Line #51 Manga/TwinSpica


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4	[[quoteright:287:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/twin_spica.jpg]]
5	[[caption-width-right:287:Kei, Marika, and Asumi]]
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7	An accident caused the Japanese space program's manned rocket, the Lion, to crash into [[RealPlaceBackground Yuigahama]]. [[PluckyGirl Asumi Kamogawa]], who was one year old at the time, survives the incident, protected by her mother [[MissingMom Kyouko]], who is badly burned and falls into a coma.
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9	Five years later, Kyouko dies without ever having regained consciousness. After the funeral, Asumi meets a [[SpiritAdvisor strange man]] wearing a lion head from a mascot costume and playing a harmonica. Although she doesn't believe him at first, he is the ghost of one of the astronauts killed in the Lion incident. Between her teacher and her father telling her [[StarsAreSouls that dead people become stars]], and talking with Lion-san, she decides to become a "[[{{Malaproper}} rocket driver]]" when she grows up.
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11	To that end, Asumi applies to the prestigious and expensive [[ElaborateUniversityHigh Tokyo Space Academy]], to enroll in the newly created astronaut training course. During the rather unusual [[ThresholdGuardians entrance exam]], she meets [[RichBitch Marika Ukita]] and [[CuteGlassesGirl Kei Oumi]]. At the same time, her childhood friend [[UnluckyChildhoodFriend Shinnosuke Fuchuuya]], who has followed her to the school, meets Shuu Suzuki, and the five of them eventually form a group.
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13	Since this is a whole new area of study for this level, the teachers and administrators are feeling out what needs to be done and learning as much as the students are. This leads to some rather odd training scenarios combined with the more expected. It doesn't help that one of the [[SadistTeacher teachers]] knew [[SinsOfOurFathers Asumi's father]].
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15	The main story line covers Asumi and the others during their time at Tokyo Space Academy, but there are numerous {{flashback}}s to earlier periods.
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17	The anime is only 20 episodes long, with a [[NoEnding non-ending]]. It follows the manga fairly closely until the end of the anime, but only covers part of the first five volumes, most of what was out at the time. Given the length differences, many of these tropes only apply to the manga.
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19	A LiveActionAdaptation produced by Creator/{{NHK}} aired in the summer of 2009. Vertical has released the entire manga in the [[UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates US]], but it's not in print anymore due to low sales, so some physical volumes might be very expensive nowadays. They are available from Amazon as Kindle e-books.
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21
22	!!Tropes applied in this series:
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24	* TheAce: Subverted. Shuu is initially played up as a BrilliantButLazy [[TheAce Ace]], but after becoming TrueCompanions with Asumi and co. he admits that there are quite a few things that Asumi is better than him at.
25	* AirplaneArms: Young Asumi does this a lot
26	%%* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Asumi pretty much suffers from this throughout her entire life.
27	* AnimeThemeSong: The music pre-dates the anime, but the lyrics for the opening were written for it
28	%%* [[spoiler:AnyoneCanDie]]
29	%%* [[spoiler:ArtificialHuman: Marika]]
30	* AttentionWhore: Shuu is frequently accused of doing this by shaving his eyebrows. [[spoiler: In reality, he does it because he has his father's eyebrows and is trying to distance himself from him.]]
31	%%* BackStory: Everyone except Kei.
32	%%* BeachEpisode
33	* BigFancyHouse: Marika. Shuu's family has one as well, but he lives in a dinky little apartment
34	* [[spoiler:BigSleep]]
35	%%* BrokenBird
36	* ButNowIMustGo: [[spoiler: Lion-san in the second-to-last chapter.]]
37	* CherryBlossoms: One of Asumi's flashbacks covers this in detail
38	%%* ComingOfAgeStory
39	* CoolChair: The multi-axis chair
40	%%* CutShort: The anime
41	%%* DefrostingIceQueen
42	* DiegeticSoundtrackUsage: The ending theme is frequently played on a harmonica by Lion-san
43	* DirtyKid: Volume 4, extra chapter "This Star Spica," starts with elementary school teacher Miss Suzunari chasing down Fuchuya. When she finally catches him, he assumes he's in trouble and starts telling her [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial all the bad things he has NOT done]], including "...and I never sat under the stairs and looked up your skirt."
44	%%* DiscretionShot
45	* DrillSergeantNasty: The instructor doesn't do very much yelling, but he always has a hearty laugh when he's giving students even ''more'' TrainingFromHell on top of what they already did (to the point that the students - Kei especially - have taken to calling him "Ogre".)
46	%%* DudeMagnet: Marika.
47	%%* ElaborateUniversityHigh: Tokyo Space Academy
48	%%* EndingTheme
49	* FatalFlaw: Asumi, who [[spoiler:nearly drowned as a child, is afraid of water. Which is something of a problem, given that they have to be able to swim in full flight gear and do a lot of simulated zero-g work in pools]]
50	%%* FestivalEpisode
51	%%* FirstNameBasis
52	%%* {{Flashback}}: Numerous
53	* FreeRangeChildren: 6 year old Asumi runs all around town and forested mountains with only a ghost for company [[spoiler: and on one occasion nearly drowns.]]
54	* GeneticMemory: Current Marika sometimes remembers things the original Marika knew
55	* TheGlassesGottaGo: Kei switched from glasses to contact lens after she had successfully enrolled in the school, hoping to make herself more attractive.
56	* GovernmentConspiracy: [[spoiler:The real cause of the Lion incident is apparently corner-cutting and outsourcing of what was supposed to be the first manned rocked designed and made entirely in Japan. Which TheGovernment has been trying to keep under wraps.]]
57	* GreatEscape: One of the stranger class projects involve one of these
58	%%* HeelFaceTurn
59	* [[SheIsNotMyGirlfriend He Is Not My Boyfriend]]: [[LonersAreFreaks Asumi]] to protect Shimizu from bullying
60	%%* HeroicBSOD
61	%%* InvisibleToNormals: Lion-san
62	* IncurableCoughOfDeath: Started with [[spoiler:a nosebleed for one. Possibly building to a straight version of this with another character. For the second time.]]
63	* IntrepidReporter: Ichimura, [[spoiler:who recognizes Marika during the media attention surrounding Shuu after he's been selcted to participate in a Shuttle mission, and starts investigating.]]
64	* IRememberBecause: Asumi remembering their room number in the closed environment adaptation test due to the number corresponds to the distance in light-year from Earth to Spica.
65	%%* JerkWithAHeartOfGold
66	%%* KidsAreCruel: Kasane's problem
67	%%* LonelyRichKid
68	* LonersAreFreaks: Marika until she [[DefrostingIceQueen becomes]] a {{True Companion\|s}}. Asumi in middle school.
69	%%* LuminescentBlush
70	* MagicRealism: Lion-san brings this to the table in an otherwise fairly realistic sci-fi series.
71	%%* MeaningfulFuneral: Where ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Flohwalzer Neko Funjatta]]'' is played
72	* MeaningfulName: "Asumi", when written in kanji, would mean as much as "view into the future"
73	%%* MementoMacGuffin: The pin of Asumi's mother
74	* MissingMom: Asumi's mother, among others
75	* {{Motifs}}: The harmonica is featured prominently, both musically and visually.
76	%%* MundaneDogmatic
77	%%* NeverGotToSayGoodbye
78	* NextSundayAD: Started publication in 2001, the Lion incident happening in 2010. This leaves a list of space travel disasters and ISS's deorbit date mentioned early in the series disproved by reality.
79	* ObsoleteMentor: Lion-san's advice to Asumi ranges from helpful to worthless. Justified in that he was an astronaut before any established training regime, and the new course at the Tokyo Space Academy is the first attempt to establish one.
80	%%* {{Ojou}}
81	* OneNoteCook: Asumi never seems to make anything other than riceballs or curry
82	* OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent
83	* ParentalAbandonment: Done in various ways, from dead parents to ones that are simply never mentioned
84	%%* PensieveFlashback
85	* PerpetualPoverty: Asumi. Kei is surprised to find out she doesn't even have a cell phone
86	%%* PerpetualSmiler: Shu, [[spoiler: though it seems like he crosses over into StepfordSmiler most of the time.]]
87	%%* PlotBasedPhotographObfuscation: In the opening credits, no less.
88	%%* PluckyGirl
89	* PottyFailure: Volume 4 has them don diapers as they train in space suits for long stretches of time. Kei forgets to use the restroom before starting, and is humiliated at being forced to pee in her diaper.
90	%%* ThePowerOfFriendship
91	%%* ThePromise
92	* RebelliousPrincess: Sort of. Marika and [[spoiler: Shu]] are the kids of a wealthy businessman and a politician respectively, and are going against their father's wishes by training to become astronauts (the latter is even disowned for it.)
93	* ReplacementGoldfish: [[spoiler: Marika is cloned to be a replacement of the original Marika]]
94	%%* RichBitch
95	* RousseauWasRight: Even the SadistTeacher is just misguided. Although there is that whole GovernmentConspiracy thing that hasn't been resolved yet
96	* SadistTeacher: Sano to Asumi. Kei's view of the phys ed teacher
97	%%* ScaryShinyGlasses: Sano
98	* {{Scenery Porn}}: There are some gorgeous drawings of the night sky, the sea, the forest, cherry blossoms, and of course [[spoiler: Asumi's view of the earth from space]]
99	%%* {{Seinen}}
100	* SelectiveObliviousness: Asumi doesn't have much room in her head for anything besides space
101	%%* SinsOfOurFathers
102	* SittingOnTheRoof: Shuu likes to do this for stargazing
103	%%* SleepCute
104	%%* SliceOfLife
105	%%* SpiritAdvisor
106	%%* StandingInTheHall
107	%%* StylisticSuck
108	* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: Volume 4, extra chapter "This Star Spica," starts with elementary school teacher Miss Suzunari chasing down Fuchuya. When she finally catches him, he assumes he's in trouble and starts telling her all the bad things he has NOT done:
109	** "I didn't break that window, I didn't eat all the fried bread, [[DirtyKid and I never sat under the stairs and looked up your skirt]]."
110	** Miss Suzunari's thought bubble then reads "You did all that?!"
111	%%* TeamShot: For the {{Eyecatch}}
112	* TeamSpirit: Not quite played straight, since the point is made repeatedly that few of the students will actually be able to go in to space, but no-one can go in to space alone
113	%%* ThereAreNoTherapists
114	%%* ThresholdGuardians: The closed-environment test of the entrance exam
115	* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Shuu has a fondness for Chinese Honey Orange juice
116	* TrainingFromHell: The astronaut training program likes to push the students physically. Especially with jogging, obstacle courses, orienteering, and more high-tech things like pressure chambers and the multi-axis chair
117	%%* TrueCompanions
118	%%* {{Tsundere}}: Fuchuya is a RareMaleExample.
119	%%* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture
120	%%* UnluckyChildhoodFriend
121	* UnwinnableTrainingSimulation: The final 3rd year test is so utterly grueling and unrelenting that nobody was expected to pass it (in fact, the instructor eventually tells the people taking it that the test is all about finding each person's limit, and how far they can go beyond it.) [[spoiler: Indeed, in the end, nobody manages to clear the final leg of the test.]]
122	%%* WeirdnessCensor: Usually involving Lion-san
123	* WhamLine: [[spoiler: "Shuu passed away earlier today."]]
124	%%* WholeEpisodeFlashback: Several.

Context Manga / TwinSpica