Futatsu no Spica

Futatsu no Spica is great on being something. There are many intertwined connections between characters, extensive backstories and great character moments. But the biggest thing, that is missing, is the conclusion.

Futatsu no Spica covers the first 25 chapters of the manga in 20 episodes. This is roughly 28% of the material, and, thusly, leave many unanswered questions in the end. Not to mention that, especially in the later episodes, some key parts are changed to fit into the anime format. All these changes are mainly made because the anime finished when only 30 chapters were released.

But this wasn't the only issue. As being a drama ... series, Futatsu no Spica indulges itself in its slow pace. But don't misunderstand slow for being bad. It takes careful time to develop its moments and releases the emotional tension of the characters and the audience at the right moment, especially in the earlier episodes. The later episodes felt more rushed in some places as the material got scarce. And some of the episodes don't even have a emotional payoff even tho those heavily relied on them.

For characters, the main cast is well developed and are partly loosely connected by the main incident of the plot, a rocket crash in an urban area. But the good characters, sadly, end here as most of the secondary characters seem to be almost single-minded. Probably the biggest offender of this is Sano-sensei, one of the casts teachers. He has a big grudge towards the main characters for being the daughter of one of his ex-colleagues. While he gets an epiphany and redemption at the end of his arc, he simply vanishes from the plot, never to be seen again in the anime.

All in all, Futatsu no Spica was made to early. If the studio has waited more to let the manga finish, or at least progress more, it probably would be one of the best drama series. But for now all its flaws can be traced back to the fact, that the anime was made when the manga was early in its chapters. It is still great, but the end feels very lackluster in comparison to the rest.

Twin Spica made for a solid watch thanks to its focus on Asumi and the various characters that are a part of her life in the girl's dream of wanting to be an astronaut. The anime appears to take place in the near-future considering Japan's astronautical advances have led it to just start appointing younger astronauts for the journey up in space. In this case, Asumi and a number of students her age have enrolled at a space school that recently started up where they are trained in understanding all that is needed to be known about living in space and dealing with differing situations ... that could occur, said training involving regular physical activity, simulated scenarios and understanding how the physics in space are much different from being on Earth. Considering my exposure to Rocket Girls and Space Brothers allowed me to gain familiarity with how astronauts are trained and both were getting backing from NASA and/ or JAXA, it appeared Twin Spica believably depicted the rigid training and knowledge one has to go through and gain in order to be an astronaut, a definite plus for this series.

The anime also has its supernatural elements shown through Asumi's interactions with the ghost of Mr. Lion, an astronaut who fell victim to a horrible space shuttle crash 15 years prior to the present events of Twin Spica. Mr. Lion serves as Asumi's inspiration to wanting to be an astronaut and serves mostly as an observer to many of the major events that effect Asumi throughout the series. One notable episode even features a dark dream where Asumi encounters the spirit of her dead mother on the Sanzu River, Japan's river of the underworld, that serves as a major element to the girl's character.

The supernatural and sci-fi elements to Twin Spica though are mostly secondary though to the title's focus on Asumi. The series quite often switches between past and present time frames in focusing on major events that effected the young girl's life from the loss of her mother from the mentioned space shuttle crash to her enrollment at the space school. Her story mostly serves to be an inspirational one considering the hardships she endured in her past from her father's connection to the shuttle crash and her out-of-place behavior to get a shot at fulfilling her childhood dream of being an astronaut.

Other characters that Marika comes to encounter also get their focus to see how they interact around Asumi and what motivations they have for either wanting to be an astronaut or trying to help or deter Asumi in any way. Notable elements of the show's character focus that got my interest came from how the space shuttle disaster effected characters who experienced its events and Marika's background. The former gets a great amount of focus through different points of the series, past and present, as Twin Spica introduces workers involved in the space shuttle program and civilians who were effected by the tragedy to any degree, including Asumi and her father. Marika's story made for the most interesting character focus I seen in the show as she seemed to have hardships placed upon her from her overprotective father who doesn't consider her to be the "real Marika" and seeming to suffer from some sort of illness as she tries distancing herself from both problems to be her own person. Sadly, both elements to the series never get fully fleshed out as the series was left open-ended following a major arc involving the show's cast.

The visuals to Twin Spica are nothing special as character designs are a bit on the plain side and the animation doesn't stick out too prominently compared to anything noteworthy like Heat Guy J and Last Exile that aired during 2003. Scenery is decently drawn with vivid colors and having a good amount of detail to the show's different settings.

Overall, Twin Spica made for an engaging and worthwhile watch thanks to its solid mix of sci-fi and supernatural elements coming from Asumi's interactions with Mr. Lion and her journey in becoming an astronaut. This is a worthwhile "hidden gem" anime that is worth seeking out if you've already seen plenty of licensed anime titles.

I loved this anime.

Story: The storyline is simple, sweet, and straight forward. You can not help getting caught up with it. I do wish they had of carried the story on longer, but the end they chose feels right. The bit in there about the clone I did not really understand its significance; but all and all very enjoyable.

Artwork: I actually really liked the art work for this one. The 'washed' out feel of the backgrounds lend to the slow pace of the story. There is not a lot ... of back ground animation.. most scene backgrounds are still, except for the story characters (not a lot of Traffic, people, etc, etc). For me, this added to the feel of the story.

Sound: It was ok. Spoken Dialog and the soundtrack/background noise had a nice balance. The music did not grab me, or leave any real impression on me actually. But it did not irritate me either, so all is good.

All in all, It was a great watch. It was refreashing to sit back and just watch a well told story. No real action, violence, fan service, etc. This one carries itself on content alone. Also, the simplicity and concept of the story can be enjoyed by all viewers.