Linebarrels of Iron


Linebarrels of Iron is a Japanese manga series created by Eiichi Shimizu and Tomohiro Shimoguchi. The series was first serialized in Akita Shoten's monthly shōnen manga magazine, Champion Red, in 2005. It has since been compiled into 24 tankōbon, as of October 20, 2014. The story centers on Kouichi Hayase, a fourteen-year-old boy living a mediocre life, until an accident turns him into the pilot of a gigantic robot called "Linebarrel" and leads him to encounter a mysterious girl.
An anime adaptation of the manga series was announced in the February issue of Animage magazine. The anime is directed by Masamitsu Hidaka and animated by Gonzo. Though the world premiere of the first episode took place at Southern California's 2008 Anime Expo, the series premiered in Japan on the television network TBS on October 3, 2008. The anime broadcast a total of twenty-four episodes, the last of which aired on March 20, 2009. To commemorate the series' anime adaptation, Shimizu and Shimoguchi decided to create a one shot manga, recreating the entire first episode of the anime, in which the plot differs in many aspects compared to the beginning of the manga.

Plot

The Linebarrels of Iron story takes place in an alternate universe in the year 2019, centering on a junior-high school student named Kouichi Hayase, who escaped his daily life of being ridiculed as a child by daydreaming about being a hero. His life is forever changed during a class trip in 2016 when an artificial satellite falls from orbit. Due to this "accident", Kouichi is left in a coma for half a year, and upon awakening, found himself with strange powers, including superhuman strength. Three years later, a mysterious robot called "Linebarrel" appears before him. It is revealed that the accident from three years ago was actually caused by the Machina robot Linebarrel and that this turned him into a "Factor", which is the name given to Machina pilots. This leads him to encounter Emi Kizaki, a mysterious amnesiac girl whose unknown past seems to be related to Linebarrel. He joins her in fighting for JUDA, the world's largest medical equipment maker, which happens to secretly own several other Machina robots.

Machinas and Armas

There are two kinds of robots in Linebarrels of Iron: Armas and Machinas. The series primarily focuses on Machinas, robots which are not manufactured by humans and are powered by nanobots called D-S.O.I.L., also known as Drexler S.O.I.L., which also enable them to regenerate after being damaged. Since D-S.O.I.L. is like artificial muscle for the Machinas, they tend to "bleed" when they are damaged.
Machinas are also considered to have their own consciousness, as only their chosen "Factor" can pilot one, and should the Factor be killed, it will go on to find a replacement. The overlying reason for this is that all Machinas are incapable of intentionally killing another human on their own volition; they need a "Factor" i.e. another human, who would be the one who "kills". The Factor need not be actively piloting the machina for it to kill, as revealed when a rampaging Machina called Apparition was brought down by JUDA and the then-unaligned Hayase and it was found that the Factor was drugged and restrained inside it. Should it kill someone without a Factor's "assistance", usually by accident, a Machina has been known to resuscitate and heal the person by injecting their D-S.O.I.L nanobots into them, which in turn makes the person a Factor. This is case for Factor Reiji Moritsugu. In the case of Kouichi Hayase, then-Linebarrel pilot Emi Kizaki begged Linebarrel to heal him, which turned him into a Factor, at the expense of making Emi a less desirable Factor to Linebarrel. In the anime it was revealed that Hayase's friend Hideaki Yajima was also resurrected by the Machina that caused his death.
In addition, a Machina can go into Overdrive, or a state of rampage which exponentially increase its capabilities, when its Factor's emotions go out of control. Machinas can also be stored in another dimension and appear before its Factor any time, excluding the Linebarrel. However, they cannot teleport if the Factor is inside it. Since there are only a limited amount of Machinas available and their true origins are unknown, humans created Armas, which are crude imitations of Machinas and do not have D-S.O.I.L. They can be piloted by anyone, but they cannot regenerate, nor they can perform at the level of true Machinas.

Machina-Humans

A concept unveiled in the manga and anime. As the story unfolds it is learned that there exists a parallel universe adjacent to our own, where humanity reached incredible peaks of technology at the cost of their very nature, to the point where the human species as a whole became extinct after merging its own collective consciousness with the machines they created. Similar to a hive mind, this virtual collective unity threw away individuality and any sort of vestige of human feelings for the sake of power, becoming one cold, ruthless mechanical being bent on a continuous, endless expansion of itself. Referred to as "Central", this hive mind acts in a way reminiscent of the machines from the Matrix trilogy, even having its own enforcers to hunt down and destroy whoever is perceived as a hindrance.

Characters

JUDA

;Kouichi Hayase
;Emi Kizaki
;Reiji Moritsugu
;Satoru Yamashita
;Shizuna Endo
;Izuna Endo
;Miu Kujō
;Kunio Ishigami
;Yui Ogawa
;Rachel Calvin
;Linebarrel

Katou Organization

;Hisataka Katou
;Masaki Sugawara
;Dimitri Magarov
;Takurō Sawatari
;Soubi Nakajima
;Jack Smith
Voiced by: Yoshikazu Sato, Kenji Nomura, Bob Carter
;Yurianne Faithful
;Riku Ousei

Others

;Risako Niiyama
;Hideaki Yajima
;Makoto Domyouji
;Mina Hayase
;Saki Yajima
;Eiji Kiriyama
;Deus Ex Machina
Voiced by: Tesshō Genda

Media

Manga

Written and illustrated by Eiichi Shimizu and Tomohiro Shimoguchi, the Linebarrels of Iron manga series was first serialized in Akita Shoten's monthly shōnen manga magazine, Champion Red. The chapters of the series are still published in the magazine, and has since been compiled into twenty-four tankōbon as of October 20, 2014. This is excluding Volume 0, which was simultaneously released with the fifth volume. Akita Shoten also published a book containing details about the anime adaptation, simultaneously releasing it on the same day as the tenth volume. The manga is published by Editorial Ivrea in Spain for readers of Spanish. The first ten volumes of the manga had been already published.
To commemorate the series' anime adaptation, Shimizu and Shimoguchi decided to create a one shot manga which will be serialized in the forty-fourth issue of the Japanese manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Champion. It recreates the entire first episode of the anime, in which the plot differs in many aspects compared to the beginning of the manga.
VolumeRelease dateISBNChapters
0December 20, 2006—
1June 6, 20051 - 5
2November 1, 20056 - 10
3April 20, 200611 - 15
4August 18, 200616 - 19
5December 20, 200620 - 23
6April 20, 200724 - 27
7August 21, 200728 - 31
8December 20, 200732 - 35
9April 18, 200836 - 39
10September 19, 200840 - 43
11November 20, 200844 - 46
12March 19, 200947 - 51
13August 20, 200952 - 55
14December 18, 200956 - 59
15May 5, 201060 - 64
16October 20, 201065 - 69
17March 19, 201170 - 74
18August 19, 201175 - 79
19January 20, 2012
20June 20, 2012
21January 18, 2013
22August 20, 2013
23April 18, 2014
24October 20, 2014
25August 20, 2015
26December 20, 2015

Anime

The production of an anime adaptation for the Linebarrels of Iron manga was first revealed in Animate's preview information for the February issue of the anime and entertainment magazine Animage. It was later announced that Masamitsu Hidaka, most well known as the director for the Pokémon anime series, will be directing Gonzo studio's anime adaptation.
Though the Japanese television premiere of the series was in October 2008, the world premiere of the first episode took place in the United States at Southern California's 2008 Anime Expo, which Masamitsu Hidaka attended as a Guest of Honor. An official English language Linebarrels of Iron website was put up just before the Anime Expo in order to promote the American premiere of the series. Other special screenings for the first episode also took place in France's Japan Expo in July and Germany's Animagic 2008 in August. The previewed first episode contained subtitles as it was still presented with its original Japanese dialogue.
The series first premiered on Japanese television on October 3, 2008. A total of twenty-four episodes aired, with the last of which being broadcast on March 20, 2009. Though the episodes aired first on the TBS television network, CBC and Sun-TV also broadcast the series; CBC aired it within an hour after TBS's initial broadcasts, and Sun-TV aired the episodes a week later.
In an agreement, in which Gonzo's corporate parent, the GDH group, decided to allow popular video-sharing websites to stream some of Gonzo's latest anime titles, Crunchyroll, an anime-sharing site, streams episodes of the Linebarrels of Iron anime two hours after its premiere in Japan. It is also illegally available on YouTube, though the only full episode available is episode one; Gonzo uploads only the first half of the following episodes, and to view the rest, viewers are directed to Crunchyroll.
As of March 25, 2008, JVC Entertainment has released a total of four DVD volumes in Japan, with the first being released on December 24, 2008. The fifth volume was scheduled to be released on April 22, 2009. Each volume contains one disc, with each one containing three episodes, save the first volume, which contains only the first episode. Every volume also contains extras, ranging from Drama CDs to original illustrations by the creator.

Music

Five pieces of theme music are used for the anime series; one opening theme, two ending themes and two insert songs. The opening theme is "Kitei no Tsurugi" by the Japanese band Ali Project, the ending themes are "Ame ga Furu" and "Remedy" by Maaya Sakamoto, and the insert songs are "Kokoro no Mama ni" and "PROUD" by Lisa Komine. An orchestra version of "Kitei no Tsurugi" was also used as an insert song in episode 20. Ali Project released the "Kitei no Tsurugi" single on November 19, 2008, while "Ame ga Furu", Maaya's seventeenth single, was released on October 29, 2008. The second ending theme, "Remedy" was released within Maaya's sixth album, Kazeyomi, on January 14, 2009.

Reception

While the manga has garnered attention from noted animators and manga artists like Yoshikazu Yasuhiko and Mamoru Nagano, who are both avid readers of the series and recommends the work, early reviews of the anime adaptation have been generally mixed. Four different reviewers from the anime and manga social networking site Anime News Network gave negative reviews based on the first few episodes; agreeing that the storyline is generic and predictable, and that it contains an easily detestable main character. Though the mecha designs were likable, the anime's characters designs and computer generated graphics were scrutinized and described as not being one of Gonzo's best. Despite one of the reviewers finding the anime "marginally more tolerable" by the second episode, she comments that, "Whether or not you will be horrified enough to stop watching this show will be determined by your own personal level of tolerance for Kouichi's hubris." Dani Moure of Mania, an entertainment website, believes that the first episode "does a good job of introducing the premise of the show," but finds it "predictable and full of several clichés." Also, though Moure comments that Kouichi is a dislikable character, he states that "he grows into his role with his belief that there is more to come from him." In Moure's reviews of further episodes, he comments on how the series remains entertaining, "developing into a solid show," and that "watching Kouichi struggle to cope with the power that's been presented to him is becoming interesting."