| about
trismugistus.com
and digital-bondage.net
are my web sites.
trismugistus.com
is where I upload my anime, manga and tv&film reviews,
and also where I occasionally post short stories and longer
works I've written.
digital-bondage.net
is my wallpaper site and provides anime, manga and other
desktop wallpapers in a variety of resolutions. I also
have a few tutorials and some resources, such as psds
for you to download.
I also run a site called scan-city.org,
which provides scans from the latest japanese anime magazines
for you to download and use in your wallpapers.
You can also read my blog here
or check out my anime list here. |
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| details |
| The Genre: Comedy |
| The Format: Manga from ADV |
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| The plot: Kanami Chidori is an ordinary high
school student with a bit of a problem. This problem
is in the form of Sosuke Sagorah, who would be alright
if he didn't keep blowing things up, or threatening
her classmates with guns. |
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| opinion |
| Generally speaking, I don’t like Japanese
comedies of this ilk.
The Japanese are quite a mysoginistic lot, and
the fundamental core of them is that all of the
women love the male lead for no apparent reason.
The fantasy is that the nerdy hero is really a babe
magnet at heart – the girls only punch him
into orbit because they’re afraid to show
their emotions. |
Of course, there’s a pretence that
the women are indeppendent and all that, but
really, they’re weak and feeble and
need protecting and as such they're deeply
in love with him and want nothing more than
to serve him with every breath in their body.
Plus, on a less cerebral level, the punch
into orbit gag is only funny once. Seeing
it over and over again just becomes boring.
Now whilst the Full Metal Panic manga does
have this gag, it’s not done to excess,
and it’s depicted in a less over the
top fashion than in most manga. |
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On top of this, FMP offers a fundamentally new
twist to the tale. Whilst the main character should
be Sosuke Sagarah, instead it’s more of a
collective piece in the vein of Kare Kano. In other
words, the manga ends up being told just as much,
if not more, from the point of view of Kaname Chidori
and Teressa Testorosa – the two main females
- as it does from Sosuke.
This really is a very nice change, and raises this
manga well above the average. |
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Also, whereas Sosuke would normally be depicted
as lusting after various girls, or possibly just
a single girl, in FMP he’s completely clueless.
He clearly develops feeling for Kaname and Tessa,
but these are emotional, rather than lustfull.
The only let down, as mentioned, is that he does
still get into all sorts of “hilarious”
scrapes where he sees the girls naked, or touches
their boobs and similar, and then gets the crap
knocked out of him. Still, at least it’s done
with him being completely unaware as to what he’s
done wrong, which is a little different. |
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There are other problems, as well. Most
of these are focused on the artwork, which
is very inconsistent, but there are also some
problems with pacing, and errors in the plot
as well.
These do marr what is otherwise a very good
manga, that I would generally recommend. It’s
not really shoujo, and it’s not really
shonen, which is something very good in manga,
where things tend to follow very predictable
and well trodden paths at times. |
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Still, there are plenty of good things to balance
these poor elements out. There a lots of huge mechs,
pitched battles, guns and 'stuff blowing up' to
keep me more happy. There’s also good character
development, with a great supporting cast. And there
are even hints at some form of mysticism/spiritualism/alien
thing as well.
And last but not least, there are lots of genuine
laughs. That’s right, it’s actually
genuinely funny in parts.
Nice. But not spectacular. |
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| summary |
| The Summary: A truly enjoyable high-school comedy
with both strong shonen and shoujo elements. |
| The Score: 4/5 |
| The Pictures:
(click for larger versions) |
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