A traumatized little girl goes from a convent orphan to a god-appointed angel of death. Aspiring to become all her assassins’ cult deems unbefitting to live among the innocent flock. Torn between a divine calling and a chance meeting with a free-spirited street artist. An internal emotional conflict of religious fanaticism, between her self-righteous mission against crime, corruption, political exploitation, street gang warfare, and an opportunity for an everyday life. Her name is Tista Lone, but the truly sinful will learn to fear the name of the lord’s maiden of murder: Sister Militia.
A Little Lamb was Found
“God whispers to me in my head… He tells me to utterly destroy the demons bringing misfortune to the people…”
Set in New York City, Tista was brought to an orphanage, the Cross Society of the Sacred Heart Corona Children’s Relief Convent. After witnessing the brutal murder of her parents, she was immediately indoctrinated by a mysterious man known only by the organization as “father”. She was catapulted into rigorous training with weapons and combat practices for one single purpose: to kill. Kill for their lord God and be rid of all the evil in the world. The father dies and bequeaths his left eye to Tista. According to the organization, it imparts the father’s precision and accuracy. Soon after, Tista became the organization’s deadliest assassin, surpassing even the father. Tatsuya Endo is the author of this series, and has had an immediate rising career. He pushes the boundaries of his manga with obscene horror, only to quickly take the wind out of its sails with absurd humor. In Tista, the tone is shifting towards the darker side, which may not bode well for the heroine.
“They say you shouldn’t talk about your dreams, but talking about them gives us the power to make them come true!”
Paramour’s Portrait
Such an occult upbringing breeds a faint chance for a blossoming love story. Tista is a reclusive introvert on account of her morbid past. Arty Drawer is the outwardly loud and whimsical extrovert with a need for self-expression. Their interaction was brief, however. Tista hadn’t interacted with someone this long outside of the organization or the orphanage before. She became unsettled by the stranger’s spontaneous interest. Even with such a short moment of a real human courtship, Tista’s mind didn’t immediately stray from her angelic duty to god.
Waivering Optics
“God sometimes bestows upon us the most brutal of hardships. If anyone knows this, it’s you.”
Tista’s psyche is slowly being torn apart. Her thoughts of Arty and their unusual encounter cause her inner turmoil. She begins laxing on her targets: choosing close-quarters combat instead of maintaining a long-distance sniping vantage point, revealing herself to her targets rather than taking cover. It was the run-in with Arty that started it all. Cut to the West Geeno Gallery, run by Harris Cornell, the director of the museum and Arty’s boss. Turns out Cornell’s next museum exhibit was actually a front for a drug operation. Art pieces from England were being shipped over to the gallery, which were lined with drugs, making Cornell Tista’s next target. Cornell had had enough of Arty’s dream of becoming an artist and demanded that he be a part of the drug ring. Placing Arty at the museum made his and Tista’s subsequent encounter inevitable. Tista kills Cornell in front of Arty, revealing to him what she really does, and flees in shame, believing she’d destroyed that moment of a different life outside of the organization’s holy war.
Tista was pushed further into her own suffering. She started pushing her powers to the absolute limit. By utilizing her father’s eye, Tista sniped at much greater distances. The average sniper would fire an average of 500 meters, Tista exerts it to over 1500 meters. A task that came with a price; the operation for her eye was starting to become undone.
Manufactured Destiny
“Take care of your eyes. You should treasure the light that your eyes capture.”
Deacon Proco is Tista’s school teacher and handler. He was the first to learn about the failed operation and was tasked to find another “subject” while the eye was removed from Tista. Now deeply demoralized, Tista reverts to her old self completely; no more thoughts of Arty and no more ocular advantage. Without it, she’s left vulnerable to even bigger problems: the NYPD.
Detective Macky is a seasoned veteran police officer who has been left stumped by Tista’s assassinations. His higher-ups send in Director Ford to address Macky’s lack of progress. He’s accompanied by FBI Psychoanalyst Snow, who has a keen eye for getting into a killer’s mind just by analyzing crime scenes. Coming back around to Arty, he never forgot Tista. He searched for her by placing ads and creating artistic images featuring her likeness. Nevertheless, putting out the “Tista Calling Cards” only ended up attracting the wrong kind of attention: Agent Snow. Her hyperfixation on the criminal mind gave her a facsimile of Tista’s body dimensions, approximate age, and likely whereabouts, which led her straight to Arty.
Cold Comfort
Now the chase truly begins. The audience would really want to root for this girl to have a happy ending, but this writer is really stretching their collar with uncertainty. With the police after Tista and now Arty going from eyewitness to a person of interest, it seems now the pair will have to endure an even harder divide. All of Arty’s efforts to find Tista only made him out to be a possible corroborator of Tista’s. How could this play out: Arty misleads Snow to safeguard a woman he barely knows, or will Tista have to kill Arty and remain God’s sanctimonious executioner?
Final Thoughts
Tatsuya Endo has made astonishing hits by taking two characters and making it extremely hard for them to fall in love. He’s really pushing himself this time with Tista and Arty, so this writer thinks he needs to explain himself. Love is painful, but not that painful. There are supporting characters, such as Nina, who wants to be with Arty. Nina needs to get off Arty’s back. She lost, and she needs to let him save the girl. Deacon Proco, Mother Superior, and the organization need to find another assassin. Tista needs to be herself and not what she was programmed to be. Finally, Arty needs to save himself before saving a killer. What that means is that both he and Tista are like Romeo and Juliet; their relationship has both good and bad aspects. Deciding whether to go for it or stay the course they have already laid out for themselves is going to end in tragedy either way. Only time and the next volume will tell.
Leave a Reply