Top OTP from Embraced by the Moonlight by Saki Hiwatari | Manga Review

Embraced by the Moonlight by Saki Hiwatari
Proceeded by: Please Save My Earth
Completed at 85 Chapters, 15 volumes
Reading Status: Finished

Published: Sep 26, 2003 to Nov 26, 2014
Mystery, Fantasy, Romance, Sci-Fi
Rating:

Since the conclusion of the original series, Rin and Arisu are leading happy lives. Their son, Ren, is a very normal boy. But one day, a man and a woman as beautiful as an angel appear in front of him and tell him about a power! What is this power Ren suddenly has? The much anticipated sequel to "Please Save My Earth"!

This idea is inspired by Nick and Nereyda's Infinite Book List.

A LOVE THAT TRANSCENDS AGE

I've talked to you before about Please Save My Earth, one of my favorite manga. And in it, I've mention Rin and Alice's love - Rin and Alice have memories of their past lives, where they were a married (alien) couple on the moon. I loved them in Please Save my Earth. But in Embraced by the Moonlight? I SHIPPED THEM SO HARD IT HURT.

This is not your regular type of shipping, where you anxiously wait for them to realize their feelings and be together and have beautiful babies, because that ship has sailed with the ending of Please Save My Earth. Instead, we're transported about fifteen years into the future. You get to have this experience with very few couples that you love.

ALICE AND REN ARE MARRIED. They have an eight year old son themselves. And they're one heck of a couple. We get to see what the future holds for these two - we get to see them blissfully happy, we get to see their matrimony fights, we get to see how they are still facing their past lives and how they continue to affect them to this day.

While a huge part of this sequel series is actually about the next generation - Rin and Alice's son Ren and their friend's daughter Kachiko, Rin and Alice are a major part, and all of Ren and Kachiko's adventures somehow connect to the journey Rin in specific has yet to finish from book one.

These two are one of my biggest manga OTPs, and I have spent the majority of this manga smiling broadly and enjoying every moment of seeing them together.

Aside for this dashing couple, the manga has a ton more to offer. Firstly, you have the adventures of two young kids that manage to be mature and deal with life altering subjects while still acting like kids would. This is so important to me because oftentimes, stories decide to neglect the "kid" aspect of the equation in order to have "meaningful" adventures.

Then, you've got a BROTP TO SHIP THE SHIT OUT OF! In PSME we got to see very little of Rin and Shion's interactions, and what more we never got to see them separated. What is their relationship like? How does Rin feel about Shion and vice verse? We get to explore all this in Embraced by the Moonlight and let me just tell you... EPIC BROTP. Literally gives me life.

And not just these relationships - every character and relationship in this manga are complicated and layered and are not just black and white - the adult and child ones.

Whaaat? still not convinced you should read this manga. Okay. How 'bout I tell you IT'S SO FUNNY AND CUTE? And so hopeful about life? AND THE FEELS ARE HAVING A FIELD DAY WITH IT!

Seriously, I implore you to read this manga series. Even if you don't like manga.

And someone please come asdfghjk with me over Rin and Alice!

Three Reasons To Read Please Save My Earth by Saki Hiwatari | Manga Review

Please Save my Earth by Saki Hiwatari
Completed at 138 Chapters, 21 volumes
Reading Status: Finished

Published: 1987 to 1994 (no dates specified)
Mystery, Fantasy, Romance, Sci-Fi
Rating:

Mystic dreams of a previous life in the moon lead to the bonding of seven students in an attempt to uncover the secrets behind what they have forgotten. As various truths are sought and avoided, Alice must hurry remembering if she is to save the fragile Rin from self-destruction. For only after facing the grave errors of the past, can they all move forward and live fully in the present.

I'm a huge manga fan. And Please Save my Earth is one of those manga I find myself re-visiting often. And whenever I do, I get flooded by feels just as if I was reading it for the very first time. It's one of these manga that I would recommend for anyone, and here are the reasons;

Please Save My Earth tells not one story - but two. The first one is of six modern day teenagers and one eight year old child who have memories of their past lives. Those memories and personalities interfere with their present lives, especially for the eight year old.

The other story-line is that of their past lives - seven alien scientists from planets far more advanced than earth who were stationed on the moon and died there from an outbreak, which led to them being reborn on earth.

Please Save My Earth expertly weaves together the two stories, one a tale of finding a way to release the memories and finding one's self, and the other a heartbreaking tragedy tinged with hope, making you desperate to know more about both and specifically the characters of the leading four: Rin and Alice and their past selves Shion and Mokuren.

Every character in this manga series is just so flawed and imperfect, in the most lovable way. You will love them to pieces, because they're real and gray and layered and they're not just one thing or the other. That's why the story looks slightly different from every character's eyes.

Also, this idea of reincarnation is way cool. I hope I was an alien in a past life.

This is probably the one most people are going to have the biggest reserves about. Please Save My Earth features many complicated and layered romantic relations/feelings. But the main two are something even beyond that.

The first relationship happens in the past; between two scientists aboard the Moon Base. One is a man who only knows war, fear and loneliness, he has a very weak grasp of what love is and he is afraid of it. The other is a woman who receives adoration from everyone around her because of her abilities and beauty, but only wants one person to love her for herself. 

imagine you had the memories of this love. This wretched, often misguided love that ended before having enough time to blossom because of the disease. And imagine that you're now eight years old, and the woman you've loved --and presently love-- is nine years older than you and has no idea about anything.

I bet you just went "Whaaa?"

Yes, there is a giant age gap. And it's the type of age gap that bothers people more because the woman is older (not that I understand the double standard there). And yes, the boy is incredibly young. But if you read the manga, you see all those are just incorrect assumptions--or rather, meaningless ones.

Because Rin, the boy in question, is more adult than child due to his memories, and the love he feels for Alice is not some fleeting infatuation, but the real deal. And even if you're skeptic at first, by the end of the manga you will believe this love with all of your being.

Yes, I cry. Every. single. time. 

It's like, I can't deal with all these emotions, from the past and from the present. You get so in-tune with these characters that you can't separate yourself from them so when you see their tragic pasts; you are sure to cry. When you see the past trying to take their present and making them miserable; you are going to cry! And when you see them finally grasping happiness after everything... you guessed it; you will cry!

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Honestly, one of the more underrated manga out there, despite being somewhat of a pioneer in the Shoujo genre in Japan - I highly recommend it to everyone out there. The art-style is very eighties (if you read manga, you probably know what I mean) but another nice aspect of the manga is watching it evolve and get some fineness as the series progresses.