Saikano, Volume 5 Book

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.