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最終兵器彼女 [Saishuu Heiki Kanojo] #5
Saikano: The Last Love Song on This Little Planet, Vol. 05
As the war escalates, Chise struggles to maintain her fading humanity. Is she the shy high school girl who wants to fall in love? Or is she the ultimate killing machine engineered to demolish everything in her path?
Amid the wreckage of warfare, both Chise and her boyfriend Shuji are learning painful and fatal lessons. Being a teenager is difficult... especially when your hometown is the target for constant missile attack.
Grappling with issues like love, trust and responsibility, Chise is buckling under the pressure of her double life. Responding to her country's military needs, she must also find time to complete her daily homework assignments. Yes, war is hell. But being a one-woman wrecking crew is no picnic, either.
248 pages, Paperback
First published June 30, 2001
1 person is currently reading
60 people want to read
About the author
Shin Takahashi
60 books26 followersShin Takahashi ( 高橋しん, originally 高橋真 Takahashi Shin?, born September 8, 1967) is a Japanese manga artist best known for writing Saikano (She, the Ultimate Weapon) and Iihito. He was born in Shibetsu, Hokkaidō on September 8, 1967.
He has been using computer graphics in his works since the time when few manga artists were able to use them.
He has been using computer graphics in his works since the time when few manga artists were able to use them.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 6, 2018
This manga fluctuated every couple chapters... The first couple chapters were really great.../\/\/\/🤔🤨
March 20, 2018
Teenagers Chise and Shuji dated, but Chise is a genetically-engineered girl who morphs into Japan's ultimate weapon. Her responsibilities force her to give up on their love, as she feels it is unfair to Shuji.
The emotional content is this book is overwhelmingly grim. There are still moments that really strike a chord, but most of the emotions are muted by the incessant suffering in this volume. The emotional moments are also undermined by the atmospheric art, which makes distinguishing many of the characters difficult.
The previous volumes used the sci-fi/war setting as a backdrop to focus on emotional turmoil of teenagers. This volume brings the war content to the fore, focusing on soldiers and Chise's role with the military, including the loss of a very dear friend. Meanwhile, an earthquake strikes town, and Shuji must deal with losses of his own loved ones. The sexual content ramps up, but it rings false and seems forced. The sexual tension and hormones between Shuji and Chise made sense and was believable. Now both are simply thrust on, or propositioned by, others with whom they had an entirely different relationship. It could work, but it feels clumsy. Maybe the delay between v4 and v5 is causing some of that disconnect.
It's still good, but I prefer the less sensational, more emotional, tact of the earlier volumes. The loose art, with not a lot of backgrounds, does make the concrete sense of destruction from war and earthquake harder to feel.
The emotional content is this book is overwhelmingly grim. There are still moments that really strike a chord, but most of the emotions are muted by the incessant suffering in this volume. The emotional moments are also undermined by the atmospheric art, which makes distinguishing many of the characters difficult.
The previous volumes used the sci-fi/war setting as a backdrop to focus on emotional turmoil of teenagers. This volume brings the war content to the fore, focusing on soldiers and Chise's role with the military, including the loss of a very dear friend. Meanwhile, an earthquake strikes town, and Shuji must deal with losses of his own loved ones. The sexual content ramps up, but it rings false and seems forced. The sexual tension and hormones between Shuji and Chise made sense and was believable. Now both are simply thrust on, or propositioned by, others with whom they had an entirely different relationship. It could work, but it feels clumsy. Maybe the delay between v4 and v5 is causing some of that disconnect.
It's still good, but I prefer the less sensational, more emotional, tact of the earlier volumes. The loose art, with not a lot of backgrounds, does make the concrete sense of destruction from war and earthquake harder to feel.
March 10, 2021
Not the end of the series, but a book of endings. This is the one where people die "on-screen." And in significant numbers. Plotlines are wrapped up and it is made clear that major characters will not be showing up again, one way or another.
While the previous books in the series haven't particularly struck me as having distinct themes, this one is hitting pretty hard on the theme of "becoming an adult." Shuuji has an actual normal conversation with his mom, is given a gift of alcohol, and struggles to define and face his place in the world. I'd say the scene with the soldiers during the festival is the one that underscores just how much he's matured (as well as how far he has left to go and how deeply he's held in the grip of a very toxic idea of masculine adulthood).
Meanwhile, Chise comes into her own as . Other characters face or discuss the idea as well, and what's interesting is that despite how much time this series spends obsessing over sex... its thoughts about "adulthood" are almost entirely decoupled from sex itself. If anything, sex is associated even more closely with death - they're two sides of the same coin, and multiple characters rebound from one toward the other.
One thing that will probably get more attention in the following volumes is Chise's duality. It's been there for a while, but now we have another character calling it out. We also get the weird revelation that while in book 2 she was confounded by English (a language that almost everybody in Japan studies at least a little), suddenly she can speak French without a care. Also, with Japan's military leadership , we're shown a hard limit on the number of those little pills that she takes to stave off some kind of disaster.
I feel like we've hit the end of an arc, to be honest. Plot threads are being tied off, and new ones set up. What's "actually happening" is maddeningly opaque at times, but the storytelling is still masterful enough to give this little tale of death, devastation, and despair a solid score of "Thanks! I hate it."
While the previous books in the series haven't particularly struck me as having distinct themes, this one is hitting pretty hard on the theme of "becoming an adult." Shuuji has an actual normal conversation with his mom, is given a gift of alcohol, and struggles to define and face his place in the world. I'd say the scene with the soldiers during the festival is the one that underscores just how much he's matured (as well as how far he has left to go and how deeply he's held in the grip of a very toxic idea of masculine adulthood).
Meanwhile, Chise comes into her own as . Other characters face or discuss the idea as well, and what's interesting is that despite how much time this series spends obsessing over sex... its thoughts about "adulthood" are almost entirely decoupled from sex itself. If anything, sex is associated even more closely with death - they're two sides of the same coin, and multiple characters rebound from one toward the other.
One thing that will probably get more attention in the following volumes is Chise's duality. It's been there for a while, but now we have another character calling it out. We also get the weird revelation that while in book 2 she was confounded by English (a language that almost everybody in Japan studies at least a little), suddenly she can speak French without a care. Also, with Japan's military leadership , we're shown a hard limit on the number of those little pills that she takes to stave off some kind of disaster.
I feel like we've hit the end of an arc, to be honest. Plot threads are being tied off, and new ones set up. What's "actually happening" is maddeningly opaque at times, but the storytelling is still masterful enough to give this little tale of death, devastation, and despair a solid score of "Thanks! I hate it."
October 20, 2024
The first four volumes all had explicit content labels. This volume did not, and it had more explicit content than any of the first four. There is some suspension of disbelief needed to read this story, but the story is well-told. The art is not great, but it meshes well with the story.
There are two more volumes.
There are two more volumes.
December 16, 2017
Now I remember. This is the one that did me in emotionally. (RIP Akemi.)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 2, 2008
This manga is about Shuji, a sharp-tounged adolescent, and his girlfriend, Chise. Chise is shy, apologizes for everything, and overly emotional. Suddenly, she is turned into a killing machine for the Japanese Self-Denfense Force to wage war against other countries. She is the angel of death to soldiers, but Shuji longs to think of her as his girlfriend, and make her happy again. This book beautifully shows the emotions of the characters, no matter how unpleasant or saddening. I highly reccomend this book to anyone and everyone, but I warn you; there is blood, there is nudity, there is sex. But these are all part of human life, so if you can accept that, read this book.
November 19, 2011
A truly gorgeous series.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews