Paradox Blue – Ch. 02: Umivozel 2

Protecting the city is the police’s duty. But protecting the school is the Student Council’s duty.

Paradox Blue

Author: Nakanishi Tatsurou

Artist: Nini

Genres: Mystery, School Life, Sci-fi, Supernatural, Shounen

Scanlators: Maigo Scans

As you’ll probably have noticed if you’re actually reading the Paradox Blue manga, choice number one ‘Leave it up to the characters’ instructs readers to turn 3 pages forward.  Soon afterwards, when you find out there’s not 3 pages to turn, you’ll be like wtf?! move on to the next chapter, and then understand that the manga was just being tricky with you ;p

So now we’re into chapter two! Quick little catch up… big alien slug guy is attacking the city zomaga! Alien slug is called an ‘Angel’ and will continue on his path of destruction, soon to up the danger levels… if humanity cannot solve his Paradox. Luckily humanity has “regular” high school student Hijiri who claims to know the answer…

Chapter two properly begins with the introduction of a new character, 3^rd year and Master of Disguise Shindou Tatsuya.

He’s dressed as one of the policemen whose job is to escort Hijiri and the main girl out of the city though Hijiri sees through his disguise immediately and they find out the other two policemen aren’t who they seem to be either. They’re actually two 2^nd year students, Kujou Ai the student council treasurer and Kouda Tetsuo the student council secretary.

I finally find out the main girl is called Chris (short for Christia) and that she’s… the student council president. I did not actually see that one coming O.O Shindou addresses her as something like ‘Himekawa Blue Christia’, on top of being the student council president, she also happens to be a princess… plus she’s a high school first year but I don’t think that makes any sort of difference whatsoever lol.

She of course feels the need to save the students who are still in danger of being caught up in a big kaboom if the army gets their way and end up bombing the Angel. Chris emotionally states that they (the student council) are the only ones left to stand against the Angel and that since she knows they can do something about the situation, they will stay and fight to the end! She of course ends up putting the rest of the student council in danger prompting Shindou to call her a bothersome princess. Indeed.

However, most of the boys decide to go along with her for their own little reasons and Hijiri is left worrying on his own. A quick cute look from Chris soon sorts him out though ;p and the student council heads straight into a counterattack against the Angel! They nearly run over the Inspector who is also doing his best to make a strong stand against both the Angel and the army who would willingly destroy a large part of the city as long as the alien is bombed along with it.

Protecting the city is the police’s duty. But protecting the school is the Student Council’s duty.

They ask (tell) the Inspector to leave it to them and borrow (steal) an army tank and uniforms before setting up a faceoff on the bridge.

Chris’s short speech is actually kind of inspiring and I’m starting to feel my fangirling senses waking up to her. To Hijiri not so much so I’m going to pretend he’s not in the shot until they give him superpowers.

[Moments later…]

Ok. They’ve given him superpowers… O.O … Seriously. That’s how it happened. The very next panel introduces Hijiri Soujuurou, member of the Student Council and … Apprentice Magician. I know I’m using too many dot dot dots but that’s the reaction in my brain!

Shindou plays Mr. Exposition and explains that he came from a mysterious country far away to attend to Princess Christia and he has the ability to see through all illusions. Cool trick. Unfortunately he still suffers from being a bit of a poof when it comes to nerve wracking situations and cracks seriously under pressure. Chris gives him another cute pep talk as she grasps his hands and gives her own nervousness away. It’s horrendously early to be saying something like this but if they had kids they’d be like the most nervous and panicky rulers of the world ever.

Meanwhile the Angel has reached the middle of the bridge and Hijiri does a few more mental calculations to figure out the Angel’s Paradox. He deems that it’s true form must have something to do with water but is searching for a more specific answer.

He realises that the true answer is that the Angel is [*] and he is defeated after Shindou causes him to come into contact with his true form.

The Angel grants the student council a ‘medal’ or miracle for solving its Paradox. In this case, it solves the problem of abnormal weather that the city has been suffering from. The Inspector praises the kids and is about to take them back to the station for some questioning when Shindou distracts him (pushes him over a cliff with a tank) and says that they still have shopping for the school festival to do!

A little more narration from our self proclaimed ‘last boss’ Izanamiel;

A cruel reality, a cruel world. This is the story of these boys and girls steadfast journey through these hard times.

Because after all… you only have one life. If that’s the case you might as well enjoy it. To enjoy life you need to have entertainment and thrills and … some good companions.

Here’s the Spoiler Answer 😛 Just in case anyone wanted to figure it out for themselves.

Answers: [*] The Ocean

End Thoughts:

Really happy to have come across this at the moment! It’s got just enough funny stuff, action stuff, thinky stuff and just a little hint of possible supernatural stuff to come to get me really interested in the story.

I also enjoy the character design, both art-wise and trait/possible development-wise. I like the main characters and the whole student council setting that they’re placed in so it’s a great start so far for this manga!

Izanamiel’s part at the end makes me wonder quite a bit about her character also. What does she even want with the humans? Why do the Angels apparently have no motivation to destroy the humans… just punish them when they do wrong? Is it kind of like a weird FF13 storyline where the Angels are possibly the creators of humans or something? Judging from the ‘miracles’ they can perform – even the lowbie Angels like Mr. Squishy Slug thing, I’d wager they’d have enough power to have been able to do that in the first place.

Anyway enough of these predictions… Obviously there are volumes of it out already but after all, I’m just a slave to scanlations haha so I’ll just enjoy the releases as they come. I hope at least a couple of people have started taking a look at Paradox Blue… chapters aren’t long and they’re easy to read so go forth and give it a go! ;p