Manga Revisited: Voices of a Distant Star
Apr. 17th, 2018 09:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
krpalmerI've mentioned before how I seem ready to accept anime piles up faster than I can watch it but, convinced I can at least keep even with the manga I buy if I work at it, I don't often go back and read it over again. The most obvious exception to that is when a title I've read is licensed over again with promises of a new translation and perhaps improved production values. Vertical releasing a new edition of the "Voices of a Distant Star" manga did get my attention, but I suppose the not quite articulated respect I have for that company's licensing choices and presentation of which had to be weighed against knowing the manga was an adaptation of an "original anime," and the impression I've long had those adaptations are assigned to artists who can't quite manage titles of their own because the people in Japan too cheap to buy expensive disc releases don't deserve anything better. I still bought the manga anyway.
The original anime had got my attention when I heard Makoto Shinkai had made it practically by himself. It might have seemed more "something it's been done at all" than the "artistic achievements" of the "made by just a few people" animated shorts of the National Film Board of Canada, but it was longer than a typical short too. Its story did have more than a trace of Gunbuster to it with a pair of high school sweethearts separated when the girl is assigned to an interstellar mission (as anime high school girls may well be, although it's tempting to take the chance of claiming this is an inversion of more familiar narratives about exploring); Mikako sends back text messages from her perfectly ordinary cell phone, but they arrive later and later in the life of the boy left on Earth. (The space of time in the story, though, isn't quite as long as some "time dilation" tales in more familiar science fiction; it does provoke some reflection on considering eight years may be an eternity to a teenager.) The story, however, did seem to conclude without wrapping up all its loose ends, and that might have been a reason why I bought the original release from Tokyopop.
It's now been longer since then than Noboru was said to have waited on Earth in the story, and while Makoto Shinkai went on to longer works directing more people and larger achievements (which might have been the reason Vertical revived this old title connected to him) I could remember the artwork in the manga wasn't anything special. While the character and mechanical designs in the anime might not have been anything special either, Shinkai was already making a great show of the play of light itself. Too, the manga still had Mikako wearing her school uniform into deep space. What I hadn't remembered was that the manga did have more supporting characters than I recall the anime having shown, and that it had traded some of the action for at least a more definite promise of wrapping up. I did finish the manga wondering when I'd be able to scrape together the time to watch the anime again; it's easier for me to read a volume of manga one chapter at a time even if that can stretch over as many days as chapters. Still, I was quite accepting of the fresh experience.
The original anime had got my attention when I heard Makoto Shinkai had made it practically by himself. It might have seemed more "something it's been done at all" than the "artistic achievements" of the "made by just a few people" animated shorts of the National Film Board of Canada, but it was longer than a typical short too. Its story did have more than a trace of Gunbuster to it with a pair of high school sweethearts separated when the girl is assigned to an interstellar mission (as anime high school girls may well be, although it's tempting to take the chance of claiming this is an inversion of more familiar narratives about exploring); Mikako sends back text messages from her perfectly ordinary cell phone, but they arrive later and later in the life of the boy left on Earth. (The space of time in the story, though, isn't quite as long as some "time dilation" tales in more familiar science fiction; it does provoke some reflection on considering eight years may be an eternity to a teenager.) The story, however, did seem to conclude without wrapping up all its loose ends, and that might have been a reason why I bought the original release from Tokyopop.
It's now been longer since then than Noboru was said to have waited on Earth in the story, and while Makoto Shinkai went on to longer works directing more people and larger achievements (which might have been the reason Vertical revived this old title connected to him) I could remember the artwork in the manga wasn't anything special. While the character and mechanical designs in the anime might not have been anything special either, Shinkai was already making a great show of the play of light itself. Too, the manga still had Mikako wearing her school uniform into deep space. What I hadn't remembered was that the manga did have more supporting characters than I recall the anime having shown, and that it had traded some of the action for at least a more definite promise of wrapping up. I did finish the manga wondering when I'd be able to scrape together the time to watch the anime again; it's easier for me to read a volume of manga one chapter at a time even if that can stretch over as many days as chapters. Still, I was quite accepting of the fresh experience.