Twin Spica
Sep. 28th, 2009 08:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ceruseeI know I never post about manga anymore, but a few things at Manga Blog caught my eye. Among the new licenses announced at NYAF 09 was Twin Spica, which has been picked up by Vertical (yay Vertical's discriminating taste). I've quietly longed to get a chance to read Twin Spica ever since the abrupt non-ending of the anime, lo those many years ago. (Twin Spica has one of the absolute worst non-endings I've ever seen, seriously. I'm 99% positive it was a case of the funding getting cancelled or someone getting fired or something, but it was so poorly done, I still resent it.) I'm so psyched! I never thought anybody would pick this one up, but the market for manga in the US has really changed in the last six years, and the enduring critical/cult popularity of Yotsuba& is a pretty good indicator that there is an audience for this brand of seinen in the States (i.e. smart, tasteful, character-driven drama and/or humor; slice-of-life).
I wish I could post a link to the pretty scan of a page someone made, many years ago, to show what the artwork was like, but the blog I saw it on is long gone, alas. But there's a scan of the first cover image on its Wikipedia page, here. Yes, yes, Asumi is too short to be an astronaut, but that's sort of the point. She's going to do it anyway, dammit, because her lifelong dream, first articulated in early childhood, is to be a rocket driver!
There's a ghost of a guy with a lion's head who appears to Asumi and gives her advice and comforts her on family trauma--I don't really remember what the trauma was, just that she has one; a dead parent, I think), and counsels her on becoming an astronaut. And just plays with her, keeps her company. It reminds me a little bit of Calvin and Hobbes, although Asumi is much nicer than Calvin.
So anyway, Twin Spica is pretty much, Asumi wants to become an astronaut, hangs out with her maybe-not-imaginary friend Lion-san, works her way into the Tokyo Space Academy, deals with new student drama, makes friends, begins training to become an astronaut, la la la, I don't know what happens much after that, because that's where the anime dropped it, and at least at the time, no one was scanlating the manga. It's all very sweet, and low-key, very slice-of-life, but very serious, too. Asumi's as nice as they come, but she really means it about becoming an astronaut. It's not just a pipe dream, or a vague fantasy, and her level of commitment and effort in the service of her goal felt very inspirational to me. I love a good career goal, dammit.
Twin Spica the anime was made at the same time as Planetes (I watched them simultaneously--oh, what a lovely year 2003 was for me in terms of introducing me to new kinds of anime); I just now learned from the Wikipedia page that they shared a production staff. Badass. I bet that would save on a lot of research time--once you've gone to all the trouble of figuring out how to portray the finicky details of astronaut training and stuff, I bet it's nice to be able to use it again.
I also noticed there's another Kaori Yuki license by VIZ (Grand Guignol Orchestra); that should thrill large portions of my flist.
I wish I could post a link to the pretty scan of a page someone made, many years ago, to show what the artwork was like, but the blog I saw it on is long gone, alas. But there's a scan of the first cover image on its Wikipedia page, here. Yes, yes, Asumi is too short to be an astronaut, but that's sort of the point. She's going to do it anyway, dammit, because her lifelong dream, first articulated in early childhood, is to be a rocket driver!
There's a ghost of a guy with a lion's head who appears to Asumi and gives her advice and comforts her on family trauma--I don't really remember what the trauma was, just that she has one; a dead parent, I think), and counsels her on becoming an astronaut. And just plays with her, keeps her company. It reminds me a little bit of Calvin and Hobbes, although Asumi is much nicer than Calvin.
So anyway, Twin Spica is pretty much, Asumi wants to become an astronaut, hangs out with her maybe-not-imaginary friend Lion-san, works her way into the Tokyo Space Academy, deals with new student drama, makes friends, begins training to become an astronaut, la la la, I don't know what happens much after that, because that's where the anime dropped it, and at least at the time, no one was scanlating the manga. It's all very sweet, and low-key, very slice-of-life, but very serious, too. Asumi's as nice as they come, but she really means it about becoming an astronaut. It's not just a pipe dream, or a vague fantasy, and her level of commitment and effort in the service of her goal felt very inspirational to me. I love a good career goal, dammit.
Twin Spica the anime was made at the same time as Planetes (I watched them simultaneously--oh, what a lovely year 2003 was for me in terms of introducing me to new kinds of anime); I just now learned from the Wikipedia page that they shared a production staff. Badass. I bet that would save on a lot of research time--once you've gone to all the trouble of figuring out how to portray the finicky details of astronaut training and stuff, I bet it's nice to be able to use it again.
I also noticed there's another Kaori Yuki license by VIZ (Grand Guignol Orchestra); that should thrill large portions of my flist.