Alice Sakaguchi is troubled. Things just haven't been the same since her father got that promotion that forced the family to relocate to Tokyo. Sometimes she wishes they could all move back to their old home where she was happy. Still, she knows it's not her father's fault and she's trying to make the best of things. It would help, though, if the seven year old neighbor kid named Rin Kobayashi didn't delight in tormenting her so much. Alice has always been a very shy and introverted girl and as such has never handled confrontations well, a trait Rin takes full advantage of. Like the other day on her way home from school when he offered her a stick of gum. Alice at first refused because of his past transgressions, but she allowed herself to be taken by his faux hurt innocent act and submitted to his request to open her mouth and close her eyes. Instead of giving her the new stick of gum in his hand, Rin spit the wad he already had been chewing into her mouth and took the new stick for himself. Alice was so shocked that she ended up swallowing the gum and could only stare on in disbelief at her own stupidity as Rin ran away giggling. As if that wasn't enough, when she arrived home that night she was asked by Mrs. Kobayashi if she could babysit Rin the next day. Overwhelmed by the irony of it all, Alice didn't have much of an appetite at dinner that night and ended up crying herself to sleep.She couldn't believe how unfair her life was starting to become.
        Then there's those two guys she accidently overheard talking at school. She hadn't intended to listen in on their discussion and now she wished she hadn't. At the time she thought they were discussing the possibility of being gay which was something Alice felt she really didn't need to know about, but later she and Rin bumped into the two of them while buying Rin a souvenir from the zoo and they asked her to allow them to explain what it was she had overheard them talking about. Their explanation was even stranger than Alice's presumption. The boy's names were Jinpachi Ogura and Issei Nishikiori and it turned out that they were discussing a dream. A very particular dream that both of them have been having since they became friends in middle school. In this dream Jinpachi is someone else; someone named Gyokulan. Issei is someone named Enju, who turns out to be female. The two of them were some sort of research scientists who, along with five other people, lived in a base on the moon. The dreams often depicted different aspects of these people's lives, but the setting and the people were always the same. Just recently, the two boys learned in a dream that Gyokulan and Enju may have been lovers and that's what prompted the odd discussion Alice had overheard. At the time Alice found their story fascinating...

...then there was the accident.

        Later that same evening, at Rin's home, the boy seemed to be agitated over the interest Alice had shown in Jinpachi; almost to the point of jealousy. Rin angrily asked if she planned to marry Jinpachi to which she responded, "And what if I did?" Angered by her reply, Rin grabbed the souvenir purchased earlier and ran out onto the balcony of the apartment building. After climbing up to sit on the railing, he held the souvenir out and let it fall to the ground ten stories below. In a moment of uncharacteristic anger, Alice slapped the boy sending him tumbling from the railing. Shocked at what she had done, Alice managed to grab one of his legs before he fell, but it wasn't enough. His weight was too much and he slipped from her grasp. Rin was badly hurt in the fall, but did survive the ordeal. Alice, however, is overwhelmed with guilt over what she's done and only found solace from it when Rin finally did awaken. Rin is not unaffected by the experience, however, and seems to Alice to have undergone somewhat of a change. Just a few days later Alice is scolded by her mother for agreeing to an engagement with Rin without telling her, something which was as much news to Alice as it was to her mother. This was all too much for Alice to take in and she fainted on the spot. It was during that fainting spell that Alice first had her own dream about the moon. In this dream, she wakes to find a man named Shion bending over her, obviously concerned, and calling her "Mokulen". Momentarily confused when she passes a mirror, she asks Shion whether her face is supposed to look that way. He asks her in return whether she had bumped her head too hard when she tripped and fell earlier. Then she remembers. "I had a dream, Shion!" she exclaims. "About Earth. A dream in which I was a girl in Japan. I had a family, and I was such a crybaby," she tells him. And then she wakes up as Alice again...
        Now Alice just wants her old life back. She never should have told Jinpachi and Issei about the dream, nor shown them the drawings of Mokulen and Shion she made afterwards. They're convinced that she is Mokulen and are determined to find the others from the moonbase. Rin's acting oddly as well and she can't shake the feeling that it's all her fault. It's as if Rin's fall has awakened something in him that even he was unaware of before. There's a dark storm brewing and Alice looks to be caught right in the middle of it and she doesn't know what to do about it...

        Please Save My Earth is billed as a tale of love, loss, and reincarnation. Originally a shojo manga, or girl's comics, by Saki Hiwatari, it ran for over 21 volumes before coming to a close. The OAV series is 6 half hour episodes long and covers roughly the first half of the manga series. Currently only the anime OAV series is available in North America and is put out by Viz Video with two episodes per tape for $24.95. No subtitled version is available as of yet, but Viz has been putting out subbed Ranma 1/2 for awhile now so may follow suit with PSME as well. 

	Released by: Viz Video	Formats Available: Dubbed only	Genre: Drama
	Price Dub: $24.95	Notes: There are three volumes with 2 episodes on each.

Les' Review:         This is initially a very confusing story, but with a little patience it soon develops into a very moving and somewhat tragic tale full of characters that don't easily fit the molds of "good guy/bad guy".         The animation quality is excellent. Filled with vibrant colors and wonderfully drawn images. But what really grabbed me about this series is the music. In particular, the hauntingly lovely theme song which flows in an ethereal way which fits the story perfectly and drives home just how tragic the story really is. It's one of the few songs capable of bringing tears to my eyes just by listening to it.         Once again I went with the dubbed version and am happy to report that it's a pretty good dub overall. Both Ted Cole and Myriam Sirois take a break from their regular parts providing voices for Ranma 1/2's Kuno and Akane to do a couple of the secondary characters in this anime which can be good or bad depending on how used to hearing them in their other roles you are. Myriam has no real range of voices and sounds just as she does in the dubs of Ranma 1/2 so if you're used to watching that series you'll end up thinking "Akane" every time her character opens her mouth in PSME. Ted Cole, while still recognizable, at least manages to not sound just like his performance as Kuno. Still, it's a minor nitpick. I like Myriam's voice so it didn't bother me too much and her character doesn't have that many lines so it's not overly distracting.         Lastly, the end of this series seems a bit rushed. They really should have done another couple of episodes and extended the resolution a bit more as it does seem to come to a close awfully quickly. Still, if you enjoy compelling stories with fascinating characters that you can find yourself hating one moment and feeling sorry for the next, this is a series for you. I highly recommend adding it to your collection.

Hairboy's Review:         First let me say that I really wasn't quite sure what to expect from this series. It looked like just another shojo story that I could skip over, but Les insisted that I give it a try. I wasn't looking forward to sitting through another one of Viz's dubs, but I gave it a look. I must say that Viz is getting better with their dubs, but I will always rather watch with the original voices and some subtitles.         I found myself being pulled into the story rather quickly. I was glad to find it wasn't just another romantic love triangle story, although there is one in the story. It was reminicent of an episode of the Twilight Zone in some ways. My main complaint with it though is that it appears that they either ran out of funding part way through, or they did a terrible job at planning out the story to fit in six episodes. The story builds quite nicely with different substories then the last episode just screeches to a halt. It really does appear as though they were planning for a longer series and they were told to wrap it up quickly. To many things were left unfinished.         Of course in Japan there is an audience that knows the back story and would be able to fill any gaps with what they read in the manga. If I could read Japanese I would order the manga to follow up on the story myself. I'm sure if these tapes sell well over here Viz will release the manga (for 3 to 4 times the original cost) if they can get the rights. Overall I would recommend it, and I hope that it comes out subbed soon.

Eric's Review: Eric's review is pending...

Mirahla's Review: Miri's review is pending...

Nabsy's Please Save My Earth Page is another good resource for general info on the series along with some of the artwork from the original manga series. Worth checking out just to see the difference in art styles between the manga and the anime.

Obligatory Copyright Notifications:
Images from Please Save My Earth copyrighted by Viz Communications/Saki Hiwatari/Hakusensha (HANA TO YUME magazine)/Victor Entertainment.