Twin Spica volume 3

By Kou Yaginuma (Vertical)
ISBN: 978-1-934287-90-3

The hungry fascination, hopeful imagination and fevered anticipation of space travel which was an integral component of post-World War II society is the driving narrative engine for this inspiring manga epic from Kou Yaginuma, who began capturing questing imaginations with his poignant short story ‘2015 Nen no Uchiage Hanabi’ (‘2015: Fireworks’), published in Gekkan Comics Flapper magazine in June 2000.

The author subsequently expanded and enhanced the subject, themes and characters into an all-consuming narrative epic combining hard science and humanist fiction with lyrical mysticism and traditional tales of school-days and growing up.

Diminutive teenager Asumi Kamogawa has always dreamed of going into space. From her earliest moments the lonely child had gazed with intense longing up at the stars, her only companion and confidante her imaginary friend Mr. Lion.

When Asumi was a year old, the first Japanese space-launch ended in utter catastrophe when rocket-ship ShishigÅ (â€œThe Lionâ€), exploded: crashing back to earth on the city ofYuigahama where the Kamogawas lived. Hundreds were killed and so many more injured, including Asumi’s mother.

Maimed and comatose, the matron took years to die and the long-drawn-out tragedy utterly traumatised the tiny uncomprehending daughter. The shock also crushed her grieving husband who had worked as a designer on the rockets for Japan’s Space Program.

In the wake of the disaster, Tomoro Kamogawa was assigned by the corporation who built the ship to head the reparations committee. Guilt-wracked and personally bereaved, the devastated technologist had to visit and formally apologise to each and every survivor or victim’s grieving family. The experience completely destroyed the man.

He was certainly no fan of the space program, having lost his wife, his beloved engineering career, and his pride to the race for the stars. He has raised his daughter alone by working two and often three menial jobs at a time for over a decade and cannot countenance losing the very last of his loved ones to the cold black heavensâ€¦

In response to the disaster,Japanset up an Astronautics and Space Sciences Academy. After years of passionate struggle and in defiance of her father’s wishes, in 2024 Asumi – an isolated, solitary, serious but determinedly star-bound teenager – was accepted to theTokyoNationalSpaceSchool. She reluctantly left Yuigahama and joined the new class.

Amongst the year’s fresh intake were surly, abrasive Shinnosuke Fuchuya (an elementary school classmate who used to bully her as a child back in Yuigahama), jolly Kei Oumi, chilly Marika Ukita and spooky, ultra-cool style-icon and fashion victim Shu Suzuki who became the shy introvert’s closest acquaintances.

Every day Asumi nudged inexorably towards her goal: the stars. Ever since the crashing rocket had shattered her family, she had drawn comfort from the firmament, with Mr. Lion staring up at the heavens at her wide â€“ especially drawn to the twinkling glow of Virgo and the alluring binary star Spica. And now she was so tantalisingly closeâ€¦

Small, poor, physically weak but resolutely capable, Asumi endures and triumphs over every obstacleâ€¦ and she still talks with Mr. Lion – who might just be the ghost of one of the astronauts who died on the ShishigÅâ€¦

All the students can think of is going to space, but they are constantly reminded of the fact that most of them won’t even finish their schoolingâ€¦

Asumi – barely four feet, eight inches tall – is constantly struggling to meet the arduous physical requirements dictated by the Academy but has more immediate problems. She is only slowly adjusting to life in Tokyo, sleeps in tawdry communal women’s dorm â€œThe Seagullâ€, struggles with many of her classes and subsists on meagre funds, supplemented by part-time jobs.

Moreover she has inexplicably incurred the obsessive hostility of astrophysics lecturer Professor Sano. Unbeknownst to Asumi, Sano has a long-hidden grievance with her father and has thus determined to kick her out of the school at all costsâ€¦

He has already tried to have her removed because her small size dictates that she needs a customised pressure suit – offering Sano an opportunity to force her out by citing budget restrictionsâ€¦

The individual stories are broken up into â€œMissionsâ€ and this particularly moving and moody third volume covers numbers 9-13, plus a revealing sidebar tale and another autobiographical vignette about the author’s own school days.

‘Mission: 09’ begins with Asumi returning to her father’s home, pondering if she should ask Mr. Lion if the disgraced engineer was actually responsible for the rocketship crash all those years ago. Meanwhile inTokyo her classmates are trying to intervene in Sano’s obvious vendetta against their friendâ€¦

Mr. Lion is there too, but has been drawn to the wedding of Asumi’s old teacher Miss Yuko Suzinari. Although she still desperately misses her fiancÃ©, who piloted The Lion and died in the tragic explosion five years previously, she is getting married todayâ€¦ a fact Asumi discovers from an invitation left in an unopened pile of mail she finds in her father’s empty houseâ€¦

Having missed another day of school, Asumi again incurs Sano’s wrath as ‘Mission: 10’ begins, but the astrophysicist and his mysterious superior are in for a rude awakening. Meanwhile the determinedly upbeat Miss Kamogawa is having an oddly unifying effect on her fiercely independent classmates, turning rivals into comrades. All, that is, except the chilly, acerbic, mysteriously aloof Marika Ukitaâ€¦

Undeterred, Asumi probes deeper, and with her phantom mentor’s spiritual advice finally finds a way to crack the ice-queen’s brittle exterior. Valiant, protective Kei Oumi meanwhile openly challenges Sano over his unfair treatment and is soundly reminded by the teacher that the course is a process of elimination. Would she surrender her own chances of success to ensure Asumi remainedâ€¦?

‘Mission: 11’ continues the deliberation of the completion for final places, but Mr. Lion again offers sage and calming words as, in the upper echelons, Sano’s words and actions have drawn unfavourable criticism, leading to some further surprising revelations about Asumi’s dad, hints of a concealed scandal regarding the construction of the doomed ShishigÅ and the disappearance of the conniving astrophysicist from the facultyâ€¦

With Sano abruptly replaced by the far more amenable and encouraging Mr. Shiomi, Asumi and the gang decide to take a short camping vacation to the Cosmic Communications Center atChiba, but not before Asumi has one last moving confrontation with her former nemesisâ€¦

‘Mission: 12’ finds them readying for the trip – all but the stand-offish Ukita who flatly refuses to join them – when an incident in the Multi-Axis Trainer (that’s the cool-looking. spinning ball thingy astronauts sit in) results in the ice-queen collapsing. When she gets out of the infirmary Asumi and Kei follow Ukita home and discover she lives in a palatial mansionâ€¦

When they see her being brutalised and abused by a shouting man – presumably her father – Asumi sees red and attacks. Suzuki and Fuchuya are astounded when without any explanation Ukita gets on the bus to Chiba with them and the smiling girlsâ€¦

At their destination the cash-strapped kids walk until Marika again collapses.

Belligerent Fuchuya picks up the moody girl with the badly bleeding feet and carries her to their destination as ‘Mission: 13’, through dreamy flashbacks and a near-fatal hiking incident, discloses some of the incredible, uncomfortable secrets of Marika Ukita and how her own abiding love affair with the cosmos beganâ€¦

To Be Continuedâ€¦

Although the ongoing saga pauses here, there’s even more affecting revelations to come in the complete tale ‘Asumi’s Cherry Blossom’ which harks back to her school days in Yuigahama. A weird, distracted child, she is bullied by many classmates and even a few teachers, but is championed by a boy who seems very interested in her. Takashi Shimazu is a talented artist who won’t let Asumi see what he’s constantly drawing, and he’s absent from school quite a lot, but they strike up a friendship anyway. Asumi really likes the boy, but wishes he wouldn’t joke about being able to see Mr. Lionâ€¦

This bittersweet tragedy is followed by a beguiling and introspective ‘Another Spica’ episode in which Yaginuma details his shiftless, ambition-free teens and shared moment of clarity with a girl in his classroomâ€¦

These powerfully unforgettable tales originally appeared in 2001-2002 as Futatsu no Supika and in the Seinen manga magazine Gekkan Comics Flapper, targeted at male readers aged 18-30, but this ongoing, unfolding beguiling saga is perfect for any older kid with stars in their eyesâ€¦

Twin Spica filled sixteen collected volumes from September 2001 to August 2009, tracing the trajectories of Asumi and friends from callow students to competent astronauts and the series has spawned both anime and live action TV series.

This delightful serial has everything: plenty of hard science to back up the informed extrapolation, an engaging cast, mystery and frustrated passion, alienation, angst and true friendships; all welded seamlessly into a joyous coming-of-age drama with supernatural overtones and masses of sheer sentiment.

Rekindling the magical spark of the Wild Black Yonder for a new generation, this is a treat no imagineer with head firmly in the clouds can afford to missâ€¦

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