Please Save My Earth

The story centers around high-school student Alice Sakaguchi, her seven-year-old next door neighbor, Rin Kobayashi who attends elementary school, and five other teenage students who have recurring collective dreams about a group of alien scientists stationed on the moon observing and collecting data about the Earth.

Initially, when Alice learns that her classmates Jinpachi and Issei have been having common recurring dreams since middle school, she thinks nothing of it until one day she has one of these "moon dreams" herself. Because of the nature of these dreams, the way Issei always dreams as the same person, and Jinpachi as well, now that Alice has provided a third perspective, they start to believe that people who dream as the other four scientists in their "moon dreams" can each be found.

Almost like playing a simple game, the three make plans to seek these other people out in the hopes of making sense of these dreams. After a suggestion from Issei, and a little bit of time and luck, they are finally able to make contact with the other four people. But as the six teenagers and one child start to piece together the chronology and content of their dreams, they began to realize that their "dreams" are not simply dreams, but rather suppressed memories of their past incarnations that ended tragically. And now, as their "game" begins to unravel, the kids must strive to come to terms with what happened in their past lives, as they struggle to prevent their past incarnations' rivalries, jealousies, and dubious actions from taking over their new ones.

The series mixes dramatic storytelling with comic relief. Many of the jokes in early volumes of the series refer to 1980s anime and manga. Critic Jason Thompson notes that the story becomes more dark and adult-themed from volume 9 on.[3]

The visual style, for example of the character design, changes throughout the series.[3] The character design of Issei's sister Kyoko was influenced by Osamu Tezuka and is a homage to classic style shōjo manga artists such as Miyako Maki, Makoto Takahashi, Hideko Mizuno, and Shotaro Ishinomori.[7]

Please Save My Earth was adapted as an original video animation (OVA) directed by Kazuo Yamazaki and produced by Production I.G. The six-episode OVA anime covers the first 8 volumes in condensed form. It is licensed in English by Viz Media.[8]

Please Save My Earth – Special Omnibus Edition: From Alice to Rin (ぼくの地球を守って 総集編完全版 〜亜梨子から、輪くんへ〜, Boku no Chikyū o Mamotte Sōshūhen Kanzenban Arisu kara, Rin-kun e) is a 100-minute compilation movie narrated by Alice, reminiscing on the events of the main OVA as she is on her way to meet with Rin in a park.

Please Save My Earth – Music Image Video: The Golden Age is Gone (ぼくの地球を守って MUSIC IMAGE VIDEO 〜金色の時 流れて〜, Boku no Chikyū o MamotteMyūjikku Imēji Bideo Kin'iro no Toki Nagarete) contains six music videos with footage not seen in the main OVA and scenes taken from the manga, as well as a slightly different version of the OVA ending sequence, and the ending credits for the image videos.[9]

Please Save My Earth was a commercial success upon release. As of 2006, over 15 million copies of Please Save My Earth volumes had sold in Japan, making it one of the best-selling shōjo manga ever.[10] The series was translated into

Starting in volume 8 of the manga, a disclaimer appeared at the bottom of the first page of every compilation volume, stating that the story was entirely fictional. This was, because Hiwatari received letters from people who were convinced that they had been part of the moon scientist's society (or even one of the moon scientists themselves) and had been reborn on Earth.[11] These disclaimers have since appeared in her others works, most notably on the first pages of each volume of Global Garden.

Several manga artists have cited Please Save My Earth as an influence on them, including Naoko Takeuchi and Bisco Hatori.[12]

Jason Thompson called Please Save My Earth in Manga: The Complete Guide a "masterpiece of young-adult science fiction" and praised Hiwatari's "slow-paced" as well as "consistently rewarding and unpredictable" storytelling.[3]

• The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter - Japanese folktale with elements similar to Please Save My Earth

• Official Viz Media manga website
• Please Save My Earth (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia