is a Japanese manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 written by Hideki Kakinuma and illustrated by Yusuke Tsurugi with character designs by Eeji Komatsu. It was serialized in Dengeki Comic Gao!

Dengeki Comic Gao!

, also known as Dengeki Gao! as was a Japanese shōnen manga magazine that primarily contained manga and information about series featuring bishōjo characters. It was published from December 1992 to February 2008 by MediaWorks. The Gao in the magazine's title is a childish form of the sound Grr...

. The manga was licensed in English by ComicsOne

ComicsOne

Comics One was an American distributor of Asian Comics , established in 1999. ComicsOne was based in Fremont, California...

 before the license was transferred to DrMaster

DrMaster

DrMaster Publications Inc. is an American distributor of manga and manhua with offices in the United States, Republic of China and Japan. It was headquartered in Fremont, California....

.

Manga

The manga was released by MediaWorks

MediaWorks (publisher)

was a Japanese publishing company in the Kadokawa Group known for their brand magazines and book labels. These included such well-known magazines as Dengeki Daioh, and Dengeki G's Magazine, along with MediaWorks' main light novel publishing imprint Dengeki Bunko. The company was merged with ASCII...

 between February 27, 2003 and February 27, 2004. The English release of the manga released the first of three tankōbon

Tankobon

, with a literal meaning close to "independently appearing book", is the Japanese term for a book that is complete in itself and is not part of a series , though the manga industry uses it for volumes which may be in a series...

volumes on April 5, 2005.

Volume listing

Novels

The manga has been adapted into 5 novels, all written by Hideki Kakinuma and illustrated by Eeji Komatsu. The first three volumes were published in English by DrMaster

DrMaster

DrMaster Publications Inc. is an American distributor of manga and manhua with offices in the United States, Republic of China and Japan. It was headquartered in Fremont, California....

.

Drama CDs

In January and March 2003, two Junk Force audio drama CDs were released by King Records in Japan. These CDs featured both new material and adaptations of stories featured in the manga and the novels. Professional voice actors were cast and possibly intended to be retained had the planned anime series reached fruition. The CDs are out of print.

The cast included:

Nana Mizuki

Nana Mizuki

is a popular Japanese singer-songwriter and voice actress. She was born and raised in Niihama, Ehime, Japan, Mizuki was trained as an enka singer. She made her debut as a voice actress in 1998; however, she released her debut single "Omoi", under the King Records label on December 6, 2000...

 - Liza

Yasushi Souitirou - Louis

Yū Asakawa

Yu Asakawa

, is a popular Japanese voice actress from Tokyo. She is also a singer, both solo and with the Hinata Girls. She also provides the voice samples for the Crypton Future Media's third Vocaloid 2 era Vocaloid, Megurine Luka. Asakawa is currently affiliated with Arts Vision...

 - Wooty

Ai Shimizu

Ai Shimizu

is a Japanese voice actress who is employed by Haikyou. She also has a career as a singer an signed to Lantis. She has released 14 singles and four albums. She covered Yumi Matsutoya's "Toki o Kakeru Shōjo" as the B-side of her first single "Angel Fish" in 2003...

 - Mill

Motizuki Kushiro - Mamet

Reception

Mania.com's Eduardo M. Chavez commends the manga on character design and the translation of sound effects.

Theron Martin at Anime News Network

Anime News Network

Anime News Network is an anime industry news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, Japanese popular music and other otaku-related culture within North America, Australia and Japan. Additionally, it sometimes features similar happenings throughout the Anglosphere and elsewhere in the...

 commends the novel for "good extrapolation of future military tech" but criticises it for the author's "unsophisticated writing style". Mania.com's Mike Dungan criticises the poor translation done by DrMaster

DrMaster

DrMaster Publications Inc. is an American distributor of manga and manhua with offices in the United States, Republic of China and Japan. It was headquartered in Fremont, California....

. However, he commends the author for putting "mecha-fanservice" into the novel.