Fuga: Melodies of Steel (manga)
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. 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 available in Japanese and eventually in English in spring of 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.
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.
External Links
Free Content (ARCHIVED LINKS)
- Chapter 1 (Japanese)
- Chapter 2 (Japanese)
- Chapter 3 (Japanese)
- Chapter 4 (Japanese)
- Chapter 5 (Japanese)
- Chapter 5.5 (Japanese) *
- Chapter 6 (Japanese)
- Chapter 7 (Japanese)
- Special short (Japanese) *
- Chapter 8 (Japanese)
- Chapter 9 (Japanese)
- Chapter 10 (Japanese)
- Chapter 11 (Japanese) *
- Chapter 11.5 (Japanese) *
- Chapter 12 (Japanese)
- Chapter 13 (Japanese) *
- Chapter 14 (Japanese) *
- Chapter 15 (Japanese) *
- Chapter 16 (Japanese) *
- Chapter 17 (Japanese) *
- Chapter 17.5 (Japanese) *
- Chapter 17.6 to 17.9 (Japanese) *
- Chapter 18 (Japanese) *
- Chapter 19 (Japanese)
*New plot and/or deviations from Fuga's original story