That title sure is a mouthful, isn’t it? I am always wary when I see manga, anime, or light novels with obnoxiously long, “wacky” titles, but this one seemed… different. The bold artstyle seen on its cover and the strangely-designed characters got me curious, so I purchased volume 1 and gave it a try. A decision that I certainly did not regret.
By sheer coincidence, I happen to be familiar with the author. Jin Mugenjin previously wrote an original doujin called Good Orc Day; a parody story about a friendly Orc who is continuously harassed by a lewd elf who tries everything to tempt him into sex. It poked fun at fantasy hentai tropes and did so well that even Jin was caught off-guard by the attention it garnered. I bring it up now, because it’s hard not to see Miss Black General as an evolution of Good Orc Day.
Black General is a villainess. She’s an executive member of the secret organization RX, charged with commanding their army of henchmen—all 3 of them—into the many battles that will be required to conquer the world. Does she do it for money and power? Is the pure evil? Nope! Black General’s true motivation is her crush on Braveman, the local superhero. She is absolutely in love with the guy and constantly looks for new ways to force him into confrontations, which tend to become awkward as a result of clumsy flirting and lewd accidents. Much to Braveman’s utter dismay.
While Jin’s previous work was exclusively focused on its parody, Miss Black General is more broad in its comedy and storytelling. The chemistry between Black General and Braveman takes center stage and leads to a lot of hilarious incidents. Meanwhile there is also a lot going on at RX Headquarters (read: their secret shed) and Braveman has problems in his private life that he’s trying to overcome.
Compared to Good Orc Day, the art and character design are also major step forward. Black General herself is such a great character. The black uniform, the shark teeth, the intense design of her eyes and hair, it all comes together very nicely. It’s menacing in a goofy way and her quirky personality quickly endeared her. Other characters like Braveman, RX’ masked boss, the adorable henchmen, and other villains also enjoy great designs.
That is not to say that Miss Black General shuns ecchi humor now. Quite the opposite, in fact. Between this and the Orc doujin, Jin’s preference for chest size is clearly evident now. Black General stars in a lot of fanservice and so do most of the other girls in the plot. It’s not too overdone; entire chapters can go by without any naughty moments at all, only for the manga to then hit you with a scene like the one below. It’s still mostly comedic however, so don’t expect anything extreme or too hentai-y.
While the characters and ecchi humor are the manga’s strong suits, the plot itself is somewhat disjointed. It feels like a mix between Excel Saga and any standard superhero story, mostly focusing on RX’ antics and their clashes with the unbeaten hero character. I am curious if it’ll go the One Punch Man route and craft an actual superhero story around the silly premise, or if it’ll stick to being a fanservice-y gag manga. Perhaps a hybrid solution like we saw in Dragon Half?
At the time of writing, Miss Black General is still listed as being ongoing and 6 of its volumes have been localized thus far. I enjoyed Black General a lot as a character and this first volume was very entertaining, so I’ll definitely stick with it for now. At the same time, I do hope future volumes will settle on a coherent direction for the story.
