Futatsu no Spica

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Japanese: ふたつのスピカ

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Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 16

Chapters: 97

Status: Finished

Published: Sep 5, 2001 to Aug 5, 2009

Genres: Drama, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Slice of Life, Supernatural

Demographic: Seinen

Serialization: Comic Flapper

Authors: Yaginuma, Kou (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 8.15¹ (scored by 1,281 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #526²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #3259

Members: 6,334

Favorites: 174

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8.15

Ranked #526Popularity #3259Members 6,334

MangaComic FlapperYaginuma, Kou (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /16

Chapters: /97

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Synopsis

Asumi Kamogawa is a small, 14-year-old girl with a burning passion for the cosmos, especially the stars. Since her early childhood, she has been learning about space from a man she calls "Lion-san," a wise and friendly ghost wearing a giant lion head. Despite a rough family dynamic, Asumi decides to enroll in the Tokyo Space School.

Asumi soon makes a group of friends at school: Shinnosuke Fuchuuya, Asumi's childhood friend with glasses and somewhat brutal honesty; Kei Oumi, a very friendly girl who was inspired by Neil Armstrong's pictures of the first lunar landing; Marika Ukita, an unsociable yet beautiful girl with some secrets of her own; and Shuu Suzuki, a bold yet intelligent boy with a very laidback outlook.

Set in an alternate future where Japan's first man-made rocket crashed in 2010, Futatsu no Spica is a coming-of-age story revolving around these young high schoolers and their path toward the stars.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Futatsu no Spica was first published in English as Twin Spica by Vertical from May 4, 2010 to March 6, 2012, as twelve condensed volumes. Vertical later re-released the series digitally in 16 volumes, from May 14, 2013 to May 27, 2014.

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Adaptation:

Futatsu no Spica

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Characters

Lion-san

Main

Kamogawa, Asumi

Main

Ukita, Marika

Main

Suzuki, Shuu

Main

Oumi, Kei

Main

Fuchuuya, Shinnosuke

Main

Kamogawa, Kyouko

Supporting

Suzunari, Yuuko

Supporting

Tokushima, Mikan

Supporting

Yamamoto

Supporting

Reviews

Jan 5, 2022

Tyrraell

Recommended

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.

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Jul 27, 2016

but-ben-can

Recommended

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, ...

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Apr 19, 2018

Karhu

Not Recommended

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 ...

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Recent Forum Discussion

Poll: Futatsu no Spica Chapter 89 Discussion SixFlags - Mar 24, 2012	3 replies	by luiz4vn »» May 27, 2021 7:30 AM
Poll: Futatsu no Spica Chapter 2 Discussion hellogoodbye - Jun 1, 2012	1 replies	by White_Hollow »» Apr 25, 2020 4:22 AM
Futatsu no Spica Podcast Episode amintg - Aug 27, 2014	0 replies	by amintg »» Aug 27, 2014 9:45 PM
Poll: Futatsu no Spica Chapter 29 Discussion jacobpaige - May 13, 2012	2 replies	by jacobpaige »» Jun 4, 2012 10:39 PM
Poll: Futatsu no Spica Chapter 13 Discussion hellogoodbye - Jun 2, 2012	0 replies	by hellogoodbye »» Jun 2, 2012 3:21 AM

Futatsu no Spica
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Twin Spica
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