Saikano

Saishū Heiki Kanojo (最終兵器彼女< /span>, ' 'Saishū Heiki Kanojo''^?) better known simply as Saikano, is a Japanese manga and anime series made by Shin Takahashi. The manga has 7 volumes and the anime consists of 13 episodes. It also has 2 OVAs titled Saikano Another Love Song.

The manga in Spain is known as My girlfriend, the ultimate weapon or in English, She, The Ultimate Weapon.

In Latin America, it was broadcast on Animax starting on May 10, 2006. It was withdrawn on September 29, 2008, being replaced by Montecristo.

Argument

This story takes place at the beginning of the Third World War, in a peaceful city in Japan on the island of Hokkaidō, and close to the capital, Sapporo.

The story shows the lives of two third-year students at a high school in Hokkaidō, Chise and Shuji. Chise is a quiet, shy and somewhat clumsy girl, who declares her love for Shuji, a typical student with great athletic features for her age, who is not very good at handling this type of relationship. At first there are difficulties in standing out as a couple, since neither of them knows how to express their feelings.

To alleviate this situation, the two begin to write a shared life diary, where they would write down all the experiences they had as a couple, being at the same time a small love story, which in the long run would become a story about World's End.

Shuji didn't know that Chise was hiding a secret from him. Chise was the 'Ultimate Weapon', that is, the most powerful weapon for Japan's victory in World War III.

Chise was a hybrid between human and machine, which according to the OVA, is a "bacterial weapon" that feeds on the flesh existing in its body. This dilemma causes the shy girl to slowly transform into an invincible weapon of destruction that is stopped only by the humanity that exists in her, and the love story that she lives with Shuji.

Characters

Below is a list of the most recurring characters in the manga and anime series.

Main characters

• Chise (, Chise^?)He's a high school student, like Shuji. Something shy and clumsy, Chise regularly apologizes for all the things he does, his motto in life is: "I want to be strong." After confessing his love to Shuji as a test of courage, they both fall in love. For being a perfect candidate for the operation, Chise is transformed by the army into a Sentient (Person converted into a definitive weapon of destruction). In some battles she fights, she believes she is becoming more a weapon than a human, as the Chise series passes, she is losing her humanity, sometimes becoming a cold person who enjoys killing with her new and destructive powers. In the end his love for Shuji is the last of humanity he has left. It is implicit in the end of the anime and the sleeve that Chise has become a machine god for his immortality and destructive power.

• Shûji (CONFIDENCE, Shûji^?)He's a high school student like Chise. He once belonged to the athletic team. It's a little distant and cold. She had a loving relationship at an early age (with a high school teacher, Fuyumi) so she confuses that it is love, as a consequence, does not know how to act with Chise, her second love. Shuji is also distant with her parents, she is always thinking of Chise, and that her actions hurt her because of confusion with her first love. When he was 14 years old, Fuyumi asked him to flee to Sapporo next to her, but the fear of commitment made Shuji not come to the station to flee to Sapporo.

• Akemi (, Akemi^?)She's a friend of Shuji and Chise since childhood and classmate of both. Akemi assumes the role of Chise's defender, especially when he faces Shuji for the way he treats Chise. She falls in love with Shuji from an early age, but finds it unreasonable to tell her yet, because she is a very good friend of Chise and does not want to hurt her, because Chise loves him too. Akemi dies in Shuji's arms, due to the consequences of an earthquake in his city.

• Atsushi (Русский, Atsushi^?)He's a friend of Shuji, and Akemi from childhood, and Shuji's best friend. Aware that Chise fell in love with Shuji, Atsushi maintained his feelings for Akemi without revealing himself, but believed that the time had come to confess it, before he went to war. Atsushi knows what Akemi feels for Shuji, but all he wants is to love Akemi and he doesn't care if she loves him. Even though Akemi's love is not reciprocated, Atsushi decides to join the army to protect her. He dies in the battlefield, being destroyed the city in which he was at that time by Chise, unable to forget Akemi.

• Fuyumi (♫ ♫, Fuyumi^?), She's a woman who links to Shuji's past, as she was her instructor when she was in high school. There was an intimate relationship behind it, which ends for unknown reasons, and even her marriage for the lack of her husband Tetsu who went to war. Fuyumi proposed to Shuji to flee together to Sapporo, but Shuji eventually turned back and preferred to stay with his family. In general, and even though she loves him, she blames her husband and at a distance for her unfaithful attitude.

• Lieutenant Tetsu (Đ, Lieutenant Tetsu^?)He's Fuyumi's husband. Lieutenant Tetsu testified that he was called for his degree followed by his name as he did not want to go to war and leave his wife. In the course of the war he met Lieutenant Mizuki whom he used to call "Squad leader," and they had a sort of relationship, but neither of them confessed their feelings ever, only entrusted the lieutenant with a lighter that once saved her life, as an emblem that they would ever see again. Tetsu also went, according to Chise, "The only person who treats him as a human being" as he was a warm and loving person with her. Tetsu ends up dying for the enemy on the battlefield in Chise's arms. Physically, it's almost an adult version of Shuji.

• Lieutenant Mizuki (أع م م ما مع أع ما مع, Lieutenant Mizuki^?)A woman who, because of her outstanding qualities as a soldier and an accident that left her invalid, was one of the candidates to become the ultimate weapon, but unfortunately the limits of her power were very small compared to those of Chise; she fell in love with Lieutenant Tetsu, her subordinate. He is a very cold and strict soldier, because his father was soldier and raised with his father's phrase in mind "Protect the Nation at the cost of your life," but as he knows Chise's emotions he begins to humanize himself. He could know what Chise thought, so he was commissioned to take care of it; he finally asked to replace Chise on a mission even though he knew that he would die a thing that his superiors accepted for the stabilization drugs to last longer. Time before she died and became a war hero, Chise and she became great friends, so she left her latest medicines to Chise, which would later help her. This character can only be observed in the OVAS.

Secondary characters

• Take (・, Take^?)Shuji's high school partner and friend. He's the first to have a girlfriend in Shuji's group of friends. It maintains a sentimental relationship with Yukari, although it has constant discussions with her. When you go shopping at the Sapporo shopping mall with your friends, you decide to buy a pink quartz, which would be a gift to make peace with Yukari. Take dies in the bombing, holding the quartz in his hand. After his death, his companions decide to bring flowers and a photo to his old school pupitre as a tribute.

• Nori ( , Nori^?), high school partner and last of Shuji's friends. Nori is a naive and shy student, thought that war would never come to her city, and that people would stop worrying about her. He desperately wants to have a girlfriend, and he's slightly jealous of Take, for having one. He later falls in love with a second-name Miho student, but he is unaware if his feelings are reciprocated.

Apparently he dies in one of the air strikes in Hokkaido, Shuji's mother refers to all Shuji's friends being killed.

• Yukari (『, Yukari^?)Chise's high school partner and friend. She's Take's girlfriend, and they were constantly arguing before her death, but she was still in love with him. After Take's death, he decides to leave high school. Through his friends, Yukari receives the pink quartz that Take would give him. Soon after, he gets a new boyfriend, but decides not to seriously fall in love with anyone. Later, he joined the neighborhood patrol to find an enemy fighter pilot who fell in the mountains. Find the pilot, accidentally, while looking for the quartz he had fallen. In a little shooting, they kill each other. Moments before dying, shouts the name of Take and hold the pendant in hand, just as he did.

• Kawahara (, Kawahara^?), old man and responsible for the transformation of Chise into a weapon. He sweats a lot, so he always wears a handkerchief in his hand. His daughter and wife died in bombing in Sapporo. He usually gives pills to Shuji, which are necessary for Chise to inhibit his evolution. He's the only one among the top commands who sees Chise as a girl and not a gun. When she escapes with Shuji, she locates them and gives them all the remaining medicine; with the feeling that her work was over, she shoots in the head, thus ending her life.

• Nakamura (;;;, Nakamura^?)Young soldier, Chise's ally in the war. Nakamura admires Chise a lot, and often tells him that if it weren't for his abilities and his tremendous power, he wouldn't be alive. He is seriously wounded by enemy fire, when Chise does not go to a mission, preferring to go to a date with Shuji. Tetsu is pitying him and decides to shoot him to put an end to his suffering.

Others

• Commander. (日本語, Commander.^?)Man in charge of the maintenance of Chise. He goes mad not to be able to understand the limits of Chise's powers.

• Shingo (, Shingo^?)Atsushi's army partner. He's a happy person and makes jokes to people, he gets along with Atsushi. He dies when his military base is attacked.

• Hana (., Hana^?)The only woman in the army. He's Atsushi's age, and he joined the army to get revenge on his deceased boyfriend. Hana loses her life when the enemy army discovers her as she patrols. No one came to his help when they heard the gunshots, as they thought it was the sound of a drum.

• Rei and Seiko (cyclic lyrics lyrics lyrics lyric, Rei and Seiko^?)Chise's schoolmates and friends. They stood before the confession of Chise's feelings to Shuji.

• Satomi (▪, Satomi^?)Akemi's little sister. He's a cheerful and optimistic person, and sometimes he makes "thinker" between Shuji and his older sister, Akemi. He belongs to the athletic team, and he's in love with Shuji.

• Iku (tingling, Iku^?)Satomi's high school partner and friend. It's like both physically and mentally Chise. She's in love with Shuji.

• Mother of Shuji (?, Mother of Shuji^?)She's a woman not very talkative, and she always cares about her family. You do not realize the maturity and responsibility of your child. He thinks his son is still a child, so he did not support Shuji in the idea of leaving town with Chise. She has an orchard she goes to with her friends, and occasionally brings milk for Shuji's breakfast.

• Father of Shuji (?, Father of Shuji^?), man who works as a forest guard. Unlike his wife, he does realize that Shuji is no longer a child, so if he supported his son in the idea of leaving home.

Distribution

The series in Latin America was distributed by Xystus and was broadcast on the Animax channel. It was dubbed at Doblajes Paris, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.

List of episodes

To consult the list of episodes of the series follow the link:

Manga Publications

Saikano's manga was published in 7 volumes. It was sold in Japan between 2000 and 2001 by the Shōgakukan publishing house. In the United States it was distributed by VIZ Media between 2004 and 2005, with one volume being released quarterly. The Spanish version of Saikano (Mexico) was published by Grupo Editorial Vid.

The release dates of the publications of Saikano's volumes in its different publishers are listed below.

Love Story, Killed

Saikano also has a spin-off, called Love Story, Killed. This story tells the life of a sniper who kills the enemy from a ruined apartment block. His hobby is collecting the weapons of the soldiers he kills. At the beginning of the story, he is seen killing a group of soldiers who were raping a young Japanese girl. While he collects the weapons of the soldiers he has just killed, he has a small fight with the young woman, for taking one of the weapons of the dead. Despite that, the sniper takes the young woman to her hideout since he wants to have sex with her. The sniper reveals that he only has 5 bullets left, his last bullet is kept in his pocket since it is his lucky charm. However, after getting to know the girl better and having sex with her, what he now has is fear of death. When he shoots at an enemy squad that is searching for him, he misses the shots due to his fear and reveals his position. Suddenly, the girl appears at the door with the ammunition of the soldiers he has killed, saying that she now has ammunition to kill more soldiers so she can continue fighting in the war. Shortly after, three enemy soldiers appear behind the young woman, kill the sniper, then rape and kill the girl. The soldiers die two days later.

Opening and Ending

• Opening: Koi Suru Kimochi (Love feelings) by Yuria Yato.
• Ending: Sayonara (Bye) by Yuria Yato.