Twin Spica

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Twin Spica
ふたつのスピカ (Twin Spica)
Genre	Seinen
Manga: ふたつのスピカ (Futatsu no Spica)
Authored by	Kou Yaginuma (柳沼行 Yaginuma Kō)
Publisher	Media Factory
Serialized in	Comic Flapper
Original run	–
No. of volumes	10-ongoing
TV anime
Directed by	Tomomi Mochizuki
Studio	Group TAC
Network	Animax, NHK
Original run	1 November 2003 – 27 March 2004
No. of episodes	20

Twin Spica (ふたつのスピカ, Futatsu no Spica^?) is an manga series by Kou Yaginuma (柳沼行, Yaginuma Kō^?). It began serialization in the magazine Comic Flapper in October, 2001. Twin Spica tells the story of a group of Japanese high school students who are training to become astronauts.

The manga has been adapted into a 20 episode anime series by Group TAC. The anime first aired on NHK's BS-2 satellite service between November 1, 2003 and 27 March 2004. Twin Spica has been translated into English and other languages by the anime television network Animax, which has broadcast the series on its networks in several regions, including East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia and Latin America. There have also been fansubs created in several languages.

[edit] The Story

The primary setting of Twin Spica in the near future at the Tokyo Space School, where high school students train to become astronauts. Asumi Kamogawa (鴨川アスミ, Asumi Kamogawa^?) has dreamed of going to space since she was a child. Her experiences in school and her relationships with her friends, family and teachers are the central themes of the story. The manga and anime series both have a relaxed, slice of life pace.

Several chapters of the manga and episodes of the anime are flashbacks and explore the childhood of Asumi and some of the other characters. When she was a baby, Japan's first manned rocket crashed into Asumi's hometown of Yuigahama, killing many people and critically injuring her mother, who finally dies after many years in a coma. While trying to accept her mother's death, six year old Asumi meets Lion-san (ライオンさん, Lion-san^?), the ghost of a young astronaut who had been on board the rocket. Inspired by Lion-san's stories of space, Asumi makes it her goal to become an astronaut herself.

The storylines of the manga and the anime adaptation are very close together initially, but in the anime's diverges to have an ending that is not related to anything published. The anime covers most of the manga's story through the end of Volume 4.

[edit] Major Characters

Asumi Kamogawa (鴨川アスミ, Asumi Kamogawa^?) is the story's main character. After her mother died when she was young, she grew up with her father. She is the only one who can see Lion-san, whom she met soon after her mother's death.
Lion-san (ライオンさん, Lion-san^?)
Marika Ukita (宇喜多万里香, Marika Ukita^?)
Shinnosuke Fuchūya (府中野新之介, Shinnosuke Fuchūya^?), nicknamed Fucchi (ふっち, Fucchi^?) by Kei
Kei Ōmi (近江圭, Kei Ōmi^?)
Shū Suzuki (鈴木秋, Shū Suzuki^?)