Creative Staff
Writer/Artist: Masatsugu Iwase (Original Story: Hajime Yatate and Yoshiyuki Tomino)
Translated by: Ikoi Hiroe
What They Say
Shinn Asuka is the ZAFT Empire’s ace pilot. And it’s not just his elite combat skills that make him such a fearsome soldier. He has a burning hatred for the Earth Alliance, the Empire’s enemy in a long and terrible war. But then Shinn meets someone who makes him question everything he believes.
Stella Loussier is beautiful and innocent – and a pilot for the Earth Alliance. She also might be the victim of a horrifying military research experiment, one that shocks even the battle-hardened Shinn. Now Shinn is determined to give her a new life, away from war, destruction, and death. But as Shinn risks his life to return Stellar to her friends at the Alliance, he may be headed for heartbreak.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The battlefield of confusion is getting to be a bit less confusing and a bit more of a battlefield. I may not know exactly who is fighting whom or which pilot is in which mobile suit, but the outline of the plot is becoming a lot clearer to me. See, I’ll prove it. I’ll give you a summary of the first chapter. There will be spoilers, including a big one at the end, so if you want to read this book for yourself (for whatever reason) you can skip to the fourth paragraph.
Stella is in the sick bay of the Minerva, under a kind of hospital arrest. The doctor foolishly tells Shinn that she is going to be dissected live when they reach headquarters. Shinn karate chops the doctor and takes Stella to the hangar. On the way, he meets up with Rey, who offers to help him. Rey dispatches the hangar guard with the world’s least convincing punch and Shinn escapes in the Coresplendor. He shares a tender moment in the cockpit with Stella, recalling his promise to protect her, and determining to give her a peaceful life away from all the bloodshed. He expresses this determination by handing her right back over to the bad guys. Okay, to be fair, he does get a promise that she’ll be taken to a safe place and won’t be made to fight again. But since he isn’t from the universal century, he hasn’t learned the important lesson “Never trust a man in a mask.” Shinn returns to the Minerva and is promptly thrown in the brig alongside Rey. Athrun appears and explains why he shouldn’t have trusted a man in a mask.
Immediately after Shinn and Rey are released without punishment by a mysterious order from the top brass, the Minerva receives a report of a civilian city being destroyed by a mobile suit. As we might have guessed, the pilot is the brainwashed Stella; but Shinn doesn’t know this and launches to take it down. Meanwhile, the Archangel shows up and Kira joins the battle. Shinn conveniently cuts a gash across the enemy cockpit and sees Stella inside. After he wonders why the man who has the same fashion sense as Char didn’t keep his promise, he reiterates his own promise that he won’t let Stella die. Then Kira flies up and takes her out. She, of course, lives just long enough to die in Shinn’s arms.
In Summary:
So the story has gone from incoherent to silly. But hey, that’s still an improvement. I can’t say I enjoyed reading this volume, but there were a few places where I was actually a little interested in what was going on. I can’t really account for the improvement. Maybe my dogged persistence in trudging through the first two volumes is beginning to give me a kind of zen-like ability to understand what’s going on. Or maybe the increased emphasis on robots whaling the tar out of each other leaves less room for the impossibly convoluted faction politics and interconnected personal relationships between people who all look like each other. And having some actual revelation doesn’t hurt, either. A closer look at the Chairman’s agenda casts some doubt on his motivations. At last, we have a sense of mystery that’s intentional. But what I like best is the preview for the next book. Because that’s going to be the very last one.
Content Grade: C
Art Grade: C+
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Del Rey Manga
Release Date: March 31st, 2007
MSRP: $10.95
