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She, The Ultimate Weapon

She, The Ultimate Weapon

Introduction

Chise is an ordinary schoolgirl: small, frail, and not particularly intelligent. Her greatest joy is her budding romance with her classmate and childhood friend, Shuuji. They both live in a small military town in Hokkaido, where high schoolers have few concerns other than who is dating whom and complaining about the steep climb up "Hell Hill" every day before school. One day, Shuuji and his friends make a trip to Sapporo to buy gifts for their girlfriends. A massive air raid on Sapporo that day kills thousands, including one of Shuuji's friends, and signals the beginning of a war. Fleeing from the carnage, Shuuji spots Chise, though now she has steel wings and a massive gun where her right arm should be. Against her will, she has been transformed into the ultimate cyborg weapon, capable of leveling entire cities. As the war rages closer and closer to their hometown, Chise and Shuuji's relationship is strained by her transformation, and they are left to wonder whether she is even still human. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Audience ratings

MyAnimeList / Tenrai : 7.14/10 · 39683

1/10548
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10/104163

Audience reviews

20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.

Noy_Neim

So, what can you expect to have while watching? Shuuji starts dating Chise and... read anime name and think. pretty dark love-drama story with harsh military moments (way too realistic). Main heroes look a little bit retarded and unreasonable; Shuuji - new and only bf of Chise is an asshole. All heroes in this show aren`t deep-written, as well as world-wide plot. You mainly follow certain story about two people. This anime doesnt give you traditional "love" and as follows - traidional love story. You cannot expect love-birds to be ideal people. Pros: kinda interesting plot some pretty good depictions of war, including some soldiers side-heroes you can follow everyone ends (I mean endings, but some death too). everyone will face reality change and make some choices. different one. echi mo…

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Teramol

Saishuu Heiki Kanojo, abbreviated to SaiKano is a tragic tale of love in a world on the brink of collapse. An innocent and full of life young girl named Chise just wants to live a normal life and experience true love with her boyfriend Shuuji but unfortunately for them, happiness was never on the menu in this universe. Shuuji finds out the truth about the body of his beloved and the story begins. So if it wasn't obvious already, SaiKano is a sad and dark series that barely shows any glimpses of happiness, far from your typical romance anime. The show begins with a fantastic opener episode that immediately sets the tone and lets the viewer know what they signed up for. However, I found the series to not always hold the quality parts of the tragic plotline, especially around the middle. So…

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daedalous

It's been 20 years since "The Last Love Song on This Little Planet" aired. It's dated and yet not. Surely the Manga style art may throw some people off and the premise of a "Girl Weapon" is a bit silly, but if you can, I recommend giving this a watch. The Japanese are good at digging around in the human soul and pulling out the core of what it means to be human. Our weaknesses and strengths. The anime is about Love and War and with all that is going on in today's world maybe the anime is now more timely than ever. Oh, and I cried. a lot.

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BurningCarnation

Saikano is extremely crude: the animation quality ranges from decent to subpar, character animations are dangerously close to looking like rag dolls, and many of the critical story elements are merely glossed over or completely unexplained. Only a few voice actors are worth their salt: Orikasa Fumiko's Chise and Miki Shinichirou's Tetsu are the ones pushing their own arcs and at the very least pull their own weight. Shuji, on the other hand, oh boy. Ishimoda Shirou is the voice behind Shuji, and his voice acting was, without a doubt, the worst I'd ever heard from anime. Shuji's angry tone, sad tone, happy tone, tired tone, gasping-for-breath tone, etc. sound exactly the same: as I will point out later on, understanding the characters' emotional status and reactions is absolutely critical…

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ElFandeGundam

One of my first more mature anime titles i watched on full on tv. I have to admit i was a little immature about this show, but later i rewatched with more dedication and critical point of view. Now to my thoughts on this show: honestly i have to admit its an unusual concept for a tragic romantic anime, the personality between the two main are really catching. but the other are just filler and almost non existent. the art is decent for the time and the was made. its an interesting couple start a bit slow but suddenly the story goes really dark and complex with a very focus on the two MC and the war. its a really hard to swallow and sad, its became a real emotional climax with a crazy ending. Again its really sad at the end. i really became so sad about the final episode and really make me…

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Leah_Sama

To be completely honest, I watched this when I was like 11 or 13 or somewhere around that area but now I'm 18 and the ending just cracks me up and I don't know why. Of course, I'm not going to spoil anything but the reason I gave the scores that I did was because, after finishing this anime, all I felt was confused as all get out. If I had to personify this anime it would be a giant question mark. I probably felt that way because I was somewhat young at the time and was so distraught by the ending since the rest of the story is pretty chill. Please just watch it and understand what I mean because I can't get any more specific than this.

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mouthpiece

Saikano was the first super dramatic anime I had watched when I was still a rookie in the medium. Back then I didn’t know how bad GONZO was as a studio and had no idea of how manipulative shock factor can be into liking a show. Thus to no surprise it brought tears to my eyes. After all these years, I now see things more clearly and know what it really was all along. One big pile of SHOCK FACTOR! But I still admit that it was one hell of a good show in making you all emotional as long as you shut your mind. It had created a tsunami of emotions in the fandom and everybody was praising it for its extreme drama and cruel fates of the characters. Some fansubbers even went as far as warning people not to watch the last episodes if they didn’t want to witness and extremely unsettling and tragic e…

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Tachik0ma

Warning: I am biased to this show and I give it at 9 due to my enjoyment factor. However, objectively I rate this about 6 to 7. I watched this way back in early 2003, when my friend gave me a copy. I didn't know what to expect, and I thought it was kinda cool that the title meant My GF the ultimate weapon. Then I watched it and finished the entire series in one go. Then rewatched countless times over the years. At first it threw me for a loop, it was one of the weird ones that I thoroughly enjoy, and for some time was my favorite show of all. I wasn't blind to it's shortcomings, but its faults just didn't matter to me much. It made me happy, sad, and confused. It interested me so much that it had great rewatch value to me over time. Story and plot-wise it seemed like a mess. It goes with…

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Grumar

This is by far the worst anime I've ever seen. I don't usually write reviews but I'm making a special exception for this dreadful show. absolutely nothing is explained, nothing is resolved, stuff just kind of happens for no reason, they want you to just eat up all this garbage and I'd be willing to if there were characters or something to cling onto and enjoy through this mad libed story. moments seem to only exist to try to make you feel sad when they don't make you feel the least bit sad because everyone in the show is also a terrible human being who spend the entire run of the show self hating and the other half of the show having revenge sex. For some reason everyone is drawn with blush lines ALL THE TIME and they're drawn so badly they're actually sticking off their faces in side shot…

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TheBellman

If you're the sort of person who will call an anime a masterpiece because it makes you cry, "Saikano" might work for you. This show will make you feel absolutely miserable. The story is an emotional rollercoaster that only goes down, with increasing drama and darkness as it continues. The setting only makes one major divergence from reality (the "Ultimate Weapon" of the title) which allows for a believably bleak narrative about how apocalyptic warfare can be even without nuclear weaponry. That last part is what sticks with me. It's a good old fashioned "homefront war narrative" but turned up to 11 and with the stakes escalated through both the realities of modern warfare and the grotesque sci-fi. The problem is that the show is also miserable to watch in a bunch of unintentional ways t…

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John_Fishermen

The most outstanding thing about this series was the plot. It moves at a nice pace, including all the twists that keep this love story interesting. The final couple episodes are extremely intense. This was a 2002 anime, and its obvious when it comes to the sound and art. The art is nice, nothing special. The music is rather plain and mediocre. The characters themselves are nothing too special either. I found that the whole enjoyment from this series surrounded the plot and progression throughout the series. No episode was worthless, with them all assisting towards the final ending. It builds slowly on a nice romantic path and graduates to a more intense story, I would recommend this to people who enjoys a nice romance like plot, who aren't too picky when it comes to art or sound. :)

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gingerbao

A tragic romance story, is always most fit in a military setting. The presentation and art and music is so artistic it is difficult for audience to be drawn into their world. The theme is mainly about a girl being turned into an ultimate weapon, that's the main theme, and one of my biggest doubt. It feels so far-fetched to have this illogical plot in order to bring out a tragic love story. After watching this in one day and taking like one week to recover from the sad atmosphere, I think the best part of this anime is the voice actors/actresses. It is undoubtedly Fumiko's best work ever.

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Big-Boss_X

Story (8/10): What is love. Babe don't hur......... ahem sorry :D The show as i see it was about the meaning of love. Is it something that can surpass everything or something that can go beyond reason? or is it something that can bring happiness or even suffering? or is it only something about carnal desires? or is it the thing that defines humanity? The other part of the show is about war it's reality and cruelty and the foolishness of humanity which can be both its best quality as well as its worst. Characters (8/10): Can't really delve in into much details about the characters without much spoilers i'll just say that the show did a good job representing the fickleness and irrationality of high school kids. The dynamic and interactions between the two main leads as well as the sporting…

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Reconceptions

For being an old anime this anime was very touching and sad. Lots of simple drama is drawn out everywhere but regardless you will enjoy this anime. Watch it until the end to get the idea. Possible spoilers below: Story 10 Though the drama would've made me give this a 7, the ending is what wrapped all it together to make this a very good anime. Though it is tear-jerking, you will whole heartedly get attached to Chise and the guy. Too bad the guy was a douche canoe. Art 9 The art could've been better in a lot of scenes however this isn't stopping how good this anime is. Character 7 The main character is a prick towards Chise and doesn't develop much, he is not good as a character and is not interesting though all the other characters are. The relationship issues written everywhere ar…

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TripleAces

Saishuu Heiki Kanojo, She, The Ultimate Weapon it says.. I first thought that this would be just a normal drama, romance, sci-fi anime but no. It was way more than that. For those who read this, before proceeding, please beware I'm about to write a little bit spoilers. The very first episode, I was like, "Man, I wish I could have a girlfriend too" but then in the same episode, Chise became an Ultimate Weapon. Quick question, "HOW THE HELL SHE BECAME AN ULTIMATE WEAPON?!!!!!!!". Well, some claimed she was a cyborg or some stuff. But when I watched the very first episode, Chise went back home and tomorrow morning saying to Shuji, "I'm an ultimate weapon now", without she even feels hate because she became one. At first, I tried to be patience, maybe the answer of how she became an ultimate w…

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Joby05

Summary: "It couldn't be helped. It's nobody's fault." These striking and yet horrific words do an amazing job of covering the theme and feel of this series in just a few short sentences. Honestly, this one is a tear jerker. It had me an emotional wreck for at least 1/3 of the series. The character development is just stunning and you are truly invested in even the ancillary characters. There are ups and downs, you will love and hate the main characters several times each. Without going into spoilers, the only thing I can say is the story is absurd and confusing. Said story kept getting in the way of everything other than the emotional moments because I kept getting confused about Chise and what was going on. The ending... oh boy was it... oh boy. I can't go into details without spolie…

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gedata

The term "emotional manipulation" isn't quite on the level of the word "pretentious" when it comes to canned, overused, and empty criticism. However, it is down there. The problem with the term stems from the fact that all stories in some way aim to manipulate emotions. Where we to draw the lines is when for some reason or another, we the audience begin to see the cogs spinning. Characters then become plot devices to us, and plot-holes become impossible to ignore, as does the desperation to get a reaction out of you from the script. Once things like these take us out of the experience, we see can see a lousy story for what it really is, and it just so happens that the show in question here is is extremely manipulative, to the point where you might as well watch the puppy-beating scene in E…

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Meowsorz

I only watched this show because I made a deal with a friend that he had to watch JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, and I had to watch Saikano. Needless to say, I got boned on this deal. Spoilers Ahead: This show amazes me. Not in a good way. It amazes me because it constantly manages to peck at my head and annoy me. One of our main characters Chise was turned into a military weapon and selected at random off of the street. Thats...about it. There was no special reason given whatsoever. And all of the problems caused in the show could have completely been avoided if they used an ACTUAL SOLDIER. Chise constantly doesn't do what she is supposed to. She is weak willed and from the very beginning couldn't handle the task given to her. I feel the show didn't even really turn her weak will into a pl…

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thumpz99

Making it through this anime took some real effort for me. First off the artwork was, at best, mediocre. Considering it came out in 2002 doesn't excuse it from having such sloppy art. Music? The same song over and over. Don't get your heart set on hearing anything great. Before some of you get knots in your panties - yes I know the song has meaning behind it. They smashed that into your brain enough throughout the series. Actual Story I give a 5. I made it through the entire series even though the plot holes are bigger than the Grand Canyon. It had some good moments and then some moments where I'm sitting there thinking "Please hurry this part up - we know what's going to happen - so stop dragging it out.". Characterization? The best characters in the anime are the support character…

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brynolf

Overall A high school girl gets transformed into some super weapon and gets an identity crisis. What will her boyfriend say? One of the animes I classify as "one of THOSE". A classic, containing both epicness, humor and heartthrob. Animation This is really nicely animated. Great character design, wunderbar backgrounds and moods and some cool (but way too short) combat sequences. Sound Ok, I don't really know japanese, but to me, this was the best voice acting I have heard this far. They sound like real people (and actually continue panting when they stop running... stuff like that). I especially like Akemi's voice. And the "warm metallic wolf-cry" sound of Chise activating always gives me goosebumps! The opening theme is all right, nothing special. The ending song is good, though.…

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