The story follows one such Extended named Juzo Inui, who literally has a gun for a head, among other implants. Juzo works as "Resolver" for issues involving the Extended. One day, a Renegade Extended carrying an unconscious little boy stumbles into his office on the run from the Security Bureau, begging for help. Though reluctant to get involved with such a matter, Juzo agrees, only to learn that things are far more complicated than they seem.
The manga was serialized in Ultra Jump from 2014 to 2021. An anime adaptation by Madhouse premiered as part of 2019's fall lineup and it's licensed by Funimation in English for North America, AnimeLab for Australia/New Zealand and Wakanim for the Scandanavian countries. Wakanim handles translation/distribution of the anime for French and Russian-speaking countries/territories.
This manga features the following tropes:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Pepper to Juzo, who she wants to own.
- Action Girl: Mary proves to be quite capable in a fight.
- Advice Backfire: Juzo tells Tetsuro to throw tantrums like the kid of he is instead of resigning himself to his fate. Not long afterwards, Tetsuro takes that advice and uses Harmony on Juzo when Juzo makes a decision he disagrees with.
- Affably Evil: Theodore briefly comes off as this, refusing to fight in Juzo's office to avoid upsetting Mary who just helped him and then giving money to a group of children so they can leave to buy candy well out of harm's way. Then it turns out that he's not an enemy at all and merely tried to kill Juzo out of a case of Mistaken Identity.
- And the Adventure Continues: Even after Berühren is dismantled, the animosity between Extended and non-Extended remains, so Resolvers like Juzo and Tetsuo are still needed.
- Anti-Hero: Juzo is a mercenary who claims he's Only in It for the Money, but nevertheless comes across as fairly principled and he protects other Extended knowing it's a thankless task.
- Arm Cannon: Juzo's left arm can turn into a revolver. A number of other Extended have these as well.
- Art Shift: The ending animations are mostly animated in CGI with 2D elements, the inverse is true for the show itself, as the vehicles and even several backgrounds are rendered in 3D. With the credits touting the use of Unreal Engine for the rendering.
- Artificial Limbs: A staple, to the point that people without any enhancements have a hard time competing for jobs involving physical labor. Plenty of folks have cybernetics, most prominently replacements for limbs - to the point that it's easier to count characters without any extensions.
- Attempted Suicide: Emma after receiving the news of her fiance's death during the war.
- Back-Alley Doctor: Mary. She does work on Extended using her mechanical genius.
- Badass and Child Duo: Juzo must protect the child, Tetsuro, from the Security Bureau.
- Badass Longcoat: Juzo sports a pretty cool looking duster, as befitting a Cyberpunk protagonist.
- Batman Cold Open: Juzo chasing off Extended thugs who are bothering the local doctor.
- Body Snatcher: The Harmony enhancement.
- Celibate Hero: Juzo, to the extent that even hearing stories about other people's relationships is enough to make him uncomfortable. When women literally throw themselves across him, he tends to continue the conversation as if nothing is happening rather than acknowledge it in any way.
- Central Theme: The difference between a person and a tool, and how a person's value is more than just what they do. Juzo and Tetsuro both do not want to be seen or treated as tools to anyone, while the villains see everything and everyone as cogs to machines that are replaceable and only matter as far as they're useful.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Juzo's gun head has a trigger, which he can't pull on his own. At the end of the first volume, he tells Tetsuro to do so.
- Olivier's habit of carrying around extremely smelly canned food comes in handy when she opens a can in front of a group of pursuing EMS officers, who panic thinking it's a toxic gas.
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Poorly made cybernetics can cause mental damage. However, this is a product of glitches, not cybernetics themselves - thanks to Behruren's manipulations though, the public thinks this applies to all Extended.
- Cyberpunk: Falls pretty squarely into this genre.
- Cyborg: The Extended. Juuzo himself, in particular, seems to have a lot of enhancements compared to others, to the point that he has to carry a license to justify them. He's specifically noted to be an older model from the Great War.
- Evil, Inc.: Berühren, full stop. Just to hammer the point home, in one instance they attempt to trick a terrorist organization trying to kill Behruren executives into blowing up an orphan choir instead, when they could just as easily have tricked the terrorists into blowing up an empty train car.
- Evil Redhead: Karen the fake Sister who works for Behruren.
- Fantastic Noir: Fits the bill, complete with a Private Eye Monologue from the main character.
- Fantastic Racism: The plight of the Extended is that Behruren exploits this trope, portraying them as inhuman killing machines so that they don't attract public backlash for their mistreatment of them.
- Fat Bastard: A Behruren agent who comes after Tetsuro seems to be very well fed, and is a complete Jerkass.
- First-Episode Twist: Tetsuro has the power to hijack the brains of other Extended, and he was controlling the fugitive asking Juzo for help.
- Gratuitous English: The story's full title and subtitle. No Guns Life: SF hard-boiled the gun smoke drifts muzzle talks
- Great Offscreen War: The Great War so far is only alluded to, not seen.
- Kiss of Life: Olivier to Juzo during the fight with Armed, although instead of oxygen she's sharing cigarette smoke.
- Knight in Sour Armor: Juzo is ultimately a good man, but he has a fairly cynical view of his job and the world around him.
- Lightning Bruiser: Juzo is quick on his feet despite his size.
- Luminescent Blush: Juzo gets this despite not actually having a face, when his client kisses him chastely. It's a bit of a Running Gag when women flirt with him.
- MegaCorp: Berühren.
- One-Winged Angel: Juzo's full combat form.
- People Puppets: Anyone with Harmony can do this to Extended. Tetsuro turns Juzo into one early on, and as soon as he drops his control and they're in a safe location Juzo makes him promise never to do it to him again.
- Power Limiter: Why Juzo smokes, which is an unusual usage of that brand of cigarettes even for Extended.
- Power Perversion Potential: Mary catches a former intelligence analyst with x-ray vision using it to take pictures of women in their underclothes.
- Racial Face Blindness: Theodore attacks Juzo thinking he's another Gun Slave Unit despite Juzo's repeated attempts to clarify. Once he finally lets Juzo explain, he says that all Gun Slave Units look the same.
- Rated M for Manly: A cyborg with a gun for a head is pretty darn manly. An amnesiac, chain-smoking, trenchcoat-wearing, stoic but secretly caring Cyborg (with a gun for a head!) who works as a private contractor dealing with issues even the police have trouble with is even manlier.
- Smoking Is Cool: Juzo. Presumably Extendeds don't have to worry about lung cancer. Justified, since the cigarettes Juzo smokes are medicinal ones, and from what we've seen most of his torso is machinery on the inside.
- Super-Deformed: The art style of Juzo's head becomes this way when feeling awkward.
- Super-Soldier: Juzo, considering the vast amount of combat cybernetic enhancements he has.
- Taking the Bullet: The nameless Extended that helped Tetsuro escape and saved Juzo from Karen's bullet.
- Villain Has a Point: Armed isn't wrong when he says that without him championing the Extended cause from the get-go, treatment of Extended might be worse than it already is.
- Weaksauce Weakness:
- Juzo constantly worries about getting wet and rusting his head, even though he isn't sure if he'll rust or not. That and he requires someone to fire the trigger on his head.
- In general, all Extended share the same weakness of their auxiliary brain on the back of their neck, which helps in controlling their enhancements. This might be intentional as a way of controlling them, since only recent Extended have this weakness, while earlier versions like Juzo each have an internal auxiliary brain in a unique location.
- In addition, the more enhancements you have, the more likely you are to get nerve paralysis.
