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Magic Knight Rayearth 1st Series
A Very Controversal Sailor Moon
Shadow Lady
Nothing in Particular: Translations, jokes, reviews etc
Code Name: Sailor V
Weiss Kreuz on Prozac

Welcome to Spirit of Wonder! This is the story of mid-nineteenth century Bristol, England as seen by Japanese manga artist Kenji Tsuruta. On a hill above town there stands a small Chinese restaurant known as "Ten-Kai". It is run by a young woman known simply as "Miss China". She is the sole owner and proprietor, not to mention cook and cleaner. Well, no. You see, she does not live alone at Ten-Kai. Up on the second floor there live two borders, mad scientists the both of them. Their names: Dr. Breckonridge and his young assistant Jim Floyd. Dr. Breckonridge is full of crazy inventions - and the craziest part is that they work! He can go to the moon, create a falling star, and even teleport! Problem is, no one beleives him - not even Miss China! And she's even seen his stuff! Anyhow, his assistant Jim, who is madly in love with Miss China, sometimes will help her out in the kitchen cleaning. He seems a nice enough sort, although not nearly outspoken enough! You see, the main problem is that Miss China, who is as much in love with Jim as he is with her, doesn't realize that her feelings are reciprocated! This naturally leads to misunderstandings which usually end up being resovled by use of Dr. Breckonrige's machines...
That, at least, sums up the portion of Spirit of Wonder that was translated into English by Dark Horse. (We also think its the best) There are several other short stories in the origional collection (which is about 400 pages long, including Miss China), and the only thing that connects them all is the spirit of wonder. The two other major (ie 2-4 stories) groups within the collection are the Windy stories and the Maiko stories.
The Windy stories focus on Windy. :p She's the daughter of a nutty old scientist wannabe, and is actually the one with the real ideas. Her father and his friends form the "Young Scientists' Club", which apparantly began when they were, well, young. Now the only remotely young member is Windy's husband Jack. Their lifelong goal has been to get to Mars, and with Windy's amazing scientific abilities, and of course the Spirit of Wonder, they eventually manage to get there. Like the Miss China stories, Windy's adventures take place in Bristol, only in the 1950's rather than the 1890's.
The third set of stories are the Maiko stories. Maiko is unusual because she *gasp* lives in JAPAN!!! But she looks just like Windy and China. Anyway, Maiko works for NASA, and has come home to help her father. He's weird. You see, when Maiko was a teenager, there was a massive global warming that flooded half of the earth. So her childhood home is now underwater. Maiko's dad is obbsessed with exploring the sunken town. No one knows why. These stories focus mainly on Maiko's dealing with the loss of her childhood and her grandfather, and regaining her own personal spirit of wonder rather than one that is a part of the world.

And just what is the "Spirit of Wonder"? To the best of my knowledge, it is that quality which allows Dr. Breckonridge to invent his machines and makes Miss China believe that a wish on a star will come true. It is, I believe, that quality which many would call imagination, although with something more to it. It is a type of belief in one's self and the powers of magic. Simply put, it is believing that you can make magic happen if you just try hard enough.

So now that you know all that, would you like to meet some of the players?

The Miss China Stories