Genre: Action, Science Fiction, Comedy
Rating: Older Teen
Price: $14.95

Mao Onigawara is no ordinary grade-school student. No, Mao has a mission, and she is keenly aware of how much her native Japan needs her service. Mao is one of the Special Defense Corps.

Japan has a problem: Aliens have discovered Earth and are trying to take as many of the nation’s monuments as possible. But Japan can’t fight back in the normal ways. The aliens are just so gosh darn cute, and the citizens of Japan won’t have them being beaten using conventional warfare.

How could the country fight back? Only one way: To fight cuteness, it must use cuteness. So in steps the Special Defense Corps. It is a group of three grade-school girls who fight the aliens with the assistance of some technology.

The volume is enormous, with nearly 400 pages. And the first third of that is a bit stale. Each chapter has Mao or her two friends — both are members of the Special Defense Corps — Misora Tsukishima and Sylvia Maruyama face off against the latest cute alien to invade the country. And Mao, who is a bit clumsy, inevitably manages to save the day, the rarely on purpose.

The second half of the volume is much better. It introduces stories and doesn’t tell them in the same way. If the first half is character introduction, the second half is character evolution. The focus is clearly on fleshing out the key characters and making them much more complex.

In particular, the last story is the best. It features a classmate of the three girls who happens upon an alien. Instead of staying away, however, the girl lends her assistance to the alien. That leads to some antics that put the motivations of some characters in doubt and help leads to a touching end of the volume.

This part of the volume is, unfortunately, far to formulaic. The formula is a nice touch to help introduce the characters and the plot, but it probably would have been better had it not dragged on as long.

7.5