A, A Prime

A, A Prime

Cover of A, A Prime as published by Viz Media
Genre Science fiction, romance
Manga
Written by Moto Hagio
Published by Akita Shoten
Shogakukan
English publisher
Demographic Shōjo
Magazine Princess
Petit Flower
English magazine
Published November 20, 1984
Volumes 1

A, A Prime is a manga anthology of short stories written and illustrated by Moto Hagio. Originally spelled as A-A', it was first released in November 1984 by Shogakukan and brings together three science fiction works published between 1981 and 1984. In addition to the titular short story, released by Akita Shoten's Princess, it includes "4/4 [Quatre-Quarts]" and "X+Y", both serialized in Shogakukan magazine Petit Flower. On its English translation, the three stories also initially appeared separately in Viz Media's Manga Vizion from 1995 to 1996 to be grouped by Viz Media the following year.

Plot

Set in a shared futuristic universe,[1] the stories' common thread is the genetically-enginereed "Unicorn" species created specifically for space travel. They are extremely intelligent and have a humanoid appearance, but cannot easily understand other people and even their own emotions.

The titular story follows a research group that is trying to terraform the planet Munzel. As it is a dangerous mission, each member of the crew was cloned before going there. The plot centers around the arrival of the clone of the Unicorn Adelade Lee. Adelade's clone, with no memories about the tree years Adelade lived in Munzel, specially disturbs Regg Bone, who had a romantic relationship with Adelade. At first he is reluctant as he knows she is a clone but the resemblance awakens his feelings and he eventually kisses her to a dispassionate reaction. While exploring the planet Colonya, they find Adelade's body frozen in a cave and soon Regg asks to be transferred to Colonya. When Colonya explodes and Regg dies, Adelade's clone is very shaken emotionally. In the end, Regg's clone comes to replace him, and Adelade's clone cries as she remembers their kiss.

Set in Jupiter's moon Io, "4/4" focus on Mori, a man who has telekinetic powers but has never been able to control his ability and is training under professor Mia. After saving a Unicorn's descendant named Trill from freefalling, he develops a sympathy for her and constantly visits her in the house of the man who adopted her, professor Sazzan. When Mori discovers that Sazzan is only interested in his special eyes, he runs away with Trill. He kisses her but when she says she loves both him and Sazzan equally he overheats and burns Mia's aviary. After this events, Mia sends Mori to Mars and Trill's repressed feelings are released and she demonstrates her hate for Sazzan's experiments and Sazzan himself. Frustrated, Sazzan tries to abuse Trill but she breaks a vase in his head. Shaken, Trill goes to an airlock and falls to death in front of Mori inboard of the ship that is departing to Mars.

"X+Y" follows the story of the Unicorn Tacto whose mother, Marble, suicided in front of him when he was seven. His father, Doctor Moonsault, created a sex-change medicine that should have a temporary effect but when Marble consumed it he did not return to be a man even after three years. Mooncast and Marble married, but one month after Tacto's birth Marble became a man. Marble wanted to be a woman but was resistant to the medicine. This, and Mooncast going out with other women, led Marble to commit suicide. Mooncast then erased Tacto's memories and after going to a spacial mission left Tacto to be raised by doctor George who brought Tacto to the Allergy Culture Center. There, he becomes one of its "brains" that develop the Tako Project, Earth's representative in a contest to elevate Mars' atmospheric pressure.

On Mars, Tacto meets Mori, who is stunned to see how Tacto is similar to Trill, and soon Mori falls in love with Tacto. However, Tacto does not feel the same way and is engaged to Merimé, the cousin of another Tako Project member, Zazz. This makes Mori angry and, after they discuss, Tacto loses all his memories about Mori. As the project involves bringing water from Jupiter, the staff goes to a nearby planet called Mimas. In order to regain Tacto's affection, Mori invites him to go to a scooter tour across Jupiter's rings but an accident happens. Mori awakes in an emergency room and although severely injured goes to search for the sixteen-hours disappeared Tacto. Mori rescues Tacto, they develop an emotional bond, and Tacto even rejects Merimé. Later, Moonsault arrives out the request of George's wife, An-An, to help Tacto, who is genetically a woman, to decide whether or not to inject female hormones. Moonsault explains that until two years old Tacto changed his sex constantly and says the decision is Tacto's, who stays as a man. As his father reveals what happened to Marble he regains his capacity of understanding his feelings and now knows he loves Mori.

Publication

A, A Prime, as released both in Japanese and English, is a collection of three science fiction short stories: the titular story, "4/4 [Quatre-Quarts]" (Japanese: 4/4カトルカース Hepburn: Katoru Kāsu) and "X+Y". "A, A Prime" was published in Princess, an Akita Shoten magazine, on its August 1981 issue.[2] The other two were published in Shogakukan's Petit Flower; the former in November 1983 while the latter was serialized in two parts in July and August 1984 issues.[2] The works were first compilled and published on November 20, 1984 as the last installment of Shogakukan series of Moto Hagio complete works.[3][4] The tankōbon containing the three stories was republished three times by Shogakukan; on August 30, 1995 under the SF Masterpiece Collection, on August 9, 2003 in bunkoban format and on August 25, 2014 in EPUB format.[5][6]

The English version of the short stories was published through Viz Media magazine Manga Vizion: "A, A Prime" appeared in April and May 1995 issues, "4/4" in July and August 1995, and "X+Y" in four issues from the October 1995 to the January 1996 issue.[7] Viz Media published the collected volume in graphic novel format in October 1997.[7]

Themes

On the backcover of Viz Media's edition, it is written that the Unicorn's "personal struggles" are a metaphor for alienation of humankind in contemporary societies.[8] While it states "X+Y" discusses gender and sexual identity,[8] Michell Smith of Pop Culture Shock said all stories explore "themes of gender and identity".[9] Likewise, former Viz editor Shaenon K. Garrity, stated it "is really about identity in all its forms: sexual identity, gender identity, cloning, lost memories, blocked emotions",[1] and emotional isolation.[10] Manga Bookshelf's Katherine Dacey "one of [its] most striking themes is the relationship between memory and identity" as demonstrated by the first story and Tacto.[11]

Reception and legacy

Critic Katherine Dacey commented that Hagio was able to represent the characters' memories through a "symbolically rich imagery". For example, she compared Tacto's unformed memory of his chilhood to John Henry Fuseli's The Nightmare.[11]

While "X+Y" was well received by Japanese critics, winning the 1985 Seiun Award,[12] Smith called it the worst among the three stories.[9] She was disappointed about how Mori and Tacto's relationship is "far too rushed" and thought Mori's reason to be in love is not clear. Other criticism was directed towards Mori causing the accident and the subplot about Tacto's chromosomes as it "don't make much sense". Nonetheless, she commended the collection's art style—mainly the characters' fashion and page layouts—as it "doesn't look like anything else" and the other two stories. Smith affirmed the titular story alone makes A, A Prime a good acquisition, saying it is her favorite because of its ending and that she would like to see another story featuring its characters. "4/4" was the second best, in her opinion, and she especially appreciated the portrayal of Trill's lack of emotional involvement.[9]

Describing it as a "flawless jewel of science fiction", Garrity said it is a very emotional work that touched her deeply. In her words, "Because of A,A’, I discovered that this art form could do more than I'd imagined—not just tell ambitious stories, which I already knew from reading Sandman and Bone and Watchmen, but tell them with passion, in lines drawn from nerve endings, using every weapon in the artist's arsenal to not just dazzle the mind, but stab straight to the heart."[1] If Garrity found "passion", Dacey also praised the "intensely Romantic quality of all three stories". Its artwork was also positively commented by Dacey, especially how Hagio represents the characters' memories and emotional states with "symbolically rich imagery" and "dream-like quality" settings. Dacey also highlighted Hagio "unique ability to mix the sublime with the ridiculous"—the latter being represented by the characters' names and costumes and the sex-change drug.[11]

A, A Prime was highlighted by Garrity as "one of the forerunners to countless modern manga with inventive gender-bending elements" like Rumiko Takahashi's Ranma ½. Another Takahashi's work, Urusei Yatsura, also features a storyline in which clones are differentiated from the originals by apostrophes on their heads in reference to the titular story's title.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Garrity, Shaenon K. (May 16, 2013). "Jason Thompson's House of 1000 Manga Special Guest Edition - A,A'". Anime News Network. Retrieved April 28, 2016.
  2. 1 2 "作品" [Works] (in Japanese). Moto Hagio Works Library. Retrieved March 25, 2016.
  3. ↑ "全集・作品集" [Complete Works Anthology] (in Japanese). Moto Hagio Works Library. Retrieved March 25, 2016.
  4. ↑ "萩尾望都作品集　第II期: 第17巻　A-A'" [Moto Hagio Anthology Second Phase: Volume 17 A, A Prime] (in Japanese). Moto Hagio Works Library. Retrieved March 25, 2016.
  5. ↑ "A-A'（SF傑作集）〔小学館叢書〕 1" (in Japanese). Shogakukan. Retrieved March 25, 2016.
  6. ↑ "A-A'（SF傑作集）〔小学館叢書〕 1" (in Japanese). Shogakukan. Retrieved March 25, 2016.
  7. 1 2 "翻訳 – 英語" [Translation – English] (in Japanese). Moto Hagio Works Library. Retrieved March 26, 2016.
  8. 1 2 Hagio, Moto (1997). A, A'. San Francisco: Viz Media. ISBN 1-56931-238-9.
  9. 1 2 3 Smith, Michelle (January 21, 2009). "Classics Corner: A, A’". Pop Culture Shock. Archived from the original on February 24, 2009. Retrieved April 28, 2016.
  10. ↑ Thompson, Jason (2012). Manga: The Complete Guide. Random House Publishing Group. ISBN 9780345539441.
  11. 1 2 3 Dacey, Katherine (May 31, 2010). "A, A’ and They Were Eleven". Manga Bookshelf. Retrieved April 28, 2016.
  12. ↑ "星雲賞リスト" [List of Seiun Awards Winners]. Sf-fan.gr.jp (in Japanese). Retrieved June 10, 2008.

External links

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