The manga creator Saki Hiwatari received disturbing letters from people who claimed they were experiencing moon dreams like the main characters and so thought they may also be moon scientists reborn on Earth. To immobilize this, she issued a disclaimer that all her work was entirely fictional - a practice she has continued to do even today.
The humans' names contain meanings:
- Alice Sakaguchi: "Alice" means pear child, and "Sakaguchi" means hill-mouth
- Rin Kobayashi: "rin" means ring (as in the cycle of rebirth), and "kobayashi" means small forest
- Jinpachi Ogura: "jinpachi" means "spontaneous eight" (Japanese slang) , and "ogura" is a small oriental elm
- Issei Nishiyikori: "issei" means first change ,and "nishiyikori" is a woven brocade
- Sakura Kokushou: "sakura" means cherry tree/blossom, and "kokushou" means new (pure) land
- Haruhiko Kazuma: "haruhiko" means spring (season) boy , and "kazuma" means conical space/area
- Daisuke Dobashi: "daisuke" means great assistance, and "dobashi" means earth-bridge.
The aliens' names are the names of flowers in Japanese kanji (and some of which hold certain symbolism):
- "Mokuren" is Lily Magnolia, which represents a love of nature
- "Shion" is Tartarian aster, which grows well in poor soil
- "Gyokuran" is white sandalwood
- "Enju" is a Japanese pagoda tree, which has beautiful, vibrant, summer blossoms
- "Shusuran" is a tiger orchid, which symbolizes selfish beauty and shallow love
- "Shukaido" is autumn aronia, which symbolizes unrequited love, kindness, politeness and care (but also implies "dark thoughts")
- "Hiiragi" is false holly.
Naoko Takeuchi claims this series was a major inspiration for her popular manga Sailor Moon (1992). Both stories have similar elements: a society of aliens are destroyed, but are later reborn on Earth as humans (mostly teenage students), who start to recover memories of their past lives.
The manga comic this show was based on ran from June 1987-August 1994 and lasted about 21 volumes. This series, released in 1994, covers mostly the first eight volumes of the manga, but also features scenes that appeared in later volumes.