Fun and vibrant in setting, secondary characters, and the monster, but brought down by a main pair that, while sweet, do nothing new or worth the angst. Some tonal dissonance too: you get main characters murdering dudes, self-mutilation madness, and complex revolutionary politics right next to buddy-buddy dialogue that would be at home in She-Ra or Teen Titans. Not to mention

how quickly the narrative gets over some pretty real shit like bombing each other's families and killing the wrong guy! The reveal that the monster and plague were only connected by coincidence answered why the two felt kinda random for so long too, and not in a good way. Was neater when they were just freaky lice.

Good sense of adventure though, and a fascinating peek into the culture crash of 20s Shanghai.