REVIEW: ‘No Guns Life,’ Episode 10 — “Phantom Limb”

No Guns Life is a sci-fi, action/adventure anime based on the manga of the same name, created by Tasuku Karasuma, The anime is animated by Madhouse Inc., directed by Naoyuki Itō, with Masanori Shino designing the characters, Yukie Sugawara handling series composition, and Kenji Kawai composing music. The anime is voiced in Japanese; however, English subtitles are available. “Phantom Limb” is the tenth episode in the planned 24-episode season.

In “Phantom Limb,” Colt—the man who enlisted Tetsuro’s aid in the last episode—is nowhere to be seen at Mega Armed’s memorial even though he told Tetsuro to meet him there. When an explosion goes off at the memorial, Tetsuro and Mary suspect Colt’s involvement. Tetsuro takes over a security guard and both he and Mary follow Colt to the train station. Tetsuro and Mary confront Colt and learn about his plot to blow up the train holding important Berühren executives. Although Colt seems to be doing it for a good reason—to support his comatose mother and his starving siblings—Tetsuro adamantly tries to stop him.

In the dog-eat-dog world of No Guns Life, we’ve already become familiar with the dirty dealings of Berühren Corp. They kill and use people to benefit their own goals, all in the belief that the strong survive and the weak perish. On the other side, “Phantom Limb” serves to give us a view of how far the average person will go to protect the ones they love. “Phantom Limb” gives a view of the direct opposite of Berühren Corp—the average person who is manipulated by the company—but also shows that they aren’t all that different. People sin to promote what they see as a better world. It isn’t just the military or these big corporations that are committing atrocities; no one is innocent in this dystopian world.

Although what drives Colt—the want to support and protect his family—is relatable, I feel Colt himself is not. I did not find his personality endearing and his brash, loud nature didn’t bring me over to his side. Although I was very neutral about Colt from the manga, the anime has turned me off from his character.

This is particularly troublesome because of this episode’s theme; the message requires the audience to care about Colt and, in turn, sympathize with his plight. “Phantom Limb” should lessen the blow of the act of wickedness Colt tries to commit with the knowledge that he’s doing it for his family. But this intention is disrupted by the fact that Colt isn’t a very likable character. Because I personally think Colt isn’t a very likeable character, the large amount of drama in “Phantom Limb” felt almost comical and overbearing. There’s a bit of action in this episode, but also a whole lot of dramatic talking that really put me off.

On the other hand, Tetsuro is starting to grow on me. This is around the same time where I began to like Tetsuro in the manga as well. So the tone and emotions have translated well from the manga to the anime. Tetsuro tries very hard to be helpful and is often obstinate in the fact. Which is why he’s been trying to help Juzo out but keeps getting rebuked. The amount of effort he puts into doing what’s right makes him more endearing and the fact that he isn’t outspoken or arrogant allows the audience to sympathize with the character.

It’s a bit odd to see Tetsuro use Harmony so early after Juzo advises against it; Juzo made it very clear that Harmony only makes people into tools and neither he nor anyone else should be a tool. But, it’s convincing because he uses it in a split decision when Mary gets attacked by a security guard. His immediate reaction was to protect Mary and, although using Harmony upsets him, he did it without a second thought to save Mary. This makes Tetsuro even more endearing in my book.

Juzo, who is one of the main characters and has been a focal point in most episodes up until this one, only get a few minutes of screen time. As someone who really likes Juzo as a character, this is a bit of a let-down. I like both Mary and Tetsuro, but I appreciate their interactions with Juzo more so than enjoying the characters by themselves.

Overall, this episode was only mildly entertaining. Colt didn’t strike me as an interesting or relatable character. Because of this, the theme that the episode was trying to get across didn’t quite hit its mark. “Phantom Limb” felt like a filler episode that really had no influence on the overarching storyline or theme. With Juzo out of the picture, it was left up to Mary and Tetsuro to carry the episode.

No Guns Life is available now on Hulu and Funimation.