In a modern manga world dominated by the one trick ponies of tsunderes and sex icons, it's nice to return a simpler time in the media where the story genuinely cares about developing the motivations of its characters. It'll make more of an impact for you to read the story with no idea on what exactly you're getting into, but here's a basic summarization: We see not only how important the stars are to our main heroine, but why exactly they are. We see our character's backstories, the reasons behind their actions, their hopes, dreams, strengths, weaknesses. And this is all within the first volume! Many mangas like to drag out their characters' inner workings for quite few volumes in an attempt to make their already convoluted plots seem "fleshed out". This is a storyline that, quite simply, cuts through the bullshit and tells a story. It's an excellent piece to start out with for anyone seeking to get into this media as a whole, and is wholeheartedly recommended. ( )

Charming, beautiful, and thoughtful. Twin Spica goes beyond the typical shoujo high school stuff and tackles the bigger things: the meaning of life, loss, friendship, love, striving to achieve your dreams, and letting go when you have to. Even the extra stories are consistently excellent!
I give the whole series 5 Stars. ( )

I have to say, Twin Spica by author/artist Kou Yaginuma is very different to a lot of the kind of stuff I usually love to read. It’s (gasp!) non-violent. It (gape!) contains no monsters. Instead, it’s “just” an incredibly compelling and well put together piece of storytelling: warm, imaginative, moving and brilliant.
Twin Spica is the story of a young girl’s efforts to fulfil her dream to become an astronaut. As someone who is normally deeply sceptical towards protagonists who are written to be kind and sweet and (bleugh!) sympathetic, I was astonished to find myself rooting for Twin Spica‘s heroine Asumi Kamogawa almost from page one. I’m now two volumes in and utterly hooked. Put any preconceptions you might have about manga form and content to one side: Twin Spica will delight and amaze you. ( )

Ooh, lovely. I need to find more manga in this clean, sparse style. Emotional without being too maudlin. Shades of Ender's Game, but without the war plot. Girl astronauts! Woohoo! The Mr. Lion bits remind me of Ray Bradbury for some reason. ( )