Review: VOICES OF A DISTANT STAR

A romance set against the backdrop of space sounds epic, but stories like this prove that it can be intimate and longing as well.

VOICES OF A DISTANT STAR (Hoshi no Koe), based on the film by Makoto Shinkai with art by Mizu Sahara.  First published in 2004 and first published in North America in 2006.

PLOT:

Mikako and Noburo are middle-school sweethearts whose budding relationship is interrupted when Mikako is chosen to join a special space exploration force.  Her job will be to pursue a group of aliens on a chase through the solar system and beyond.  Now the two are literally separated by time and space; the further Mikako gets away from Earth, the longer it takes her messages to reach Noburo.  As time on Earth passes, Noburo has to come to terms with what Mikako means to him and how to move on in a world without her.

STORY:

This might be the best adaptation I've read yet of a Makoto Shinkai film to manga.  It helps that it's a genre mash-up that's well-suited not just to Shinkai's strengths but also to manga, being a dreamy sort of sci-fi romance with an emphasis on the emotion.  That means you shouldn't expect to see a lot of epic space battles and a lot of these two kids moodily staring into the middle distance with longing.  This should feel tedious, but Shinkai manages to tap into some of the more universal feelings of this very unusual situation.  This is basically a manga about a long-distance relationship, albeit one one that has to deal with the practical effects of Einstein's theory of relativity, and because of that it comes off as a sweet, sad mood piece more than anything else.

ART:

The art also has a dreamy quality, with its light linework.  The designs are a bit flat and the faces tend to look a bit similar, but they're emotive enough to really sell the reader on how they're feeling.  The panels tend to be rather small and the backgrounds tend to be rather sketchy, so the focus stays on the kids to the exclusion of pretty much everything else.  It's certainly atmospheric, but part of me wished that the art was just a little more complete and a little more polished to truly take things over the top.

PRESENTATION:

I was working from the original Tokyopop release, which did include some color artwork.  Sadly, I have not had a chance to take a look at Vertical's more recent re-release, so I can't speak to any changes in the translation.  I will say that both version preserve the lovely cover art, a sketch of Mikako colored in delicate watercolors.

RATING:

If you're in the mood for a wistful romance with a hint of sci-fi, Voices of a Distant Star might be a good manga for you.  Otherwise, you might do better to just watch the film instead.

This book is published by Vertical and formerly by Tokyopop.  This book is currently in print.