branchandroot

Fic appears to be happening for this one, so I figured it behooved me to review it.

07 Ghost is an ongoing manga with an anime that covers what we might think of as the introductory arc. It's shounen magic-adventure wherein a poetically licensed version of the Catholic church serves as the magic. There's a lot of spirits running around being solid, Bishops with license to kill, reincarnation, a very Luciferean villain, and a very interfering Heavenly Ruler. All this is set in a small and physically improbable world of floating continents, navigated by means of huge avians and huger dragons fitted out with armor and engines.

Initially, the story looks fairly straight-up. Our Hero, Teito, is the target of the Evil Empire and it's Huge Military, and especially Our Villain, Ayanami. Teito must be brave and determined to escape Ayanami and his ominous minions with the help of the Church! There will be touching scenes with Teito's blond classmate boyfriend (Mikage), and his blond roommate boyfriend (Hakuren), and his insanely buff blond bishop boyfriend (Frau)! I'm not entirely joking.

This is about where the anime leaves it, and I should probably mention right now that Frau, the insanely buff blond bishop who runs around shirtless, is voiced by Suwabe Junichi. The anime is available on Crunchyroll, and has been completed with a not entirely conclusive but reasonably so ending.

The manga gets more involved.

There is a fairly complex backdrop of a war that took place ten years before the story opens. There are multiple stories about what caused the war, and they all come out of what different people know or were told about the spiritual drama of containing our Luciferean villain, how that containment has been managed in the past, and why it's failing now. The true story surfaces slowly, and involves all the continents, the church and state, plots and corruption, and Teito's emerging role as the one who journeys to find truth and redeem what appear to have once been the ruling houses. Woven through this is a growing sub-plot about exploitation, slavery, technology, and how scientists are really damn scary.

On the characterization-candy side, Teito is determined, deadly, adorable, and extremely short. I'd love to put him and Edward Elric in the same place, but that might cause the destruction of the universe the first time someone triggered their mutual tempers. The manga increasingly entwines him with Frau, as they have about equally angst-heavy pasts and each think that the other is a pure soul while he himself is tainted. They reach Ban and Ginji levels of eternal-lifemated-ness and snark at each other constantly, often while ass-kicking and name-taking.

There is also a feisty princess (Ouka) who has been deeply victimized by the Evil Scientists but still manages to be just as determined and adorable as Teito. Under certain circumstances, she's also as deadly, and there are hints that part of her character development will include eventually asserting her own control over that ability. I live in hope. She and Teito may well be destined marriage-mates and climactic combat partners. (I live in hope!)

And then there's Ayanami, who is cold as ice but good to his people, and likely suffers a wee bit of cognitive dissonance between growing up as an utterly dedicated soldier of his land and then realizing that he's the soul of the Devil (sort of). He has his very own band of followers who have, not at all figuratively, given him half their souls. The swordsman (Hyuuga) who teases his boss constantly is especially tasty, in an alarming and not entirely sane way.

So basically the whole thing is fangirl catnip.

The manga is available on Mangafox up to a point. After that point, you will have to seek out the

07ghost comm on LJ and do the brief "I am a human with a working brain" dance to join. Check the profile first thing. The pilot issues are especially worth finding. ETA: The manga is commercially available in German.

And, of course, there's Suwabe Junichi. *wicked grin*