“Voices of a Distant Star” was a good manga adaptation of Shinkai’s earlier work. And definitely a manga worth reading if you are a Shinkai fan!
© 2018 Makoto Shinkai/CWF Mizu Sahara. All Rights Reserved.
MANGA TITLE: Voices of a Distant Star
STORY AND ART BY:Â Story by Makoto Shinkai, Art by Mizu Sahara
FIRST PUBLISHED IN JAPAN: Kodansha
PUBLISHED IN USA BY: Vertical, Inc.
RATED: N/A
RELEASE DATE: February 20, 2018
Mikako Nagamine is recruited as a pilot to fight in the interstellar war against a force of alien invaders, leaving behind her one true love. Mikako’s only connection to Noboru Terao, who continues living the life of an ordinary student, is through cell phone text messages. As Mikako travels light years away, it takes longer and longer for Noboru to receive her messages, until finally one arrives eight years and seven months after she sent it…
Just the mere mention of Makoto Shinkai’s name and fans of his work go crazy.
The former Falcom graphic designer, who took the anime industry by storm back in 2001 when he released his anime OVA titled “Voices of a Distant Starâ€, which he created on his Power Mac G4 and using several software and voice acted by he and his wife Miko and music provided by his friend Tenmon.
The OVA inspired many for the fact it was independent, created on a small budget but looked significantly better than some major anime series by well-known animation studios.
Suffice to say, the person who grew up inspired by Miyazaki films was now given a chance to create more animated films and he would eventually achieve success with “The Place Promised in Our Early Days†(2004), “5 Centimeters Per Second†(2007), “Children Who Chase Lost Voices (“Hoshi o Ou Kodomoâ€) (2011), “Kotonoha no Miwa†(The Garden of Words) (2013) and “Your Name” (2016).
And now “Voices of a Distant Star” (Hoshi no Koe) was released on manga courtesy of Vertical Inc.
The storyline focuses on two individuals. Mikako Nagamine was recruited by the UN Space Army to fight in a war against aliens known as the Tarsians. Mikako pilots a mecha and is part of a squadron of fighters on the spacecraft carrier Lysithea.
The other person that the story focuses on is Noboru Terao, who stays on Earth. Both like each other and they communicate via e-mail through their mobile phones. And as the Lysithea travels deeper into space, the messages take forever to get to each other and while Mikako is on light-speed, back on Earth, what communication that may have been sent, may take years to get to each other and the lack of quick communication makes each other wonder how life is on the other side.
While Makoto Shinkai’s “Voices of a Distant Star” will be known for how one man was able to create an animated OVA on his own via his Power Mac G4 using LightWave, Adobe Photoshop 5.1, Adobe After Effects 4.1 and Commotion 3.1 DV software.
And what he was able to create was no doubt inspirational and rare, especially considering how wonderful the quality was.
As many of Shinkai’s works would receive a manga adaptation, the adaptation of “Voices of a Distant Star” is finally released in the US.
While Shinkai has improved as a writer and a storyteller, one will have to appreciate “Voices of a Distant Star” for its delving into sci-fi, time travel and human emotion of longing and desire.
While one of the better known storylines to cover time travel would be the OVA series “Gunbuster”, “Voices of a Distant Star” is rather interesting as it deals with two young middle schoolers, Mikako and Noboru. Mikako has the talent to pilot a mech and so she is recruited by the UN Space Army to fight the aliens known as Tarsians from the Tharsis region of Mars.
And the farther Mikako goes with her team on the spacecraft carrier, Lysithea, the messages she sends to Noboru take years.
So, these two young people care deeply for each other but because of time-travel, we see the time period as Mikako’s time is the present and each time Noboru gets an e-mail (or no e-mail), he gradually gets older, wishing he could fight the aliens and be near Mikako.
Each time we see Mikako longing, we see Noboru as time has past and you can see how the middle-schooler eventually becomes a young adult.
We see the loneliness and pain Mikako feels of not being back on Earth, wishing that she could be with Noboru, while Noboru checks his messages each morning to find nothing. He knows she is fighting but both hold out hope that one day, they can be reunited.
While I felt that “Gunbuster” was no doubt the ultimate story to showcase time-travel and seeing characters age, with “Gunbuster” there was an awareness that with space travel (especially via lightspeed), their loved ones they left back on Earth may be old or deceased.
For “Voices of a Distant Star”, it was interesting to see how Shinkai conveyed the longing of two people and without spoiling the storyline, it was a good story. But if you followed Shinkai’s work, you’ll see how he improved when it came to storytelling, especially when it came to human interactions and emotion.
So, one can see his work with “Voices of a Distant Star” as his first major step as a storyteller.
As for the manga, Mizu Sahara did a good job of conveying Shinkai’s characters in manga format. While not the most detailed artwork, Sahara was able to capture emotion through a character’s eyes.
Overall, “Voices of a Distant Star” was a good manga adaptation of Shinkai’s earlier work. And definitely a manga worth reading if you are a Shinkai fan!