ALL PICTURES ARE FROM THE MANGA. RIGHTS BELONG TO THE CREATOR.

NO SPOILERS

Friends, today I'm going to ask you to give your attention to a series that remains very underrated. It is a quiet gem which is waiting to be found. I'm going to talk about Satoshi Mizukami's Spirit Circle.

The ONLY Flaw

Let's get the only criticism I can find of this out of the way at once. The art here is not amazing. It is not at all bad or unreadable, actually some shots are even very very good. But, these aren't the best character figures out there. It is but a small inconvenience at most and you'll very soon look past it as you read this.

A Teaser of the Plot

Spirit Circle is about 14 year olds Fuuta and Kuoko. Kuoko is a new student in Fuuta's school and very quiet and reserved. Fuuta wants to be friends with her and tries to approach her many times, till finally Kuoko responds. Fuuta notices a ghost hovering around Kuoko and accidentally mentions it to her. She immediately becomes very angry and vicious towards him. Turns out, Fuuta and Kuoko are actually enemies by fate. For several reincarnations, they have fought against each other. The rest of the story revolves around Fuuta remembering all his past lives and why Kuoko hates him so much.

My Thoughts

I hate the first volumes of a lot of series that I otherwise love. A major problem of first volumes is often organically introducing characters. Often we meet our heroes in-media res or when they're already friends for years. Here then it doesn't make sense for them to call each other by their full names or start describing each other's personalities or past incidents to each other in full detail. To sidestep this, Kuoko is introduced as new to the school. This is a fresh take because automatically we get to know the other characters because they are introducing themselves to her. Fuuta actually tries to go extra and describes all his friends. This is amazing because it is very natural for someone new to be introduced to others like this and it simultaneously solves a big starting difficulty.

However, this style is not new. I like to call it the "naive baby" plot device, because we are literally put into the perspective of a naive newcomer and experience the story from their perspective. This can quickly turn boring and run into tropes like "the chosen one." Here is where we get the first flashes of brilliance from the author. We are quickly flipped when it turns out that Kuoko knows far more about reincarnations and why Fuuta is her sworn nemesis than him. Now all of a sudden, we have to experience a wholly different thing from Fuuta's side as the naive one. This juxtaposition between Fuuta's comfort in his school environment and his total lack of knowledge about the spirit circle plays a big part in raising the tension.

All of a sudden we are faced with so many new questions! What Reincarnation? What is a Spirit Circle? Why is Kuoko acting so odd?

All these are answered slowly as the plot progresses. I don't want to spoil the story for you but I want to tell you that though this appears very childish in its art design, it is very adult in its sensibility. It is not lewd or filled with gore, but it concerns itself with very serious philosophical questions about who we are and whether our past is what makes us who we are.

The story bursts into action as we learn about Kuoko and Fuuta's history. This book concerns two reincarnations of Fuuta and both of them broke my heart. I love the format established here. First we get to know Fuuta's perspective, then Fuuta discusses it with Kuoko and we get a bigger picture. What we thought were happy endings are flipped on their head and this change of perspective and how the same thing affects two people so differently is fascinating to read.

What I really took away from here is how people judge themselves so selfishly. We judge the help we give by our metric, not of how much it helped the other person. Often in a effort to protect loved ones or curry favors, we affect other individuals in ways we may never even get to know.

This manga made me think a lot. It is philosophical in the good way that while it makes you think, it is still entertaining and not just shallow "wise saying" junk.

By the end of it, you get a bunch of wonderfully tragic short stories interspersed with the main narrative. You realise how people can be selfish or heroic but how so much boils down to love and kindness. I know that this is a series I'm going to enjoy a lot reading.

Well, that's it from me. Check this out if you can. I am willing to bet that at the very least you will appreciate the concept displayed here. If you do read this, let me know!

Thank you for reading this <3