is a Japanese manga series written by Eiichi Shimizu and illustrated by Tomohiro Shimoguchi. The series was first serialized in Akita Shoten's monthly seinen 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 (Tokyo Broadcasting System) 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 (dead) 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 ("It" does not want Emi to fight). 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.
Human-Machina It is revealed mid-way through the manga that a majority of humanity was wiped out after the development of Nanomachines and the Machina due to a kill-switch built into their DNA. Many years later a majority of the Machina have obtained self-awareness and destroyed what was left with many of them hunting down humans and human corpses to provide them with a "Factor". Unsatisfied with their lack of purpose, the 'Human-Machina' had remade humanity to try and find the purpose of life. Known named Human-Machina include Deus Ex Machina, their leader, a nanomachine-copy of Abraham Lincoln who "pilots" the Machina 'Rail-Splitter and his "daughter" Maxi Oba, pilot of the self-named Lovebarrel.
Machina-Humans A concept unveiled in the anime. As the story in the anime 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
The 14-year-old protagonist of the series. As a child he was prone to crying and being ridiculed by delinquents. However, he soon acquired, by death nonetheless, the powers of a Factor while forced through an off-limits area His future Machina Linebarrel, literally crash-landed on top of him and, sensing his life ending, revived him and linked with his life force after he becomes the first to be killed by Linebarrel. This endowed Kouichi with super-human physical abilities, however it caused major changes to his personality, making him very arrogant, prideful and overconfident, so much so that he himself became the actual gang leader of the delinquents. This strained considerably his relationship with others, especially his childhood friends, prompting Yajima to knock some sense into him. Only grievous events such as Yajima's own death and the humiliating defeats handed to him managed to benefit his maturity, forging a much more serious (albeit still reckless and a bit vain) character. He pilots the titular Machina of the series, Linebarrel. The machine is regarded as the most powerful Machina of all, as its power output far exceeds any other Mecha presented in the franchise. It has a bulky appearance, though it is still capable of very fast performances, and its armament include two massive katanas holstered in wrist-mounted sheaths, and a beam-gun device named the Executor, housed in a compartment on the tail of the robot, whose sheer power is so great it can even generate a sustained energy beam, kilometers in length, that can be swung like a sword. Also, Linebarrel is the only Machina capable to achieve a so-called Override status, which increases dramatically its performance at the cost of putting a heavy strain on the pilot's body. Finally, Linebarrel can change into a more intimidating, jet-black form named simply Mode-B in the anime or Linebarrel Override in the manga, which grants it instant teleportation. The relationship between him and Kizaki in the beginning is terrible until all is revealed between them; after swearing to protect her, it is where feelings begin to develop between the two of them.
A mysterious girl of whom initially nothing is known, Emi is the initial Factor (pilot) of Linebarrel, and indirectly the one responsible of Kouichi's "death". Of his same age, she appears as very polite and calm, though very strict and demanding if the situation arises, although sometimes quite clueless about things that should be perceived as obvious, such as asking what a Christmas party means. She is later revealed to be the younger sister of Katou Hisataka, and thus another traveler from the "other dimension" that spawned the Machinas themselves. Finally, it was she who introduced the special, black Mode-B function of Linebarrel. Emi is the first pilot of Linebarrel, and thus she initially shared control of the Machina with Kouichi Hayase, until the latter took complete control over it. She was the first to use Linebarrel's Mode-B/Override in actual combat. She and Hayase become close after the past about him and her are discovered; she develops feelings for him as does he.
Chief of the Special Task Force at JUDA Corporation, Reiji is an extremely calm, polite, and cold individual that takes his role with extreme seriousness, so much so that he's capable of physically punishing those who fail him in combat. His expertise in combat is regarded as the best JUDA can offer. Usually an enigmatic, unreadable figure, as a teenager he, much like Kouichi, believed in a strong sense of justice and thus pitted himself against delinquents, aided by the fact that since birth he lacked the sense of physical pain. In those times he was shown to revel in the violence he caused while "dealing justice", and frequently got in trouble with the local authorities, much to the chagrin of his older sister, which what was left of his family after the death of his parents. With her death, apparently at the hands of some thugs he had beaten, Reiji became disillusioned and searched relief in suicide, which he found by accidentally falling through a sinkhole and ending impaled through one of Vardant's swords. Thus, he was revived as a Factor and promptly recruited into JUDA, where he became the reason and inspiration for Satoru Yamashita. Indeed, his ruthlessness and coldness made him an arch-rival of Kouichi, though Reiji simply dismissed him as a nuisance, even toying with him in actual combat before subduing him brutally. During the course of the series, he feigned treason and allied himself with the Katou Organization, though only with the goal of aiding JUDA. Most ironically though, it was his ideal of justice that helped forge the megalomaniac dreams of his only true friend, Eiji Kiriyama. Eventually, Reiji becomes the chairman of Kiriyama's company and removes Eiji from his position as President. He also never defects from JUDA. On a side note, before becoming a Factor, Reiji was blonde-haired and, much like his Machina, lost his right eye while fighting.