Twin Spica, Volume 11

by Kou Yaginuma

Overview

With only months left in their training, Asumi and those left in the Tokyo Space School's first astronaut training class have a new and potentially defining task at hand. From the moment they enrolled, these teens were under the assumption that the future of space exploration would be at the hands of their generation. At least one of them would lead JAXA into the cosmos to revitalize a once dead program. But in the nearly three years they have spent training their bodies and minds, science appears to have caught up to them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781939130723
Publisher:	Kodansha USA
Publication date:	12/24/2013
Series:	Twin Spica Series , #11
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	196
File size:	62 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Born in 1973 in the Iidabashi district of Tokyo, comic artist Kou Yaginuma made his debut with the Twin Spica pilot story The Fireworks of 2015 (originally published in the July 2000 issue of Media Factory's Comic Flapper magazine). That heartfelt story coupled with Yaginuma's warm artwork won the young artist won over many comic fans on his way to becoming the year's biggest new artist.

He followed his debut with a follow up mini-series called Asumi focusing on the early childhood of Twin Spica's young heroine Asumi Kamokawa. The Asumi series was such a runaway success Media Factory signed Yaginuma up to pen Twin Spica for Comic Flapper in the Fall of 2001.

Since Twin Spica's debut, Yaginuma has drawn promotional illustrations for the NHK, Japan's PBS. He has also worked with Japan's brightest young animation director Makoto Shinkai drawing the cover art for the novelization of Shinkai's internationally recognized one-man CG movie Voices of a Distant Star.

Twin Spica is Yagunuma's English language debut.

Editorial Reviews

Though this series finished its run in seinen magazine Comic Flapper just last year, its simple artwork and wistful tone make its first volume read like an instant classic… Though the story’s foundation is set firmly in hard sci-fi, it is its heroine’s poignant and occasionally whimsical inner life that really defines its voice… Hopeful, charming, and tinged with sadness, Twin Spica leaves us wanting more. Highly recommended.” —Manga Bookshelf

“Twin Spica is told with an uncommonly graceful blend of optimism and melancholy. Kou Yaginuma takes his sci-fi premise seriously, and he treats his characters with warmth and intelligence. Strongly recommended.” —MangaReporter

“The storytelling is direct and simple without being didactic, filled with the kind of characters that younger readers will recognize and embrace as true to their own experiences. At the same time, however, Twin Spica’'s subtexts are rich enough to sustain an adult’s interest as the supplemental stories ‘2015: Fireworks’ and ‘Asumi’ attest… A beautiful, thought-provoking book for star gazers of all ages.” —The Manga Critic

From the Publisher