She, The Ultimate Weapon

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She, The Ultimate Weapon
Original title 最終 兵器 彼女
transcription Saishu Heiki Kanojo
Saishu Heiki Kanojo.png
genre Romance, end times
Manga
country JapanJapan Japan
author Shin Takahashi
publishing company Shogakukan
magazine Big comic spirits
First publication January 2000 - October 2001
expenditure 7th
Anime television series
title Saishu Heiki Kanojo
Original title 最終 兵器 彼女
Country of production JapanJapan Japan
original language Japanese
year 2002
Studio Gonzo
length 23 minutes
Episodes 13
Director Mitsuko cheese
music Takeo Miratsu
First broadcast July 2nd - September 24th 2002 on Family Gekijō
Original video animation
title Saishū Heiki Kanojo - Another love song
Original title 最終 兵器 彼女 〜 Another love song〜
Country of production JapanJapan Japan
original language Japanese
year 2005
Studio Studio Fantasia
length 30 minutes
Episodes 2
Director Mitsuko cheese
synchronization

She, The Ultimate Weapon ( Japanese 最終 兵器 彼女 , Saishū Heiki Kanojo , literally: "You, the last weapon; the last weapon, girlfriend") is a manga by the illustrator Shin Takahashi , which was also implemented as an anime and real film. The manga belongs to the genre of his . Shin Takahashi developed the story after seeing two advertising posters on the subway and mentally combining them.

action

The story is about the two high school students Shūji ( シ ュ ウ ジ ) and Chise ( ち せ ), who live in a small provincial town on the island of Hokkaidō . Both go together, but the relationship doesn't really work out yet. The eternally grumpy Shūji constantly compresses his girlfriend, while the clumsy Chise just keeps apologizing for something. Nevertheless, Shūji thinks his chise is cute and longs for the first kiss. When Shūji goes on a shopping tour to Sapporo with his friends , the city is suddenly attacked by fighter pilots. The attack can be repulsed, but suddenly they realize that Japan is at a war about which there is no information. But what affects Shūji worse is the fact that the Japanese armed forces have drafted his girlfriend and converted her into the ultimate fighting machine using new technologies.

While both discover their first love and sexuality and grow with it, Chise becomes more and more inhuman due to her new skills and her violent engagements in war. In the manga, the development of the characters and the depiction of the effects of the war are credibly linked. The main question is whether Shūji's and Chise's love has a chance in such times.

The war

The anime suggests that the earth is slowly but surely falling into decline. A sign of this are the increasingly frequent earthquakes in Shūji's hometown.

The enemy soldiers invading Japan speak both American English and French in the OVA as well as German. The causes or goals of the war are never mentioned. However, it is implied that the natural disasters are worldwide and related to the war, as well as that large parts of the world have become uninhabitable. But here, too, cause and effect are not mentioned, i.e. H. whether the natural disasters were the trigger for the war or the war the trigger for the natural disasters, as well as whether the uninhabitable regions are the result of the natural disasters or the war. Furthermore it is implied that Japan (especially Hokkaidō) is one of the last habitable regions and the purpose of the invasion of Japan is to secure living space for the population of the attacking parties.

The Japanese people are left in the dark about the war. She does not receive any information, but slowly but surely begins to feel the effects: means of communication and television channels are failing, food is becoming scarce and the armed forces are omnipresent. Shūji's hometown is initially spared, but with the crash of a fighter plane, the war also finds its way into the supposedly safe province. Shūji's class thins out more and more, be it that the students volunteer for the army to protect or avenge their relatives or loved ones, perish directly in the earthquake or indirectly because medicine is no longer available or starve because of the soil no longer delivers any yield.

The ending of the manga and anime are different. In both of them, however, the world is going to end, Shuji and Chise remain as the last people, although here, too, due to Shuji's surreal perception of the downfall, it remains unclear whether his continued life with Chise is just an imagination of him.

main characters

Shūji
The always grumpy high school student hates living in the provinces and is otherwise not that happy with his life either. He always compresses his girlfriend Chise, even though he actually wants to be nicer to her. Still, he can't help calling her an idiot all the time . Shūji is very good at sports and used to be in the athletics club. Now he is in puberty and having trouble with his awakening sexuality. When he happens to find out that Chise has been converted into a fighting machine, he doesn't want it to be true at first. But then he tries to save their mutual love.
Chise (from Ainu cise for "home, house")
The cute girl is pretty clumsy, bad at school and also relatively unsportsmanlike. She's also constantly apologizing for something. Actually, she was instigated by her friends to go with Shūji, but although he always compresses her, she begins to love him. She receives an offer from the armed forces to be converted into a combat machine and accepts without thinking about it. In the course of time, she developed more and more skills. It can transform itself into a fighter jet, fires missiles and is in contact with satellite surveillance. In doing so, however, she slowly begins to lose her humanity. Initially, it was hailed by the military as the new miracle weapon and rescue from impending defeat. But over time, the mistrust of her grows along with her abilities, until she is despised as an angel of death ( Shinigami ), as she repeatedly destroys friends and foes alike during her missions.

Publications

Manga

In Japan, the manga appeared from 2000 to 2002 in the manga magazine Big Comic Spirits by Shogakukan . To make it look more realistic, the author even wrote it in the Hokkaidō dialect. In Germany he was published in 2003 by Carlsen Comics .

Anime

In 2002 a 13-part television series was produced based on this. This series was produced by Studio Gonzo , directed by Mitsuko Kase , and character design by Hisashi Kagawa . It was first broadcast from July 2 to September 24, 2002 on Family Gekijō , and a day later on CBC and two days later on TV Hokkaidō . The opening title Koisuru Kimochi ( 恋 ス ル 気 持 チ , dt. "The feeling of falling in love") and the closing title Sayonara ( サ ヨ ナ ラ , dt. "Farewell") were sung by Yuria Yato .

In 2005 a 2-part OVA ( Another Love Song ) followed. This was produced by the Fantasia studio. Mitsuko Kase again directed. The end title Mayonaka no Niji - everlasting love ( 真 夜 中 の 虹 ～ everlasting love ～ , Eng. "Midnight rainbow - eternal love") was sung by Akira Asakura .

character Japanese voice actor ( seiyū )
Chise Fumiko Orikasa
Shūji Shirō Ishimoda (series only)
Mizuki Ai Orikasa (OVA only)
Akemi Yū Sugimoto (series only)
Atsushi Tetsu Shiratori (series only)
Fuyumi Miki Itō (series only)
Tetsu Shin'ichirō Miki

Real film

On January 28, 2006, the live action film with the subtitle The Last Love Song On This Little Planet started in Japan . Directed by Taikan Suga . Aki Maeda (as Chise) and Shunsuke Kubozuka (as Shūji) were hired as actors . In Germany this January 2007 was released on DVD under the title Saikano .

computer game

On May 29, 2003, a computer game for the PlayStation 2 from Konami was released .

Saishū Heiki Kanojo Gaiden-shū

Other short stories have appeared based on She, The Ultimate Weapon . Seikai no Hate ni wa Kimi to Futari de. Ano Hikari ga Kieru made ni Neigai or Semete Bokura ga Iki Nobiru. Kono Hoshi de. ( 世界 の 果 て に は 君 と 二人 で。 あ の 光 が 消 え る ま で に 願 い を。 せ め て 僕 ら が 生 き 延 び る た め に。 こ の 星 で。 ) appeared in the August-2001 issue of Gene . Love Story, Killed. appeared in Big Comic Spirits on July 15, 2002 . A reprint of both short stories under the name Saishū Heiki Kanojo - Sametime, Another Place appeared as a separate supplement to the December 2002 issue of the Monthly Sunday Gene-X. Star Child ( ス タ ー ☆ チ ャ イ ル ド ) was published in Big Comic Spirits on January 30, 2006. In July 2006, a tankōbon with these and other short stories named Saishū Heiki Kanojo Gaiden-shū: Sekai no Hate ni wa Kimi to Futari de ( 最終 兵器 彼女 外 伝 集 世界 の 果 て に は 君 と 二人 で , dt. “'The Last Weapon Girlfriend 'Extra Story Collection: With You, Two People at the End of the World ”).

Love Story, Killed.

The story tells from the perspective of a cartridge of a 17-year-old Japanese sniper who collects the weapons of his shot opponents. At the beginning he sees a group of soldiers rape a girl, wait until they become lazy and shoot her. He invites the girl over to have sex with her while she satisfies her hunger and befriends her. He notices that he only has five cartridges left, including one that is supposed to bring him luck, and in his death panic he shoots past a patrol several times, but does not want to shoot his lucky cartridge - the narrator. His mood lifts when the girl returns with the ammunition of her opponents who have just been shot. At that moment he is shot by three opponents. The girl is eventually raped and also killed. The three soldiers also perish several days later: one on the battlefield, one dies of illness and the last one commits suicide.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b epilogue of the manga
  2. ↑ 「世界 の 果 て に は 君 と 二人 で。 あ の 光 が 消 え る ま で に 願 い を を。 せ め て 僕 ら ら が 生 き 延 び る た め に。 こ の 星 で。」 . In: SHIN Presents! on the web. Shin Takahashi, July 18, 2001, accessed October 31, 2008 (Japanese).
  3. ↑ 「LOVE STORY, KILLED.」. In: SHIN Presents! on the web. Shin Takahashi, July 15, 2002, accessed October 31, 2008 (Japanese).
  4. ↑ 「ス タ ー ★ チ ャ イ ル ド」 . In: SHIN Presents! on the web. Shin Takahashi, January 30, 2006, accessed October 31, 2008 (Japanese).
  5. ↑ 「最終 兵器 彼女」 外 伝 に つ い て . In: SHIN Presents! on the web. Shin Takahashi, June 9, 2005, accessed October 31, 2008 (Japanese).

Web links