Educate me, alright? I always understood that shojo is manga intended for girls, while shonen is manga intended for boys. Following that distinction, I always understood that mecha only ever falls under the realm of shonen. Only guys enjoy mecha, and mecha’s only ever made for guys, unless it’s a series that consciously fuses shonen and shojo like my treasured ESCAFLOWNE (an anime that most definitely does not suck). So keeping that in mind, you’ll understand why I was so befuddled when Gia’s brought the image to the right to my attention.
MOBILE SUIT GIRL AKITAKA MIKA MS SHOJO ART WORKS is a coffee table coming out in celebration of MS Shojo, a girl’s mecha manga. Up until today, I believed such a thing didn’t exist, but my expectations exist to be confounded everyday, for little did I know that this series has been running since ’82. My mind is still reeling, trying to reconcile how these cute SAILOR MOON-esque outfit and adorable calivera costumes have been fused with the hard cold steel of Mobile Suits. So, like I said, educate me. How many girls here seriously dig mecha? Or there more shojo mecha such as this of which I’ve been woefully unaware? EDUCATE ME!
And then take a gander at these totally rad excerpts from the book, courtesy of Kotaku.
-- Tom Pinchuk is the writer of UNIMAGINABLE for Arcana Comics and HYBRID BASTARDS! for Archaia. Watch out for the HYBRID BASTARDS! hardcover collection this April - - available for pre-order now on Amazon.com.
