Twin Spica, Volume 2

by Kou Yaginuma

Overview

Where were you when the first International Space Station was scrapped and dropped into Earth's atmosphere?

It was Asumi's first day in space school, and she promised Lion she would not cry or be homesick as she will be leaving her quiet seaside town for the big city. Waiting for her in Tokyo will be a lot of work. She is going to have to go through the rigors of space exploration training at the Tokyo Space School. After hours, Asumi will focus her efforts on homework, when not earning her tuition at the neighborhood Denny's. It is not uncommon to run 20 laps around the campus each day. Follow that up with physics and advance mathematics courses in the classroom. Only to close the night by mapping out the constellations in the southern sky.

This is just what she expected the TSS to be, and yet why is it so hard to envision going to space someday? With all of the work she and her classmates are accomplishing, why does space still feel so far away?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781939130266
Publisher:	Kodansha USA
Publication date:	05/14/2013
Series:	Twin Spica Series , #2
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	220
Sales rank:	1,009,901
File size:	78 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

A Publishers Weekly Big Graphic Novels for 2010 selection!

"Twin Spica is told with an uncommonly graceful blend of optimism and melancholy. Artist Kou Yaginuma takes his sci-fi premise seriously, and he treats his characters with warmth and intelligence. Strongly recommended."—David Welsh, The Manga Curmudgeon

"I found Twin Spica to be a surprisingly compelling read, darting in and out its broad character types and standard set pieces with a light touch, offering up just enough that's different and comparably off to the side to hold my attention. Creator Kou Yaginuma displays a wonderful sense of when to push forward with his narratives and when to let them rest against the broad spectrum of character experience and odder-than-usual social themes against which any and all immediate dramas are played out. There's a cogency to the final package that has a good chance of carrying it through to the final volume with some of what I like about this book surviving the trip."—Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter

"TWIN SPICA is grounded in realism, and takes slow, purposeful steps in laying out its story, illustrated in a classic style that avoids both outrageousness and cutesiness. Because the work is a natural charmer with a protagonist you care about deeply shortly after the outset, this first volume gets you hooked in no time; the remaining 15 can’t come out fast enough."—Rod Lott, BookGasm

"Required reading. There’s a lot of heartfelt emotion balanced with space-based science in this tale of a young girl’s desire to visit the stars. Asumi’s single-minded dedication to her childhood dream is admirable, with a promising ending to this introductory volume. As soon as I finished this book, I found myself already longing to read more."—Lorena Nava Ruggero,  i ♥ manga!

From the Publisher