Battle Ground Workers

A sci-fi manga about a man who joins the Humanity Union Japan Chapter where employees use remotely controlled humanoid weapons called “RIZE” to battle against invading alien forces called “Agaitai”.

When I started reading this manga I was impressed how Minoru Takeyoshi setup soldiers as just another job to pay the bills. The RIZE machines work by having human connect their consciousness to their unit and any damage it receives is felt by the pilot. If the communication device of the RIZE is destroyed, the pilot dies. However they can forcibly disconnect up to five times before the pilot’s brain will suffer critical damage. The concepts are nothing original but everything is executed well enough through both the artwork and story. I like how the protagonist and his squad are subject to performance reviews akin to those in any office job.

My main complaint about this series is that they made a big reveal in the story and it was completely obvious to anyone who’s seen a story similar to this one. And yes, it’s probably what you’re thinking as well. I’m still reading for now because I’m interested to see if Takeyoshi will do something different with this common twist.

~dakazu