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大砲とスタンプ
83
9
Finished
Jan 22, 2011 to Sep 23, 2020
10.0/10
Average Review Score
100%
Recommend It
1
Reviews Worldwide
This manga really illustrates greatly the mundane banality of war. The absurdity and comedy that can stem out of war. placing the main focus on a group of paper-shuffling bureaucrats was top-class in presenting that rarely seen aspect of war. But it also doesn't shy away from the obvious horror, pointlessness, and often randomness (deaths) of war either, people die without rhymes or narrative reasons especially in the last arc. But those moments of combat are brief compared to the long periods of lull in war. Its really feels more of a workplace comedy set in an office at times, just with a war backdrop. Italso never portrays any of the characters as larger than human. With each characters having being some poor sod that got dragged into the war, with them having a background beyond that of their positions. None of the characters are depicted or written inherently as evil either (except for one, and fuck that guy). Characters ranging from militias, spies, generals, officers, foot-soldiers, logistics-men, enemies, partisans, all the way to the fucking cheka secret police feels human and doesn't go out of their way to be evil 4noraisins. You'd enjoy the hell out of this if you have logistics/paperwork autism, and/or military autism, and/or engineering autism. There is many allusions to real life historical events, engineering marvels (and why they never typically see any real use), and actually shows the rearline of war. Seeing it through a paper soldier perspective rather than from the frontline or civilian side. One of its kind in that regard. When the chips are down and the cast is forced to fight. there's no plot armor, All the happy moments we had with the cast ups the stakes heavily. Which serves as a good juxtaposition between the two vibes the work has. The fun and comedic side lending credence to the horrors of war vibe and vice-versa. TLDR: Read it, good god it's so fucking good.
The story is set in an alternate world with 20th century-like technology, during a great war between the alliance of the Grand Duchy (Russia that never formed) and the Empire (Poland-Lithuania that never fell into ruin) on one side, and the Republic (the Ottoman Empire that never fell apart) on the other. Lieutenant Martina M. Mayakovskaya is a new officer in the Grand Duchy Logistics Corps. It's a branch of the armed forces responsible for transportation and supply that is looked down upon by the rest of the military as "paper soldiers". Martina's assignment is supposed to be a comfortable desk job dealing with stamping paperwork, but for some reason wherever she goes, she ends up in the middle of combat. Also, what's that eight-legged pseudoweasel that she adopted as a pet (or it adopted her?), and is it just a coincidence that it seems to be saving her from harm every time? (Source: MU)