Mechagical Girl Lisa A.N.T

From Comixpedia

Mechagical Girl Lisa A.N.T. (also known as A.N.T. or ANT) is an irregularly updated webcomic by danish artist Ida Kirkegaard. The plot parodies typical magical girl anime and mixes it with some science fiction elements, such as nanotechnology. The protagonist is a high school student named Lisa who accidentaly bonds to an ultimate battlesuit, getting caught on a war between two alien races.

The comic was launched in 2003, and was previously hosted on Keenspot, before it was moved to Comic Genesis. Its forum is hosted on tegnebordet.dk.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Characters 2.1 The ANTS 2.2 The TERMITES 2.3 Supporting Cast 3 Forum 4 References in Other Sources 5 Trivia 6 External links

[edit] Plot

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Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow

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13-years old Lisa is a normal schoolgirl, though she has a slightly unhealthy obsession with Magical Girls as well as a dream to become one herself. When an alien spacecraft accidentally crashes into her room containing one very pretty but also very disgruntled engineering butterfly, Io, Lisa mistakes her for a magical animal. Lisa brings herself into a lot of trouble when she decides to take a closer look at an object found in the wreck. This object just happens to be containing an A.N.T - a giant mecha (or suit, depending on the pilot's size ) that is only the rarest and most powerful weapon of the alien civilization. Eagerly mistaking herself for a 'mechagical girl', Lisa gladly volunteers to fight the nemesises of Io's people - the Termites, but she is soon to find out that she has plunged into something far too big for her to handle - or she would if she wasn't so obsessed with playing Mahou Shoujo. Later on the story, a real magical girl appears, going by the name Pink Flash, and chooses Lisa as her target. The reader soon learns she's a mercenary working for the Termites.

[edit] Characters

(From the character page of the main site.)

[edit] The ANTS

Lisa Amalie Becker (A.N.T.)

She's is a fangirl of Magical Girls, taking this liking to the point of obsession and until recently had a heartfelt wish to become one herself. Lisa is hyperactive, nice to the point of exhaustion and overimaginative.She's is also highly intelligent -though she hardly demonstrates it- and she's a top student in any subject but gym. Lisa became an A.N.T pilot by chance, and, much to the dismayal of Io, that certainly shows in her fighting abilities.

Powers:

• Super strength (Lisa is able to lift at the very least 7 times her own weight, possibly more).
• The ability to jump great distances and heights (from ground level and 5 stories up).
• Bullet- heat- and partially radiationproof lightweight armor.
• Super-fast reflexes (Lisa is able to dodge normal bullets.
• Acrobatic, elegant movements far beyond human ability.
• Due to the way the suit is recreated with each use, any damage sustained in a battle will be nonexistant the next time the suit is activated (unless heavy damage is dealt to the nanobots that build it), making the suit practically impossible to permanently destroy.

Inachis Io

On her birth planet, Entomia, she was a high-ranked and respected engineer in service of the Queen herself. When she was sent to Earth, her ship wrecked and her valuable A.N.T mecha was bonded to a local. Now, knowing that Termites apparently have quite a foothold here and since the princess she should be escorting has gone AWOL, SHE is now personally responsible for fighting them. Io has quite a short temper and her absolutely nonexistant confidence in Lisa's abilities makes her patience with her 'protege' minimal.

[edit] The TERMITES

Paula Fromm (Pink Flash)

The first, only and probably pinkest Magical Girl to ever appear in Denmark and the spectacle that has surrounded her since her first appearance clearly reflects this. Currently, Flash only has her own fan club, webpage and merchandise line, but more is in the works each day and her popularity and fame just keeps growing. Flash has set herself up as "the champion of justice" out to protect Copenhagen from the threat of the A.N.T who interestingly appeared on the scene only a day before she did herself - the fact that Pink Flash works for the entomian world-domination-seeking termites is hushed down. As a person, Flash is strong, determined and enigmatic, traits that she carries on into her everyday identity of Paula Fromm, though, in both identities, she keeps them well hidden under a surface of pure sugary sweetness that lead people to either love her or throw up.

Powers:

• Piercing beams or explosions of pink-colored energy, though she can vary and alter these two basic attack forms depending on the situation. Since Pinky is a Magical Girl, her attacks are always accompanied by her yelling out a name, but her supply of named attacks seems to be pretty much infinite - at least, the only attack that has been spotted more than once is the finishing move, "Sparkling Princess Sugarpuff Symphony".
• Teleportation.
• Enhanced agility, strength and durability.
• Materializing wand from thin air.
• There are indications that she can somehow find out information about people that isn't evident to normal people just by looking at them as well, but how that works is unknown.

Derasa

She likes to be dark and mysterious. Her two goals here in life are to be viewed and feared as someone who lurks and rules in the shadows - and finally triumphing over Io, of course. In fact, the rivalry the two harness is quite a leading factor in her personality, and it should be noted that the two of them grew up together, with Io always being just slightly better at everything than her.

Queen Shiraki of the Termites of Earth

She's is an immature crybaby with no skill nor aspiration to actually serve as the invasion spearhead she supposedly is. The only possible reason why anyone would make Shiraki the leader of an alien invasion force is a) her royal ancestry and b) because none of the other princesses wanted to invade such a backwater planet. Shiraki is one of the youngest and least confident princesses of Entomia, still considering herself a child and consciously ignorant of the world around her, preferring to lock herself in her little fluffy world away from all the 'scary stuff' out there. In fact, she seems to be suffering from some permanent trauma that causes her to be afraid of everything and anything, most importantly social situations.

Captain Copto

She's cold and calculating. As an officer termite should, she lives and breathes only for her mission (making Shiraki Queen of the Earth) and she will stop at nothing to fulfill it. Too bad for her, though, the rest of the invasion force seems to have been miscast.

Mo

Being loud, self-reliant and easygoing, the only reason she has not yet been discarded as a failure is becaus she is currently one of the only termites on Earth with a mecha-license. While hotheaded, Mo seems to change from one extreme emotion to the other in a matter of seconds and possesses little to no tact.

Sanus

He is clean, logic-driven and neurotic to the extreme. As a high-IQ worker, he has a well-developed common sense and IS generally smarter than Mo - it's just that his common sense has a tendency to be pushed aside by a neurosis that almost rivals Shiraki's, with the main differnece being that Sanus actually worries about things that pose a real threat to him. The worry just has a tendency to be out of proportion with that danger, and in most cases renders him unable to actually do anything about said danger.

[edit] Supporting Cast

Mariam Bangash-Knudsen

Lisa's best friend since childhood, she's restrained and motherly, and approximately a million times more popular than Lisa. Her calm and intelligent demeanor makes her a great mediator.She's got a solid faith in herself, and is confident in most of her actions and choices. Due to her mother, she can also be quite the hippie when she feels like it, and when topped with her self-confidence, this can be quite a dangerous cocktail - never engage in a conversation about whale fishing with Mariam unless you want to be dragged into a Greenpeace event.

She's also a closet lesbian and has a crush on A.N.T.

Emmeline Solhøj-Vogel (Emme)

Emme is best described as extremely immature, and would be impopular if she wasn't hanging out with one of the most popular girls in school, Jennifer. Emme is currently making fun of somoene else, not that she's truly mean - most of the time Emme just does whatever Jennifer is doing or what the two of them decides is fun.

Jennifer Mørch-Hansen (Jen)

Jennifer is a true bully. A good deal of Jennifer's character relates to the activity of making life hell for others, or in her case, Lisa. It's not that Jennifer is truly evil - but she does have a vicious streak and a generally cruel sense of humor. Like Emme, she doesn't bully Lisa in order to be evil; for her it is more of an amusing pastime as well as a way to show an outsider her place. Jennifer has always been one of the more popular girls. While she can be cruel, she is a also a true leader, loyal to her friends and principles, and completely and utterly honest. At 13, Jennifer is one of the most "developed" girls in her grade, both physically and mentally.

Jeannette "Jeanne" Becker (Agent "J")

Lisa's mother and an agent of PETSHOP(an acronym of "Politiets Efterretningstjeneste afdeling for Suspekte Hændelser og Overnaturlige Postulater", in english, "The P.E.T. agency for Suspicious Happenings and Occult Phenomena", a division of Danish Intelligence Agency). Jeanne's foremost skill is her incredible talent for observation and analyzation. With a single glance, she is able to tell if a person is carrying anything in any pocket, which way they were going based on the ripples in the hair, and what they had for breakfest. Unlike Tom, whose work is driven by his fascination with aliens, Jeanne is a PETSHOP agent because she loves mystery-solving. Crime shows, especially British ones, are the single pulp love of a woman who otherwise swears by fine art. Otherwise, though, the thing that matters the most to Jeanne is her work, which she dedicates most of her time and effort - if a case proves difficult, Jeanne is known to become downright scary in her intense pursuit of a solution. Jeanne is decidedly more cynical and down-to-business than her partner, something which earns her both respect but also fear from other agents.

Tom Steensen Becker (Agent "T")

Father of Lisa, married to Jeanne and also an agent for PETSHOP. Tom is "the guy with the big guns" and many people have mistaken him for a simple brute because of that. Tom is actually a very domestic, kind and romantic guy who loves cooking and giving his wife gift. . He is a sci-fi and comic book geek himself, though unlike Lisa, he prefers Belgian/French comics over Japanese or American ones, and has an undying love for the music of David Bowie, both of which interests truly grate on Jeanne's nerves.

Ter and Mes

They stand around in Shiraki's throne room -as fanners-, but other than that, not much is known about them. They're twins, whatever that means for a race that all are born from the same one constatly birthgiving mother, and so they share a very deep bond with each otehr. So far, though, all they've used that for is ending each other's sentences and performed the special art of Coordinated Fanning.

Template:Endspoilers

[edit] Forum

The forum is hosted at tegnebordet.dk as a branch of the Kagami Manga Forum. It is moderated primarily by Ida herself.

[edit] References in Other Sources

Evil Overlords Unite features a panel where a monitor shows Lisa's Gym Class. Mindmistress features a vision of "a girl in antlike armor".

[edit] Trivia

• The names of the Entomians are based on real insects names.

• Inachis Io's name is the scientific name of the peacock butterfly. Derasa's name comes from the Habrosyne pyritoides/Buff Arches Moth (formerly Habrosyne Derasa).
• The Termites are named all after the species name:Copto-Ter-Mes-for-Mo-Sanus Shiraki.

[edit] External links

• Mechagical Girl Lisa A.N.T.
• [1] - Host of the official Mechagical Girl Lisa A.N.T. forums
• Crossovers list - A list of webcomics that have crossed over or referenced Mechagical Girl Lisa A.N.T.