Voices of a Distant Star (ほしのこえ) is a manga adaptation of the OAV of the same name by Shinkai Makoto. The single volume manga was done by Sahara Mizu in 2004.
A little bit in the future mankind has discovered the existence of aliens on Mars. Studying te ruins of what are being called the 'Tarsians' humanity has been able to achieve great technological advances in a matter of years. Unfortunately the first contact with the Tarsians proved to be disastrous. The unified Earth forces have begun to recruit people from all walks of life to join the space fleet to pursue, study and possibly fight the Tarsians.
Mikako is a normal middle school girl who has been chosen to join the space fleet for an upcoming mission as a mech pilot. She hides this information as long as she can from her friend and love interest Noboru. When she tells him that she won't be able to join him in high school because of her selection it comes as a surprise. They keep in contact through text messages but as Mikako's ship moves further and further away from Earth it takes longer for their communications.
On Earth Noburo begins to lose interest in his life as the communications from the girl he likes become infrequent. He learns that she has possibly known for years that she would be joining the fleet, but chose to live her life normally. Can the increasing distance and age destroy the feelings they share for each other?
This OAV was the first thing I saw by Shinkai many years ago and made him one of my favorite directors. The manga adaptation does a good job of expanding the world in this story beyond the character focused dialogue of the anime. The reader is given a more complete background that has lead to the contact and conflict between humans and the aliens. Other characters are introduced that both of the main characters interact with and use as catalysts for their internal struggles.
he artwork isn't bad. The characters designs in the manga a better than in the anime, but the mechanical designs are a little worse. Something is lost in some of the scenes through the lack of color but over all the focus of the manga draws you more to the dialogue instead of the artwork. ven though the OAV was single handed done by Shinkai near the turn of the century it looks fantastic and vivid. A lot of that is lost in the manga. But that isn't really a negative trait, as stated it doesn't distract from the core of the story, the characters relationship with each other and the struggle caused by their increasing distance. One thing that makes the manga superior to the anime is a more definitive ending, even if it may not be exactly what a lot of people want to see, it adds a little more to the feels than what the anime did.
Either way, worth checking out, especially since its an easy read and does a good job of expanding an excellent anime. It was published in English by Tokyopop and should be relatively easy to source. Now, to try and get my hands on the light novel.
A little bit in the future mankind has discovered the existence of aliens on Mars. Studying te ruins of what are being called the 'Tarsians' humanity has been able to achieve great technological advances in a matter of years. Unfortunately the first contact with the Tarsians proved to be disastrous. The unified Earth forces have begun to recruit people from all walks of life to join the space fleet to pursue, study and possibly fight the Tarsians.
Mikako is a normal middle school girl who has been chosen to join the space fleet for an upcoming mission as a mech pilot. She hides this information as long as she can from her friend and love interest Noboru. When she tells him that she won't be able to join him in high school because of her selection it comes as a surprise. They keep in contact through text messages but as Mikako's ship moves further and further away from Earth it takes longer for their communications.
On Earth Noburo begins to lose interest in his life as the communications from the girl he likes become infrequent. He learns that she has possibly known for years that she would be joining the fleet, but chose to live her life normally. Can the increasing distance and age destroy the feelings they share for each other?
This OAV was the first thing I saw by Shinkai many years ago and made him one of my favorite directors. The manga adaptation does a good job of expanding the world in this story beyond the character focused dialogue of the anime. The reader is given a more complete background that has lead to the contact and conflict between humans and the aliens. Other characters are introduced that both of the main characters interact with and use as catalysts for their internal struggles.
he artwork isn't bad. The characters designs in the manga a better than in the anime, but the mechanical designs are a little worse. Something is lost in some of the scenes through the lack of color but over all the focus of the manga draws you more to the dialogue instead of the artwork. ven though the OAV was single handed done by Shinkai near the turn of the century it looks fantastic and vivid. A lot of that is lost in the manga. But that isn't really a negative trait, as stated it doesn't distract from the core of the story, the characters relationship with each other and the struggle caused by their increasing distance. One thing that makes the manga superior to the anime is a more definitive ending, even if it may not be exactly what a lot of people want to see, it adds a little more to the feels than what the anime did.
Either way, worth checking out, especially since its an easy read and does a good job of expanding an excellent anime. It was published in English by Tokyopop and should be relatively easy to source. Now, to try and get my hands on the light novel.
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