Twin Spica
Encyclopedia
is a Japanese seinen manga series written and illustrated by Kou Yaginuma. The "realistic, slice-of-life science fiction
series" tells the story of a group of Japanese high school students training to become astronauts in the early 21st century after the country's first human spaceflight
launch ends in a disaster that causes many civilian casualties. It was serialized in the seinen manga magazine Comic Flapper from September 2001 to August 2009 and was later published in 16 tankōbon
volumes by Media Factory
from January 2002 to October 2009.
The series is named after Spica
, a binary star
system and the brightest star in the constellation Virgo
. In the manga, Yaginuma includes many references to historical events related to the development of human spaceflight as well as literary works such as Kenji Miyazawa
's novel Night on the Galactic Railroad
. American publishing company Vertical announced acquisition of the manga's license for English-language translation at the New York Anime Festival
in September 2009, and the translated first volume was published in May 2010. The series was described by Vertical marketing director Ed Chavez as "technically sound" and "heartfelt" during its initial assessment.
The manga was adapted into an anime
television series by animation studio Group TAC
. It premiered on November 1, 2003, on Japan's NHK BS Hi-Vision
satellite service. Twenty episodes of the anime aired until March 27, 2004, when the series concluded prematurely before the manga was completed. Satellite television network Animax
has broadcast the anime in multiple regional language releases, including English. A live-action adaptation was produced by NHK in cooperation with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
and aired between June 18 and July 30, 2009.
of Twin Spica in 2000 with his debut work . In it and in subsequent writings, Yaginuma constructed a future history
of the development of Japan's spaceflight program. He introduces readers to a future following the launch of Japan's first manned spaceflight mission, the , in 2010. The mission ends in disaster when the liquid rocket booster
fuel catches fire 72 seconds after liftoff. Mission controllers are unable to activate the craft's abort sequence, and the rocket crashes into the city of Yuigahama
, causing many casualties among residents.
The Lions explosion becomes one of the major accidents in spaceflight history and sets Japan's spaceflight program back by over a decade. In the years following the accident, the public accuses those involved with the Lion program of negligence
. Rumors also begin to circulate about the offshore outsourcing
of the rocket's production despite the government's claims that it was developed domestically. To promote recovery from the tragedy, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
establishes the Tokyo National Space School in 2014 as a vocational high school
dedicated to training a new generation of students in the space science
s. Japan's spaceflight program is finally reactivated ten years later with the admission of students into the academy's astronaut training program. In the same year, the last operating module of the International Space Station
is retired and destroyed by atmospheric reentry
following completion of the station's long-term mission. Subsequent development projects are to be completed by individual countries with active spaceflight programs. Of the students in the inaugural class of the astronaut training program, one is selected to join the crew of Japan's second manned mission in 2027. It is the final mission toward completing a space-based solar power satellite.
Asumi's elementary and middle school classmate Shinnosuke Fuchuya also enters the academy much to her surprise. He defended Asumi from ridicule by other classmates throughout their childhood despite occasionally teasing her as well, and it has been suggested that he sees her as a romantic interest. The two eventually befriend three other students in the astronaut training program. Shu Suzuki, who is named student representative for the astronaut program, has an easygoing personality. He wears a distinctive face by shaving his eyebrows as a symbol of defiance against his father. Kei Oumi befriends Asumi during the academy's entrance examination and is portrayed with an outgoing personality and a deep sense of loyalty toward her friends. Marika Ukita initially responds coldly toward gestures of friendship, but she moves into Asumi's dormitory
following an argument with her father. The five students later make a promise to complete the astronaut program together as their friendship grows stronger. After three years in the astronaut program, Asumi is chosen out of eleven remaining students to take part in Japan's second human spaceflight mission, making her, at the age of eighteen, the youngest person to go into space.
Throughout their time at the academy, astronaut candidates must overcome numerous physical and mental trials. Readers discover from a pre-serialization story that Asumi's mother dies following the Lion disaster, but this is not known to Asumi's friends until Kei discovers the obituary listing in a newspaper article. Marika is revealed to be the genetic copy of a deceased Marika Ukita despite a standing ban on human cloning
. Fuchuya suffers from red-green color blindness after his eyes are exposed to an exploding firework at close range in a childhood accident. Unknown to the group, Shu suffers from hereditary
hemoptysis
(coughing up of blood) and dies from the condition soon after his selection as an exchange student to the American space program. This tragedy reveals Kei's feelings for him, which she keeps hidden for much of the series.
, a binary star
system in the constellation Virgo
and one of the brightest stars in the nighttime sky. It appears as one star because of the relatively low center-to-center distance between the two component stars, estimated at an average of 11 million miles (17.7 million km). Astronomical observations also suggest that there may be additional stars in the Spica system. In the story, Asumi mentions Spica's distance to Earth as 350 light-year
s. This figure is also cited by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
; however, other sources indicate a distance of approximately 260 light-years.
Kou Yaginuma's initial inspiration for the story came from a statement he once read describing the Hohner
Little Lady harmonica
as one of the first musical instruments taken into space. However, as an aspiring manga artist
, Yaginuma had neither resources to conduct research on nor knowledge pertaining to spaceflight. He also hesitated to write the series because his own life experiences did not reflect the dreams of his characters. Despite these challenges, Yaginuma found comfort in the determination of his characters, especially that of Asumi Kamogawa.
Although Twin Spica began serialization in the October 2001 issue of Media Factory
's Comic Flapper magazine, its lead character Asumi had appeared in Yaginuma's debut work "2015:Fireworks". This short story published in the July 2000 issue of Comic Flapper also introduced readers to Asumi's father, her elementary school teacher Yuko Suzunari, and the astronaut ghost Mr. Lion. Four additional short stories that predate the series also feature Asumi as the central character: , , , and . These slice-of-life stories eventually served as prequel
s to Twin Spica.
spaceflight in December 1965 by American astronauts Wally Schirra
and Thomas Patten Stafford
. During the mission, the two men used these instruments to play "Jingle Bells
". Asumi is nicknamed "Seagull" by Shu Suzuki in the anime. The same name was used as the call sign
of Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova
, the first woman in space, during her 1963 mission aboard Vostok 6
. Prior to Shu's death in the live-action adaptation, he reveals to his friends that the New Horizons
spacecraft destined for Pluto
carries the cremated ashes of the dwarf planet's discoverer, Clyde Tombaugh
. Asumi later brings Shu's ashes during her first journey into space.
There are also various references to real-world literary and musical works. The titles of two short stories in the manga, "Campanella's Forest" and , refer to the two main characters of Kenji Miyazawa
's novel Night on the Galactic Railroad
. It appears in the penultimate episode of the anime and is also a favorite book of the original Marika Ukita. In both the manga and the live-action adaptation, Kei makes a request for Shu to play the piano piece "Der Flohwalzer
", known in Japan as , if he becomes the first in their group to go into space.
format in 16 volumes, with the final volume being published on October 23, 2009. Yaginuma's prequel short stories published prior to serialization are interspersed throughout these compilations. Two were included in the first volume; two were included in the second volume; and one was included in the third volume. Three additional prequel stories were also written by Yaginuma during serialization and published in the fourth, sixth, and ninth volumes, respectively. On March 23, 2006, Media Factory published the 80-page featuring color art from the manga. It also included a 24-month calendar and an interview with Kou Yaginuma.
The series is licensed by Tong Li Publishing for Chinese-language release in Taiwan under the title Dream of Spica . It was translated by Li Lin-hui , and the first volume was released in May 2005. Following a three-week contract negotiation, the American publishing company Vertical announced at the 2009 New York Anime Festival
that it had acquired the license to publish the series in English. Marketing director Ed Chavez explained that the motivation to acquire Twin Spica came from the company's desire to license works from Japanese publishers that have yet to form committed partnerships with major American publishers. He proposed continuing a previous partnership with Media Factory
, from which Vertical licensed The Guin Sagas manga adaptation. Vertical's distributor Random House
announced a release date of May 4, 2010, for the first translated volume, contrary to the initial announcement that it will be released in August 2010. Chavez later confirmed via Twitter
that Vertical will condense its North American releases into 12 volumes.
produced Twin Spicas anime adaptation, which was broadcast by NHK
. The 20-episode series premiered on November 1, 2003, and aired until its conclusion on March 27, 2004. Tomomi Mochizuki
directed the anime series, and Rika Nakase
wrote its screenplay. Masako Goto designed the characters for animation. When the series reached its conclusion, only 30 chapters of the manga had been published. Chapter 25, which concludes the story of Asumi and her classmates undergoing a test of their survival skills
, was the final chapter to be adapted for the anime. Consequently, the series concludes prematurely with Asumi's ghost companion Lion-san leaving when he no longer has anything to teach her and her friends. The manga, however, continues with Lion-san appearing in subsequent chapters until his eventual departure in chapter 88. The anime series also aired in Japan, other parts of Asia, and Latin America on Animax
. It was released in VHS
and DVD
formats by King Records in five compilation volumes each. A special DVD collection containing the five flashback episodes—episodes 1, 5, 9, 12, and 16—was released on May 26, 2004, and a five-disc DVD box set was released on July 22, 2004. A two-part novelization
of the anime and an official guide book to the adaptation were published in April 2004. The English-language dubbing
of the Twin Spica anime premiered on Animax Asia
on January 24, 2005.
adaptation on March 30, 2009, produced in cooperation with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
, the country's national aerospace agency. Sixteen-year-old actress Nanami Sakuraba
was cast for the role of Asumi Kamogawa, and filming for the series began on April 2. The drama was scheduled to air on June 11 but was eventually postponed by one week until June 18. Its airing coincided with the celebration of the International Year of Astronomy
. Screenplay for the series was written by Shūko Arai and Daigo Matsui. While writing the script, Arai found himself encouraged by the characters who must overcome various struggles in order to achieve their dreams. He also specified hopes and dreams as central themes in the story. Among the changes made in this adaptation is the removal of Lion-san as a central character. Yaginuma did not make any restrictions for Arai and Matsui as he believed they knew the television audience best. "Nevertheless," he said, "I think the little Asumi I know and the Asumi portrayed by Ms. Nanami are both looking at the same sky." A three-disc DVD compilation box set of the adaptation was released by Geneon Universal Entertainment on December 23, 2009.
was used as the anime's opening theme, and it was released as a maxi single
with two other songs on March 3, 2004. The single remained on the Oricon
music charts for seven weeks with a peak position at 29th place. Male pop group Begin
adapted Kyu Sakamoto
's 1963 single as the ending theme song. A full soundtrack
containing the two theme songs and 33 additional instrumental tracks by composer Kazunori Miyake was released on May 26, 2004. Alternative rock
band Orange Range
's song was used as the ending theme for the live-action series. It was released as a maxi single with two other songs on July 8, 2009, and remained on the Oricon music charts for six weeks with a peak position at 5th place. A full soundtrack for the series containing 21 instrumental tracks was released by Harbor Records on August 5, 2009.
, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata
named Twin Spica, because of its nostalgic story, as one of five manga series which highlight the dream of reaching space. While assessing the series for licensing in English, Vertical marketing director Ed Chavez, a fan of science fiction, found its story "technically sound" and noted it as "possibly one of the most heartfelt series I've read in ages". He hoped that the series would rank in top 10 of The New York Times
Graphic Books Best Seller List for manga and believed that it would make Vertical a "known name, not only amongst better comic shops and independent book stores, but also with anime fans and casual graphic novel
readers". While the series was originally published in a seinen magazine, Chavez expected that it would also appeal to fans of shōjo manga. He believed that the word seinen
"means adult and does not make reference to gender". He hoped Twin Spica will prove to be a financial success and enable Vertical to fund future licenses of classic works by Osamu Tezuka
and the Forty-Niners
. The first volume in English was listed by Publishers Weekly
as one of the most anticipated graphic novels of 2010.
Jennifer Berman of THEM Anime Reviews rated the anime adaptation of Twin Spica five out of five stars but told readers, "Subtract a star if you don't like anime that have a somewhat slow pace." Berman praised its artistic design and noted that the character designs reminded her of works by Studio Ghibli
. She found the characters "likeable" and saw Marika Ukita as the most intriguing character. Despite her praises, Berman noted one weakness in the anime adaptation. She observed the ending as "a rather open-ended one, and while it wasn't a bad ending, they probably should have thought of something better". Similar to the manga, the anime series was seen as gender neutral. Sony Pictures Entertainment
vice president Todd Miller stated that Twin Spica was one of the titles aired on Animax
which appealed to both genders. The first episode of the drama series aired with a 3.4 percent domestic viewership rating. Reviewers from the Yomiuri Shimbun rated the live-action adaptation an average two out of three stars and ranked it third overall among 11 series airing in summer 2009.
Anime
Drama
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
series" tells the story of a group of Japanese high school students training to become astronauts in the early 21st century after the country's first human spaceflight
Human spaceflight
Human spaceflight is spaceflight with humans on the spacecraft. When a spacecraft is manned, it can be piloted directly, as opposed to machine or robotic space probes and remotely-controlled satellites....
launch ends in a disaster that causes many civilian casualties. It was serialized in the seinen manga magazine Comic Flapper from September 2001 to August 2009 and was later published in 16 tankōbon
Tankobon
, with a literal meaning close to "independently appearing book", is the Japanese term for a book that is complete in itself and is not part of a series , though the manga industry uses it for volumes which may be in a series...
volumes by Media Factory
Media Factory
is a Japanese publisher. It was founded on December 1, 1986, and its headquarters are situated in Shibuya, Tokyo. It is a subsidiary of Recruit Co., Ltd...
from January 2002 to October 2009.
The series is named after Spica
Spica
Spica is the brightest star in the constellation Virgo, and the 15th brightest star in the nighttime sky. It is 260 light years distant from Earth...
, a binary star
Binary star
A binary star is a star system consisting of two stars orbiting around their common center of mass. The brighter star is called the primary and the other is its companion star, comes, or secondary...
system and the brightest star in the constellation Virgo
Virgo (constellation)
Virgo is one of the constellations of the zodiac. Its name is Latin for virgin, and its symbol is . Lying between Leo to the west and Libra to the east, it is the second largest constellation in the sky...
. In the manga, Yaginuma includes many references to historical events related to the development of human spaceflight as well as literary works such as Kenji Miyazawa
Kenji Miyazawa
was a Japanese poet and author of children's literature in the early Shōwa period of Japan. He was also known as a devout Buddhist, vegetarian and social activist.-Early life:...
's novel Night on the Galactic Railroad
Night on the Galactic Railroad
, sometimes translated as Milky Way Railroad, Night Train to the Stars, or Fantasy Railroad In The Stars, is a classic Japanese novel by Kenji Miyazawa written around 1927. The nine-chapter novel was posthumously published in 1934 as part of published by...
. American publishing company Vertical announced acquisition of the manga's license for English-language translation at the New York Anime Festival
New York Anime Festival
The New York Anime Festival is an anime and manga convention held annually since 2007 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City...
in September 2009, and the translated first volume was published in May 2010. The series was described by Vertical marketing director Ed Chavez as "technically sound" and "heartfelt" during its initial assessment.
The manga was adapted into an anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
television series by animation studio Group TAC
Group TAC
Group TAC was a Japanese animation and computer graphics studio located in Shibuya, Tokyo, and founded in 1968. They have worked on movies, videos, TV shows, and commercials, and have contributed to all stages of the process, including planning, production, sound effects, and so on...
. It premiered on November 1, 2003, on Japan's NHK BS Hi-Vision
NHK
NHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....
satellite service. Twenty episodes of the anime aired until March 27, 2004, when the series concluded prematurely before the manga was completed. Satellite television network Animax
Animax
is a Japanese anime satellite television network, dedicated to broadcasting anime programming. A subsidiary of Japanese media conglomerate Sony, it is headquartered in in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, with its co-founders and shareholders including Sony Pictures Entertainment and the noted anime studios...
has broadcast the anime in multiple regional language releases, including English. A live-action adaptation was produced by NHK in cooperation with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
The , or JAXA, is Japan's national aerospace agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on October 1, 2003, as an Independent Administrative Institution administered by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and the...
and aired between June 18 and July 30, 2009.
Story
Author and creator Kou Yaginuma began writing the back-storyBack-story
A back-story, background story, or backstory is the literary device of a narrative chronologically earlier than, and related to, a narrative of primary interest. Generally, it is the history of characters or other elements that underlie the situation existing at the main narrative's start...
of Twin Spica in 2000 with his debut work . In it and in subsequent writings, Yaginuma constructed a future history
Future history
A future history is a postulated history of the future and is used by authors in the subgenre of speculative fiction to construct a common background for fiction...
of the development of Japan's spaceflight program. He introduces readers to a future following the launch of Japan's first manned spaceflight mission, the , in 2010. The mission ends in disaster when the liquid rocket booster
Liquid Rocket Booster
A Liquid Rocket Booster is similar to a solid rocket booster attached to the side of a rocket to give it extra lift at takeoff. A Liquid Rocket Booster has fuel and oxidiser in liquid form, as opposed to a solid rocket or hybrid rocket....
fuel catches fire 72 seconds after liftoff. Mission controllers are unable to activate the craft's abort sequence, and the rocket crashes into the city of Yuigahama
Yuigahama
is a beach near Kamakura, a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The relation between the beach and its neighboring areas is complex. Although Yuigahama is in fact the entire 3.2 km beach that goes from Inamuragasaki, which separates it from Shichirigahama, to Zaimokuza's Iijima cape, which...
, causing many casualties among residents.
Negligence
Negligence is a failure to exercise the care that a reasonably prudent person would exercise in like circumstances. The area of tort law known as negligence involves harm caused by carelessness, not intentional harm.According to Jay M...
. Rumors also begin to circulate about the offshore outsourcing
Offshore outsourcing
Offshore outsourcing is the practice of hiring an external organization to perform some business functions in a country other than the one where the products or services are actually developed or manufactured. It can be contrasted with offshoring, in which the functions are performed in a foreign...
of the rocket's production despite the government's claims that it was developed domestically. To promote recovery from the tragedy, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (Japan)
The , also known as MEXT or Monkashō, is one of the ministries of the Japanese government.The Meiji government created the first Ministry of Education in 1871....
establishes the Tokyo National Space School in 2014 as a vocational high school
Vocational school
A vocational school , providing vocational education, is a school in which students are taught the skills needed to perform a particular job...
dedicated to training a new generation of students in the space science
Space science
The term space science may mean:* The study of issues specifically related to space travel and space exploration, including space medicine.* Science performed in outer space ....
s. Japan's spaceflight program is finally reactivated ten years later with the admission of students into the academy's astronaut training program. In the same year, the last operating module of the International Space Station
International Space Station
The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...
is retired and destroyed by atmospheric reentry
Atmospheric reentry
Atmospheric entry is the movement of human-made or natural objects as they enter the atmosphere of a celestial body from outer space—in the case of Earth from an altitude above the Kármán Line,...
following completion of the station's long-term mission. Subsequent development projects are to be completed by individual countries with active spaceflight programs. Of the students in the inaugural class of the astronaut training program, one is selected to join the crew of Japan's second manned mission in 2027. It is the final mission toward completing a space-based solar power satellite.
Main characters
Yaginuma's work prior to serialization introduces readers to Asumi Kamogawa and her mentor, the ghost of a Lion astronaut whom she calls Mr. Lion. Their friendship develops in several short stories in which, throughout her childhood, he nurtures Asumi's interest in space. As her interest and dreams grow, Asumi is often ridiculed by classmates, especially because she immerses herself in books about space and rarely engages in classroom activities. When she decides to apply for admission to the Tokyo Space Academy, her teachers urge her to reconsider because she is below average height. Her friendship with Mr. Lion continues to grow after Asumi successfully enters the academy, and she often consults him during periods of self-doubt.Asumi's elementary and middle school classmate Shinnosuke Fuchuya also enters the academy much to her surprise. He defended Asumi from ridicule by other classmates throughout their childhood despite occasionally teasing her as well, and it has been suggested that he sees her as a romantic interest. The two eventually befriend three other students in the astronaut training program. Shu Suzuki, who is named student representative for the astronaut program, has an easygoing personality. He wears a distinctive face by shaving his eyebrows as a symbol of defiance against his father. Kei Oumi befriends Asumi during the academy's entrance examination and is portrayed with an outgoing personality and a deep sense of loyalty toward her friends. Marika Ukita initially responds coldly toward gestures of friendship, but she moves into Asumi's dormitory
Dormitory
A dormitory, often shortened to dorm, in the United States is a residence hall consisting of sleeping quarters or entire buildings primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people, often boarding school, college or university students...
following an argument with her father. The five students later make a promise to complete the astronaut program together as their friendship grows stronger. After three years in the astronaut program, Asumi is chosen out of eleven remaining students to take part in Japan's second human spaceflight mission, making her, at the age of eighteen, the youngest person to go into space.
Throughout their time at the academy, astronaut candidates must overcome numerous physical and mental trials. Readers discover from a pre-serialization story that Asumi's mother dies following the Lion disaster, but this is not known to Asumi's friends until Kei discovers the obituary listing in a newspaper article. Marika is revealed to be the genetic copy of a deceased Marika Ukita despite a standing ban on human cloning
Human cloning
Human cloning is the creation of a genetically identical copy of a human. It does not usually refer to monozygotic multiple births nor the reproduction of human cells or tissue. The ethics of cloning is an extremely controversial issue...
. Fuchuya suffers from red-green color blindness after his eyes are exposed to an exploding firework at close range in a childhood accident. Unknown to the group, Shu suffers from hereditary
Genetic disorder
A genetic disorder is an illness caused by abnormalities in genes or chromosomes, especially a condition that is present from before birth. Most genetic disorders are quite rare and affect one person in every several thousands or millions....
hemoptysis
Hemoptysis
Hemoptysis or haemoptysis is the expectoration of blood or of blood-stained sputum from the bronchi, larynx, trachea, or lungs Hemoptysis or haemoptysis is the expectoration (coughing up) of blood or of blood-stained sputum from the bronchi, larynx, trachea, or lungs Hemoptysis or haemoptysis ...
(coughing up of blood) and dies from the condition soon after his selection as an exchange student to the American space program. This tragedy reveals Kei's feelings for him, which she keeps hidden for much of the series.
Writing
The series is named after SpicaSpica
Spica is the brightest star in the constellation Virgo, and the 15th brightest star in the nighttime sky. It is 260 light years distant from Earth...
, a binary star
Binary star
A binary star is a star system consisting of two stars orbiting around their common center of mass. The brighter star is called the primary and the other is its companion star, comes, or secondary...
system in the constellation Virgo
Virgo (constellation)
Virgo is one of the constellations of the zodiac. Its name is Latin for virgin, and its symbol is . Lying between Leo to the west and Libra to the east, it is the second largest constellation in the sky...
and one of the brightest stars in the nighttime sky. It appears as one star because of the relatively low center-to-center distance between the two component stars, estimated at an average of 11 million miles (17.7 million km). Astronomical observations also suggest that there may be additional stars in the Spica system. In the story, Asumi mentions Spica's distance to Earth as 350 light-year
Light-year
A light-year, also light year or lightyear is a unit of length, equal to just under 10 trillion kilometres...
s. This figure is also cited by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
The , or JAXA, is Japan's national aerospace agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on October 1, 2003, as an Independent Administrative Institution administered by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and the...
; however, other sources indicate a distance of approximately 260 light-years.
Kou Yaginuma's initial inspiration for the story came from a statement he once read describing the Hohner
Hohner
Hohner Musikinstrumente GmbH & Co. KG is a company specialising in the manufacture of musical instruments. Founded in 1857 by Matthias Hohner , Hohner is identified especially with harmonicas and accordions. The Hohner company has invented and produced many different styles, and most of the...
Little Lady harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
as one of the first musical instruments taken into space. However, as an aspiring manga artist
Mangaka
is the Japanese word for a comic artist or cartoonist. Outside of Japan, manga usually refers to a Japanese comic book and mangaka refers to the author of the manga, who is usually Japanese...
, Yaginuma had neither resources to conduct research on nor knowledge pertaining to spaceflight. He also hesitated to write the series because his own life experiences did not reflect the dreams of his characters. Despite these challenges, Yaginuma found comfort in the determination of his characters, especially that of Asumi Kamogawa.
Although Twin Spica began serialization in the October 2001 issue of Media Factory
Media Factory
is a Japanese publisher. It was founded on December 1, 1986, and its headquarters are situated in Shibuya, Tokyo. It is a subsidiary of Recruit Co., Ltd...
's Comic Flapper magazine, its lead character Asumi had appeared in Yaginuma's debut work "2015:Fireworks". This short story published in the July 2000 issue of Comic Flapper also introduced readers to Asumi's father, her elementary school teacher Yuko Suzunari, and the astronaut ghost Mr. Lion. Four additional short stories that predate the series also feature Asumi as the central character: , , , and . These slice-of-life stories eventually served as prequel
Prequel
A prequel is a work that supplements a previously completed one, and has an earlier time setting.The widely recognized term was a 20th-century neologism, and a portmanteau from pre- and sequel...
s to Twin Spica.
Cultural references
Twin Spica and its prequel stories make various references to historical figures and events in space exploration. Throughout the manga and the anime, Mr. Lion carries with him a harmonica, one of the first musical instruments to be played in space. A harmonica and bell set was carried aboard the Gemini 6AGemini 6A
-Backup crew:-Mission parameters:* Mass: * Perigee: * Apogee: * Inclination: 28.97°* Period: 88.7 min-Stationkeeping with GT-7:* Start: December 15, 1965 19:33 UTC* End: December 16, 1965 00:52 UTC-Objectives:...
spaceflight in December 1965 by American astronauts Wally Schirra
Wally Schirra
Walter Marty Schirra, Jr. was an American test pilot, United States Navy officer, and one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts chosen for the Project Mercury, America's effort to put humans in space. He is the only person to fly in all of America's first three space programs...
and Thomas Patten Stafford
Thomas Patten Stafford
Thomas Patten Stafford is a retired American Air Force lieutenant general and former NASA astronaut. He flew aboard two Gemini space flights; and in 1969 was the commander of Apollo 10, the second manned mission to orbit the Moon and the first to fly a lunar module there.In 1975, Stafford was...
. During the mission, the two men used these instruments to play "Jingle Bells
Jingle Bells
"Jingle Bells" is one of the best-known and commonly sung winter songs in the world. It was written by James Lord Pierpont and published under the title "One Horse Open Sleigh" in the autumn of 1857...
". Asumi is nicknamed "Seagull" by Shu Suzuki in the anime. The same name was used as the call sign
Call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign is a unique designation for a transmitting station. In North America they are used as names for broadcasting stations...
of Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova
Valentina Tereshkova
Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova is a retired Soviet cosmonaut, and was the first woman in space. She was selected out of more than four hundred applicants, and then out of five finalists, to pilot Vostok 6 on the 16 June, 1963, becoming both the first woman and the first civilian to fly in...
, the first woman in space, during her 1963 mission aboard Vostok 6
Vostok 6
-Backup crew:-Reserve crew:Vostok VI-Mission parameters:*Mass: *Apogee: *Perigee: *Inclination: 64.9°*Period: 87.8 minutes9090...
. Prior to Shu's death in the live-action adaptation, he reveals to his friends that the New Horizons
New Horizons
New Horizons is a NASA robotic spacecraft mission currently en route to the dwarf planet Pluto. It is expected to be the first spacecraft to fly by and study Pluto and its moons, Charon, Nix, Hydra and S/2011 P 1. Its estimated arrival date at the Pluto-Charon system is July 14th, 2015...
spacecraft destined for Pluto
Pluto
Pluto, formal designation 134340 Pluto, is the second-most-massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the tenth-most-massive body observed directly orbiting the Sun...
carries the cremated ashes of the dwarf planet's discoverer, Clyde Tombaugh
Clyde Tombaugh
Clyde William Tombaugh was an American astronomer. Although he is best known for discovering the dwarf planet Pluto in 1930, the first object to be discovered in what would later be identified as the Kuiper Belt, Tombaugh also discovered many asteroids; he also called for serious scientific...
. Asumi later brings Shu's ashes during her first journey into space.
There are also various references to real-world literary and musical works. The titles of two short stories in the manga, "Campanella's Forest" and , refer to the two main characters of Kenji Miyazawa
Kenji Miyazawa
was a Japanese poet and author of children's literature in the early Shōwa period of Japan. He was also known as a devout Buddhist, vegetarian and social activist.-Early life:...
's novel Night on the Galactic Railroad
Night on the Galactic Railroad
, sometimes translated as Milky Way Railroad, Night Train to the Stars, or Fantasy Railroad In The Stars, is a classic Japanese novel by Kenji Miyazawa written around 1927. The nine-chapter novel was posthumously published in 1934 as part of published by...
. It appears in the penultimate episode of the anime and is also a favorite book of the original Marika Ukita. In both the manga and the live-action adaptation, Kei makes a request for Shu to play the piano piece "Der Flohwalzer
Der Flohwalzer
The Flea Waltz is a simple piano piece, often one of the first learned:It is known all over the world. According to an article by Hiromi Oketani in the Osaka Shoin Women's College Annual for 1994, it is known in Japan as...
", known in Japan as , if he becomes the first in their group to go into space.
Manga
Twin Spica began serialization in the October 2001 issue of the seinen (aimed at younger adult men) manga magazine Comic Flapper. It continued until the publication of the 89th chapter on August 5, 2009. The series was also published in tankōbonTankobon
, with a literal meaning close to "independently appearing book", is the Japanese term for a book that is complete in itself and is not part of a series , though the manga industry uses it for volumes which may be in a series...
format in 16 volumes, with the final volume being published on October 23, 2009. Yaginuma's prequel short stories published prior to serialization are interspersed throughout these compilations. Two were included in the first volume; two were included in the second volume; and one was included in the third volume. Three additional prequel stories were also written by Yaginuma during serialization and published in the fourth, sixth, and ninth volumes, respectively. On March 23, 2006, Media Factory published the 80-page featuring color art from the manga. It also included a 24-month calendar and an interview with Kou Yaginuma.
The series is licensed by Tong Li Publishing for Chinese-language release in Taiwan under the title Dream of Spica . It was translated by Li Lin-hui , and the first volume was released in May 2005. Following a three-week contract negotiation, the American publishing company Vertical announced at the 2009 New York Anime Festival
New York Anime Festival
The New York Anime Festival is an anime and manga convention held annually since 2007 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City...
that it had acquired the license to publish the series in English. Marketing director Ed Chavez explained that the motivation to acquire Twin Spica came from the company's desire to license works from Japanese publishers that have yet to form committed partnerships with major American publishers. He proposed continuing a previous partnership with Media Factory
Media Factory
is a Japanese publisher. It was founded on December 1, 1986, and its headquarters are situated in Shibuya, Tokyo. It is a subsidiary of Recruit Co., Ltd...
, from which Vertical licensed The Guin Sagas manga adaptation. Vertical's distributor Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
announced a release date of May 4, 2010, for the first translated volume, contrary to the initial announcement that it will be released in August 2010. Chavez later confirmed via Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
that Vertical will condense its North American releases into 12 volumes.
Anime
Japanese animation studio Group TACGroup TAC
Group TAC was a Japanese animation and computer graphics studio located in Shibuya, Tokyo, and founded in 1968. They have worked on movies, videos, TV shows, and commercials, and have contributed to all stages of the process, including planning, production, sound effects, and so on...
produced Twin Spicas anime adaptation, which was broadcast by NHK
NHK
NHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....
. The 20-episode series premiered on November 1, 2003, and aired until its conclusion on March 27, 2004. Tomomi Mochizuki
Tomomi Mochizuki
, sometimes incorrectly romanized as Tomomichi Mochizuki, is an anime director and producer. He is married to animator Masako Gotō and sometimes uses the alias when writing screenplays or working on storyboards...
directed the anime series, and Rika Nakase
Rika Nakase
-Works:*Fruits Basket Series Composition*Princess Tutu Script*Twin Spica Script*Fushigiboshi no Futagohime Series Composition*Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Script...
wrote its screenplay. Masako Goto designed the characters for animation. When the series reached its conclusion, only 30 chapters of the manga had been published. Chapter 25, which concludes the story of Asumi and her classmates undergoing a test of their survival skills
Survival skills
Survival skills are techniques a person may use in a dangerous situation to save themselves or others...
, was the final chapter to be adapted for the anime. Consequently, the series concludes prematurely with Asumi's ghost companion Lion-san leaving when he no longer has anything to teach her and her friends. The manga, however, continues with Lion-san appearing in subsequent chapters until his eventual departure in chapter 88. The anime series also aired in Japan, other parts of Asia, and Latin America on Animax
Animax
is a Japanese anime satellite television network, dedicated to broadcasting anime programming. A subsidiary of Japanese media conglomerate Sony, it is headquartered in in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, with its co-founders and shareholders including Sony Pictures Entertainment and the noted anime studios...
. It was released in VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
and DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
formats by King Records in five compilation volumes each. A special DVD collection containing the five flashback episodes—episodes 1, 5, 9, 12, and 16—was released on May 26, 2004, and a five-disc DVD box set was released on July 22, 2004. A two-part novelization
Novelization
A novelization is a novel that is written based on some other media story form rather than as an original work.Novelizations of films usually add background material not found in the original work to flesh out the story, because novels are generally longer than screenplays...
of the anime and an official guide book to the adaptation were published in April 2004. The English-language dubbing
Dubbing (filmmaking)
Dubbing is the post-production process of recording and replacing voices on a motion picture or television soundtrack subsequent to the original shooting. The term most commonly refers to the substitution of the voices of the actors shown on the screen by those of different performers, who may be...
of the Twin Spica anime premiered on Animax Asia
Animax Asia
Animax Asia is the Japanese anime TV network Animaxs English language feeds in Southeast Asia and South Asia, as well as its feeds across other regions of mainland Asia, including Hong Kong and Taiwan...
on January 24, 2005.
Drama
NHK announced a seven-episode live-action television dramaDramatic programming
Dramatic programming in the UK, or television drama and television drama series in the US, is television program content that is scripted and fictional along the lines of √a traditional drama. This excludes, for example, sports television, television news, reality show and game shows, stand-up...
adaptation on March 30, 2009, produced in cooperation with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
The , or JAXA, is Japan's national aerospace agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on October 1, 2003, as an Independent Administrative Institution administered by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and the...
, the country's national aerospace agency. Sixteen-year-old actress Nanami Sakuraba
Nanami Sakuraba
is a Japanese gravure idol, actress and singer who won "Miss Magazine 2008".- Drama : - as Sara Nakagawa - as Reiko Torihama - as Shiori Yanagawa - as Asumi Kamogawa - as Kaori Takagi...
was cast for the role of Asumi Kamogawa, and filming for the series began on April 2. The drama was scheduled to air on June 11 but was eventually postponed by one week until June 18. Its airing coincided with the celebration of the International Year of Astronomy
International Year of Astronomy
The International Year of Astronomy was a year-long celebration of astronomy that took place in 2009 to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the first recorded astronomical observations with a telescope by Galileo Galilei and the publication of Johannes Kepler's Astronomia nova in the 17th century...
. Screenplay for the series was written by Shūko Arai and Daigo Matsui. While writing the script, Arai found himself encouraged by the characters who must overcome various struggles in order to achieve their dreams. He also specified hopes and dreams as central themes in the story. Among the changes made in this adaptation is the removal of Lion-san as a central character. Yaginuma did not make any restrictions for Arai and Matsui as he believed they knew the television audience best. "Nevertheless," he said, "I think the little Asumi I know and the Asumi portrayed by Ms. Nanami are both looking at the same sky." A three-disc DVD compilation box set of the adaptation was released by Geneon Universal Entertainment on December 23, 2009.
Music
The song "Venus Say" by female pop musical group BuzyBuzy
Buzy was a Japanese female pop music group, made up of members Nao Toyama, Mayumi Niwa, Mao Miyazato, Yurisa Asama, Sachiko Iwanaga and Yumi Takeda. They released their first single "Kujira" in 2004. They are well known for the song "Be Somewhere", used as the opening theme of the anime series...
was used as the anime's opening theme, and it was released as a maxi single
Maxi single
A maxi single or maxi-single is a music single release with more than the usual two tracks of an a-side song and a b-side song.-The first maxi singles:...
with two other songs on March 3, 2004. The single remained on the Oricon
Oricon
, established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc...
music charts for seven weeks with a peak position at 29th place. Male pop group Begin
Begin (band)
is a Japanese pop group from Ishigaki Island in the Yaeyama Islands of Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. Their sound contains many elements of traditional Ryukyuan folk music, and prominently features the sanshin.-History:...
adapted Kyu Sakamoto
Kyu Sakamoto
was a Japanese singer and actor, best known outside of Japan for his international hit song "Sukiyaki", which was sung in Japanese and sold over 13 million copies...
's 1963 single as the ending theme song. A full soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
containing the two theme songs and 33 additional instrumental tracks by composer Kazunori Miyake was released on May 26, 2004. Alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
band Orange Range
Orange Range
is a 5-member Okinawan alternative rock band, based in Okinawa, Japan. Formed in 2001, the band began with Spice Music and later signed with Sony Music Japan's gr8! records division in 2003. The group left gr8! records in 2010 to start their own label, Super Echo....
's song was used as the ending theme for the live-action series. It was released as a maxi single with two other songs on July 8, 2009, and remained on the Oricon music charts for six weeks with a peak position at 5th place. A full soundtrack for the series containing 21 instrumental tracks was released by Harbor Records on August 5, 2009.
Reception
In an interview with the Yomiuri ShimbunYomiuri Shimbun
The is a Japanese newspaper published in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, and other major Japanese cities. It is one of the five national newspapers in Japan; the other four are the Asahi Shimbun, the Mainichi Shimbun, Nihon Keizai Shimbun, and the Sankei Shimbun...
, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata
Koichi Wakata
is a Japanese engineer and a JAXA astronaut. Wakata is a veteran of four NASA Space Shuttle missions and a long-duration stay on the International Space Station. During a nearly two decade career in spaceflight he has logged five months in space. Wakata is currently assigned to the Soyuz...
named Twin Spica, because of its nostalgic story, as one of five manga series which highlight the dream of reaching space. While assessing the series for licensing in English, Vertical marketing director Ed Chavez, a fan of science fiction, found its story "technically sound" and noted it as "possibly one of the most heartfelt series I've read in ages". He hoped that the series would rank in top 10 of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
Graphic Books Best Seller List for manga and believed that it would make Vertical a "known name, not only amongst better comic shops and independent book stores, but also with anime fans and casual graphic novel
Graphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
readers". While the series was originally published in a seinen magazine, Chavez expected that it would also appeal to fans of shōjo manga. He believed that the word seinen
Seinen
is a subset of manga that is generally targeted at a 20–30 year old male audience, but the audience can be older with some manga aimed at businessmen well into their 40s. In Japanese, the word Seinen means "young man" or "young men" and is not suggestive of sexual matters...
"means adult and does not make reference to gender". He hoped Twin Spica will prove to be a financial success and enable Vertical to fund future licenses of classic works by Osamu Tezuka
Osamu Tezuka
was a Japanese cartoonist, manga artist, animator, producer, activist and medical doctor, although he never practiced medicine. Born in Osaka Prefecture, he is best known as the creator of Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion and Black Jack...
and the Forty-Niners
Year 24 group
refers to one of two female manga artist groups which are considered to have revolutionized shōjo manga . Their works often examine "radical and philosophical issues", including sexuality and gender issues, and many of their works are now considered "classics" of shōjo manga...
. The first volume in English was listed by Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...
as one of the most anticipated graphic novels of 2010.
Jennifer Berman of THEM Anime Reviews rated the anime adaptation of Twin Spica five out of five stars but told readers, "Subtract a star if you don't like anime that have a somewhat slow pace." Berman praised its artistic design and noted that the character designs reminded her of works by Studio Ghibli
Studio Ghibli
is a Japanese animation and film studio founded in June 1985. The company's logo features the character Totoro from Hayao Miyazaki's film My Neighbor Totoro...
. She found the characters "likeable" and saw Marika Ukita as the most intriguing character. Despite her praises, Berman noted one weakness in the anime adaptation. She observed the ending as "a rather open-ended one, and while it wasn't a bad ending, they probably should have thought of something better". Similar to the manga, the anime series was seen as gender neutral. Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. is the television and film production/distribution unit of Japanese multinational technology and media conglomerate Sony...
vice president Todd Miller stated that Twin Spica was one of the titles aired on Animax
Animax
is a Japanese anime satellite television network, dedicated to broadcasting anime programming. A subsidiary of Japanese media conglomerate Sony, it is headquartered in in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, with its co-founders and shareholders including Sony Pictures Entertainment and the noted anime studios...
which appealed to both genders. The first episode of the drama series aired with a 3.4 percent domestic viewership rating. Reviewers from the Yomiuri Shimbun rated the live-action adaptation an average two out of three stars and ranked it third overall among 11 series airing in summer 2009.
See also
- Human spaceflightHuman spaceflightHuman spaceflight is spaceflight with humans on the spacecraft. When a spacecraft is manned, it can be piloted directly, as opposed to machine or robotic space probes and remotely-controlled satellites....
- Japan Aerospace Exploration AgencyJapan Aerospace Exploration AgencyThe , or JAXA, is Japan's national aerospace agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on October 1, 2003, as an Independent Administrative Institution administered by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and the...
- Space Shuttle Challenger disasterSpace Shuttle Challenger disasterThe Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred on January 28, 1986, when Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, leading to the deaths of its seven crew members. The spacecraft disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of central Florida at 11:38 am EST...
External links
Manga- Twin Spica on Comic Flapper magazine's website
- Twin Spica manga on licensor Vertical's website
Anime
- Twin Spica on animation studio Group TACGroup TACGroup TAC was a Japanese animation and computer graphics studio located in Shibuya, Tokyo, and founded in 1968. They have worked on movies, videos, TV shows, and commercials, and have contributed to all stages of the process, including planning, production, sound effects, and so on...
's website - Twin Spica anime on broadcaster NHKNHKNHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....
's website - Twin Spica anime on music distributor Starchild's website
Drama
- Twin Spica drama on broadcaster NHKNHKNHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....
's website