Please Save My Earth

Please Save My Earth (ぼくの地球を守って), sometimes abbreviated Bokutama, is a shōjo science fiction manga by Saki Hiwatari. It was published by Hakusensha from 1987 to 1994 in Hana to Yume and collected in 21 tankōbon volumes. The series was adapted as a six-part anime OVA in 1993. It is about seven teenagers who share common dreams about their past lives as alien scientists who observed the Earth from the Moon. Both the anime OVA and manga are licensed for distribution in North America by Viz Media.

A sequel manga, Boku o Tsutsumu Tsuki no Hikari (The Moonlight That Embraces Me), is currently being serialized in the bimonthly Hana to Yume as well as the special edition magazine, Hana to Yume Plus.

Plot
The story centers around high school student Alice Sakaguchi, her seven-year old neighbor Rin Kobayashi, and five other teenage students who have recurring collective dreams about a group of alien scientists stationed on the moon observing and collecting data about the Earth.

Initially, when Alice learns that fellow classmates Jinpachi and Issei have been having common recurring dreams since middle school, she thinks nothing of it until she has one of these "moon dreams" herself. Because of the nature of these dreams, the way Issei always dreams as the same person, and Jinpachi as well, now that Alice has provided a third perspective, they start to believe that people who dream as the other four scientists in their "moon dreams" can each be found.

Almost like it's a game, the three make plans to seek these other people out in the hopes of making sense of these dreams. After a suggestion from Issei, and a little bit of time and luck, they are finally able to make contact with the other four people. But as the six teenagers and one child start to piece together the timeline and content of their dreams, they began to realize that their "dreams" are not simply dreams, but rather suppressed memories of their past incarnations (as those same moon scientists) that ended tragically. And now, as their "game" begins to unravel, the kids must strive to come to terms with what happened in their past lives, as they struggle to prevent their past incarnations' rivalries, jealousies, and dubious actions from taking over their new ones.

Names
Each of the alien scientist's names is, according to Mokuren, the name of a plant in the language of the "NX sector" of KK. The following is a list of Names and meanings.

Additionally, some of the names of the reincarnations have meaning, as shown below.

Adaptation
The OVA covers the most ground as far as the manga is concerned, but still falls far short of including even half of the content from the manga. The first eight volumes, which comprise the setup of the whole story in the modern-day Tokyo setting, up to and including the psychic battle with Rin and Rin's dreams from Shion's childhood, are well represented in the OVA, although not to utter completeness. Other important content that was included in the OVA is as follows. The OVA also includes some scenes between Issei and Jinpachi, and Issei and Sakura from manga volume 11. Further, the scenes from the OVA of Shion's last few days with Mokuren on the moon base come from volume 11 of the manga. Shukaido's memories of administering the vaccine to Shion come from manga volume 14, as well as the scenes of Alice hallucinating at the temple in Kyoto, causing her to faint, which in turn causes the cherry trees to bloom out of season. Lastly, all of the depressing scenes between Shion and Mokuren while alone on the moon base, as well as the scene where Mokuren sends her spirit to save Rin from his fall, come from the very end of volume 19 and the very beginning of volume 20 of the manga.

The movie adds only a very short symbolic scene from volume 21 of the manga where Rin is on the moon base and all of the other reincarnations show up with him to help him step forward into his new life as Rin and away from his past life, Shion. New scenes in the movie that were not taken from the manga show an adult Alice meeting up with an adult Rin in a park at the very end of the movie.

Compared to the movie, the Image Video Collection adds quite a bit of new content from the manga. Issei's continuous struggle throughout the manga to deal with Enju's feelings toward Gyokuran are expressed in the image video Moon Light Anthem ~Enju 1991~. In the image video Mikadzuki no Shindai, Mokuren's unhappy childhood is explored to a small degree. Ring, by contrast, is a very trimmed-down, context-lacking version of the ending to the manga (vol 21) that was never shown in the OVA, involving why Rin was collecting passwords and why he needed Tokyo Tower. Prologue ~kiniro no toki nagarete~ shows Mokuren's final time singing as a Kiches Sarjalian on Shia, with the other scientists present, just before they all leave for the moon base. One big difference about this one is that the image video version shows Shion as being present, when in the manga it is mentioned several times that Shion was in fact not present for this event.

Manga
Please Save My Earth was written and drawn by Saki Hiwatari. The series was serilized by Hakusensha in the monthly shōjo (aimed at teenage girls) manga magazine Hana to Yume from 1987 to 1994. The serial installments were collected, without chapter divisions, in 21 tankōbon volumes. The series was later reissued in 12 bunkoban volumes in 1998. It is licensed in English in North America by Viz Media, with all volumes translated.

OVA
Please Save My Earth was adapted as an original video animation (OVA) directed by Kazuo Yamazaki and produced by Production I.G. The six-episode OVA anime covers roughly the first half of the manga storyline.

The OVA is licensed in English by Viz Media. As of September 2007, it is out of print.

Movie
Please Save My Earth Movie: From Alice to Rin-kun is a two-hour movie narrated by Alice, reminiscing on the events of the OVA as she is on her way to meet with Rin in a park. The "present day" scenes of Alice and Rin from the movie add scenes that were not present in the manga.

Image Videos
Please Save My Earth Music Image Video: The Passing of the Golden Age contains six music videos with footage not seen in the OVA and scenes taken from the manga, as well as a slightly different version of the OVA ending sequence, and the ending credits for the image videos.

These image videos were released with the movie on a single DVD in Japan entitled "Boku no Chikyuu wo Mamotte Vol.4" (Victor Entertainment, VIBF-77).


 * Image Video Titles
 * 1) Prologue ~kiniro no toki nagarete~
 * 2) Mikadzuki no Shindai
 * 3) Yume no Sumika
 * 4) Moon Light Anthem ~Enju 1991~
 * 5) Ring
 * 6) Tokete yuku Jikan
 * 7) Toki no Kioku
 * 8) Epilogue: Etude ~Tensei Gensou~

Of these, the two most significant contributions to the plot that was left out of the OVA are from Mikadzuki no Shindai and Ring.

Mikadzuki no Shindai contains a number of new scenes from Mokuren's past. In the OVA, only Shion's past gets any amount of screen time but Mokuren had just as much, if not more than he did in the manga. This image video will likely not make a whole lot of sense to someone who has not read the manga, but the scenes in it are meant to demonstrate that Mokuren's life up to the point when she goes to ZKK-101 has not been nearly as happy as the OVA makes viewers think.

The image video Ring, on the other hand, shows a very pared-down version of the end of the manga that was left out of the OVA. It explains why Rin needed Tokyo Tower and why was he was collecting the passwords of the other scientists. The title of this image video is another way to write "Rin" in English, as mentioned in the manga a few times.

Moon Light Anthem ~Enju 1991~ is an image video dedicated to Enju, depicting Issei's struggle to deal with Enju's incredibly strong feelings toward someone she cannot have.

Toki no Kioku is the ending animation from the OVA with a slight modification: Mokuren and Shion looking out across the sea near the end instead of Alice and Rin. This image video is the only occurrence of this version of the ending sequence; the movie uses the OVA version.

Reception
As of 2006, over 15 million copies of Please Save My Earth volumes had sold in Japan, making it one of the best-selling shōjo manga ever.

Starting in volume 8 of the manga, a disclaimer appeared at the bottom of the first page of every compilation volume, stating that the story was entirely fictional. This was due to disturbing letters to Hiwatari received from people who were convinced that they had been part of the moon scientist's society (or even one of the moon scientists themselves) and had been reborn on Earth. These disclaimers have since appeared in her others works, most notably on the first pages of each volume of Global Garden.

Several manga artists have cited Please Save My Earth as an influence on them, including Naoko Takeuchi and Bisco Hatori.