''Ex-Arm'' (stylized as ''EX-ARM'') is a Japanese

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

series written by HiRock and illustrated by Shinya Komi. The series is a remake of Komi's earlier manga ''Ex-Vita''. It was serialized in

Shueisha (lit. "Gathering of Intellect Publishing Co., Ltd.") is a Japanese company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The foll ...

's ''seinen'' manga magazine ''

Grand Jump is a Japanese semi-monthly seinen manga magazine published by Shueisha under their ''Jump'' line of magazines. Launched in November 2011 as a merging of ''Business Jump'' and '' Super Jump'', it carried over nine series from the former and thre ...

'' from February 2015 to December 2017, and later on Shueisha's ''

Shōnen Jump+ is a Japanese online magazine for manga created by Shueisha, spin-off from its '' Jump'' line of magazines. Launched on September 22, 2014, the magazine operates as a free mobile app and website. The magazine serializes original titles and titl ...

'' website from December 2017 to June 2019. Shueisha compiled its chapters into fourteen ''

tankōbon is the Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or cultur ...

'' volumes. A sequel manga titled ''Ex-Arm EXA'' began in ''Grand Jump Mucha'' in August 2019. An

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

television series adaptation by Visual Flight aired from January to March 2021.

Plot

In 2014, a high school student named Akira Natsume endures a phobia of electrical devices while also being very good at diagnosing them. He leads an average, unfulfilling life, and resolves to change himself for the better and get a girlfriend after being motivated by his older brother. Soon after, he suddenly dies in an accident. 16 years later, a young policewoman named Minami Uenozono and her android partner Alma retrieve and activate a highly advanced AI superweapon known as an "EX-ARM" and put it into full control of their ship as a last resort. The AI turns out to be Akira's brain, now in a digital form. The series revolves around the police force's attempts to suppress and defeat adversaries using EX-ARMs for their own purposes.

Characters

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Media

Manga

''Ex-Arm'' is written by HiRock and illustrated by Shinya Komi. A first series, written and illustrated by Komi, titled ''Ex-Vita'', was published in

's ''seinen'' manga magazine ''Miracle Jump'' from December 13, 2011, to April 30, 2013. Shueisha collected is chapters into two ''

'' volumes, published on August 17, 2012, and June 19, 2013. ''Ex-Arm'' was published in Shueisha's ''

'' from February 18, 2015 to December 6, 2017. The series was then transferred to the ''

'' website and app, and ran from December 20, 2017 to June 26, 2019. Shueisha collected its chapters into fourteen ''tankōbon'' volumes, released from June 19, 2015, to August 19, 2019. A sequel series, titled ''Ex-Arm EXA'', was serialized in ''Grand Jump Mucha'' from August 28, 2019, to February 27, 2021. The first collected ''tankōbon'' volume was released on December 18, 2020. The second volume was released on March 18, 2021. A manga adaptation of the novel ''EX-ARM the Novel Deus Ex Machina'', titled ''Ex-Arm Another Code'', was serialized in Shueisha's ''

Ultra Jump is a Japanese monthly seinen manga magazine published by Shueisha under the Jump line of magazines. Originally, the magazine was a special issue of ''Weekly Young Jump'' which was first issued in 1995. On October 19, 1999, the special issue beca ...

'' from February 19 to November 19, 2020. The two collected ''tankōbon'' volumes were released on December 18, 2020, and January 19, 2021.

Volume list

Novel

A novel titled ''EX-ARM the Novel Deus Ex Machina'', written by Atarō Kumo, was published by Shueisha under its Jump J-Books imprint on December 19, 2018.

Anime

television series adaptation was announced on the release of the manga's 12th volume on December 18, 2018. The series is produced by Visual Flight and directed by Yoshikatsu Kimura, with Tommy Morton in charge of the scripts and Sō Kimura as composer. The main staff of the series have no previous experience with working on anime. Originally set for a July 2020 release, the series aired from January 11 to March 29, 2021 on

Tokyo MX JOMX-DTV, branded as Tokyo MX (officially stylized as TOKYO MX), is an independent television station in Tokyo, Japan, owned by the . It is the only television station that exclusively serves the city. It competes with Nippon TV, TV Asahi, NH ...

SUN The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

, and BS Fuji due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. The opening theme is "Rise Again" performed by AIRFLIP, while the ending theme is "Diamonds Shine" performed by Dizzy Sunfist.

Reception

The first trailer of the anime was instantly met with heavy online backlash due to the poor quality of the

computer-generated imagery Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is the use of computer graphics to create or contribute to images in art, printed media, video games, simulators, and visual effects in films, television programs, shorts, commercials, and videos. The images may ...

(CGI) animation. The anime's animation continued to gain criticism as it aired, with some citing the anime staff's lack of experience in working in the industry as a likely culprit.

Notes

References

External links

* * * * * {{Ultra Jump 2018 Japanese novels 2021 anime television series debuts Action anime and manga Anime postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic Anime series based on manga Crime in anime and manga Crunchyroll Originals Cyberpunk anime and manga Japanese webcomics Muse Communication Jump J-Books Seinen manga Shueisha manga Tokyo MX original programming Transhumanism in anime and manga Webcomics in print