Spirit Circle

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I don't think I can think of a manga out there that contains as much Wisdom as Spirit Circle. This is surprisingly because Spirit Circle is a work that can't really be defined as 'realistic', and its individual components have been done almost everywhere else. Yet, while Hataraki Man can be viewed as a work that focuses on a micro perspective of life, and a work like Murasaki-iro no Qualia can be seen as a work that focuses on the macro and cosmic perspective of life, Spirit Circle is a work that is simply able to encompass all that, although it is not as psychologically ... thorough or intellectually thorough as either.

The story has appeared before in Osamu Tezuka's Apollo's Song (+ Phoenix), as well as Andy Weir's The Egg. It has also appeared in Slaughterhouse Five, and it even the shoujo manga NG Life. Its character types are extremely Shounen, although it also takes from the broad strokes of life that Tezuka can pull off. It draws from Samurai stories, historical literature, fantasy literature, and a plethora of other genre influences. It has done nothing particular new in its philosophy either - given that the philosophy is the kind of Buddhist philosophy explored in a multitude of other works out there. It's ultimate ending message was made up of platitudes, but the way these platitudes were structured within the work was so powerful that you have no choice but to see it all in a new light.

Though this work takes from everything, it is still one of the most original Manga in the world. It is simply the best reincarnation story that has ever been conceived up to this date. It draws from the best aspects of this type of story and focuses deeply on the essentials with superb pacing (wrapping up in a mere 45 chapters). The best aspect of a reincarnation story is the beauty of having one's past relations be built anew - because when this happens, enemies can become friends, and relationships can be completely restructured to create new meaning. Spirit Circle is powerful because it managed to arrange all these alternate lives and have them build off one another, seeping and developing into different forms - as opposed to some Manga like Apollo's Song where each reincarnation feels like a vaguely connected short story rather than an actual 'living of a past life'.

This aspect is what drives most of the work forward. Spirit Circle can use platitudes and archetypes because these well-worn tropes will be given new light when it has the weight of several other lives upon it, causing the meaning to twist and swell up into things larger than itself. Something as simple as a few words of reconciliation can be extremely emotionally moving when it is juxtaposed against all the other past lives when such reconciliations failed. When you have all the other lives being able to commentate as well, it gives the feeling of a great historical wisdom emanating from a single person, observing the world from a distant view where everything becomes lighter and more ephemerally precious.

I feel as though Spirit Circle is a work that I'll be able to read again in 5 or 10 years, and still be able to derive something from it. It is an eternal reminder that your ego is the smallest thing in the world, but your relationships with others will surpass the galaxies.

I'm afraid Spirit Circle, by Mizukami Satoshi, will like the excellent but often forgotten Hoishi no Samidare, become only a shadow hit, a read for the people who dig deeper and want different kinds of shonen. So let me try to convince you with this review to grab a book and read this very interesting story.

Art : 6/10

Let's get the bad stuff out of the way first : yes, compared to tenors of the shonen manga, the art is...Meh. Although this is an artstyle that feels really distinctive, and works quite well for expressions and faces overall, the real weakness lies in the background, who ... most of the time, are generic, or just like detail. If you want your manga to be only eye candy, like Blame or Berserk, this won't be one for you.

Story : 8/10

The story will let us follow Fuuta Okeya, a 14-year-old boy who can see ghosts. And this ability is absolutely not the focus of the story. To try and not spoil too much, his encounter with a young girl who just transferred in his neighborhood will lead him into reliving his past lives, to try and understand why the girl wants to kill him so bad.
I found the premise quite original and refreshing. After each past life, it's not like the protagonist gains a new skill, or becomes better at fighting : the real heroes of this story are all of the past lifes of Fuuta, but more on that later.
But Spirit Circle isn't just about those past lives : there's an overarching plot, with completely bonkers consequences like only Mizukami Satoshi can think of (let us remember, he's the one who thought of a biscuit hammer that would destroy the world.) And delving deeper in the mystery of the relation between Fuuta and the girl who wants to kill him, Kouko, is really compelling and interesting.

Characters : 8/10

The character design is pretty redundant, as most of the characters with which Fuuta and Joujo interacts, even in their other lives, have the face of everyone they know (implying they are not the only one reincarnating). But each of these characters have a different personnality, a different goal. In each of his past lives, Fuuta often doesn't act like he does in the present, and he did some pretty horrible things in some lives, even. Watching his present self come to terms with that is really interesting.
Kouko is also a great character, even if her past lives are mostly seen through Fuuta's eyes. She is as well fleshed out as Fuuta in that regard, and her motivations for trying to slay Fuuta are also understandable.

Sadly, the rest of the supporting cast, like Fuuta's friends, aren't very interesting in the present. The only exceptions are for East and Rune, spirits that accompany Kouko and Fuuta in the present, but sadly they play quite a lacking role before the end of the manga. It would have been nice to see a bit more character interaction.

Overall : 8/10

Spirit Circle is a compelling manga that will make you think about afterlife, reincarnation, and responsability. Can you be held accountable for a really horrible thing you did in a past life ? By asking that question, the author takes us on a journey through time to try and discover the worth of a human soul, and ultimately, the worth of who we are, today.

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.