“You die tomorrow, by the way.” When you hear those words casually while eating a parfait, you know things are about to get complicated. Maki Makino certainly understands this. After a strange man saves her on the way to school, her whole life changes. Now she finds herself in the middle of a secret conflict to prevent the future outbreak of alien invaders. Using future knowledge and the power to summon a mecha fighter, time traveler Roger Penrose vows to do everything he can to stop Maki from dying and alter the timeline. So begins the intense mystery struggles of Cosmic Censorship.
This isn’t Ryuuichi Sadamatsu’s first rodeo when it comes to mecha stories. Prior to this, his credits include art and mechanical designs for several mecha manga since at least 2011. His previous series was Buster Dress, another short mystery sci-fi plot centered around mechs. But here, instead of piloting their mechs the Cosmic Censors call upon their powers almost like some sort of magical beast. They’re summoned forth to help in the battles against monsters and have names like Centurion and Oblivion. Real badass stuff, not just in concept but in appearance during the brief times we do see them.
Yet our main character here is actually a high school girl trying to live an average life. Well, as average as you can get in a world that just accepts constant randomly falling meteorites. Being a time travel story, Maki’s development has themes of fate, life reflection, and alternative choices. A childhood accident left her leg seriously injured, and although she mostly recovered in time the damage was enough to stop her from continuing as part of the track team. The scar on her leg reinforces how that one moment has had such a drastic impact on her life. As if parts of her life were robbed of her as a result.
Yet it also brings the question of all the good things that came from it, such as meeting certain friends in the first place. Which makes it a nice balance that along with the scar she also has an amulet with part of her leg bone in it. Contrasting the different outlooks on traumatic life altering events. Cosmic Censorship is incredibly subtle with how it approaches these traditional time travel elements and I appreciate that.
For most of the volume Maki is portrayed with a sense of helplessness to the events around her. While that’s totally understandable when it comes to sci-fi battle shenanigans, it’s gripping that the writing ties it in with her personal trauma which we only learn in bits and pieces. And eventually she’s given the chance to finally take control over the outcome of her life. Of course it’s through old nanomachines suddenly kicking in and granting her almost superhuman physical traits, which is a bit contrived, but hey I’m happy for her.
Stopping the impending doom has never felt more awesome. The high tech gear the Cosmic Censors use, not to mention the mecha summons themselves along with our badass cast and epic monsters, makes this an extremely hype manga. Will Maki also get suited up and ready to fight with her now awakened abilities? Or is her unexplained future relevant role going to come with her own unique powers? Only time will tell and I can’t wait to find out.
Ryuuichi Sadamatsu clearly knows how to make sci-fi mystery work and he knows how to make it look simply incredible while doing so. Cosmic Censorship knows how to deliver the sci-fi punches while subtly introducing its themes. It has all the traits of a basic time travel narrative but it never makes the reader feel tired of it. Instead you’re left intrigued with how it plays out with the added layers of mecha battles. The tech equipment designs here are also astounding and makes our already cool characters feel vibrant. The full series will only be five volumes long as well, which is short but may be the perfect size for this story to unfold. Cosmic Censorship is a must read for sci-fi action fans, mecha mystery enjoyers, and time travel plot enthusiasts.
Cosmic Censorship, Vol. 1 is available now on Amazon in both physical and digital versions.
Title: Cosmic Censorship, Vol. 1
Media Type: Manga
Publisher: Titan Comics
Story & Art: Ryuuichi Sadamatsu
Translation: Molly Rabbitt
Lettering: Tom Williams
Editor: Louis Yamani
Designer: David Colderley
