Please Save My Earth
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is a manga by Saki Hiwatari which spanned 21 volumes and was adapted into a multi-part anime OVA (animated by Production I.G) in 1993.The sequel to the series, Boku wo Tsutsumu Tsuki no Hikari (literally means "I am embraced by the Moonlight"), is currently serializing on the bimonthly Hana to Yume as well as the special edition magazine, Hana to Yume Plus.
Contents
Story
The story centers around high school student Alice Sakaguchi, her eight-year old neighbor Rin Kobayashi, and five other teenage students who have recurring collective dreams about a group of scientists stationed on the moon observing and collecting data about the Earth. Initially, when Alice learns that fellow classmates Jinpachi and Issei have been having common recurring dreams since middle school, she thinks nothing of it until she starts having those same dreams herself. As they and four others seek each other's company, they began to realize that their "dreams" aren't simply dreams; but rather, suppressed memories of their past incarnations (as those same moon scientists) that ended tragically.Characters
Tokyo, 1991
- A quiet and shy young woman. She recently moved to Tokyo from a town in Hokkaido.
- She misses Hokkaido because she had peace and solitude there. When we first meet Alice she is being teased and mocked by the boy next door, Rin Kobayashi. In her previous life, Alice was Mokuren. She retains Mokuren's ability to talk to plants, and make plants grow by singing to them. Supposedly, Alice resembles Mokuren's mother.
- Rin is nine years younger than Alice and lives next door to her. Rin torments Alice from the moment they meet.
- One time when she was babysitting him, he tormented her by dropping a plant from the balcony of his tenth-floor apartment. Since Alice could communicate with plants she felt its torment as it died. She slapped Rin in retaliation, but as he was on the railing of the apartment's balcony he lost his grip and fell.
- He survived the fall but lapsed into a coma. It is during this coma that Rin has an almost total recall of his memories from his previous life as Shion. Although there are still small pieces missing from his memories, he remembers far more about his previous life than any of the others.
- Rin begins a plan to communicate with the moonbase using Tokyo Tower. In 1991 Tokyo Tower was being renovated, and Rin used his psychic powers to threaten the contractors into using his blueprints for the renovations. The design would turn Tokyo Tower into a large radio transmitter, capable of broadcasting to the moon. In order to activate the systems in the moonbase he needs everyone's passwords. Through blackmail and deception, Rin slowly begins to collect these passwords.
- Rin falls in love with Alice once he regains his memories, and blackmails her into becoming engaged to him. Alice's awakening was caused by Rin shortly after he came out of the coma. Her first "moon dream" was caused by a telepathic signal that Rin sent into her mind. The process that Rin used was called "Synergetic Cascade" on the Moon Scientist's homeworld.
- Interestingly enough, Rin bears no physical resemblance to Shion. He actually looks like Shukaido, who he was obsessed with when he died. He uses this to his advantage by convincing by the others that he is Shukaido and not Shion. This lends a great deal of dramatic irony to the series.
- The reincarnation of Gyokuran. His character description in the English manga compares him to Clark Kent, and that's probably as good a description as any. Though it should be noted that, like Gyokuran, he's emotionally immature. He rebuffs Issei's advances without a second thought. Jinpachi also unintentionally torments Issei by telling him how he's fallen deeply in love with Alice.
- Jinpachi and Issei are the first reincarnated moon characters that Alice and Rin encounter.
- Jinpachi is the only character who physically resembles his former incarnation. Aside from the way they part their hair, Gyokuran and Jinpachi are virtually identical.
- The reincarnation of Enju. He was reborn in a male body because he believed that he could be closer to Gyokuran's next incarnation if they were both males. Issei retains Enju's powers of telepathy. This telepathy caused Jinpachi to start having the moon dreams as well--and it also means that Issei and Jinpachi have the same dreams every night.
- The close friendship between Enju and Shushuran lasts two lifetimes. When Sakura and Issei meet in the real world, they become best friends once again. Sakura allows Issei to get over his unrequited love for Jinpachi and move on.
- Naturally, Issei doesn't physically resemble his former incarnation.
- Sakura was Shusuran in her previous life. Sakura started having moon dreams around the same time as the others. Sakura attends the same school as Daisuke, they discover each other during a near-fatal traffic accident while on a field trip. Sakura screamed for Sarjalim to save her as the bus was in an uncontrolled skid. Sarjalim was the goddess that the Moon Scientists worshipped. Daisuke heard this and realized that they'd been having the same dreams.
- Sakura physically resembles Enju. Shusuran had short red hair, and Sakura confessed that she always wished that she had Enju's thick, lustrous hair.
- Haruhiko is the reincarnation of Shukaido. Unlike Sakura and Daisuke, Haruhiko doesn't see the ad in Boo! magazine. Rin runs into him in a uniform store and realizes who he is. Haruhiko is racked with guilt over the terrible thing he did to Shion in his previous life. As such he does everything that Rin tells him; including claiming he's the reincarnation of Shion. This turns out to be an inspired move. The others grow to hate him as they recover more of their memories and due to Rin's machinations.
- Haruhiko has a very weak heart, due to his exessive use of his ESP when he was younger. Haruhiko resembles Shion physically, because Shukadio was obsessed with him when he died.
- The reincarnation of Hiiragi. Chronologically speaking, he started having the moon dreams first, as he started having them when he was seven. However, Rin recovered his memories even younger, though his coma had some help in that.
- Daisuke has very little time on panel in the manga, so not much is known about him. However he doesn't trust Haruhiko, who he believes to be Shion. He is also the only one who realizes the danger that collecting all of the passwords would pose, making it much more difficult for Rin to collect them all.
Moon Scientists, early '70s'
- Mokuren
- Mokuren was the team's biologist. She was a gorgeous woman with long blond hair. All of the male scientists had crushes on her. Mokuren was a special breed of psychic known as a "Kiches-Sarjalian". The word Kiches is also used to refer to the mark on her forehead, which consists of four red dots. A Kiches has the powers which Alice and Mokuren were known to use: the ability to talk to plants, and the ability to make them grow.
- It is claimed that "The Old Homeworld" was completely restored from its nuclear holocaust by the relatively small numbers of Kiches concentrating their prayers on it.
- Mokuren became engaged to Shion some time after the New Homeworld was destroyed. She was the second-to-last of the moon team to die. This was in spite of the fact that she had supposedly been inoculated against the virus that killed the rest of the team.
- Shion
- Shion was a war-orphan from the conflict over control of the Old Homeworld. Shion possessed strong psychic powers and controlled them with ease. He also had a first-rate mind and became a renowned engineer.
- Shion had serious emotional problems. As an orphan, he didn't experience a loving family until he was taken in by a foster father around age 6. He was slowly but surely starting to trust and love his foster father, when a terrible accident occurred and his foster father died. He never truly trusted any of his friends; even his childhood friend Gyokuran, whom Shion ended up hating because of Gyokuran's moral upstandingness and that fact that he was everything that Shion could never be.
- Shion was the only male member of the team that didn't fawn over Mokuren. However, he did slowly fall completely in love with her. The two later became engaged.
- Shion was the last of the moon team to die. He had been inoculated against the virus that was killing them, so lived alone for nine years after Mokuren died. He was unable to commit suicide because Mokuren warned him that people who commit suicide won't be reincarnated.
- This is why Rin is nine years younger than everyone else. After Mokuren's death, Shion went insane.
- Shukaido
- Shukaido was the team's doctor. Shukaido tended to stay in the background for the most part. He was in love with Mokuren, as all the male team members were.
- Shukaido managed to synthesize a vaccine for the virus that was killing the moon team, however, by that time he had already acquired the virus and could not use the vaccine on himself. However, by the time he completed his work only he, Mokuren and Shion were left. Shukaido was only able to synthesize a single dose, and injected it into Shion. He injected Mokuren with a placebo and claimed that it inoculated her. Shukaido did this to punish Shion for winning Mokuren's heart.
- Gyokuran
- Gyokuran was the team's archaeologist. Gyokuran was Shion's childhood friend; the two also went to school together with Shukaido. Gyokuran possessed psychic powers, but had difficulty controlling them.
- Gyokuran later became a great enemy of Shion; calling for the strictest possible punishment first when Shion suggests they evacuate to Earth, and later when he rapes Mokuren.
- Jinpachi says that Gyokuran always admired Shion. Rin found this shocking, and refused to believe it. Gyokuran died first.
- Enju
- Enju was an anthropologist with telepathic powers. She pined for Gyokuran, but he never returned any of her affection. Later on the two paired up after Shion and Mokuren got engaged. However it's suggested that their relationship lacked any sustenance. Enju was the fourth to die.
- Shusuran
- Shusuran was a physical scientist. She was Enju's best friend and the two spent many hours gossiping about the goings-on of the moonbase. Shusuran admired not only Enju's looks, but also her ability to fall completely in love. Shusuran admits that she never felt love for anyone, and apparently never paired up with anybody on the moonbase. She was the second to die.
- Hiiragi
- Hiiragi was the team leader. Hiiragi wasn't shown to do much, and most day-to-day decision of running the base seem to have been made by consensus or by Gyokuran.
- Despite being the base leader he shows up rarely in flashback scenes, even in the long stretch between issues 9 and 11 which tell Shion's background and shows almost their entire stay on the base!
- Hiiragi's most important function in the plot was his executive decision to forbid the scientist's evacuating to Earth after their homeworld was destroyed. Hiiragi died third.
North American availability
Both the anime and manga that are available in North America are available from Viz Communications, though the domestic manga translation and serialization is currently ongoing as of July 2006. If the current production schedule is maintained, and the series isn't canceled, the last volume should come out in March 2007.Trivia
- Starting roughly half-way through the series, a disclaimer appeared at the bottom of the first page of every compilation volume stating that the story was entirely fictional. This was due to some disturbing letters that Hiwatari received from people who were convinced that they had been part of the moon scientist's society (or even one of the moon scientists themselves) and had been reborn on Earth. These disclaimers have since appeared in her others works, most notably on the first pages of each volume of Global Garden.
- Due to the manga's length (21 tankoubons) and the complexity of the plot, the 6-episode OVA anime series (running 1h 40 min) has been criticized as being disjointed, confusing, and leaving too much out.
- There were two additional PSME animations not released in America. Please Save My Earth Music Image Video ~ The Passing of the Golden Age contains footage not seen in the OVA in 6 music videos and scenes taken from the manga. There is also a two-hour "movie" edit of the OVA series, called the Please Save My Earth Movie - From Alice to Rin-kun, which is narrated by Alice and adds a couple of new scenes but removes an hour of footage from the original.
External links
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