I think Marika was seeing Lion-san's spirit as a young boy even though he was still alive as an adult.

personally i think its a relative, possibly sister or mebbe even mother.

im leanign towards mother, we dont know lion-sans actual age.

im guessing he was in his mid 20s to early 30's when he died.

and if that was ukitas mom it would provide for her being a highschooler.

heres a written diagram.

lion san and marika build rocket when they are somewhere between 8 to 13.

lion san becomes an astronaut by his early 20's possibly late teens.

marika in that same time marries and procedes to have a child.

Asumi is born. Ukita is Born.

Ukita inherits genetic heart defect from mother. mother possibly dies at around this time. i have no clue, this is just an assumtion.

if ukita as marika had the same congenital heart defect it would explain the parrelels in thier life of isolation. due to the fact that ukitas father and marikas parents would want to keep them inside and out of medical danger.

remember this is all an assumtion on my part. to my mind its all logical and fits. tho ages are not exact the facts produced this far fit my assumtion to me.

also remember when asumi meets lion san he has already been dead for 5 years. since she is in school and she was born while her mom was in the hospital for the accident.

Asumi's teacher was 24 (as she said in ep. 9) when Asumi was around 6 years old. So teacher was 19 when accitend happened, and Takano (Lion-san) would be around that age too and Marika a bit younger.
Asumi was one year old then, so Marika would be maybe 15 years older than Asumi.

She maybe older than the rest of, but that much? Hard to believe...
But I think young Marika (who build that rocket with boy) is Ukita Marika in academy. Was it in ep. 6 where we first see Marika's childhood? That Marika looks very much like Marika in this episode.

... but Ukita's full name, according to animenfo is Ukita Banrikou, not Ukita Markita.

Like I said before... I stick to the relation (sister... or *very unlikey* mother)

Which ep did they say her name Ukita's name was Markita??

She introduces herself as Ukita Marika in episode 3 or 4. Further, in episode 8, we confirm her name is Marika, as Asumi asks her permission to start calling her that (and thus she is continually addressed as Marika-chan from that point on).

Now... I haven't seen the episode myself, but... in one of the final episodes...

animenfo's submitted information has a tendency to have wrong kanji translations, especially when the information is submitted before airing of the show.

I agree with the theory that Ukita saw Lion-san like Asumi did... but instead of seeing the grown up Lion-san, she saw the young version of him? Because it seems Marika calls him Lion-san. Did you see what she wrote on that rocket? Marika and Lion-san. To Space.

Not Marika and Takano...

However, why did Lion-san not wear the mask when she first saw him? And yet wear a different version of it later?

See, this is why I like the show...

Edit: What I REALLY want is a Twin Spica manga scanslation. I mean now.

I think I know Marika's backstory. The riddle of Marika's age was so intriguing that I just had to do a little digging. Click only if you want to be thoroughly spoiled.

Sorry if I'm asking all these questions but I'm really interested in knowing. I love this show, one of the most underrated 04 animes ever. :)

Heh, I have to read that spoiler... I'm weak...

You don't need to apologize. I ask to many questions. :heh: I just thought you would know since you knew about Ukita's secret. Anyways if you find out anymore about her past could you post here or pm me. I would very much appreciate it.

Posted on the A-F web site:

Hmm, looks like they need help. If anyone can help translate, please drop them a note. I love Twin Spica.

Too bad the group that fansubbed one of my favorite shows seems to have expired :(

Still, I guess R2 DVDs are soon to be made available at some crazy japanese-market prices ($71 for a single DVD that seems to only contain a weird scattering of only a some of the episodes in no logical progression) starting this month:

Twin Spica ?Complete? DVD???

Then I'll get my japanese-enabled friend to whisper into my ear what's going on if no further ever fansubbing occurs after epsode 10 :)

I guess since there's no fan-service/ultra-violence this show won't likely get picked up by an American distributor.

They're not dead yet! Don't be so eager to write their obituary. They only said that they were going to have a break in production. I'm sure someone will volunteer to help translate Twin Spica for them any day now.

That is weird why do they only release episode 1, 5, 9, 12, and 16.

Have some patience, Twin Spica is being worked on, but many of us are preoccupied with school and life right now.

Dear Anime-fansubs, thanks for all your hard work! Please concentrate on your studies first!

No. 10 seems to be out.

/happydance

Yeah, focus on your studies but please fansub it all. I like this anime :) .
Thanks so far...

Heh in the op they changed "I'll make it happen" which is how it's sung to "I will make it happen" which looks stupid.

HAHAHAHA :p

I thought it looked stupd too, BUT... the official lyrics is "I will" as opposed to "I'll"... and some people felt that it was wrong to change it in such a manner. Oh well, can't please everyone I suppose.