Review by Win Wiacek

Asumi Kamogawa is now entering the final stages of her training to be an astronaut, but her dreams may still be whisked away by a decision to use robots instead. Fourteen students entered the second year programme and with Shu’s departure to join the American space flight and subsequent tragedy in Twin Spica 10, only four now remain to complete the training.

Kou Yaginuma opens this volume with the hopeful, ebullient dynamic shattered forever in ‘Mission 64’. The gang had always bickered and competed as friends do, but when Shu was selected to go to America to train for an actual space-shot everybody was delighted for him. His too-brief time at the Space Development Consortium Space Center occupies ‘Mission: 65’, while ‘Mission: 66’ is the most moving section of the entire extended epic, focusing on Shu’s memorial service and how his passing affects the rest of the gang of individualistic oddballs before things lurch back to the quest for space in ‘Mission: 67’.

That begins four chapters with Marika and investigations into her by Asauri News journalist Ichimura taking centre stage. He realises Marika is not a normal human and her ‘father’– has accomplished something at once astonishing and ethically shady following the death of his first daughter years ago.

‘Mission: 71’ finds Asumi, Kei, Marika and Fuchuya with the rest of the class heading out to a remote island for another terrifying burst of survival training. When they arrive the assembled students learn this test is a comprehensive recapitulation of everything they covered in the last three years: a sudden death, make-or-break evaluation, not of knowledge, aptitude or endurance, but spirit.

The arduous ordeal and deep soul-searching continues in ‘Mission: 72’ with the latest wrinkle being the cutting of sleep rations to two hours per night and news that already some of the class have failed and gone home. Asumi is stoic as ever, fiery Kei uses her anger to push on and Marika is her implacable, impassive self, but in their moments of sleep-time the girls find comfort and solidarity sharing their dreams and aspirations again and realise with relief that they are true friends at last.

‘Mission: 73’ finds Asumi abandoned in the wilderness with a nothing but an envelope of instructions and a punishing time limit to reach her destination. The packet says stop for nothing, not even other students in distress, and the route is punctuated with alarm buttons for quitters to signal for help and admit failure. Will she obey instructions or stop to help a friend?

The impossible race continues in ‘Mission: 74’ and the epic adventure pauses with ‘Mission: 75’ as the despondent class gather back at the Academy. Before continuing to Twin Spica 12, though, Yaginuma drops two big surprises, one concerning the latest tests, and the other a cliffhanger.

He also supplies two more wistfully autobiographical ‘Another Spica’ episodes, culled from his lovelorn youth. The first finds him recalling and graphically eulogizing a teacher who died too young but changed his life-path, whilst the second shares the unsuspected stresses of living and working in isolation and how inspiration to carry on can come from absolutely anywhere.

As ever, Yaginuma concocts exactly the right blend of sentiment, drama and coming of age bonding. Another gem.