Divine Raiment Magical Girl Howling Moon volume 1 - Kenji Saito and Shouji Sato

 Time to start a short (it's 3 volumes), ecchi manga this time round, and purely because of the cover grabbing my attention.

Because ecchi oppai magical girls, what is not to like?

During a school trip, Kaguya and Himawari are abducted by a criminal organisation called Millenium, who is responsible for attacks all over Japan.  But are they actually the bad guys, even behind their monstrous looks?  Isn`t the government agency Six perhaps the real evil?  Kaguya and Himawari are split up as Six comes swooping in, the latter freed by them as Kaguya is taken away to a secret base.

Kaguya wakes up, her body seemingly matured, in a Millenium lab, and learns the organisation aren't people dressed up as monsters, but actual monsters!  She meets the boss, Nine, who tells her she is the last hope for humanity to save the race from the wicked gods behind Chaos Six.  Joining a mission to see what it is all about, she runs into Himawari.  Working for Six, she transforms into the magical girl Flaming Star and slays the monster that went with Kaguya.  Refusing to believe she is actually Kaguya, she herself transforms into Howling Moon and holds Flaming Star off.

 

She returns to her normal life, to secretly observe those around her and try to weed out the enemy.  But of course, to protect herself she needs to keep her identity of Howling Moon a secret, even from Himawari. While Himawari admits that she works for Six to protect the world, this tears Kaguya into doubt, but she is soon supported by Nine who starts working at her school as an assistant teacher.

She meets the Deep Sea Empress Klier after school, who takes her to her own reality and explains what is at stake, before assaulting her.  This however leads to Howling Moon fully awakening, and while unable to defeat Klier yet, Kaguya now realises her true purpose at last.

Okay, so a regular magical girl manga series, with a sauce of ecchi poured over it basically.  I can`t say I was awed by it, though I will complete the series of course, but this won't be a priority to get series.  Rather one of those on and off things you occassionally toss in your basket.