Saishu Heiki Kanojo is a different kind of show, to say the least. It's kind of like your typical estranged romance story, and kind of like typical wartime dramas, but doesn't fit either formula. At the surface, we see a masterfully animated story about love and war, centered around a girl with special abilities. Deeper than that, we see a special girl desparately trying to be normal. Saikano is a serious story that will make you think, but it also manages to squeeze in a bit of light hearted dialogue and even some entertainment.

Saikano focuses on the awkward romance between its main characters, Shuji and Chise. She confessed feelings for him after being put up to the task by Shuji's friend, Akemi. For her, it's a new experience. For him, relationships are a pain, and expressing his feelings is difficult. As a result, he's extremely standoffish toward her - add in her timidness, and it seems like a recipe for failure. That is, until a remarkable thing happens: they decide to actually try for love.

Volume 1 of Saikano contains Episode 1, "Bokutachi wa, Koishite Iku" (We Will Fall in Love). Shuji and Chise are students in a boring little town on Hokkaido. F-15s tear across the sky frequently as people go about their normal lives. The military has shown an increased presence in the area as the story opens. A surprise attack by an unknown enemy reveals a shocking secret about Shu-chan's cute little girlfriend, and the story lifts off from there. Though volume 1 only contains a single episode, a surprising amount of information about the characters and setting are revealed.

Chise and Shuji, sitting in a ...lookout..thing..on top of a hill.	"Whose planes are those?"

The character designs are somewhat of an oddity in this anime. Each character has several hard red lines across their faces, which gives them a rather strange look. It isn't so bad on Shuji because he wears glasses, but the lines look odd on the other characters. The characters look similar in Takahashi's manga drawings, but it works much better in the print medium because the lines are finer and softer, and the color blends better with the skin tones.

The animation for this feature is fantastic. GONZO Digimation has done a terriffic job on all fronts, from the smooth and natural motions of the characters, to the various wind effects, to the realistic and hard-hitting sounds. The fear and anxiety felt by the civilians during the attack is portrayed well. As for the DVD, the video quality is excellent. However, the picture is not anamorphic, so those without widescreen televisions are treated to the classic black bars of doom (faithfully shown in the screenshots on the side).

The music in Saikano has a lot of repetition where the melodies are concerned, but it also has a lot of variety where instrumentation is concerned. Many of the pieces key off the ending theme, "Sayonara" (Goodbye). It's a slow ballad, sweetly sung by Yuria Yato. The opening theme, "Koi Suru Kimochi" (The Feeling of Falling in Love) is a driving song, but sung softly, making for a rather pleasant melody. The background music for the show ranges from the music box flavor to driving rock beats. The variety of instruments helps to keep the music interesting. There were no problems with audio playback on the disc. The sound was clean and clear.

Volume 1 of Saishu Heiki Kanojo is available as a standard release single DVD, or a 2-disc limited edition with artbox and Chise figurine. The standard release contains an insert with several screenshots and a couple of pictures of Chise, and a shot of Shuji and Chise on the cover. The extras on the disc include clean opening and closing sequences, and some kind of promotional special. It was a treat to find out that the Region 2 release of Saikano would come complete with English subtitles; however, only the feature episode had subtitles. None of the extras or the song lyrics were subtitled, which was a slight disappointment since I don't know Japanese, but was not a reason to dock the presentation score as this is a Japanese release. The limited edition turned out to be well worth the added cost. The figurine of Chise is nice-looking and highly detailed, and the artbox is beautiful. The additional extras that came with the limited edition were difficult to discern, since they weren't subtitled and the menu choices were in Japanese. I was able to figure out that one of the menu choices brought up a page with 8 different trailers for the show. Anime on DVD did a little better than I in this respect. The remaining extras, as listed on their site, are: a 25 minute interview with various people involved in the production, a 25 minute special program titled Saishu Heiki Kanojo no Subete, and five mini-programs titled SaiKano Jyouhoukyoku.

The first volume of Saikano has enough in it to make things interesting, but it's difficult to tell who will and will not like it. Those following GONZO works will find that this one is very different from the rest, and much more serious. The subtlety displayed in the show's themes has struck my fancy, but those looking for a more direct and entertaining show may want to look elsewhere. I'll continue to follow the Region 2 release of the series for the interested parties, so stay tuned!

Distributor: TFC (Japan)
Creator: Shin Takahashi / GONZO
Released: 2002-2003

Video Quality: A
Audio Quality: A
Presentation: A+
Content: A
Overall: A