Earthian

This might sound like such a simple story of angels and plus and minus checking, but the truth is there a an incredible depth to the story, to the narrative it tells. Homosexual love is just one, extinction of animals, global warming, predujice, racism, they're all talked about, approached with such a sensitivity. Yun Kouga comes from a place that clearly says she is passionate about these themes, and how she delivers them poignantly. This is both a dreamers tale and a rude awakening to those that look away from reality. This is no common manga, and it is exactly for that reason that it stands out andis one of my favorites ever. Chihaya matures throughout the work, just like the manga delves deeper into harder themes like human experiences, androids, sin, incest, death. Chihaya and Kagetsuya are both such beautiful and flawed characters, and their slow descent to Love that transcends their capabilities of holding back from expressing it is riveting, emotional. When they have sex it's beautiful, it's ethereal, it's beyond this world, it is treated delicately and the transitions and the panels are so gorgeous. I love this era of her artwork, before her art changed to more deformed like in Loveless, you can tell its age, and it's such a bold story to tell. When Chihaya tries to atone for his "sin", as perceived by Eden, in order to protect Kagetsuya I just 😭 I don't have enough words, really. My heart goes out for him, and for Kagetsuya. It also reminds me that Chihaya has a beautiful, caring, loving soul, and it's why he's still trying to help his fellow angels from the Black Cancer. Earthian doesn't follow just them two either, the cast is big. In particular, Taki's tale is beautiful, sad and its message is so important. What DOES make one human? Our infinite capacity for hatred? For evil? For disregard of life and the planet without qualms? Or is it love, affection, passion, tears? You'll also get to know why Michael and Raphael appear so much throughout the story, and the true purpose of the angels, and the minus and plus checking. Earthian does in 4 volumes what 100+ chapter series can never hope to achieve, it is not about quantity, it is about impact, the approach and the hand behind it. Yun Kouga has a sensibility that shines through, and she never makes a single story throughout this series that isn't relevant, interesting or poignant. It all culminates about war, about justice, about what is right and wrong, and who has the right to decide extinction, death for a large group of beings? Who has given us, or any other creature, such power or right? And don't let this work deceive you, this is not the common "all male" cast, in fact the strongest characters are the females, and there's a lot of them. I find I can't hate any of them, not just because they're strong, emotionally or physically, but because Yun Kouga shows both sexes being what they are, flawed. There is no "all girls are evil", or bitches, nor all the guys falling into love with one of the MCs or females. Let's just say this isn't a manga with tropes. If you don't choke up, cry or feel emotional by the end of Earthian, then its message of love is not for you. Because that's what the message is in this series, love for family, love for mankind, love for animals and species, love for the planet and universe. And maybe it sounds cliche, but trust me that the way it is delivered and executed does it in the best way. This is pretty angsty in the second half but it's because the subjects it broaches are darker and harder, so it figures. I really do advise everyone to read this if this sounds like something you'd like to. I find you can't go wrong with Earthian, but it's so unique there isn't many mangas like it, so it isn't a mainstream work. It's thought provoking, and subversive, so get on it because we need more works like this.

So, what the hell is Earthian? Earthian is, in short, an early BL manga from the 80s that became one of the first BL to be adapted to animation, being the third BL OVA. This is, of course, impressive. What's even more notable about it though, in my opinion at least, is that it was written by Yun Kouga before her infamous manga Loveless. The thing about Loveless is that it is bad. This is not an unpopular opinion. So what about Earthian, then? Is Earthian also bad? Or was Loveless a bizarre mistake? Well... I want to start off with a very definitive claim: Yun Kouga is notthe best at worldbuilding. Earthian's worldbuilding is better than Loveless's, I will concede that, but that's a low bar to clear. Earthian follows angels as they observe the Earth to determine if humans deserve to keep living or if they should be wiped out. This is a strong premise. And the way the angels are portrayed is interesting, too. Rather than the traditional structure of Christianity, the angels are not divine, but an alien species, who are born and live similar to the way humans do on their own planet. This is a creative but extremely fitting take on the concept of angels, and it’s very interesting. ...Or, it would be if it didn’t beg a whole bunch of questions it never answers. For example, they will occasionally make references to the concept of God, but they do it in the way humans do—as an unknown, untouchable far-off concept rather than someone who definitively exists. So, is God just as hypothetical to the angels as to the humans? Was Christianity a religion the angels (an alien species) made up and spread to Earth? What does the concept of God even mean to the angels? How does all of Abrahamic faith factor into this? Furthermore, homosexuality is punishable for death by angels because they reproduce at a slow rate, reproducing like humans do but with the added constraint of a rare mating season. The birth rate is declining, so everyone should have heterosexual sex as much as possible. Therefore having anything other than heterosexual sex is banned. This makes a lot of sense. (Well, actually, banning gay sex will not produce more heterosexual sex, but that feels like the point. Most arguments against homosexuality make sense on paper until you point out that that’s not how any of this works at all, and I think that’s what’s happening here.) ...Except, actually it doesn't, because we know angels are extremely long lived. If they live for hundreds of years, having a low birth rate should be fine, no? In fact, we know this decline in reproductive function is a recent development, so you mean to tell me these extremely long lived people used to reproduce quickly? And they didn't WANT a lower birth rate? We see the angels all attending school together, implying that before the decline there were many new angels born every year—enough for at least one graduating class. How the hell was the planet not overpopulated? And, of course, this world has all of the usual questions that a hidden magical world does, such as "how in the world do humans not know about the existence of their planet" and "as the number of cameras goes up, so too should the number of angel photos, no?" It would be more acceptable if angels could wipe memories or something but they're constantly showing themselves to humans and then letting them go off with that information. Sure, maybe in the past they could be passed off as mythology (and possibly the origin of Abrahamic faith? Though that’s not included in the story), but there's literally a dude with a camera lol. Humans are a lot smarter than you give them credit for. Also, the world will be destroyed when the angels count 10,000 bad things humanity has done. That's a shockingly low number. Granted, angels counting "minuses" are counteracted by angels counting "pluses" so does every plus erase a minus? If so, how does this system even function properly? Because people could just stretch anything into a minus or plus. Are all minuses and pluses just accepted without debate? How has this been going on for billions of years? Actually, if the angels have been watching over Earth for billions of years, why isn’t their society more developed? Do you know how many years a billion is? Methinks sci-fi writers have no sense of scale. Ultimately this world has an interesting setup but it has way too many holes that leave leagues of unanswered questions and makes me wonder how anything in this world even manages to function. However, I can excuse that, because most people come to fiction for characters before worldbuilding, and the characters are very much the heart of Earthian. So, are the characters good? Well, yes and no. What Kouga has always succeeded best at is creating characters that are interesting to read about. However, this does not always equate to "likable" or "well written." That being said, I think Earthian is much stronger than some of her other work in the character department. Before I state my grievances, I'll give this manga the praise it’s owed and say that I actually loved the leads. The main characters, Chihaya and Kagetsuya, are extremely likable. Chihaya's big heart and idealism clash with Kagetsuya's more closed-off cynicism for a compelling dynamic, and seeing everything they go through it's easy to want good things for them. They have a lot of chemistry and it's easy to see why they love each other. I'd also like to give praise to Michael and Raphael, who act as foils to Chihaya and Kagetsuya, having never found it in themselves to actually start a relationship despite their love for each other due to being much more loyal to the state. In fact, I think Michael was actually my favorite character with the way his character develops over the course of the story due to becoming a father figure to Chihaya. Hell, even Kagetsuya's annoying cousin who has a possessive crush on him started to grow on me! Yun Kouga very much can create likable characters. And I like it when she does. However the rest of these characters are um...real bad. Interestingly, a common trend in animanga from the 70s-90s that featured queer characters is a tendency to also feature relationships with inappropriate age gaps or incest. I think the most mainstream example of this is Cardcaptor Sakura. And ultimately, I can't even get mad at this, because...well, these relationships got grouped together with homosexuality under the idea of "why should it be wrong to love someone?" and I think that in many of these cases, these authors wouldn't have wanted to write about homosexuality if they weren't also open to inappropriate age gaps and incest. In fact, the importance of love is the number one theme of the manga, which is really beautiful and profound. “The Earthian are the same as any species. They were born on this planet to love. The Earth won't turn its back on the Earthian. That is the meaning of love.” It is about not only love between people but also love between humanity and the Earth. I cannot be upset about that. Regardless, a lot of these relationships are just...uncomfortable to read about, man—and not in a good way. Listen, I have a high tolerance for anime bullshit, and I am open minded to more complex relationship dynamics, but there's only so much I can take. A grown man (well, android, but whatever) in a relationship with a young girl was pushing it, but a man falling in love with his daughter (biological, as far as I am aware) when she was also like ten years old is where I have to draw the line. At times the manga might make reference to the inappropriate nature of these relationship dynamics, such as when it points out it's kind of insane that Seraphim "took his daughter for a lover" (????) or Raphael’s disgust observing an incestuous dynamic between siblings, but ultimately the impression I got was that the narrative seems rather in favor of these dynamics in the name of love. “Homosexuality is punishable by death.” “So is incest.” And... Again, I get it, love is the greatest thing to ever exist, and the questioning of why love might be a crime is what allowed these authors to depict homosexuality positively, but... You know what, no. I'm not going to explain to you why certain relationship dynamics are against the law. Yes, legal and moral are not synonymous but they do tend to overlap for a reason and a review on myanimelist dot net is not the place to get into that debate. I'm also not going to get into a "is it immoral to write about xyz" debate. No it’s not. Write whatever you want forever. Regardless, WOW I do not like a lot of these characters. Taboo relationships seems to be a subject that Kouga enjoys exploring in fiction. I respect that. That does not mean I think her stories are tasteful or well written. I did think the sibling incest was kind of interesting because it was more complex and unhealthy, but when you pair it with the father-daughter romance the story just seems wholeheartedly in support of I don’t feel like looking at the sibling incest charitably. Oh, also, I kind of just didn't care about the entire android subplot and all of those characters. That's subjective obviously but I was yawning on all of their pages thinking "take me back to the angels." But anyways, what's the conclusion here? The conclusion is that, in many ways, I have to have a lot of respect for Earthian, in spite of all of the stuff I don't like about it. It wasn't afraid to write about controversial things and challenge questions about morality, and while sometimes it was just plain wrong about that, this also resulted in being unafraid to support homosexuality in a time where that certainly was not a popular opinion. The manga is ultimately about the beauty of love and the good of the human species, in spite of how it may have stumbled at delivering that. “It is the most beautiful thing in the world to love someone” is an argument I wholeheartedly agree with, even if it made that argument in a controversial way. I consider myself something of a historian, which is why I have to read and appreciate many manga such as this. Earthian is messy, but I can appreciate it despite the mess. Do I recommend other people read it? No, not really.

I re-read this amazing manga again and I had to write a review. Earthian is a boys love story about angels who have to observe earthians as minus and plus checkers, it might seem like a simple episodic story at first but it gets much deeper and more serious, this manga deals with many sensitive topics such as prejudice, incest, sins, androids and of course homosexual love and how its considered a forbidden act punishable by death I felt all these topics were done very well. there are two gay couples in this manga Chihaya and Kagetsuya, and Michael and Raphael in a way Ifeel Chihaya and Kagetsuya serve as foils towards Michael and Raphael because they would rather break the rules of eden and love each other instead of having to hide it, while Michael and Raphael always kept their love a secret to so they aren't "sinning" with Raphael even marrying a woman that he cant have a child with from not being sexually attracted to her, and likewise its revealed she actually was attracted to a woman in the past as well the difficulty of having children on eden due to a lack of genuine love and sexual attraction that angels feel towards the opposite sex is one of the biggest things in the story. The main characters of this manga are all pretty deep they got flaws and good qualities personally my favorite is Chihaya I absolutely adore his character, even with all the prejudice he faces he remained kind hearted and cheerful, and you will see him mature as the story goes on. the artwork is very nice I thought the characters all were drawn beautifully., I highly recommend this classic to all BL fans This is a good boys love for people who want a story that focuses more on plot and romance instead of only sex.

I'll willingly admit I'm writing my review through the lens of nostalgia, but I deeply enjoyed Earthian when I read it. It was one of the earlier manga works that I read, and it was also one of the first Boys' Love manga that I read. The art is beautiful and whimsical, although it does suffer from "same face syndrome" occasionally. The story setting is also somewhat novel, which made it a very fun read. The manga has its lighthearted and comedic moments, but it also gets pretty philosophical at time into the realm of the existential (which is to be expected given the premiseof the angels' mission in it). I found the characters charming, and the plot (although meandering at times) interesting as well. While somewhat rough, it was still an enjoyable read.