Daisuke Enoshima is a mangaka to keep tabs on. Even with a short run, this series managed to maintain its strong and fleshed out lead characters along with a compelling theme that stays consistent through its solid conclusion. That's not to say that this manga isn't without its obvious flaws. Despite never catching on in popularity, this series was a hidden gem amongst the many contemporaries that serialized alongside it in WSJ. The biggest problem was the narrative pacing, which is a far too common issue among short lived manga. Once a series is proven to be a dud in terms of sales, the editorial departmentusually lets the mangaka know a bit in advance about potential cancellation and this could happen any number of times. It is apparent especially for a series like this where you can pinpoint two or three different instances where it feels like story was heading to a climactic finish but then continued on anyways. After 36 chapters, it seems Jump finally settled on axing the series for good. As a consequence of this, some aspects are clearly lacking, such as the side characters who are well eatablished with their introductions, but then are relagated to oblivion once the story is forced to move onto an imminant ending.

So why am I going on about the "axe" procedure of Shonen Jump? Well you see, despite the obvious issues that paint the surface, Fabricant 100 at its core is a well crafted and throroughly thought out series that has some brilliant moments of paneling, character development, and thematic story beats. The obvious issues are obvious, but there is so much more to this series than that. The stories we learn through the inhuman fabricants are fantastic, with No100 being an obvious highlight. In fact, I love how up until the end Enoshima maintains consistency with the character; no matter how much a fabricant wants to become an ideal human, they never will be one. At the end of the day fabricants are exactly what their name tells us they are. Nothing more than a mimic of humanity... but that doesn't mean we as humans can't draw meaning and emotion from them. I'm sad that this series didn't get more fleshed out, but I am glad that I got to encounter it nonetheless. I look forward to whatever Daisuke Enoshima does next.