Futatsu no Spica
Twin Spica

Edit

What would you like to edit?

SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links  

Twin Spica is a by itself, a simple story, about a girl, suffering through life's hardships, but never swaying away and chasing her dreams. This sounds like story you've heard and read countless times, and a story we've learned what to expect from, in the grand scale of things. What makes this story standing out from the others, is how gently and sincerely it's explained, it's seeped with alot of feelings and drenched with bittersweet melancholia, which makes the experience so much more personal and impactful.

As mentioned above, the story is straightforward, and you can even call it, stale, if you ... don't get emotionally invested into the characters. There are often times where a flashback chapter is being done, explaining certain people's circumstances and motivations, which did helps out tremendously into fleshing out the characters in the long run.

The artstyle is perfect, this is something that can instantly drew you in and invoke the manga's feelings and themes to you. The characters are very appealing, and cute, their design has the round curves and oval shapes, added with alot of gentle shadows and beautiful, instantly recognised expressions, which overally evokes feeling of honesty and acceptance. Also, the simplification of the characters' faces when shown from a distance is something that Kou Yaginuma nailed perfectly, you can instantly emphasize and relate to the situation when you see their faces and emotes, created by very few or single strokes, but explaining volumes of content. Also the general background art is phenomenal, and it by itself can make one emotional, spacial care was given to cityskapes, forests and the skies, and the city shots at the start of each chapter perfectly portrays the city in which the main group resides.

Character wise, I do believe the characters are what makes this story relatable and evoking your empathy for every single of them. Everyone of the main, and good majority of the minor characters are very likable, and their sorrows and aspirations are presented in a slow, and revealing manner. It can be said that some side characters doesn't get fully developed, but their involvement is more or less to enchance and reinforce some of the themes, we do have enough differentiating personalities from the relaxed and gentle Shu, Fuchiyama, being very stoic but dependable, the shy and introverted Marika, the heart of the party, and the emotional leader of the gang, Kei, and Asumi, who glitters like a tiny star iteself.
While not entirely story related, the author decided to include a couple of short stories of himself, his life and his struggles at the end of each volume, called "Another Spica", in which he explains his drives, emotions and gripes he had in his life, and how he got inspired to even write this story in the first place, with the idea that the characters in this manga can be heard or seen on the streets in the real life. This, added with his melancholy and forlornless of his struggles, is something that really made me even more empathetic towards him and his work.

All the single cmponents of this work are very good, but as they blend the results are even better. The story is easy to follow, it's pretty gripping ride and yiou'd like to read the next chapter right away. Even though the work tackles topics like how the technological improvements of our age might replace the need of human labour on some places or how the whole country is left scarred from a national tragedy, the manga also keeps it's romantic and vey idealistic aspirations. The topic of dreams is maybe the most major one, and through the eyes of all the characters, theirs are presented. Some of them keep their dreams as the last beacon of hope, others had discarded them long time ago, but they are feeling the weiight of them every single day.

This work feels like one, very personal piece, made with alot of hardship, but carrying alot of love and affection. It's sincerety can probably be felt as excessive, and too mellow, but, at least in my case, it managed to shatter my cynical and realistic worldview, for a few brief moments, and made me contemplate. Who knows, after checking this work, you might as well aim for your dreams, desipite the tough road ahead of you.

This was one of the first manga I ever read, and I was finally able to reread it recently. To be honest, it was a bit sappier than I remember, but still severely enjoyable.

Yes, the story does lean a lot on the "follow your dreams no matter what" cliche, but it's portrayed in a very earnest, realistic, and genuine way. The characters face real challenges in their pursuit to become astronauts, and thus are able to go through some real character development. The story essentially takes place from elementary school to graduating high school, and it's very satisfying to see how Asumi, ... Kei, Marika, Fuchuya, and Shu evolve into mature young adults.

Additionally, the artwork is gorgeous. The way Yaginuma draws people is pretty unique, and each character is very distinct and expressive. The really great artwork is the scenery, though. There are gorgeous one- and two-page spreads of the night sky, forests, the sea, sunsets, all breathtakingly illustrated. Even smaller panels of scenery are gorgeous.

I think this manga might be hard to come by, but if you can find it, read it. It is endlessly touching and uplifting.

In most occasions, disappointment is when person starts watching or reading a series and finds out that it is not exactly as good as expected. Sometimes, but gladly rather rarely, disappointment comes with a depth: It is when series that looks like one of the most amazing things to read suddenly changes, and, instead of impressing with its quality, it starts to impress with its lack of quality. This is Twin Spica.


Our main character, Asumi, is a sparkle, person who has gone thru the dramas of life, yet never given up. She has a dream to become an astronaut. Quite frankly, it's clear from ... the very beginning that this is not just a dream; she has all the potential to become one. She also has gift; she can see dead astronauts. The series advances from two different perspectives. In one, the story becomes awe-inspiring, feel-good adventure towards realizing Asumi's dream. At the same time, it offers quite an incredible take on the melancholy of the dead.


"The numbers aren't random, they are distances from stars in light years."


Almost 50% of the run, the manga goes in the exact direction where it should. The typical astronaut training is presented: locked in a room in teams, working underwater to fix electronics. At the same time, relationships and the main character herself getting developed in a way where the series reminds coming-of-age in style. Then things change.


Apparently all the million side characters have either one or two of the following things: someone close to them death, unrequired love, a disease. When I say all of them has, I mean exactly everyone of them. For the remaining run, the series focuses on creating identical drama to these identical characters. One is miserable because people die, another because she is about to die, 3rd because She could as well die because He doesn't love Her. It is dreadful. Moreover, this series has nothing to do with astronauts anymore. Instead, the main point has changed to something like "let's learn to let go, but make sure to whine as much as possible before doing so." Maybe I failed understand the point of this series, but I am fairly sure there author didn't have any.