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Twin Spica

Twin Spica
A girl wearing bob cut hair in Japanese high school uniform—consisting of a blue pleated skirt, a blue blouse with a sailor-style collar and neckerchief, and an orange hooded sweatshirt—stands on a backdrop of exploding fireworks. Two glowing spheres linked by a glowing ring hover between her hands. The text "Yaginuma Kou Presents" and "Twin Spica Volume:01", and their Japanese versions, are written to her left.
Cover art of the first Twin Spica manga volume featuring lead character Asumi Kamogawa
ふたつのスピカ
(Futatsu no Supika)
Genre Science fiction, Drama, Supernatural
Manga
Written by Kou Yaginuma
Published by Media Factory
English publisher
Demographic Seinen
Magazine Comic Flapper
Original run September 5, 2001 – August 5, 2009
Volumes 16 (List of volumes)
Anime television series
Directed by Tomomi Mochizuki
Written by Rika Nakase
Music by Kazunori Miyake
Studio Group TAC
Original network NHK BS Hi-Vision
English network
Original run November 1, 2003 – March 27, 2004
Episodes 20 (List of episodes)
Television drama
Directed by Takeyoshi Yamamoto
Ayuko Tsukahara
Written by Shūko Arai
Daigo Matsui
Music by Atsushi Umehori
Original network NHK General TV, NHK BS Hi-Vision
Original run June 18, 2009 – July 30, 2009
Episodes 7 (List of episodes)
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Twin Spica (Japanese: ふたつのスピカ Hepburn: Futatsu no Supika?) is a Japanese seinen manga series written and illustrated by Kou Yaginuma. The "realistic, slice-of-life science fiction series" tells the story of a group of Japanese high school students training to become astronauts in the early 21st century after the country's first human spaceflight launch ends in a disaster that causes many civilian casualties. It was serialized in the seinen manga magazine Comic Flapper from September 2001 to August 2009 and was later published in 16 tankōbon volumes by Media Factory from January 2002 to October 2009.

The series is named after Spica, a binary star system and the brightest star in the constellation Virgo. In the manga, Yaginuma includes many references to historical events related to the development of human spaceflight as well as literary works such as Kenji Miyazawa's novel Night on the Galactic Railroad. American publishing company Vertical announced acquisition of the manga's license for English-language translation at the New York Anime Festival in September 2009, and the translated first volume was published in May 2010. The series was described by Vertical marketing director Ed Chavez as "technically sound" and "heartfelt" during its initial assessment.


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Wikipedia

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