hontou ni sou omou?

Was inspired to take up this manga by Erica even if it was by GONZO. And it didn’t hurt that it was just three volumes.

Act 1. Meg supports an injured Jo, fleeing pursuers. Ordinary (if much bullied) boy Takeru find them in his room and tends to them. Pursuers eventually catch up but Jo has recovered by then. She kicks ass, to Takeru’s amazement.

Act 2. Jo and Meg are hired, with the promise of a blank cheque, to recover a ring from a gang in time for a rich girl’s wedding. Jo tanks while Meg distracts a sniper with her charms. Jo fills out the cheque for the princely sum of JPY 50,000 (about USD 500), shattering Meg’s dream of living happily ever after as Jo’s tai-tai wife. “Jo no baka-!!” LOL

Act 3. While giving out advertising leaflets (part-time jobs), Jo and Meg befriend a little girl. A gang tries to kidnap said girl but ends up grabbing Meg instead. Said girl’s mom gives chase in her car with Jo on top of it. After Meg is rescued, she shares a tender moment with Meg.

Act 4. There’s a bounty on Jo’s head. Takeru comes to warn them but a trio of bounty hunters attack. Jo defeats a very swift dagger bounty hunter but has taken major damage.

Act 5. Meg has been captured by the remaining two bounty hunters. Jo seems over-matched by the Spider Tank guy. Takeru manages to free Meg from Manta Guy but takes a bullet in the chest. Jo limit breaks and pwns them, manifesting a feather fall. Takeru has survived because the bullet struck something Meg had given him earlier. He, in turn, beats up the bullies.

Overall, a good read. For me, Bakuten is about Jo and Meg’s relationship so the manga delivers on this much more effectively thant the anime. Takeru wasn’t annoying at all and he grows into a more independent spirit by the end of the volume (and doesn’t appear again). Meg is extremely funny with her flights of fantasy and random silliness - enhanced by SD art. Also while she gets captured twice in this volume (and has to be rescued by Jo), it wasn’t half as annoying as in the anime. In the specifics, she’s much less helpless and shows some cunning as well. Crucially Jo and Meg are shown to be very close and Gonzo’s manga team has gotten the feel for them just right - the yuri’s left a bit ambiguous for this volume (except on p.111) but generally it’s still clear that they are very fond of each other. Also Jo’s platinum blonde seems to work much better than the blue hair of her anime incarnation.

Art/scene personal favourites:

p1: Opening page with Jo looking very cool, menancing and sexy at the same time. Muted colours, loved her pose, hair covering one eye and the revolver.

p16: Meg making fun of Takeru after discovering his stash of porn mags, DVDs and H-games. Definitely a “typical fan” type character. ^_-

p26: Jo leaping off the 7th storey, carrying Meg bride-style. Latter is casually waving goodbye to Takeru as if this happens quite often.

p43: Meg finally introduces herself to Takeru. I love her SD scenes. :)

p54: To prevent a piece of falling ceiling from hitting Meg, Jo pulls Meg closer to her on the sofa. Very sweet.

p69: Jo holding her revolver with the grip parallel to the ground vs the usual perpendicular grip.

p71: A very wet and sexy Meg distracts a sniper at a crucial juncture of the battle.

p80: Act 3’s cover shows Meg as an elaboratedly decked out serving girl with fried chicken and beer. Mmmmm… And Jo in male cowboy attire and actually having some cleavage for once. Hot damn!

p82-84: Meg tries to balance the Jo x Meg household accounts but it’s stubbornly in the red. Love her drama queen moments. She fantasizes about her ideal life - a scene of which is her and Jo enjoying an elegant afternoon tea. And it seems Jo can see her fantasy like it’s projected behind Meg.

p86: I dare anyone to refuse taking a leaflet from Jo. Jiiiiiiii….

p87: Meg doesn’t have one mini-angel Meg and one mini-devil Meg arguing for good and evil. She has got two mini-devil Megs! Hohoho! Kekeke!

p100: Hell hath no fury like a pissed off Mama and it shows when she’s behind the wheel!

p106: The kidnappers try to threaten Jo with Meg but Meg gets stabbed through her SD form by Jo’s word balloon that compares the worth of her life to a mere beast.

p108-111: After being rescued, a very cutely drawn Meg is sobbing and apologising to Jo for being “a bad girl” (Jo had been knocked down and injured by the kidnappers’ car before they grabbed Meg.) Meg is tending to Jo’s injuries to try and make up for it but Jo can’t understand why Meg is distressed. She then thanks Meg for always helping her. This leads to Meg’s glomp shown on p.110-111 (photo above) - note the heart - and a Jo x Meg cuddle. Jo can often appear distant and clueless but she can spontaneously deliver utterly sincere words with perfect romantic timing - and their rarity makes them only more precious. No wonder Meg adores her. :)

p140: Hasta la vista, baby! Jo and more cool gunplay.

p144: Omake art at the end of Act 4 - Meg wishes that the Wanted poster showed a cuter shot of her.

p150: Prisoner Meg.

p165: Jo and the feathers. Yeah, clichéd use of feathers as power manifestation, limit break blah blah but it still looks good.

p176: Omake art. Sei and Amy are shocked that they’ve appeared for only two pages in this volume.

Back cover: Jo’s glowing arm symbol, red eye stands out amidst mostly greyish colouring. Nice pose with two revolvers but still like the one on the first page better.