I have really struggled to write about this series. It's simultaneously brilliant in it's depth and shallow in it's utter lack of understanding, making for a truly fascinating read. While it may be fascinating, it has been absolute hell for me to write about in a way that properly communicates how I feel about it. I am overwhelming positive about this series, I just want to get that out of the way. The overwhelming majority of the time GROUNDLESS is absolutely fantastic, it is the few instances in which it falters that gives me pause. While those moments are truly painful on their own, looking at them in greater context makes them much easier to bear. In a real sense, it's similar to the war it depicts in that regard. Understanding the context in which each and every side in the conflict makes their decisions is vital. This is where GROUNDLESS is at it's strongest.

Character motivations are easy to understand and established early, but more importantly, their motivations are realistic and believable. I want to really drive this home because I can't emphasize it enough, the character motivations in this story are king. The narrative at large is about a brutal civil war, it dominates the foreground of each and every chapter, however this manga isn't really about any of that. Rather, it all acts as the vital context needed to inform the motivations the characters, it's about how and why people make the decisions that they do, no matter how brutal or inhuman those decisions may be. With this in mind I want to say that the title for this manga, 'GROUNDLESS,' is possibly the single most apt title for anything I have ever read. I really really don't want to spoil anything because the moment where the title of the manga clicks into place gave me chills, it's one of the most powerful moments I've seen in quite some time.

As stated previously, the larger narrative of GROUNDLESS surrounds a civil war. It is in the macro details of the larger world where the manga starts to lose some of the depth that is has within its characters. The depiction and description of racism and ethnic strife in the story is very much that of someone who has never witnessed anything of the sort. This why I describe the manga as being incredibly deep, yet also painfully shallow, at times the ignorance on these subjects can be a bit much to handle. But to me it at least feels like the understanding of someone who has read some actual good history books and has seriously considered the subject, which is more than can be said than a lot of genre fiction authors from other countries who should know better. This brings me back to the positives, while it has it's share of issues, it is a story which is written with an utmost sincerity that bleeds through what few cracks it does have. I really didn't expect much going in, but GROUNDLESS surprised me with how masterfully it constructs it's characters and by it's unabashed sincere approach to the subject matter it handles. It's a series that deserves more readers, especially after over a decade of publication. It's a great series, hope others come to like it as much as I have.