Please Save My Earth Review: Seven Tokyo Teenagers Dream of Being Scientists on the Moon in a Past Life
by Saki Hiwatari
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Quick Take
- One of the defining shojo manga of the 1990s — the reincarnation concept is executed with rare sophistication, and the past-life relationships creating present-life complications is handled with more emotional honesty than the premise suggests
- Hiwatari's construction of two timelines — the alien scientists on the Moon, the present-day Tokyo teenagers — is among the most accomplished narrative architecture in shojo manga
- 21 volumes complete in English; a landmark of the genre that rewards the commitment
Who Is This Manga For?
- Readers who want sci-fi romance with genuine narrative complexity
- Anyone interested in reincarnation as a plot mechanism used with seriousness
- Fans of 1990s shojo manga at its most ambitious
- Readers who want a completed long-form romance with genuine resolution
Content Warnings & Age Rating
Age Rating: T (Teen) Content Warnings: Past life trauma surfacing in present; supernatural content involving a child prodigy who may be more than he appears; romantic complications from past-life relationships; some emotionally heavy content
T rating — emotionally complex within teen content standards.
Yu's Rating
| Category | Score |
|---|---|
| Story Depth | ★★★★★ |
| Art Style | ★★★★☆ |
| Character Development | ★★★★★ |
| Accessibility for Non-Japanese Readers | ★★★★☆ |
| Reread Value | ★★★★★ |
Story Overview
Alice Sakaguchi, sixteen, lives in a Tokyo apartment building and has a connection to nature that feels different from ordinary sensitivity. She meets Jinpachi and Issei, two boys who have been sharing strange dreams — of being scientists on a moon base, observing Earth, from what feels like another species' perspective.
They were. In a previous life, seven alien scientists maintained a base on the Moon, cataloguing Earth's biology, forming relationships, experiencing everything that people do in any enclosed community — and eventually dying when the base was lost. They have been reincarnated as teenagers in 1990s Tokyo.
The past life relationships — who loved whom, who damaged whom, what unresolved feelings and old wounds were carried across the boundary between lives — complicate the present. The supernatural element is that one of the reincarnated scientists is Rin, who is eight years old in the present and is doing something with his past-life powers that the others haven't begun to understand.
Characters
Alice Sakaguchi — The protagonist who connects the other reincarnated scientists; her present-life perspective and her growing awareness of her past identity are the series' emotional center.
Rin — An eight-year-old whose past-life memories are the most complete and whose use of past-life abilities creates the series' supernatural stakes; the most disturbing character in a series that handles disturbance carefully.
The seven scientists — Each past-life character is developed fully, making the past-life sequences as emotionally engaging as the present-day ones.
Art Style
Hiwatari's art has the quality of 1990s shojo at its most accomplished — detailed character designs, emotional expressiveness, the narrative sophistication of two parallel timelines told with visual clarity. The Moon base sequences have a quality of genuine alienness that the present-day Tokyo sequences don't try to match, which distinguishes the two timelines effectively.
Cultural Context
Please Save My Earth ran from 1987 to 1994 in LaLa, making it a foundational work of the era that influenced subsequent shojo manga's approach to supernatural romance and reincarnation themes. The alien scientists concept — using extraterrestrial beings as the past-life identities rather than historical humans — gives the reincarnation premise more narrative flexibility than the tradition typically offers.
What I Love About It
The past-life relationships do not resolve into present-day replacements. When characters discover they loved or harmed each other in a previous life, this creates complications in the present that cannot be easily dissolved by the present-life versions of themselves. Hiwatari takes seriously the question of how much past-life identity carries over, and what obligation — if any — present-life people have to their past-life selves' unfinished emotional business.
What English-Speaking Fans Say
Western readers consistently describe Please Save My Earth as one of the best shojo manga available in English — specifically noted for the dual-timeline construction being more sophisticated than comparable series, for Rin's character being genuinely unsettling in a way the series earns, and for the emotional resolution being satisfying after 21 volumes. Considered essential reading for serious shojo manga readers.
Memorable Scene ⚠️ Spoiler Warning
The revelation of what the scientists' final days on the Moon actually looked like — and what this means for the present-life characters' understanding of who they were — is the series' most emotionally complete use of its dual-timeline structure.
Similar Manga
- Nana — Long-form shojo romance with similarly complex character relationships
- Ceres, Celestial Legend — Supernatural reincarnation romance by a contemporary author
- Red River — Historical/supernatural romance with similar emotional complexity
- Basara — Long-form shojo with similar narrative ambition
Reading Order / Where to Start
Volume 1 — Alice, the dreams, and the first emergence of past-life connection are established. The series rewards patience in the early volumes.
Official English Translation Status
VIZ Media has published the complete English series. All 21 volumes available.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Dual-timeline construction is genuinely sophisticated
- Complete in 21 volumes with real resolution
- Past-life complications handled with emotional honesty
- Rin is one of shojo manga's most effective unsettling characters
Cons
- 21 volumes requires commitment
- Early volumes are slower than the series becomes
- Some 1990s art conventions to adjust to
Format Comparison
| Format | Notes |
|---|---|
| Individual Volumes | VIZ Media; complete series available |
| Digital | Available |
Where to Buy
Get Please Save My Earth Vol. 1 on Amazon →
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Written by
Yu
Manga Enthusiast from Japan
I grew up in Japan and manga literally saved me during a tough time in elementary school. My English isn't perfect, but my love for manga is real — and I want to share it with you.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.