Engaging enough to be worth its two-volume length, considering I’m a fan of the author, Shuzo Oshimi. That being said, I barely got anything out of Yuutai Nova. There’s something of interest here with its subject matter—I can’t say I’m familiar with another work of fiction centered entirely around the concept of astral projection. However, the desire to tell a relatable character drama at its center in such a scant amount of pages virtually guarantees neither the themes nor character development will be fulfilling on their own.

I like some of the ideas it briefly touches on. The story takes a very pragmatic perspective on what a lonely college male would do with such a power, obviously resulting in voyeurism; perverted or otherwise. There’s potential here in the contrast of being able to tear down the walls of anyone’s privacy without consent by visiting them as a ghost, yet still only being able to observe a second, static layer of them. Being able to meld one’s spirit form with another in order to share minds and gain a deeper understanding is another storytelling device with potential..

There’s something there with whether the things someone protects with their privacy are worth it, and the possible beauty of pure openness. Shuzo Oshimi is generally skilled at exploring human weaknesses, but all of these things are merely lightly touched upon. No complex philosophies are explored, just suggested, and the work doesn’t make a statement on much of anything.

When it comes to being able to illicit a raw, emotional response, the manga also doesn’t deliver, considering its sudden conclusion that doesn’t completely resolve character arcs and backgrounds. We know very little about what has changed in our characters from the beginning of the story, and that’s a shame.

The art’s pretty decent. The details aren’t as finely-trimmed as something like Flowers of Evil, but there’s more diversity in character designs from being less concerned with realism. The city and street backgrounds are, as always from Oshimi, stunning. I have to assume he traces over photographs—or maybe he really is that good?

For a story about astral projection, Yuutai Nova struggles to get its own feet off the ground—so much so that it was prematurely pulled from serialization.