Comic:Mechagical Girl Lisa A.N.T
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Summary
Mechagical Girl Lisa A.N.T (or just A.N.T for those who don't want to excercise their fingers too much while typing) is a Magical Girl/Comedy/Science Fiction story drawn in a style considered 'manga' by non-manga-fans and, apparently, 'disney' by manga fans. Or something like that.
The comic takes an abrupt beginning on a fateful day, when 13-year-old Lisa - a rabid fangirl of all things slightly resembling, vaguely associated with, somehow compareable to and/or akin to Magical Girls - has a very close and very messy encounter with butterfly-like alien, Inachis Io. Mistaking Io for the token magical guardian of the kind a Magical Girl would usually be accompanied by, Lisa is overcome with exstatic joy. Io desperately tries to make sense of the situation and leaves Lisa alone with explicit instructions to not touch ANY of the alien equipment that the tiny winged alien brought with her.
Such instructions, of course, do little to dull Lisa's curiousity, and very suddenly she finds herself equipped with the most powerful mechanical battle-suit ever created by the ants of the planet Entomia. Ants that Io devotedly serves for some reason. The nanobot-powered mecha is - fittingly - codenamed "A.N.T." Now, Lisa must battle not only the termites - who are out for a VERY hostile takeover of planet Earth, the government (who think HER the invading alien), but also the ever-annoying "popular girls" at her school and a mysterious - but seemingly genuine - Magical Girl called Pink Flash.
Even with the superior enhanced capabilities of the A.N.T-suit, it's not going to be easy. Least of all when one is more concerned about using one's newfound abilities to play Magical Princess Sugarpuff than the random apocalyptic fate of one's threatened homeworld.
Characters
(These are some really, really bad summaries. Please, someone, improve them!)
Lisa/A.N.T: Quite possibly the world's most far-out magical Girl fangirl, a hopeless geek and completely ignorant of the real world. She has a fandom for Magical Girls that borders on compulsive obsession, if not religious worship. She is air-headed and enthusiastic and rather inept at listening when she goes off on her wild fantasies of Magical Great Justice. Also, she is currently one of the most powerful beings on Earth.
The implications of this could mean the destruction of several species and a good-sized chunk of the planet.
Despite her airy persona, Lisa is an excellent student and excels at German in school. Physical Education, however, is the very bane of her existence.
Io: A grumpy, logically-minded Entomian engineer that was mistaken for a cute magical guardian creature by Lisa. In fact, Io has good reason to be mad - she is the one who will be held responsible if word ever gets out to the ants' high command that she has let an invalueable weapon fall into the hands of an outsider. And that's if her mission succeeds. You really don't want to know what happens if it fails.
Paula/Pink Flash: A real Magical Girl completely with sugary attacks, lame speeches and a fanservice-friendly costume that is apparently out to get Lisa's butt fried. Not that that stops Lisa from adoring her, of course. Flash seems to be aligned with the termites, but so far, not much is known about her. Unlike the generic Magical Girl, she seems to be driven much more by a liking for cold, hard cash than dedication to an abstract concept of "Great Justice and Love".
Jennifer and Emme: Before she became an A.N.T pilot, these two school bullies were Lisa's worst enemies. She still considers them her worst enemies, but that's mostly just Lisa's obsessive nature shining through. They're not really evil, and seem to have befriended Miriam. Jennifer still seems very hostile towards Lisa and - oddly enough - Paula. The pair know nothing of Lisa and Paula's secret identities.
Mariam: Lisa's best friend since childhood is prettier, saner and immensely more popular than Lisa. That doesn't mean she's not a crackball, though - comparison with Lisa can make a reject circus-clown with ADD look like a calm and rational being. Lately, the two have started to drift apart, perhaps due to Miriam's new friendship with Jennifer and Emme, but the long-term effects on her friendship with Lisa are not yet apparent.
The termites: Currently planning for world domination in a hive at an unknown location. It is suspected to be under the floor of a Bollywood video store, but nothing is certain. The termites are the anti-hero 'villains' of the comic. They are few in number, diminutive in size and technologically inferior to the ants, but hey, at least they keep trying.
Lisa's parents/X-files guys: Lisa's parents are, apparently, secret agents, who appear wearing very stupid-looking Matrix-esque outfits. It should be noted that they are none to fond of their uniforms. They also have big guns with silly names and sunglasses that make them impossible to recognize. We've yet to see what the heck is up with this plotline, though.
Glossary
Magical Girl (aka. "M-Girl"): Lisa's no. 1 favorite thing in the world. Magical Girls are best defined as female warriors, out for the cause of great love and justice. To non-initates, however, they often come across as odd preteens with plastic wands. They appear mostly in Anime/Manga, though with W.i.t.c.h. and Winx Club around, even casual westerners can no longer feel safe. Think Sailor Moon.
Mecha: A big robotic suit/body/entity of varying size, shape an capability, used primarily for battle. They appear most often in anime and manga, and mostly in sci-fi series for boys or, alternatively, shows that take pleasure in messing with your mind. Mecha are oftentimes humanoid in shape, and equally often mimic the personality and temper of their controllers through their appearance. Variations are great and many, however. Gundam Wing and Neon Genesis Evangelion are good examples of different types of mecha-anime.
Nanobots: In reality, nanobots are incredibly tiny robotic devices that can perform extreme precision operations, and are sometimes used in complicated medical procedures to literally heal a body from the inside. In the world of fiction, however, they are usually very vertasile little devices that provide a scientific explanation to phenomenon that by any normal standards would be considered pure magic.
Entomia: Entirely fictious planet inhabitated by aliens that are curiously similar to Earth insects. The dominating races are Ants and Termites. This is probably not a very good combination, given that the respective races they spend 99% percent of their waking hours (including sparetime and vacations) waging bitter war on one another. The remaining 1% is spent watching 'Teletubbies', which might explain their extreme complexes of agression.
Manga/Anime: Words used to describe comics (manga) and cartoons (anime) that originate in Japan. Commonly used as a term to describe any style of art that resembles the style most commonly used in said Japanese comics and cartoons.
David Donofrio: Take these written words for it: you don't want to know.
The author
Ida Kirkegaard is a soon-to-be 18-year old female from Copenhagen, Denmark. Aside from doing A.N.T, she spends most of her time on High School, internet forums, and doing crack-fed things she's sure to regret in the morning. She has an unhealthy obsession with Anime/Manga and Magical Girls in particular (though not as unhealthy as the My Little Pony obsession that preceeded it) and has a wild dream to someday live off her cartooning. She was also most likely mentally unstable while writing this.
What's been said
"The story is odd but for whatever reason I really like the artwork." ~ Legostar
"Now there are a few webcomics that are in the "Magical Girl" category - some of them pull it off well, most of them just suck. Fortunately, ANT is in the former group." ~ Levi-chan
"OMG U arE T0TALLY teh 1337!!!!1111!1!1!one" ~ Hordes of fictive fangirls
"Despite all the fun the comic pokes at Magical Girls, it's a shining example of how they should be: Crazy, compulsive obsessive and full of bright ideas." ~ Skyen
