550https://i.ur.com/uKB8YCe.png Spirit of Wonder even when making reference to scientific principles is a collection that makes no pretense about being scientifically accurate. If anything it banks on using its ridiculous jargon and longwinded explanations as part of the larger theme of exploring and daring to dream or experience fanciful almostimpossible things. So when a group aspires to use a blimp to get to Mars you put the rational part of your brain away and just let the group have their adventure and cheer them on. After all going to Mars is cool right? And hasnt every scientist or mathematician at some point had to ask But what if we COULD do this and then tried to do precisely that which they envisioned? I obviously cannot speak for everyone but it seems like we tend to forget about the sense of wonderment that we have in youth where everything seems like a new adventure and you feel compelled to follow that trail to the end regardless of whether it succeeds or not. I imagine thats part of the reason why so many of the main players in Spirit of Wonder are young people either fashioning their own way through emotion or being told by crazed old scientists to partake in an experiment with wondered eyes. Within Tsuruta Kenjis painstaking attention to paneling character and face models and spatial depth he puts forth the request to experience Spirit of Wonder through equallywondered eyes watching the characters interact with the world. Rooms are messy buildings are beautiful and outer space is a twinkling blackness. The people become curious they try and occasionally they fail. Such is the way things work. But failure is not the same as being sad and Tsuruta makes this clear. Even in one of the mangas more dour endings the kernels of hope always remain behind. 550https://i.ur.com/1NnQIBK.png This is ultimately why no matter how many flights of sciencefiction fancy the material goes on the underlying heart of the manga is always on its characters. In each of the anthologys chapters and the larger threepart Miss China story everyone answers the call to whatever awaits them. Daughters lovers and dreamers all venture into the ephemeral world of wonder and though the time there might be fleeting the impact lasts forever when they come out the other sidesometimes literally. The journey is scientific in origin but the hypotheses and experiments findings are always human. It is not grand in any moral message but it is sincere for its couple of dozen pages at a time. Perhaps that is why I find myself wanting to selfinsert into this manga a sentiment that I almost never feel. I want to be one of Spirit of Wonders characters not quite in the sense of being scientificallyminded or someone who doesnt pay their rent maybe Ill get there who knows? but because with the way Tsuruta crafts his worlds I want to experiencehttps://anilist.co/review/16820 and learn about what he creates. Much like with his art in Memories of Emanonhttps://anilist.co/manga/47465/OmoideEmanon/ basking in his best work feels like staying in that ephemeral place of wonderment for just a fraction of a second longer. Its worth clinging to I think. 550https://i.ur.com/gFJ8jGA.png Miss China on the moon. I promise it makes sense...sort of