Joshikouhei – A Mind-Bending Take on the Mecha Genre
Released in 2011 and finishing serialization in 2015, Joshikouhei is a Sci-Fi/Mecha manga written by Jiro Matsumoto [perhaps best known for his other series Freesia], the manga takes place in a universe where the migration of humans towards another alternate dimension resulted in a war between migrants who wanted to declare independence and the United Army of Earth.
As the war drew longer, the United Army of Earth launched an attack utilizing the “Assault Girls”, mechas that look exactly like JKs [highschool girls] that also happen to be the most advanced weapons ever created at this point. The only problem being that the longer the soldiers pilot the Assault Girls, the more those pilots themselves start thinking like actual highschool girls.
The series centers around Lt. Takigawa and his “13th Independent Assault Girl Hunting Platoon”, a special division within the Earth Army composed of criminals and social outcasts whose job is to hunt other pilots whose minds are deemed too “corrupt” due to piloting the Assault Girls for too long.
Despite the rather comical and absurd imagery of gigantic highschool girl robots, Joshikouhei maintains a consistent gritty and serious tone throughout the chapters with dark and violent scenes depicted almost all throughout the 40+ chapter run of the manga.
