Arms


	ARMS

Buta Magazine Cover Do you know the BUTA Magazine? Well, I didn't until it published a short manga by Shirow: ARMS. Unfortunately for the impatient fans, there is not so much to see: this manga is only four pages long (plus the cover of the magazine), but it's full color and without balloons (as the Exon Depot series). You can find it inside the Buta (bimonthly Young Magazine) issue number 15 (1.3 January 1998); the price is 260 yen. Anyway it has been included inside Intron Depot 2 "Blades" (pages 59 and 60) too, but there are only small thumbnails. Larger illustrations are dedicated to the heroine. Shirow: "The character [...] appeared in a Sonorama paperback as the princess-daughter of a general in the period of warring states, and in November 1997, she also appeared as a woman fighter exorcising a sword-demon in Kodansha's Young Magazine Extra. In reality, this character had occupied part of my sketchbook since the eighties, and was just waiting to appear in a variety of short works with themes such as "Celts," "steel," and "demons," as well as some erotic works. If I ever get around to it, I ought to draw her in a series. But I'll probably have to cover her up a little more...".
The pages of this manga have been also used to create the ARMS Calendar for 1999.

Plot: the march of a group of ancient soldiers is stopped by a gesture of their a leader, a typical Shirow's girl (if you can understand what I'm speaking about). They have reached a sort of barrack (or temple) where a monster is quietly eating some corpses. The girls attacks while the monster turns round and tries to hit her using his claws; the only result is to rip the blouse of the soldier and, if it was possible, undressing her even more (under she was wearing a sort of light armor). The girl dodges but her attempts to strike using a magical sword are fruitless. So she makes a somersault and throws a bomb. In the meantime the monster is trying to catch her, tossing tatami panels all around the room. But it's too late: the incendiary bomb strikes its objective and the monster disappears becoming a blade which burns and breaks. The girl observes the end of her enemy, then she thinks about the efficacy of her sword and walks away, while other soldiers come on the scene.

Arms page 2 As the Exon Depot manga, this story is rather strange, but every Shirow's fan should like it. As always the quality is high, but this time I think that Shirow has used too much computer graphic. In particular I don't like the way he has painted the skin and the hair of the girl (take a look at the final page) and how he has designed the exterior of the temple. At the same time the monster is really convincing and terrifying.
I'm sure that the use of computer graphic by Shirow will be increased, but I hope that the outcome'll look better. Obviously this is only my personal opinion.

The creation of this page has been also possible thanks to Stephen!

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