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I see a lot more actual storytelling happening here. Nihei's trading a lot less on pure atmospherics. Everything reads a lot more clearly but we're still in a megalithic city. He's gotten a lot better at drawing faces. Women look more moe and men are able to explore a beautiful range of facial structures.

The gauna read less clearly than Silicon Life or Safeguards do, but as we get into these giant mausoleum consuming gaunas in the second half, I appreciate the human facial features. This is something you see present through his work and H R Giger's, like with the skull barely visible inside of the Xenomorph's exoskeleton. The idea that these monstrosities are descended from our own humanity is what makes them so terrifying, the idea that we can be contorted into these forms. Generally speaking though, shit made of skeletons is cool.

There are always more questions than answers, and generally I'm in favour of this. It gives the world more depth and texture. That said, the story itself feels as though it stops mid-sentence. I know gauna are a motif that reappears in later works, just like Toha Heavy Industries does. It will be interesting to see what the through line actually is.