Voices of a Distant Star

I watched the OVA version of this story some years ago and liked it, but i always thought it was kind of a shame that the story didn't get the time it needed to breath and really flesh things out. I am happy to say that i think the manga did a damn good job at fleshing out the story, characters and relationships.

Its a story about how people grow apart with distance and time, and how we forget those who aren't with us anymore. Bonds and connections fade with time, which(to me at least) is a tragic part of the human experience. I doubt there are many people who don't want to keep the bonds they like forever. But relationships do tend to end. What i like about this manga, which is essentially a love story, is how it shows that sometimes people don't let those bonds go. The male protagonist(sorry, i really am shit with names) tries to move on with his life, and forget about his love for the female protagonist, but he just cant. Sometimes love for somebody makes you not want to let go. Considering the circumstance, it makes sense. The tragic becomes hopeful by the end, and i liked that transition.

I liked how we see visually that his memories of her become fuzzy over time. We see the panels of flashbacks become darker and darker as they fade from his memory. But her final text to him brought it all back after years of not really thinking about her.

The framing of the story works well too, how both distance apart affects time between communication. In the modern world, you couldn't really tell that story on earth because of all the technology that exists now. The more science fiction setting of the story works in that regard, it allows for a situation where the characters naturally stop communicating(they technically still do, it just takes longer for messages to be received) while also maintaining the idea that they do want to be together and communicate. The fact that she is on this mission also gives a good reason why she would leave anyway, the mission she is on sounds really interesting/exciting. I like how the male protagonist begins to doubt the foundation of their relationship. She found out she was going and didn't tell the male protagonist for a while. Given their inability to communicate, its also not something he could realistically follow up on.

I do think they could have been a little more specific on the limitations of the texting. We understand that it takes longer and longer for texts to be received, but i wish they would have explained why they don't just spam texts to each other all the time. I assume there is a limit to how much she can send over at a time, but they never clarify that. A bit of a plot hole, but not a big problem for me. I also liked the mech and character designs. Though there definitely were some panels where i thought 'the fuck am i even looking at', so there was occasionally bad shot composition.

I think the 'make it or break it' aspect of this story will be the ending and the shift in tone near the end. As i said before, the story goes from being tragic to hopeful at the end. I am the kind of person who likes hopeful stories, but i imagine the person who really likes tragic endings will be disappointed. The idea of just telling a story about two people growing apart then staying apart is appealing to people. So the fact that they don't stay apart might make them dislike the story. I wont say they are wrong for feeling this way, i think it honestly could have gone either way and still worked for me.

I am happy i read this.