's just done very poorly here. Especially not when they, in the manga, repeat on and on that it's a "girl meet girl" story and that it has nothing to do with anything dark, any war or schemes, yet it has all to do with stuff like that even if the mc is blissfully oblivious to pretty much everything going on around her.
Well, that’s it for the rant. I would actually recommend this manga despite the bad parts, I enjoyed it quite a bit and I never really felt bored while reading the first 10 volumes that was translated. It was just that I was irritated and annoyed by so many things which drastically reduced my enjoyment at times which made me score it 5/10. Well, just skipping any parts with the excel-copy reporter in it(they’re not really important anyway) would make it quite a bit better. Maybe you're different from me as well and doesn't mind the things I care about, I've been reading different stuff for so many years since childhood that I just can't be satisfied with normal stuff and likes to nitpick. I remember I enjoyed everything back then(even swallowed true shoujo mangas as if they were awesome, which I cringe and spit blood at when reading now), would be nice to go back to such a time. Well done for making it to the end, heroes. Join me and I’ll give you half the world after we conquer it.
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