Fuga: Melodies of Steel (manga)

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This article contains Fuga: Melodies of Steel spoilers, continue at your own risk.

The Fuga: Melodies of Steel manga is a series that, initially, retells the main story of the original game up until the aftermath of the battle against Pretzel. The rest of the manga will delve deeper into characters & present new scenes^[1]. It is illustrated by mangaka Takafumi Adachi.

Serialization began on December 13th, 2021, with each chapter being uploaded to Famitsu's website for free viewing every two weeks. KADOKAWA will publish volumes as ebooks. It is currently only available in Japanese. The last chapter of the original game was released in June 6, 2023.

The manga will also adapt the events of the sequel in the next two volumes^[2]. The first chapter was released in July 4, 2023.

Summary

The story begins where the game does - When Petit Mona is invaded by the Berman Empire. Malt Marzipan along with the other children of the village follow their radio's instructions of finding & riding the Taranis.

As the children ward off Berman soldiers they come face-to-face with General Pretzel, the man who had lead the mission to destroying their village. As the battle swiftly shifts to the general's favor, Boron Brioche moseys down to the Soul Cannon chamber, ending up as the sacrifice that evaporates the opposing soldiers & Pretzel. As the rest of the crew discovers what had just unfolded they become too depressed to move on, ending up in the tank's catastrophic explosion.

Jeanne, the tank's AI, reverts time (AKA conducting one of her simulations) to the moment before the battle. Now more collected, the crew take a more tactical approach to thwarting Pretzel and succeed. The game's plot ends right after revealing Shvein Hax and his plans to awaken Vanargand, as the perspective shifts to a mysterious being, who calls themselves the "Maestro", overseeing every single event through digital monitors.

This "maestro" presents Fuga as if it were a musical performance and welcomes the reader to the next "Melodies of Steel".

The story resumes to following the game's up until chapter 11, where the plot reveals Wappa Charlotte early with two other unknown caninu children in a Berman tank. When one of the children asks Wappa what they need to do, she responds by mentioning orders given to them by the Berman to strike the Gasco Army. Instead of choosing violence, however, she suggests to instead pursue them with "love & peace". As Wappa emerges from the tank, she's seen sporting a Berman uniform. The "maestro" is shocked with this turn of events and tries to find out what happened, as Wappa was supposed to meet the other children when they knock her out of her treehouse.

As he browses through the events that have unfolded, the "maestro" begins to suspect that Malt has something to do with this skewed timeline.

The kids end up fighting Blutwurst but they are unable to do anything due to him keeping hostages, however Wappa comes and free them, revealing that she has betrayed the empire, now without a way to keep the kids at bay, Blutwurst is defeated, Wappa reveals that her platoon were actually the kids of her village that were forced to join the Berman Empire because their parents were keep as hostages, when Malt reveals the reason they are fighting, Wappa joins them but declares herself as the leader. After rescuing Sheena's family, the crew ends up finding Britz on the road, despite being a Berman, Sheena pleads to her friends to let him join, only to be interrupted by the arrival of the Tarascus.

The timeline skews further as not only do the children confront Hax and the Tarascus, but face a rematch with Flam simultaneously. With the entire crew overwhelmed with what's to come, Malt swiftly goes downstairs to the Soul Cannon without informing anybody. He takes his seat and awaits his fate which becomes a brutal mutilation of his entire body. Once Malt becomes disintegrated in the chamber, the cannon takes aim and begins to charge. The Soul Cannon completely obliterates Flam, however Hax and the Tarascus survive and leave. The children discover that Malt has died in a bloody mess and mourn his death.

After this gruesome event, the Maestro celebrates ending the anomaly coming from Malt. This is cut short when a Caninu man resembling Carmine, who is also dressed similarly to Quynne, manages to enter his room via a portal gun. The Maestro and this mysterious Caninu appear so share a sour relationship, with the former angrily calling him a "bastard". As the Maestro attempts an escape, the Caninu uses his portal gun to tear his legs apart which then slowly re-materialize. During this, the Caninu uses a Dummy Sacrifice to reverse Malt's death. He then swiftly exits the room, leaving the Maestro is an extremely distressed state.

The timeline still proceeds from the grim scene at the Soul Cannon's chamber. However, Malt returns in one piece as if nothing had happened, surprising the rest of the crew who were fully convinced he had died. While Malt still has a faint memory of what had occurred in the chamber, he and the other children get back on track. The story fast-forwards to the moment Jin Macchiato confronts Britz Strudel over a broken piece of the Taranis. At the beggining Jin thinks that Britz is planning to sabotage the Taranis, only for Socks to reveal that he's being helping him on fixing the Taranis, Jin apologizes much to Britz's embarrasment, but for the relief of the other kids.

The kids arrive to Paresia, where the Gasco Army is doing an evacution for the citizens, the kids arrive but is too late, Hax has awakened the Vanargand and start using it to destroy Gasco, here the radio reveal the reason is been leading the kids, to destroy it's ancient enemy, the kids are terrified but it causes Jeanne to regain her complete form, despite the initial confusion, Jeanne start telling her story, revealing that she was a product from an organization creating weapons for a war, making artificial humans to use as batteries for them.

After telling the kids everything, they enter Vanargand and start the final battle against Hax, who unfortunaly has the upper hand in the battle, causing Jeanne to use a weapon that according to her slowly drains the life force of the kids, during the scuffle, Malt starts to remember how he gave up his life to the Soul Cannon, and decides to do it again, however the other kids refuse to do it, and tell Malt that they won't allow it, this cause Jeanne to discover that there is someone alive in a room apart inside the Taranis, and uses it to power up the Soul Cannon, hurting the being inside, during the last shot against Hax, Malt briefly gains a wolf-like form to the surprise of Jeanne, after putting down Hax, the kids reunite with their families, while Jeanne shuts down alongside the Taranis.

The kids enjoy the peace caused by the armstice made by both Gasco and Berman during a whole year, however both Malt and Mei are called by Muscat to investigate some weird stuff happening recently.

In some unknown location the same Caninu man from before alongside a Felineko woman and other two male Caninus, are watching a ship crashing down, talking about how their plan is going as they expected, with them planing to use Malt for an unknown purpose.

Meanwhile, in another place, a child used by the Taranis remembers what happened in the fight against the Tarascus, planning revenge on the children.

The kids arrive and reunite, where they meet again Muscat, who show them the Taranis being kept as it being investigated, here they meet Muscat's father and younger sister, Shayne and Vanilla, after that, Boron enters the Taranis alongside Britz, Hanna, Mei and Socks, only to be captured, the Taranis escapes on it's own, and before they realize they find out that the Muscat family's house was destroyed during the rampage.

The kids enter the Tarascus who was rebuilt too, only to discover that is run by Hax, now and AI, despite this, he tells the kids that they have a bigger threat to deal with, the kids go, and fight tanks who are being controlled by a flesh-like moss who are attacking the city.

Meanwhile Hanna wakes up and meets the kid, who tells her, he is going to destroy all of this world in anger, only to realize to Malt and the rest was able to follow him, not wanting to lose, he puts Mei in the Soul Cannon, planning to use her to get rid of the other kids.

Hax, sensing this, does the same, putting Malt as a sacrifice to win, much to Malt's horror before dying, he sees his sister being sacrificed, only for the blast of the two tanks, to fuse, destroying everyone all together.

Malt wakes up, and meets the Maestro, saying that is too early for Malt die, confused he asks who he is, the Maestro tells him, he is the one in charge of the timeline, telling him, his survival is dangerous and each one ends with Malt in pain, showing one where he was the sole survivor, angry he demands answers, only for the Maestro to leave.

Waking up, Malt is happy to be back, much to the confusion of his friends, the kid controlling the Taranis also realizes what happened, and amused, says he won't let the Maestro steal his chance of revenge, choosing to put Mei in the Soul Cannon again, however this time, Malt yells at Mei to wake up, which causes Mei to break the chamber of the Soul Cannon.

The kids discover that they might be able to get Mei back by bumping into the Taranis, which the kids do, allowing Hax to teleport her back, the boy decides to retreat and go find a secret weapon he once heard, as the kids celebrate they realize that Vanilla snuck into the Tarascus in secret.

Mei reveals about the strange boy who is now commanding the Taranis and keeping the others as hostages, Hax reveals that the Taranis was using him as a life force to keep it active, the children make the plan of rescuing the others with the same method they used in Mei, while Vanilla joins to get back at the boy for killing her father, they end up later meeting Von Baum and Stollen, who are going through a rough time since their defeat.

The kids take Von Baum and Stollen but make it clear they'll kick them out if they do something, not realizing that both old men plan to betray them. Meanwhile the boy finds a location cointaning a weapon he is interested, only to be ambushed by the Tarascus, letting them rescue Boron, Socks and Britz, however before they can rescue Hannah, the boy shots the Tarascus causing the teloportation to be cancelled, with Malt watching in horror as Hanna vanishes.

Malt is in shock, only to snap out of it when the boy starts to attack with a new tank, the secret weapon that was hidding there, the kids without any options, choose the Soul Cannon but don't know who will sacrifice their life, Malt steps up ready to do it, but much to the kids and the boy is shock, Malt has transformed once more.

Releases

As stated in Fuga's development blogs, the manga will be seeing ebook releases beginning in March 2022 and will be published by KADOKAWA. Physical releases may also become available, though no concrete date nor plan has been settled as they are still seeking offers.^[3]

Gallery

External Links

*New plot and/or deviations from Fuga's original story

Purchasable Content

Volume 1 (Japanese)
Volume 2 (Japanese)
Volume 3 (Japanese)
Volume 4 (Japanese)
Volume 5 (Japanese)
Volume 6 (Japanese)

References

[1] ttps://www.famitsu.com/serial/fuga/202202/22252136.html

[2] ttps://twitter.com/cooki14xd/status/1665553957131886592

[3] ttps://www.famitsu.com/serial/fuga/202202/22252136.html

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Fuga: Melodies of Steel (manga)

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