Please Save My Earth (Boku no Chikkyu wo Mamotte ) Manga

Genre: Romance / Supernatural
Parental Guidance Recommended
1987-1994 Hiwatari Saki / Hakuensha (Hana to Yume)

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Series Description (from the OAV):
Sensitive young Japanese high school student Alice Sakaguchi has always been in love with the Earth, and all the life on it. Plants and animals seem to love her, as well. Could the reason be found in strange recurring dream Alice's classmates have been having, of being part of a team of alien scientists on the moon collecting data about Earth? Alice doesn't really believe that, of course...until she has the same dream. Suddenly, she begins to find even more of the 'Moon Dream' people involved in her life, even her eight-year-old neighbor is acting strange. Is history really doomed to repeat itself, even when that history carries over from a previous life...?

(21 tankubon)

I'm drenched in tears. >>> by skysenshi
I saw the movie first, which got me really hooked and had me searching for the manga despite the fact that the only ones available for me are in raw Japanese (more reason for me to listen to Firesenshi and take seriously my Jap studies). If I was blown away by the movie and thought I understood everything there is to understand about Please Save My Earth, I found myself sadly mistaken. The text version, with its completeness and profundity, almost had me in tears. The artwork may not be as good as in the anime, but this improves tremendously in later volumes.

The characterization is simply amazing, especially the telling of Mokuren and Shion's past lives. I felt deeply for Shion mostly. I usually do not like adults who behave irrationally and use bad childhood experience as an excuse, but Shion's character was able to touch me in a way that not many manga figures ever did*. I also got important 411 on Mokuren that made me hate her less as I read more. At first I thought she was that disgustingly perfect creature that had every male specimen falling at her feet, but as the story progressed, I got deeper insight into her own struggles as a human being.

Most of my thoughts regarding this manga title have been mentioned in my movie write-up, including, of course, any artwork comparisons.

 

***WARNING! SPOILER NOTES***

1. It's explained here in detail the exact reason for the differences in the ages -- why Rin (Shion's reincarnated self) is 9 years younger than the rest of them. In the movie and OAV, the real reason was only implied, although it should be obvious even in the animated version. Here, only an idiot can miss it. Shion did not get reincarnated twice, like he claimed (even if you only saw the anime, you should have guessed this from there already). He was left to roam the moon as the only living person alive for 9 years before he finally caught the fatal disease that killed his comrades. Hence the delay in his reincarnation.
   
2. The climax that was missing in the movie is in the 21st volume, and is a very important detail, IMHO. It is the very essence of the entire series. It's what the title "Boku no Chikkyu wo Mamotte" (loosely translated as "Please protect my earth") is all about. Okay to cut the story short, the machine that Rin wants destroyed (and what Shion wants to preserve) is none other than an eternal hologram of a singing Mokuren... so that the earth may listen to it forever even when Mokuren and Shion are long gone. It should've been serving as the earth's protection -- its air that would help the greens grow.
   
3. The rape case - I'm a bit tired of reading about this horrid phrase uttered by Shion's supposed friends with regards to his taking of Mokuren's Kiche. The dear girl gave it to him of her own free will! I could never never never forgive a rapist, but if Mokuren was able to forgive and love Shion, then that says a lot about what really happened. Poor Shion! This was unexplained in the movie (I already took it as a given), but the "rape case" was the real reason why Rin wanted Haru-chan to act as Shion in his stead. Rin had thought that if Alice/Mokuren knew that Rin is actually Shion in the past life, she would hate him for "defiling her".
   
4. This is the most amazing thing: Even before I knew about Rin's past life and his relationship to Alice, I had always felt that these two should be together. It should seem strange (can you imagine dating somebody who's only 7 years old???), but Rin's personality was so well-drawn out that his mature soul has already been exerting himself from day one. Yes, you might say he behaved like a baby, pulling the nastiest pranks on Alice, but that is exactly how Shion acted in his past life.
   
5. I was a bit disappointed with some parts of the ending, though, because I wanted Issei and Jinpachi to end up together (instead Jinpachi develops a Lolita complex and Issei not only marries Sakura but becomes a hairdresser too). So sue me, I love shonen-ai stuff! It's even my incentive for watching Card Captor Sakura.

Individual Rating: Art 7; Story 10; Characters 10