Review of She, The Ultimate Weapon Vol.3

Introduction

Time flies when you`re contemplating eternal oblivion, and barely four months after the series made its UK debut, She, The Ultimate Weapon a.k.a. Saikano concludes with this third and final volume from Manga Entertainment. This is one fewer in number than the US release and eases the burden on UK wallets somewhat. That said the featurettes on this volume are taken from the Japanese release and don`t exactly tie up with the episodes. You don`t have to worry about spoilers as with the previous volume though.

Saikano is a prime example at what anime excels at, taking a premise that seems absurd at first glance, and treating it with compelling emotional honesty. The story seems implausible at first glance, yet it still manages to fashion a drama that is gripping and heartfelt. Saikano is a simple high school love story. Two teenagers fall in love, and have to overcome many obstacles to win through. To make life difficult, their romance takes place against a background of a devastating war. To make life nigh on impossible, she has been engineered by the military into the Ultimate Weapon, and when called upon undergoes a complete transformation into an avenging angel. It`s the age-old story of boy meets girl, girl turns into weapon, girl has existential crisis about being a killing machine, boy can`t deal. You see it all the time.

Saikano`s story is told over 13 episodes, with episodes 9-13 presented here on a two disc set, replete with Manga`s usual plethora of soundtrack options. These being the final episodes, I`ll be verbally anorexic with my episode synopses to avoid excessive spoilers.

Ep 9. Akemi
All hope seems lost when Chise falls unconscious through exhaustion. Meanwhile another powerful earthquake hits Hokkaido, and Shuji has to face losing someone who loves him.

Ep 10. And Then
It`s the last day of school, ever. The refugees and earthquake survivors have been turned out in preparation for the retreating army. It`s a chance for the remaining students to have one final celebration. With the arrival of the army, Chise finally returns home.

Ep 11. A Time For Us
Chise and Shuji elope, and try to find happiness and a semblance of a normal life in a distant village. But the medicine that controls Chise`s condition is running out, and the war is never far away.

Ep 12. Love Song
Shuji tends to Chise as she lies ailing, but realises that if he is to save her, he`ll have to give her up. With Chise back with the military, Shuji has nothing left to do but return home.

Ep 13. And We Will Love
Chise returns to Shuji, but she is no longer the girl he remembers. She tells him that the end of the world is nigh.

Video

Once more we get a somewhat disappointing 1.85:1 letterbox image. Once you get used to the lower resolution, the transfer comes across as clear and sharp, with strong colours. The perennial problem of digital banding is apparent, but the animation exhibits the usual Gonzo splendour, with distinctive characters, and effective action sequences.

Audio

Whereas the US release had only DD 2.0 Stereo tracks, Manga go their usual route of adding DD 5.1 and DTS upmixes, in both English and Japanese. Once again this necessitates the show being repeated on two discs, with the DTS mixes confined with a DD 2.0 Stereo English track to disc 2.

As usual, I opted for the DD 5.1 Japanese track, and found that it made punchy use of the surrounds, with the soundstage being put to efficient use for the effects and action sequences. Once again, the sound is balanced well, and the dialogue is clear and audible throughout. I sampled the English dub, and found it to be acceptable but not quite up to the standards set by the original actors. Saikano has another good music soundtrack though, and I wasn`t once tempted to skip through the credit sequences. Subtitles are zoom friendly of course.

Features

Both discs get the usual animated menus but this time it is disc 2 that contains the usual gallery of Manga Entertainment trailers. You can watch the episodes individually, or use the Play All option.

Disc 1 contains all the extras pertinent to the show, including 30 images in a production art gallery. More notable are three featurettes.

The first is an Interview with the Director Atsuko Kase and Producer Masashi Tsukino and lasts 10 minutes. They talk about the process of translating the manga to the screen, and the way that the ending differs in the show.

The second is an interview with the manga`s creator, Shin Takahashi. This also lasts some ten minutes and he talks about the process of the story creation, the characters and his impressions of the animation.

Finally there is a Conversations with Voice Actors (Atsushi and Akemi) segment. This lasts 12 minutes and in it Yu Sugimoto (Akemi) and Tetsu Shiratori (Atsushi) talk about the show in general and their characters in particular.

All are subtitled where required.

Conclusion

Watching this final volume of Saikano is somewhat akin to being repeatedly kicked in the gut. I mean that in the best possible way. It`s a tragic love story of course, `the last love song on this little planet` as the tagline would have it, and the emphasis is firmly on tragedy. There is plenty of that in this volume, although my prediction of no wedding bells and champagne at the end of volume 2 turned out to be only half right. From the first episode on this disc, it`s apparent that happy endings aren`t for this series, as characters succumb and the war intensifies. It would be a bleak, depressing and fruitless watch though, were it not for the almost irrational insistence that there is hope in some small corner of this particular Pandora`s Box, and glimmers of that hope keep on shining through right up till the end of the final episode. I have to say that I was absolutely hooked right the way through.

That`s something I wouldn`t have said thirteen or even nine episodes ago, as the series had yet to win me over. But what is so strong about Saikano is the character development. The taciturn and somewhat clichéd Shuji of the early episodes, the indecisive and somewhat whiny teen gains significant and human dimension as the series progresses, Chise turns out to be so much more than the clumsy, well meaning girl with a big (military) secret life, that I was utterly invested in the characters by the time this volume came around. There is a point early on in this volume that I became aware of my emotions being deliberately manipulated by the events occurring on screen. Normally that would indicate the worst kind of schmaltz, but because of the investment in the characters, I just didn`t mind and instead happily lost myself in the story.

It`s the focus on character that singles out Saikano from other anime; this is a show that eschews fancy graphical imagery for getting to the bottom of what the protagonists are going through. It`s not exactly deep or with nuance, on screen teenage romance rarely is, but the strength and honesty of emotions comes through clearly. And with the character drama at the forefront, the not so subtle anti war message is tempered and rendered more meaningful by playing in the background. Saikano also leaves it up to you what message you divine from watching it. You can choose to accept the idea of love and hope conquering all, remaining all important despite what tragedy may befall, or you can accept that our destructive natures will always overwhelm us. The ending is at once both clear-cut and open to interpretation.

Saikano, or She, The Ultimate Weapon is probably not to all tastes, it most certainly wasn`t what I expected from anime, yet it has turned out to be one of the best releases of the year so far. What the first volume lacked in promise has been met and exceeded by the subsequent volumes, and this final collection of episodes is the best yet. Taken as a whole, Saikano is unmissable, and with Manga releasing the show in three volumes, there is even less of an excuse to invest. Even if this isn`t the sort of show you would normally consider, it`s well worth taking a look as it easily exemplifies what is best about the medium, and the odds are that its charms will work on you just as they did on me.