Saikano

    (Viz, 2004-2005)
™ and © 2000 Shin Takahashi
Graphic novel; Reads right to left; b&w.

He’s emotionally clumsy and unintentionally cruel, she’s absurdly apologetic and desperately shy, but the awkward romance between would-be high-school sweethearts Shuji and Chise is wholly believable, as they tentatively find each other. Which, of course, is when Japan gets attacked, the world goes to war, and it’s revealed Chise has somehow been turned into a biomechanical weapon by the government.

Readers never learn exactly who attacked Japan or why, how that’s connected to the world conflict, or how a tiny schoolgirl could be transformed into a deadly military cyborg, but details like that are beside the point. Because instead of going the more obvious My Girlfriend The Gundam route, Saikano is an eerily effective existential drama that considers watching the characters’ fragile feelings splinter “action.”

Chise tries to maintain an already-weak sense of self, as her new body gets ideas of its own and Shuji “deals” with his new reality by deluding himself into thinking love can conquer anything. It’s an original vision produced in a strangely haunting minimalist style.

— S.A. Bennett
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