ib: Instant Bullet is interesting to read if only for it's flaws. Brought to you by Aka Akasaka who penned Kaguya-sama, ib has the feeling of an author who understands his characters but never reaches the heights of his aforementioned work.

From the get-go, the characters are a little bit too, if you'll excuse me for saying this of a fantasy, extraordinary and the attempts to ground them come off as forced and clumsy. Granted, certain leeway is given in fiction, but the central conceit of the work does not aid in passing off bad character writing.

The premise is rather standard (gain a super power; save the world) but the take on it's characters is what sets it apart, or rather it tries to. The protagonist is a delinquent (whose design fails to sell him as one), orphaned and cast aside by classmates and society. He hates the world, wishes it to be gone and what not; a cynical young man with no hope for himself nor the world. Set up as deuteragonist and foil to our protagonist is Sera Himeura, an orphaned girl who sets off to be the hero of the instant bullets [1] whose initial impression is not all that it seems.

With these two at the forefront and aided by a supporting cast with the depth of a puddle (to be fair to Akasaka, it read as if he was going to develop the supporting cast in much later chapters had it run that long), the series quickly devolves into a fairly standard action fantasy of good v. evil and try as Akasaka might, the series hardly goes beyond that. Though it tried. Weaved throughout the manga are elements of something more, something auspicious, but it never delivers. ib touches on elements of loneliness, melancholy, suffering, etc. and at times it almost touches on existential themes but it only brushes upon them like a child brushes on crumbs.

ib feels inchoate; certain character motivations and their arcs are wrapped up in a few pages that give the feeling it was to be developed over several chapters, if not volumes more. Yet the shortness of the series doesn't excuse Akasaka's poor writing. It feels more to be the case that Akasaka didn't know how to proceed. Truly what does this series in is the lack of thematic focus. At times I found myself wondering what Akasaka was trying to accomplish. The disparate cast of angst ridden teens (and the odd adult) come off as pleadingly sympathetic even though their situations are truly disheartening (i.e. parental abandonment, loneliness, poverty, abuse, etc.). Akasaka certainly has the skill yet his lack of direction hampers him. He seems to forget the fiction is a sort of persuasive writing; he fails to make us sympathetic to the characters and thus fails to make us sympathetic to the series. In short, why do I care what happens to these characters? Akasaka struggles trying to elocute his main point and by the end, he ends up with something in between platitude and teenage angst fueled pseudo-philosophical ramblings.

Even Akasaka's artwork is as awkward as his writing. The characters look stiff, the backgrounds are lacking, and action, while brutal in some moments, fails to hit home. Though to be fair, his art is still as stiff and lacking in Kaguya-sama but it is serviceable there.

Yet not all is bad. Case in point, the witch's arc is, I believe, the high point of the series. The witch who gathered the instant bullets at the beginning, is perhaps the best developed and most sympathetic [2] of the cast. A truly pitiable backstory gives her scenes a greater depth and make her awkward love all the more heartbreaking. Her arc is carefully built up, intertwining her actions with the grander narrative and gives the rest of the cast a developmental thrust (that is honestly wasted on them) so when she is no longer present, the manga is all the more poorer for it. It feels as if Akasaka was finally hitting his stride during this arc and showcases his talents at weaving character interactions that give you a glimpse of what he is capable of. Unfortunately, the following arcs are rushed through and chopped up; a clear sign of cancellation cemented by his afterword in the final volume.

I can't help but feel torn about this series; Akasaka certainly knows to how to make interesting character interactions (as seen in other of his works) but none of his wit and charm is present here. The work is clumsy, all too serious, mawkish, and angst ridden to be enjoyable which is ironic considering I love Dostoevsky. Give it a read if you have time, pass if you do not. Akasaka has better works that are more enjoyable than ib.

[1] The instant bullets are the characters in the series who have a specific ability.
[2] By "most sympathetic," I do not mean that her circumstances were the worst but that Akasaka has convinced me that she is deserving of my sympathy. In short, her arc and character had the best writing in the series.