Saikano
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Saikano, also known as She, the Ultimate Weapon (最終兵器彼女 or Saishū Heiki Kanojo) is a manga and anime (animated) series by Shin Takahashi (高橋しん, creator of IIHITO. and Your Fragment). Saikano was originally serialized in Shogakukan's Big Comic Spirits magazine.
Saikano has been licensed and is being distributed by Viz Communications in English in North America.
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Introduction
Shuji, a high school student in Hokkaido, is the main character. Chise, a fellow student, declares her love for Shuji at the beginning of the series. But Chise is very shy and Shuji has a bitter tongue. So they start a correspondence diary to communicate as a couple.
One day, when Shuji was shopping in Sapporo, unknown bombers attacked the city in broad daylight. He and his friends run for cover, but notice a rapid and small flying-object shoot down enemy bombers. Separated from his friends, Shuji is wandering through the wreckage, when he stumbles upon Chise, with metal wings and weapons apparently grafted onto her body. She tells him she has become the ultimate weapon.
Story
This anime, as suggested by the sub-title "The Last Love Song On This Little Planet", is primarily a love story. Although war is the backdrop for the show, we are not drawn into the war by extravegent battle scenes, or the intricate details of national politics. The story focuses primarily on Chise's reactions to her increasingly powerful destructive abilities, Shuji's reaction to the same, and the relationship between the two of them.
A number of minor characters, who do not necessarily know of Chise's role in the war, have sub-plots that mostly concern everyday people in the context of war: a woman whose husband is constantly away from home, a school boy who joins the army to protect his sweetheart, a girl whose civilian boyfriend was killed in a bombing, and others.
War
Both the manga and the anime features a hotly-contested war. We are shown battles, and the lives of people on the front, but the diplomatic particulars of the war are not given to the audience. We don't find out why the war broke out, what is the war all about, or what countries the Japan Self-Defense Forces and Chise fight against (However, there is speculation on possible foes. For example, in one episode an enemy plane is shot down near the city and the pilot's one or two lines are in near perfect American-accented English).
External links
- Official US Saikano Website (http://www.saikano-usa.com/)
- Official Japanese Saikano Website (http://www.saikano.net/)de:She, The Ultimate Weapon
fr:L'Arme ultime ja:最終兵器彼女 pl:Saikano zh:最终兵器少女
Categories: Anime | Manga