Kevinroc
05-04-2004, 06:02 PM
One of my favorite titles, Please Save My Earth hasn't really gotten many reviews. I hope Kiril doesn't mind if I take over, since this is a series that should be talked about.
English Title: Please Save My Earth
Japanese Title: Boku no Chikyuu wo Mamotte
Subtitle: N/A
Vol: 2 of 21
Author/Artist: Saki Hiwatari
Publisher: Viz
Translator: Lillian Olsen
English Adaption: Fred Burke
Originally Published by: Hakusensha (originally serialized in "Hana to Yume")
Price: $9.95
Pages: 186
Age Rating: T+
ISBN: 1-59116-116-9
Release Date: December 2003
Review Date: May 5, 2004
Reviewer: Kevin O'Connell
Grading~
Packaging: B+
Artwork: B
Text: A-
Content: A+
What They Say:
Rin has recovered from his tragic fall, but life's not back to normal. Aside from Rin's proposal to Alice, he has secretly developed remarkable psychic powers and is terrorizing a biker punk. The pieces of this puzzle begin to fall together as the mysteries behind the "moon dreams" are slowly revealed.
Packaging:
A picture of Mokuren as the Earth hovers above her.
(Logo check!! 2003 Megs) Viz's logo uses different colors and sizes for different words in the title. "Please" is small with a light blue color. "Save" is bigger with a slightly darker blue. "My" is rather small with a dark blue border and some yellow on the inside. "Earth" is actually written twice as we have a one with large yellow font and then behind we can see blue font, which is obscured by the yellow font. A green orb (which I guess represents the green Earth) hovers a little above the "Earth" and is partly obscured by the "E". Not one of the most impressive logos, especially since other Viz releases have done a nice job with logos.
Artwork: Hiwatari's style is taking shape but the characters still look a little off model. Compared to later volumes, the art just doesn't compare. While the character designs are a little crude, the backgrounds (particularly those which showcase Outer Space) are very detailed and are quite easy on the eyes.
SFX/Orientation: Unflipped art and translated SFX.
Text: The text is highly readable with no real mistakes in grammar or spelling. Honorifics are not used.
Contents (Watch out spoilers ahead):
<span style='color:#dddddd;background:#dddddd'>Following the end of the last volume with Alice having her first "Moon Dream", she decides to tell Issei and Jinpachi who realize that Alice must be Mokuren. Alice thinks that it might be possible for her to meet Shion and blushes over this.
Meanwhile, Takashi (the young punk that Rin terrorized in vol. 1) begs his father for Tokyo Tower or else he will be killed. We discover that Takashi's father is involved in the renovations of Tokyo Tower.
Meanwhile, we are introduced to young Haruhiko who dreams of Mokuren. He awakens to tell his mother and she seems to be happy, especially since he hasn't had any heart problems in awhile.
Meanwhile, Tamura (who works for Takashi's family and is a friend to Haruhiko) decides to investigate the mysterious "S" who is threatening Haruhiko. His investigations eventually lead to "S" placing a note on his car telling him to help Takashi.
Jinpachi struggles with a way to try and find the other people who have experiences "Moon Dreams" and Issei decides to place an ad in a national magazine. A gang of thugs attacks them but Jinpachi and Issei defeat them, and Jinpachi displays some telekinetic power, which the watching Rin realizes means that Jinpachi is Gyokuron. Thinking over it, Rin and Alice eventually end up on a "date" which consists of shopping. Alice sees Haruhiko and realizes how much he looks like Shion. Rin is depressed since it looks like Alice is attracted to him and cries over the fact that he is younger than Alice and wishes he was the same age as her.
Issei thinks about how Jinpachi must be in love with Alice and wonders if it is because she is Mokuren. He curses over the fact that he was Enju (for those not familiar, Enju was a woman). Issei receives a letter from someone else having "Moon Dreams" and contacts the others so that they can all meet up. After some trouble, Issei, Alice, Jinpachi meet Daisuke (Hiragii) and Sakura (Shusuran). The group discusses their "moon dreams" and Daisuke eventually explains how the "Moon Dreams" are of their past lives. They were seven alien scientists who studied the moon. Their home world was destroyed during a war and the scientists were stranded. They opted to continue their mission to monitor the Earth but they eventually succumbed to a disease and died. This story depresses Alice, who wonders if she really is Mokuren. However, Issei is the one who doesn't understand his feelings and begins to dream about kissing Jinpachi and starts to feel sexually attracted to Jinpachi. He denies this part of himself but finds it hard to resist.
The volume ends with Tamura taking off to confront "S". This confrontation doesn't happen until vol. 3 but it's a nice wrap-up to this volume.</span>
This volume explains the "Moon Dreams" and gives some back-story to the seven scientists. Since Shion and Shukaido haven't made themselves known the group yet, that little sub-plot will come up later. The others are looking for them but that won't come up until later. It's obvious that Rin is one of them but he hasn't made this fact known yet.
Speaking of Rin, he is certainly a mysterious character. While he seems to put on the act of a child, he knows more about what's going on than anyone else. He's already developed many powers but has kept this a secret from Alice. But there's a genuine pain in his voice when he cries over wanting to be the same age as Alice. For people that have seen further volumes or the OAV, you can look back on this and see exactly what Rin was talking about.
But by far, one of the most fascinating subplots to me is the one between Issei and Jinpachi. Since they were lovers (Issei was a woman and Jinpachi a man) both reincarnated as males, there are a lot of things brought up. Especially since Issei clearly isn't homosexual, but he is clearly attracted to Jinpachi. How much do their past lives influence them?
We'll have to read future volumes to find out. Highly recommended.
English Title: Please Save My Earth
Japanese Title: Boku no Chikyuu wo Mamotte
Subtitle: N/A
Vol: 2 of 21
Author/Artist: Saki Hiwatari
Publisher: Viz
Translator: Lillian Olsen
English Adaption: Fred Burke
Originally Published by: Hakusensha (originally serialized in "Hana to Yume")
Price: $9.95
Pages: 186
Age Rating: T+
ISBN: 1-59116-116-9
Release Date: December 2003
Review Date: May 5, 2004
Reviewer: Kevin O'Connell
Grading~
Packaging: B+
Artwork: B
Text: A-
Content: A+
What They Say:
Rin has recovered from his tragic fall, but life's not back to normal. Aside from Rin's proposal to Alice, he has secretly developed remarkable psychic powers and is terrorizing a biker punk. The pieces of this puzzle begin to fall together as the mysteries behind the "moon dreams" are slowly revealed.
Packaging:
A picture of Mokuren as the Earth hovers above her.
(Logo check!! 2003 Megs) Viz's logo uses different colors and sizes for different words in the title. "Please" is small with a light blue color. "Save" is bigger with a slightly darker blue. "My" is rather small with a dark blue border and some yellow on the inside. "Earth" is actually written twice as we have a one with large yellow font and then behind we can see blue font, which is obscured by the yellow font. A green orb (which I guess represents the green Earth) hovers a little above the "Earth" and is partly obscured by the "E". Not one of the most impressive logos, especially since other Viz releases have done a nice job with logos.
Artwork: Hiwatari's style is taking shape but the characters still look a little off model. Compared to later volumes, the art just doesn't compare. While the character designs are a little crude, the backgrounds (particularly those which showcase Outer Space) are very detailed and are quite easy on the eyes.
SFX/Orientation: Unflipped art and translated SFX.
Text: The text is highly readable with no real mistakes in grammar or spelling. Honorifics are not used.
Contents (Watch out spoilers ahead):
<span style='color:#dddddd;background:#dddddd'>Following the end of the last volume with Alice having her first "Moon Dream", she decides to tell Issei and Jinpachi who realize that Alice must be Mokuren. Alice thinks that it might be possible for her to meet Shion and blushes over this.
Meanwhile, Takashi (the young punk that Rin terrorized in vol. 1) begs his father for Tokyo Tower or else he will be killed. We discover that Takashi's father is involved in the renovations of Tokyo Tower.
Meanwhile, we are introduced to young Haruhiko who dreams of Mokuren. He awakens to tell his mother and she seems to be happy, especially since he hasn't had any heart problems in awhile.
Meanwhile, Tamura (who works for Takashi's family and is a friend to Haruhiko) decides to investigate the mysterious "S" who is threatening Haruhiko. His investigations eventually lead to "S" placing a note on his car telling him to help Takashi.
Jinpachi struggles with a way to try and find the other people who have experiences "Moon Dreams" and Issei decides to place an ad in a national magazine. A gang of thugs attacks them but Jinpachi and Issei defeat them, and Jinpachi displays some telekinetic power, which the watching Rin realizes means that Jinpachi is Gyokuron. Thinking over it, Rin and Alice eventually end up on a "date" which consists of shopping. Alice sees Haruhiko and realizes how much he looks like Shion. Rin is depressed since it looks like Alice is attracted to him and cries over the fact that he is younger than Alice and wishes he was the same age as her.
Issei thinks about how Jinpachi must be in love with Alice and wonders if it is because she is Mokuren. He curses over the fact that he was Enju (for those not familiar, Enju was a woman). Issei receives a letter from someone else having "Moon Dreams" and contacts the others so that they can all meet up. After some trouble, Issei, Alice, Jinpachi meet Daisuke (Hiragii) and Sakura (Shusuran). The group discusses their "moon dreams" and Daisuke eventually explains how the "Moon Dreams" are of their past lives. They were seven alien scientists who studied the moon. Their home world was destroyed during a war and the scientists were stranded. They opted to continue their mission to monitor the Earth but they eventually succumbed to a disease and died. This story depresses Alice, who wonders if she really is Mokuren. However, Issei is the one who doesn't understand his feelings and begins to dream about kissing Jinpachi and starts to feel sexually attracted to Jinpachi. He denies this part of himself but finds it hard to resist.
The volume ends with Tamura taking off to confront "S". This confrontation doesn't happen until vol. 3 but it's a nice wrap-up to this volume.</span>
This volume explains the "Moon Dreams" and gives some back-story to the seven scientists. Since Shion and Shukaido haven't made themselves known the group yet, that little sub-plot will come up later. The others are looking for them but that won't come up until later. It's obvious that Rin is one of them but he hasn't made this fact known yet.
Speaking of Rin, he is certainly a mysterious character. While he seems to put on the act of a child, he knows more about what's going on than anyone else. He's already developed many powers but has kept this a secret from Alice. But there's a genuine pain in his voice when he cries over wanting to be the same age as Alice. For people that have seen further volumes or the OAV, you can look back on this and see exactly what Rin was talking about.
But by far, one of the most fascinating subplots to me is the one between Issei and Jinpachi. Since they were lovers (Issei was a woman and Jinpachi a man) both reincarnated as males, there are a lot of things brought up. Especially since Issei clearly isn't homosexual, but he is clearly attracted to Jinpachi. How much do their past lives influence them?
We'll have to read future volumes to find out. Highly recommended.