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Joshi Kouhei, a philosophical, action packed manga with alternate dimensions, giant school girls wielding railguns, mind-fuckery, brutal and gorey combat, lots of panty shots, philosophical skeptism, and... two chapters devoted to a full-blown s*x scene?


Who am I writing this for?

Anyone who's a complete degenerate like me. Obviously if you're a more vanilla, slice-of-life, romcom type of reader, then this isn't going to be for you and you can safely stop reading at this point. This manga definitely isn't for the faint of heart. But if you are a complete degenerate, then you're going to love this.


Why am I writing this?

I just read this absolute marvelous ... piece of literature in one entire sitting all last night. I have never had a manga that has absolutely captivated me so much where I stayed up all through the night reading it in a 6 hour sitting. I just could not put it down. Even when I thought I reached a good stopping point and turned off my phone to try to get some sleep, I just couldn't and I found myself turning my phone on again to continue where I left off.

I had been so enraptured by this manga that when it was finished, I felt quite empty because I didn't know what to do next. I still feel quite empty even after a whole day has passed, and that's why I've decided to devote some time into writing this review of the manga, which is something I rarely ever do. Perhaps it'll get rid of that empty feeling. I've read hundreds of manga. I could count the amount of manga that I went out of my way to write a review for on one hand; and I'll have to add another finger after this.


First off, who is the mangaka?

The mangaka is Matsumoto Jiro. He is quite well-known for using plenty of nudity and deep philosophical questions in his works. His other works include <Freesia> and <Jigoku no Alice>, which you may have heard of (also amazing btw, though not as good as Joshi Kouhei imo).


How should I persuade you all to read this?

Rather than tell you all what it's about, I think it's better to first off tell you what it contains. This will determine whether you're degenerate enough to read it or you won't touch it with a 10-foot pole:

1 Giant school girls that bring death and destruction everywhere they go.

2 Philosophical problems that'll have you thinking, most notably skeptism and sense of self.

3 Gore. Lots of blood and guts.

4 Lots of nudity. Also a lot of panty shots. Like, a lot of panty shots.

5 Grotesque monsters and shock imagery.

6 Crossdressing and pegging. Not the kind that involves cute femboys.

7 A full-blown s*x scene

8 Truck-kun (Matsumoto Jiro really does like his trucks. This ain't the first manga of his that had truck-kun)

Now, I know what you're all thinking: "wtf is this?" and you know what?... I wasn't quite sure either when I was reading it. And unlike all of you guys, I didn't have anybody who told me this was going to happen. I just got to that scene and was like "well, I guess this is happening now..." All I know was that I couldn't put it down.

If any of these points captivated your attention, then I seriously suggest you go and read it right now! If you're still on the fence, then let me try to persuade you more by going a little in-depth on this masterpiece.


So what exactly is Joshi Kouhei?

(In trying to keep this post spoiler free, I will only be skimming the surface of the story. All things that are written here are practically told to you within the first few chapters so don't be worried about any spoilers. I'd hate to be spoiled in an amazing story like this too.)

In the universe of Joshi Kouhei, an alternate dimension was found, containing basically a second Earth. So there were many people that migrated to the alternate dimension because the original Earth was running out of resources. However, now the people in the alternate dimension have declared independence from the original dimension, and they are fighting back. So now there are two factions in this multi-dimensional war. There is the United Army of Earth and the Dimensional Liberation Front.

Our main character, Lieutenant Takigawa, holy name: Kiriko, is on the side of the United Army of Earth. They are located in the alternate dimension on the front lines fighting against the DLF.


So what is Takigawa's role in all this?

Lieutenant Takigawa is the commander of Hyena Platoon, a special team of dimensional arms that have the dark and gritty role of exterminating rogue or corrupt dimensional arms. Because of their role, it's obvious that the team aren't well liked by other Assault Girl pilots.

Dimensional Arms? Assault girls? Corruption? What the heck is all this?

Dimensional arms is another word for Assault Girls. As for what Assault Girls are, they are monstrous robots (gundam) that look, feel, and sometimes act like high school girls. Assault Girls were created to be impervious to all conventional weaponry, such as firearms, tanks, and even missiles. "The girls, they're invincible. You can kill people so easily. It feels like you're just crushing bugs." Well, invincible to 99.99% of the population anyways. There are of course other various ways to destroy Assault Girls, such as other Assault Girls.

So what's the big deal about corruption then? Well, if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. In exchange for such amazing and awesome power (along with looking like a cute high school girl), the pilot of the Assault Girl becomes corrupted over time. Their corruption is measured in various levels. The more a pilot becomes corrupted, the more they begin to act like an actual high school girl.

A corruption level of 0 is just you in the body of a giant high school girl with full control. Somebody with a higher corruption level may start gossiping about their imaginary high school life (remember that the majority of pilots are middle-aged men). "At level 5 corruption, you recieve mail and calls from a mother and friends that don't actually exist." This becomes dangerous in combat because the Assault Girl will actually become more focused on their phone than their surroundings. You can see what happens because of that in the first chapter.

Become too corrupted and you'll never go back to normal. Go even further beyond and you are more than just useless in battle; you become a detriment to everyone around you, destroying your surroundings with no remorse or emotions.

This is where Hyena Platoon, Lieutenant Takigawa's team, is called in to take care of the situation.


Okay, well that's all fine and dandy but... why do they look like high school girls? Who's the pervert who came up with this (wonderful) idea?

(That would be the mangaka, Matsumoto Jiro)
You'd have to ask the Prophet.


Okay so... who's the Prophet?

Can't say, but you'll find out soon anyways. All I'll say for now is that they can calculate the answers of the universe in less time than it would take to make cup noodles.


So is there anything at all that you would say isn't a 10/10?

There is one thing, and that's how messy the art is, though Matsumoto Jiro is also known for this. In the fight scenes, it can be quite difficult to follow along and see what's exactly happening. I just had to use my imagination and context clues to figure out who's dying. Also re-reading it is going to help point out things you missed.


Conclusion

If you've made it this far into the post, then surely you've shown some interest in the story. Go give it a read! Everything I've talked about pertains mostly to the first few chapters. There's a total of 45 chapters, and it gets quite mind-fuckery near the end (as if it wasn't already in the beginning).

Obviously this manga isn't going to be for everyone. There's a huge list of fetishes contained in this manga (as with the majority of Matsumoto Jiro's works), but since I'm a complete degenerate, this manga rose to the top for me.

I sincerely hope you enjoy this manga as much as I have. Though that might be hard to do because I love this manga so much. It has jumped to my top 5 manga list of all time in one night. It might perhaps even be my #1 spot. It just checkmarked all of my fetishes, while also having a coherent and actually entertaining plot (Not that kind of plot. The actual plot is really good). In all my years of reading manga, there has never been another manga where I've stayed up the entire night reading. In fact, I've been thinking about rereading it... even though I just read it last night.

One of the greatest warfare manga/manhwa I have ever read. The major characters are extremely well-written, both the protagonist and the antagonists are well-liked and believable. Their personalities stand out, and their background is great.

One of the things I do love about the main character, Ares, is that he's not some goody-two-shoes who's afraid of killing people and is going to win through peace and love and make friends along the way. He's the kind of guy who would kill anyone he has to, and he doesn't flinch one bit. I suppose maybe it's because I've read a little too much shounen manga recently that ... I find it very refreshing to have a main character who doesn't just rely on the power of friendship to save the day.

Something else to bring up is that the main characters are very strong. They are able to kills dozens upon dozens of men all by themselves, and it just feels so badass when that happens. If you enjoy watching strong characters, then this is definitely a good one.

Another thing I love is that there are a lot of character deaths. It is a seinen manga, so deaths are to be expected, though there are some deaths that seemingly come out of nowhere, which increases the impact of the character's death even more. Something else to point out is that the story does not dwell on a person's death for too long. There are many people that die throughout the story, but there may be only about half a chapter, sometimes it's just one or two panels, and then the story continues on. It really brings up this feeling, the reality of being expendable, where no matter how strong a person really is, at the end of the day, it's just one person, and they really aren't going to change the course of a battle all on their own.

The twists and turns in this manhwa are great, and keep you turning to the next page looking to find out what happens next.

The last thing I want to bring up is the art-style. This is definitely the most controversial opinion, as Ares does not have a "beautiful" art-style. When reading seinen warfare manga, most people are probably expecting art-style similar to Kingdom, or Vagabond, or many others. Then they come to Ares and are turned off by the art-style for being too different. Personally I really love the art-style. This is the only story you'll ever see with this kind of art-style, and I think it adds to the feel of the story. It's a little hard for me to explain. I can't find the particular words that make me feel this way, but somehow, it just feels like this art-style was meant for this kind of manhwa. After having read all 207 chapters three times now, it's very hard for me to imagine this story in any other art-style. It really is quite unique, and there are some very amazing panels.

This is an absolutely amazing warfare seinen manga with great character development, backstories, personalities, lots of fighting, and a good amount of world building, or should I say continent building. If you are a fan of warfare of any amount, then I highly suggest you check out this manga. This is one of my favorites, and I always find myself coming back to it every now and then. I've done 3 full reads of the story, and I'm sure it won't be my last!