Please Save My Earth (Please Save My Earth)

Rating:
Summary: One of my old-time favorites
Review: I saw the six episode OAV for Please Save My Earth long ago, fan subs and all. The series immediately captured my heart, and has been one of my all-time favorites for years. It's truly masterful storytelling, and the first volume is too hilarious for words ^^

Since I find the synopsis provided by the site unstatysfying, I'll help you out. Alice is a really shy, passive girl that just moved to Tokyo from far-off Hokkaido. She has an odd gift for communicating with plants and animals, so the urban setting doesn't thrill her much. To top things off, she's not fitting in at school, and her bratty (and cruel!) seven year old neighbor, Kobayashi Rin, torments her constantly. She ends up overhearing an (coughcough) *odd* conversation between classmate Ogura Jinpachi and his (coughcough) *friend* Nishikiori Issei. Alice, embarrassed to no end, runs off, but not before she steps on a leaf, notifying them of her presence. Later, Alice takes Rin to the zoo, where she runs into these two again. In an effort to clear up the misunderstanding, Jinpachi takes Alice and co. to a nearby coffee shop and begins to explain their situation. Turns out, he and his buddy Issei have been having dreams in a common setting since middle school, involving the same people and times. In this dream life, they are alien scentists living on a moon base, studying the Earth they adore from afar. Alice, fascinated by their story, is swept up in the magic of it all. But when an accident occurs, and feelings are running amok (as should happen in the shoujo manga world), Alice finds herself wrapped up in this "story" far more than she could have ever guessed...

Saki Hiwatari is truly a master of crafting a story and it's characters. Issei is my favorite because I'm in a situation so similar to his, I can truly relate to it. Her characters are so real, and the story is so magical and compelling. It takes some practice remembering all the names (Shion Mokuren Gyokuran Enju Shushuran Hiiragi Shukaido, say THAT 5 times fast!), but it's really easy to get into once you get the hang of it. PLEASE don't let the old school art deter you (PSME is from the 80's, after all...), it's really charming in it's own way, and it improves as Hiwatari-san gets closer to her characters.

For fans of the old OAVs- READ THIS. It has more comedy and more filler, and it actually FINISHES THE STORY!! The 6 OAVs could not possibly convey all that happens in this manga (spanning 20 plus volumes!!). This is a must-read, you heard it straight from the Otaku's mouth.