Shiikugakari Rika 2

Author: Motoni Modoru
Imprint: Super BBC
Publisher: Biblos
ISBN: 4-8352-1164-2

Reviewed by Jeanne

Well, here it is- the second volume of Rika, which should have been the middle volume of Rika but isn't. There's an afterword from Motoni that's basically one huge bouquet of sorry-sorry- 'For now, I'm letting Rika hibernate. My sincere apologies to those of you who were looking forward to reading it. With Biblos' kind permission, the episodes from the end of the first tankoubon to the conclusion of the first part of the story have been published as 'ge' (lower- the second of a two volume set)- which will answer those of you who were wondering what happened to 'chuu' (middle- the second of a three volume set.) Truly, I'm very sorry for the trouble and concern I've caused both the staff of Biblos and my readers. I hope to recover my health and get my personal affairs in order as soon as may be, so I'll be able to draw the continuation of this series.'

For the contents- well, we all know what they are pretty much. A nasty descent to the edge of the precipitous cliff that we're currently hanging off of. It begins with Rika doing his little rape-inviting walk-arounds at night, getting himself rescued and tidied up by Takahashi, and then untidying himself the better to titillate Hiro. Maki schemes with Miyamae, Rika and Gil think their own unconfided thoughts, Anji is drawn into the trap prepared for him. We all know where it's going. It goes there. Enough said. Rika is set to come out of hibernation next spring, a piece of news many of us will greet with ambivalence. We'll find out what happened, but it won't be fun learning, and in the end we'll probably not have wanted to know.

This leaves the second half of the Rika volume, which is filled by the two stand-alone stories called Marquis de Anarchisme which Motoni did in '94 and '97 respectively. The change in art style between them is striking, but bemuses me a little because it doesn't tally with the style she was using in other works of the same period. The quieter art of the '94 story bears little relation that I can see to the chiaroscuro of Prince of Monster, done at the same time. The heavily black and white '97 story, with its graphic action, is a style she didn't use again until Supersonic Angel Engine three years later. Meanwhile she was drawing the much quieter Koi and Rika series. But that's just a little stylistic note for those who care about such things.

As for what the stories are about... Hell, she says plaintively, couldn't we talk about something easier instead, like quantum physics? I can tell you what *I* think is happening in them, but I wouldn't take my word for it. Everyone's kind of insane and amoral, and those concepts get played about with a lot, but it all kind of goes over my head. 'Why are they mad and bad and glad? I do not know; go ask your Dad.'

Otherwise read the SPOILERS below, and figure out for yourself.

First off, we've got another RPG hommage happening here. The way the charas dress, the weapons they have- I don't RPG but I read the djs, and I've seen it all before. So there's this new religion in which the leader, Miwa, aged 20, battles insanity on stage before his worshippers, who achieve orgasmic states at sight of his suffering. One of these shows is interrupted by a terrorist bombing. Miwa flees into the streets, to be spurned in disgust by proper citizens who think him the mad head of this mad new religion. 'I'm not mad!' the hysterical Miwa tries to tell them. 'I'm sane. Why won't you look at me?' The members of the church come running out after Miwa, and he flees. In his path there appears a man dressed in black, with a headband and his lower face covered, and Miwa runs to him. "*You* see me!" Man stretches out his hand, there's a blast, and the street is destroyed.

Back in the terrorists' hideout, we find out this and that. The terrorists use an outlawed weapon that produces brain damage in the user- the psycho glove. It's apparently a layer of skin that allows one to focus brain energy or something and turn it into explosive force. The man who saved Miwa, Touchika, is supposed to have been born with it; certainly he never takes it off; and the corollary is that he's insane. Morikawa, the guy in the baseball cap, who seems equally insane (he never stops laughing uwahaha, and one wants to slap him) has a little confab with the group's leader about why it was Touchika picked up Miwa and risked security by bringing him back to the group's hideout, and has just saved him from ijime by one of the terrorist band. 'He's a hunter,' Morikawa says, as if that explains anything. 'He's insane,' Morikawa says earlier, and that one I'll go with.

Miwa and Touchika are having a little conversation of their own. Miwa has a thing about insects. The worshippers in his church sound like insects and their buzzing was driving him mad. He feels himself turning into an insect- a pupa that will die in its chrysalis. He says Touchika was sent from god to save him and Touchika will make him sane again. Miwa is thinking, more or less sanely, that absolute power looks like god to him, and all he wants is to be protected by it. But Touchika doesn't answer. He kills a stray dog instead though Miwa begs him not to. Morikawa wanders by to point the moral- Anything too weak to be worth letting live gets killed, because at least it can die. 'Wanna give him the pleasure of killing you? There'd be some value in dying then.'

Touchika removes a tracking device from Miwa's ear. So the church has been able to trace Miwa to the terrorists' hideout. Which seems fine by the terrorists- just more people to kill, evidently. Follows some more obscure dialogue between Touchika and Morikawa, the only clear part of which is Touchika's statement that he intends to send Miwa crazy in earnest. And Miwa, suffering from Touchika's utter non-response, seems to be proving Touchika successful.

Back at the church the leaders are having a council. Miwa's gone, carried off by the terrorist group Caligula, and the church isn't going to fight *them.* Nope, announce to the worshippers that he's ascended to heaven and then produce the replacement whom the sainted Miwa-sama has sent down to earth. One of the number slips off to meet Touchika and Morikawa and give them the information. 'Now give me back my Miwa-sama.' Touchika stands there muttering Can I kill him huh huh c'n I c'n I? and Morikawa stands there laughing himself silly, and then he slices the guy's face open. Fun guy, Morikawa.

Miwa confronts Touchika. 'Give me back my bug!' Touchika's indifference is driving him mad- uhh, sane- uhh, well, what he says is, 'You don't smile, you don't cry, you're supposed to save me, but you don't need me. I have no reason for living. I want to leave. I'm going sane here! I want to be mad!' 'Then go,' Touchika says. 'Back to where your worshippers are waiting.' But Morikawa appears to say there's a new messiah. 'They don't need you any more. You died long ago. You've no more reason to live, so give him the joy of killing you. Then there'll be some value in your death.' Miwa refuses to believe it. He runs back to the church and confronts his replacement, telling the congregation that he's a fake. But the replacement quickly gets the upper hand. '*You're* the imposter. You're a demon who uses Miwa-sama's name.' The congregation agrees and jeers at Miwa. 'You're worth nothing!' the replacement cries, just before he's burned alive by Touchika.

'Miwa,' Touchika calls. 'Do you want to die? Or do you want to go mad?' Miwa bursts into glad tears. 'Touchika! I don't want to die.' So Touchika kills him. Fun guy, Touchika. 'He's gone to meet God,' Morikawa tells the congregation. 'Now you will too.' They blow up the place. A little later, watching the flames, Morikawa remarks, 'He was smiling.' 'That was the look of a madman who's finally gotten his hands on God,' Touchika says. The end.

With this introduction to Touchika and Morikawa I wasn't too keen on paying attention to the second story about them, drawn three years later and happening obviously sometime earlier than the first. The terrorists, we learn, are actually assassins for hire- a fact Morikawa seems to have forgotten by the time the first story starts. Morikawa has been sent to get Touchika by some business guys. He kills the client first- he's insane, remember- but Caligula's shaven-headed leader is intrigued by the fact that Morikawa thinks Touchika is a woman, so he sends Morikawa off after Touchika anyway. Touchika gets tipped off by the man who gave him his glove (no, he wasn't born with it) and who also implanted the microchip in Morikawa's head. Two times through the story and I still don't follow what it is the microchip does- suppresses Morikawa's mental ability rather than increasing it, because otherwise all of Morikawa's brain is active instead of the usual 70% or whatever. And so?

I don't know. It's all got something to do with the fact that Morikawa has never gone to his MAX, whatever a MAX is, which I don't know because I don't RPG. But Touchika suffers from basic MAX-envy ('crazy for the MAX', he's called), and it means a lot to *him*. If Morikawa uses his MAX he'll go mad, but if he uses his MAX it'll be like no-one else's. Off Touchika goes to check out the length of Morikawa's MAX and to make him his woman. Actually, he doesn't have to go far, because he and Morikawa are in the same bar watching each other while all the talk is happening, but you know- duals with phallic overtones where one guy's going to end up the other's 'woman' quote-unquote have to happen in the proper setting.

Which is a sewer, appropriately, given the phallus' other function. And they pursue each other through it, and feint, and attack, and Touchika keeps taunting Morikawa to show him his MAX, and Morikawa removes his chip and does- the usual bolts of power emerging from the hand and meeting in the middle thingy. And when Touchika gets close enough, Morikawa slices his face open and looses an energy bolt at him. Touchika flies backwards, hitting the wall- but in the same instant, when Morikawa relaxed his guard to aim and fire again, Touchika sent his own energy bolt out to strike him down. Purposely missing his vital organs, as Caligula's leader remarks as he saunters over to tell us all what's been going on. 'You want so much to see what Morikawa's MAX is? Then come and join Caligula and you will.' 'If you make him be my woman...' Touchika says, the end. Ah well. The two look prettier in this than in the first story, which I suppose counts for something.