After a chance meeting at a park the reckless motorcycle racer Rei becomes drawn to the closedoff artist Kira. He finds out the next day that theyre actually in the same class in high school and makes it a point to get close to her no matter how much she tries to push everyone else away. These starcrossed lovers come together to heal each others deep wounds in a story packed full of drama tragedy and romance. From the mystery surrounding the death of Reis twin brother to the twisted minds of students and adults that they meet Mars finds away to openly discuss many difficult issues in a captivating fashion. Theres so much I want to talk about when it comes to this manga. Im kind of disappointed I never picked this up until after it went out of print as its quickly become one of my favorites. Mars obviously isnt perfect and theres many scenes which I consider a product of the time it was written. But there are also a lot of things it does really well like: the discussion of mental illness in Japan a place wellknown to be very low ranking in that area the meaning of family youths place and power in society and the sacrifices you sometimes have to make for the people you love. All of this is wrapped up in a dazzling art style and panel layout that gives great emphasis to dramatic moments where it is needed the most. I think the first thing I noticed about Mars was the art style. It simply captivated me with its wispy lines that added a sense of delicacy to the characters who were themselves delicate in their own ways and its ability to change style to accommodate those tense and fastpaced moments on the race track with stunning detail and shading. Fuyumi Soryo knows how to balance the level of detail she puts into each panel to provide the best amount of impact for each scene. Her motorcycle racing scenes provide a tense contrast to the characters everyday moments to the point that you can feel the suspense surrounding the race just from the art. Not to mention that Soryo has a doubly hard time because Kira is an artist so the look of her drawings had to be in some way different from the rest of the art of the manga itself. I definitely think she pulls this off beautifully. Even the basic composition of the panels lends to this overall aesthetic. There are many instances where the characters faces will fade into the background leaving their eyes gazing over a scene. At other moments full page splashes or double page spreads will draw our eyes and attention to moments of drama for the optimum emphasis. I think Soryo might be one of the few manga artists Ive seen use full pages and spreads for her scenes almost to excess. Perhaps that is a product of the times with rising publishing costs forcing the cutting back of these moments but its very interesting nonetheless.