In the late 1980s, Silent Möbius crossed genres, age and gender barriers, utilizing all the various media available at the time; anime, manga, voice drama. It was even melded fantasy and science-fiction in it’s own way. Nothing about Silent Möbius was specifically original, but taken together it was unique. And it had an ending, which at the time was also a little unusual.  The women of the Attacked Mystification Police or AMP for short, were tasked with saving the earth from the invading demon-like beings of Nemesis, known as Lucifer Hawks.

Silent Möbius QD (サイレントメビウスQD) begins a few years after the end of the first series. Rally Cheyenne, founder of AMP, still is CEO of the police. AMP is now comprised of several teams. In Volume 1, we are introduced to the new members of Team Woofer, Team Squawker, Team Tweeter and Team Equalizer…and in those team names you may recognize the technophile hand of the new chief of AMP, Lebia Maverick. Rather than go into detail on the new characters, of which there were many, check out this handy intro to the new faces.

Rally continues to be chief of police, Lebia has taken over as chief of AMP. No other characters have returned thus far, but that’s perfectly fine. Volume one is primarily setting up the new AMP teams and their members, with a focus on the somewhat curmudgeonly Makijima Aoi, whose partner Haifa takes one in the chest for Aoi…who, we come to see, has serious issues about being partnered with anyone. Most mysterious of all, Aoi wields our old friend the wizard’s sword Grospoliner. How and why are left unresolved at the end of volume 1.

As the book opens, we can see that Re-Tokyo is as much as target for 3rd attraction attacks as ever before, and that AMP’s team is more multicultural, and now includes non-humans as well.

Aoi basically mopes through the volume as everyone around her fights their hearts out, until Lebia sends Aoi to the bowels of headquarters to confront the Lucifer Hawk in the basement, who, unnervingly, takes a human form, declares herself Aoi’s new partner and asks to be called Chris. Maybe it’s me, but I found that hilariously out of place after the death and destruction, action and drama of the rest of the “overture,” as the chapters here are titled.

Lebia interested me. She seems to have more than one body now, which makes sense, as you may remember that her consciousness is all but infinite and fully networked. One of these bodies is that of a little girl, thus allowing or maybe requiring Asamiya to have a little moe in this volume. The uniform skirts are shorter than ever. I was almost disappointed in these tiresome ruses for service. I’d always pointed to Silent Möbius as a series that was mature about enjoying the adult female body without resorting to creeping. Apparently nothing in manga is allowed to be mature and non-creepy anymore. I weep for future generations of women.

There is no Yuri, there never was, but it is obvious that Aoi and Haifa’s relationship, of which we see only the violent end, was fraught and intense. I hope that Chris and Aoi’s is equally fraught and intense.

Ratings:

Art – 8 It was nice to not quite be able to see the Lucifer Hawks again
Story – 8 Solid stuff for this series
Characters – There are a lot of them, but I hope we get to learn a bit about PAL and a few others.
Yuri – 0
Service – 4

Overall – 8

This series has already wrapped up after 2 volumes, the second of which will be out in December 2015, so I don’t expect the kind of detailed, complex plot we had with the first series, but I have to say it was really nice to see AMP again. ^_^

I’ve just returned from a whirlwind tour of NJ Shore points (5 amusement piers/boardwalks in 3 days) and, after all that ice cream and fried food, have no energy for news. Instead, I spent a good hour trying to get decentish photos of these from various boardwalk stores for you  as a souvenir.

If these were what the Disney Princesses looked like, I’d own massive amounts of Disney gear.  ^_^ Really give the tattoos a close look.

Belle’s T-shirt is the Beauty and the Beast musical on Broadway logo. Clever.

Cinderella’s tattoos were my favorite.

Anna and Elsa have each other’s names tattooed in hearts. Awww….

There were also  a series of police booking images. Here’s Alice. It made us giggle.

No, there are no online vendors as these are a wonderful example of double copyright violations. It’s the kind of thing you go down the Shore and get, or not.

Happy Summer!

In Volume 1, we met Haru who is being targeted by her classmates who are all assassins and Toukaku, the assassin who becomes her bodyguard. In Volume 1, none the questions we have were answered. This continues to be the case in Akuma no Riddle, Volume 2 (悪魔のリドル).

I have not done a word-by-word comparison of the manga and the anime, but they are extremely close enough for me to say, this is a manga adaptation of the anime, rather than a story on it’s own.

By the end of Volume 2, we have little insight into the school, the class, the reasons for targeting a student or Toukaku’s motivations. We do, however, have a few more poignant stories which highlight the motivations of the classmates targeting Haru. Some stories are ridiculous, others melodramatic, but this manga is never about Haru,  just as dog racing isn’t about the rabbit. We’re supposed to be paying attention to the hapless assassin members of Class Black and feel bad for them.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – If you like sympathizing with killers – 7, if not  – 4
Characters –  7 The violins are heavy here
Service – 2
Yuri – 1  We are told that this is a “Yuri” series but, like the anime, it’s hard to see

Overall – 7

In actuality, the only character I feel bad for is the teacher. He’s a simple creature and all this confuses and upsets him.

I like to think of my readers as friends and I know that over the years I have had the chance to actually meet and befriend many of you. (Not “befriend” Nanoha style, although I’m open to that, too. ^_^) And for that, I am very thankful.

Today I’m going to let you into my house, in a manner of speaking. My wife and I are having a bathroom ripped out and replaced. This means several things for us for the next month – loud noises while I’m trying to work or write from in my own house for days on end. Showering at the gym, and people walking in and out all day. Plus, the fascinating process of seeing nearly 100 years of cobbled-together plumbing and building choices, starting with the room not having plumbing, then having plumbing and completely different codes for building, then newerish plumbing and codes, and now…from galvanized steel to Pex.

As you might imagine, this has made my days challenging, so if I don’t write a review for a few days, it’s only because this is consuming me.

Should this kind of thing fascinate you, here’s the link to the renovation photoset on Facebook. You don’t need to be on FB to see it. Or, as I like to think of it, “what happens when an early 20th century house with World War II-era plumbing meets the demands of the 21st century?”