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.

( Introducing some characters, with very mild spoilers )

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*

I have lately been in search of some more manga to read; this can be a bit difficult, since I have a low tolerance for a number of things that show up a lot in manga, for example the notion that it is virtuous to be a doormat. One recent success, however, is 666 Satan, by Kishimoto Seishi (predictably re-titled O-parts Hunter in the US release).

Trivia: Kishimoto Seishi is the twin of Kishimoto Masashi, the author of Naruto. Apparently, when 666 Satan came out Seishi was accused by some of plagiarism, which only goes to show that most people don’t really know what the word means. There are, to be sure, some structural similarities, but fewer than I would actually have expected from siblings who read all the same stuff growing up. The worlds are different, the premise is different, the characters are different, the plot is different, even the drawing style is rather different, though the landscapes have a certain feeling in common. There is a timeskip, but I quite approve of this, because the post-skip characters are hot like fire, and it’s always nice to have some of that.

But back to the review. The story is tight and briskly paced, clocking in at seventy-six issues from intro to Armageddon. The romantic threads are tied up in a satisfying but not artificial manner. The characters are engaging, the action is fast, the fights all have a point, the demons are disgusting, and, if the powerful, adult women tend to be scantily clad and have flotation devices on their chests, the fanservice is sufficiently low-key that it doesn’t make me froth at the mouth.

The story uses the mythos of the Kabbala with a dash of Greek thrown in. While the usual sorts of liberties are taken (think Angel Sanctuary) there is actually a good deal of attention paid to the details, and, unlike, say, RahXephon, it makes a decent amount of sense in the end.

There is also plenty of material for ficcers, as the character relationships are varied and powerful, and there’s plenty of tension splashed around for both slash and het writers to play with. The conclusion is somewhat open-ended, as well, which may frustrate readers who want to know exactly what happens to everyone but should appeal to those who like to imagine how the characters’ lives might have gone on.

In short, it’s a quick and engaging read and, provided the editors haven’t butchered anything too badly, I will probably pick up the English release.