To start this is based on a decently short scifi book so that comes with a lot of baggage. For one short scifi works typically dont spend a lot of time characterizing instead focusing more on concepts and sometimes themes. A lot of mileage out of it comes from the concept in this case the live die repeat and man if that message is good its an added bonus. A friend of mine pointed out the problem with a lot of these books though. They fall far too often into creating the broadest themes imaginable. This book? War is hell. To win at war you have to mold yourself into a machine losing personality. You may have seen this before. A lot. The film adaptation of the book took the opportunity to change a lot which may have caused some derision but I felt a lot of it was good changes. Giving the MC an interesting personality thats characterized around his selfish cowardice into selflessness and competence by the end was great and I found the loop to be used a in more interesting ways both seriously and humorously. The manga unfortunately sticks even further to the book... and its worse for it. The characterization here is completely bare. The MC is almost a blank slate fighting for the sake of others that has more to do with logical and sane responses avoiding death with the motivation of staying alive but his personality turning from a blank slate into something that is just cold and calculating as he deals with death which gives him a funeral look means the core is almost null. I want to feel bad for him but I have nothing to grasp onto here. His killing himself and his gory ways of dying are supposed to be horrifying but felt less sincere and more edgy shock value. The female main character is better with a good backstory but it comes so quickly that I dont have time to grasp at a straw here. All of its threads end way too quickly. Its given amazing art though. The art for the fights is absolutely amazing. My jaw dropped with the axe fights and even the last fight as much as I hate how it turns into a sick twist for a more nihilistic ending is cool as fuck. The mimics look neat too with its detail coming from its javelin and attacking weapons rather than the basic mouth shapes which I think gives a lot of depth to the moblike enemies. And again fights are cool. What this wouldve benefitted more from is actual time. A lot of time is spent furthering him turning into the machine and figuring out how to get out of the loop and I feel more time shouldve been spent on other activities. Banter characterization conversing personality etc. And maybe just more themes than just war is hell because I feel thats the only lesson here? Theres the move on for the survival of the human race despite the obstacles but that to me is bland as fuck and its not extrapolated at all. And war is hell isnt even done well here either. At least its short. Watch Edge of Tomorrow instead. Its a lot better from what it changes.