Spirit Circle

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You know, maybe something good might happen…

Looking through the eye of an ordinary reader, immediately saying that Spirit Circle is an extraordinary manga wouldn’t convince anyone. Indeed, it wouldn’t. Just look at the banal art, the stale first chapter, and the obviously common synopsis which probably doesn’t entice interest the slightest bit; why is it so loved? Lacking features through those sides that we can see, we move on to the emotional side. Bitter-sweet, life-affirming, and somehow generating feelings of melancholy throughout the cycle of your reading session; Spirit Circle is something everyone can enjoy, consisting full of wisdom, and creates feelings that won’t lie.

Written ... and drawn by Satoshi-sensei, also the creator of Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer, Spirit Circle tells the story of a 14-year-old young man called Fuuta meeting a new transfer student named Koukou, in which way or another leads into a retelling of their reincarnation in many different periods of time and dispute between all the reincarnation of both these young students. Spirit Circle falls into the category of books, where the premise and beginning generally wouldn’t pull that much of an audience, but to those who wing it right through, the pay-off is a golden treat. Every dialogue is filled with faithfulness and a tad bit of comedy in it; wanting you to read more, to finally reach the satisfying ending in which you know that everyone is happy and learned the joy of life.

With Fuuta trying to find the reason why Koukou tries so hard to kill him for no reason, the manga pieces the puzzle one by one, telling us the story of Fuuta’s many reincarnations in different time periods like for example in the Knight-age, where he definitely did something worth getting hate for. Every and each part of the century-story has this unique feel of genuineness from those time-period, different situation, different lessons to learn. The range of reasons why they both hate each other from time to time are sometimes complex, it ranges for instance from a dispute for the ethical response to a dualistic situation of the alive soul and death body to a simple straight-forward revenge story. After knowing the ending of all of these stories, the young Fuuta would react like a normal boy in his puberty would. Sad. Happy. Motivated. Despair. Curiosity. Sometimes he can’t even understand those feeling himself. All of those feelings build the relationship between these two characters even stronger, and the intricacy of love and hate would make us understand both of them even more.

The last period of time which will be told at the end of the manga will tell us the reason for this million century dispute, which I admit is a little bit lacking compared to all the stories that have been told. These deficits are somehow blown out of the way with what for me is one of the most satisfying ending in any manga. The two main character finally broke the “circle” and so the many stories, the many disputes, the many fights are all finally in peace, leaving us flabbergasted and these unknown diverse emotions sprawling out from our eyes. It is something that I can’t explain the slightest, why the melancholy and the happiness can create such feeling, and you will question yourself as well.

These types of manga are one of a kind.
It’s been a few months since I finished Spirit Circle, but I feel like writing something to get more people to read it, so here’s my short review of it.

GOOD BITS: The premise is unique, going through 8 stories to build up to a single fight is a rare thing, and it should be difficult to create interesting and memorable characters when you only see them for a short time. Despite how hard this should be, Satoshi Mizukami makes it work and is able to create multiple stories that take place in vastly different times and settings.
Many different ideas and concepts are presented, such as cult activity or the danger of super-weapons. Each one gets a short but very interesting time in the spotlight and proposes some interesting questions.
The characters are ... pretty good, despite being reincarnations of the same people they are each different both in looks and personality.
The story is very interesting, many mysteries are left unsolved and there is often a brief conversation before entering a past life that excites about what is to come.

BAD BITS: The art is quite bare-bones, there are often simple or no backgrounds present in the story, although it does improve towards the end.
The action isn't very important or focused on, but what is present is pretty mediocre. However it isn't the focus of the story and it's done well enough that it doesn't ruin anything.
While the story is overall very good, it can feel like it's a single conversation or attack away from being over until the midway point. Even then it still feels like it could have ended at the first chapter or any of the others.

OVERALL: Pretty good sci-fi story with quite a bit going on. Many interesting concepts are introduced and the characters and story are interesting enough to see what happens next.

If you like story that is told in a none-linear fashion where stuff from the beginning is relevant or symbolic to the stuff that's going to happen later on, I would highly recommend Spirit Circle for you.

Spirit Circle is quite clever in that it is able to crunch in multiple stories into one coherent story. We're basically getting five to six different stories with different backgrounds and genre in just one story. And despite the cast being small and there really being only one hero and heroine, due to the nature of the story, we're in fact getting a huge casts of characters. ... What's even more amazing is that these intertwine stories makes up the character's growth and development so we don't need to get into the nitty and griddy details of every character's life to be able to sympathize and empathize with them at a personal level.

Going into a little bit of the story content, I'd say Spirit Circle goes beyond your typical Reincarnation manga in that the story is told in a fashion where time is not linear. Sometimes, the future comes first and the past comes later. And reading the story, you can gradually and significantly feel the change in each character. The way you view them at the beginning is totally different by the time you finish the story. And this happens in a way that is least expected because you know the characters not through their present self but their past selves. It really gives the idea of how people are shape by their past and alter by their future.

One thing that I am particularly negative about when it comes to Spirit Circle is that it is told from a male perspective. In that it's probably a story mainly for a male rather than a female despite the content of the story. Don't get me wrong. Although Spirit Circle is told from a predominantly male point of view, it is definitely different from the mediocre and redundant Shounen manga that you see nowadays. It may not be a manga for everyone but it is a manga that's unlike any.