How much are you willing to sacrifice in order to achieve your dreams? And what happens when even after giving it your all, those dreams are somehow snatched away from you?

These are some of the main questions that the manga series Twin Spica, named after the similarly called binary star system in the Virgo constellation, tries to answer throughout its sixteen heart wrenching volumes.

The manga tells the story of a young girl named Asumi Kamogawa, who dreams of becoming a ‘rocket driver’ and go to space. But, as we soon realise, her journey was never meant to be straightforward. When Asumi was just an infant, Japan’s first manned flight, The Lion, was launched in 2010. But high hopes had soon given way to despair as the rocket found itself crashing into the small city of Yuigahama, causing huge casualties among residents, and Asumi’s mother, trying to save her newborn child, gave up her own life. Yet, young Kamogawa, undeterred by this incident, decides to enroll in Tokyo Space Academy, helped by the mysterious harmonica wielding lion-mascot wearing ghost, Mr. Lion, whom, for some reason, only Asumi can see. In that school, she meets up with a group of peculiar but interesting students - the outgoing and friendly Kei Oumi, the cold and emotionless ‘princess’ Marika Ukita, the easy going and confident Shu Suzuki and Asumi’s childhood friend, Shinnosuke Fuchuya. Together, they slowly cast away their weaknesses and decide to cross all the hurdles that the school throws at them in their quest to reach the stars.

The mangaka, Kou Yaginuma, brilliantly weaves a tale of hopes and dreams against a backdrop of death and despair, all the while dealing with a large variety of topics from illnesses to unrequited love to ghosts to self-acceptance and even, surprisingly, cloning. Despite the story taking place in the future (when the manga was being published), most of the technology is the same as the present day, the struggles also the same and the adolescent feelings depicted are universal anyway. The main story is sometimes interspersed with flashback chapters from Asumi’s childhood which act as nice short stories while also giving more depth to the relationship between her, Fuchuya and Mr.Lion. Also, at the end of each of the volumes, there contains a short sketch of the mangaka’s own life which he depicts in a humorous manner but also hints at his various inspirations for the story, particularly the book Night on the Galactic Railroad, by Kenji Miyazawa.

And yes, music also plays an important part in the story, especially the piano and the harmonica. The harmonica often stood as a metaphor for unspoken words in the main story while also acting as a symbol of the aspirations of the budding astronauts as Mr.Lion appropriately informs Asumi about how astronauts played Jingle Bells with a harmonica aboard the spaceflight Gemini 6A. There was one scene later in the story, when the piano piece ‘Der Flohwalzer’ or ‘Neko Funjatta’ in Japanese, was played at a funeral, which was staged brilliantly and brought a clean conclusion to one of the most depressing arcs in the manga.

At the end, I have always been interested in astronomy and aerospace and in the slice of life genre, so this manga was right up my alley. Also, this was the first manga series that I ever read, so maybe I am a bit biased. But objectively speaking, I have seldom read another manga series that deals with so many varied and difficult topics, does them justice and makes you cry buckets while at it. This series might be a bit melodramatic, sometimes a bit meandering and even frustrating at moments, but if you give this story a genuine chance, you are sure to relate to it even if in the slightest. For, this manga is a ‘slice of life’ that deals with pain and loss and the process of building hope and achieving a semblance of happiness by pursuing what we like, which, considering the present day and age, we can surely do more of with.