When Mikako's sister Megumi is set to go to a "marriage meeting" with Rou in three week's time, Mikako decides to check out the prospective groom by going to live with him.
As it turns out, Rou is closer to Mikako's age than her sisters and he has an older brother. At the meeting, Megumi gets on much better with him than her intended parter which is lucky for Mikako because she's started to fall for Rou. Suddenly a girl of 16 is living with an older boy, falling in love and even gets a part time job selling wedding dresses.
Skip ahead a year and it's summer vacation. The two win a beach holiday and while there Mikako hears the story of the "Firework's fire" - A stone that appears this time every year and grants the finder one wish. Mikako decides to find it and wish Rou luck in his dream to become a doctor AND that they'll stay together forever. She soon finds out that you don't always need to wish to get something you want...
In the last chapter, Mikako is curious about Rou's family. Before showing her any pictures of them, he goes to his father's house to seek his blessing to be together with Mikako. He gets drugged and goes missing for days. A distraught Mikako is sure he's cheating on her until he finds his little brother in his bed. He takes her to their father's house and Mikako gets to find out what's really more important to Rou - Becoming a doctor, or her...
My main issue with Missile happy! is the story. From the get go it's awfully rushed which stops any possible chance to get to know - or care about - the characters involved. It's also highly unbelievable and self contradictory. One minute Rou is saying he thinks it's time Mikako moved out, pages later he's about to ask her to marry him. Mikako pines for Rou's attention yet gets angry when he gives it to her. After a few chapters it skips one year ahead. During this year, Mikako and Rou have been living together as "Boyfriend and girlfriend" yet they haven't even kissed. The entire book is rife with things that just don't make sense or are entirely unlikely.
If it had been taken a lot slower, the romantic moments could have been quite touching but because of the pace it seems more like the author is just hurrying along trying to throw the two into a romantic situation rather than developing them as characters or their relationship. Because of that it comes across as a "Will they? Won't they?" with the answer being "I don't care either way as long as it's over soon."
There's also a short extra story called "Sentimental spillover" which is about a girl who crys at any given moment because as a young girl, a boy told her she was ugly, and a boy who's stomach rumbles too loud. I won't go into too much detail but suffice to say, it's really quite terrible.
The layout of the pages is quite frustrating at times. There are quite a few instances where the page is full of boxes with patterned boarders which are clashing with parts of the art, like over exaggerated hearts and speech lines from where people are shouting with huge sound effects on top of that. Though it doesn't really detract from the art or story, it feels a little cramped and confusing to read. Sometimes the panels are sliced in funny ways to allow for other strange shaped panels with no real relevance to fit in. Also, there are a lot of times when the action isn't drawn in panels, rather the page is just divided into sections which are all full of art. All in all it comes off as messy and strange.
The art is MIssile happy! won't blow you away. It's standard Shojo style and though I don't mind that at all, it's certainly nothing I haven't seen before.
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"Missile happy! gets one point for having standard artwork and a story that you can follow, but I was close to giving it a zero. There's nothing to keep you interested and it falls short on almost every count possible - Give it a miss."
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A visually stunning horror title for those who like a bit more substance to their stories.
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