Kanata no Astra

Around a Hundred years down the line from now, we might have human colonies on habitable far away planets and space travel might be common place. It may seem farfetched right now, but then again, who could’ve imagined the progress in technology humankind has made in the last half a century? While learning about the different planets and galaxies, almost every kid might have had a fleeting dream about going into space and experience what it may be. Kanata no Astra (Kanata: Lost in Space) is set in a time when the aforementioned things have become possible. Science has advanced so much that teenagers are going to other planets simply as a mundane school trip. A group of high-schoolers from such a futuristic world are visiting a nearby planet called McPa as a camp. Of course though, after arriving on planet McPa, things don’t go as planned for them as they’re sucked into a mysterious black orb that transports them into space but luckily for them, they somehow manage to find an abandoned spaceship in the middle of outer space. The spaceship would then become their means of travel as they jump from one planet to another in hopes of surviving and getting back to their home planet together. What Kanata no Astra excels at is showing us the raw emotions of teenagers as they battle their way through the harsh conditions of the various planets that they stop by on their way. The feelings of hopelessness, betrayal, anger, joy and relief are portrayed extremely realistically amongst the characters. Add in a bit of drama around the circumstances surrounding their situation and you’ve got a highly entertaining anime that’s so underrated that it hurts. The endless depths of space can be daunting and that’s exactly what Kanata no Astra tries to present to its viewers. As the characters begin to overcome this fear, new predicaments emerge. The mystery about the black orb that got them there, the lack of trust between them as well as the different problems that they face through their journey binds the characters and develops them into a team capable of surviving in space on their own. One of the best things that Kanata no Astra has done is developed each and every one of the crew. They’ve all gotten mini-arcs of sorts where they’re faced with problems of their own and begin to realize what they truly are and their reason for existing. The execution of this is impressive because these arcs don't just start and end in an episode or two; they have their time to take shape. The face of the show is most certainly Kanata Hoshijima, the titular character however. He’s first introduced as a cheerful character who’ll do almost anything to help others even if they might not want it. This is a reason of annoyance for a few, but as they get to know him and his past better, they begin to support him for what he’s done for them. Then we have Aries Spring, the secondary protagonist and a girl whose stolen purse is retrieved by Kanata in the first episode. They instantly strike up as they’re both caring and cheerful as well as selfless. Next we have Quitterie Raffaeli, the irritable blonde whose outspoken nature doesn’t allow her to make too many friends, and Zack Walker, one of Quitterie’s only friends at the beginning who’s a genius at almost everything he does. His calm demeanor in the face of hopelessness manages to save the crew more times than one. The rest of the cast includes Charce Lacroix, the charismatic and dependable guy, Ulgar Zweig, the quiet one who’s at odds with everyone else because of his ill-tempered nature, Yunhua Lu, an extremely shy girl who thinks she’s the source of everyone’s problems, Luca Esposito and Quitterie’s adopted younger sister, Funicia Raffaeli. The way all these youngsters deal with their personal problems and change in order to work together is the central narrative of the show. Now, having spoken so positively about the show, there are a couple elements that do cause an issue. Firstly, the pacing in the second half of the show feels rushed. I wasn't aware that the source was completed so I didn't actually think that this series would reach its conclusion in just 12 episodes. Granted, it's more akin to 14 episodes since the first and the last episode both are an hour long. Still though, the part towards the end did feel slightly rushed as even until episode 9, I still felt that there could be a lot of content remaining. The second issue could be a sort of spoiler so I'll only say that this series won't make you "sad". The art and animation of the show are both impressive. The characters have pretty distinctive designs and the scenes with outer space and the different planets are all drawn beautifully. The animation is fairly fluid, and I didn’t find myself complaining about it in any of the 12 episodes. The soundtrack is pretty unremarkable to be honest although the voice acting is on point. As I’ve mentioned a few times in this review, this show depends upon character emotions and their interactions, and the Voice Actors do a pretty good job in both of these aspects. I’d certainly recommend this show and would encourage you to give it a try. It’s got an extended first episode of 48 minutes and that’d probably be enough for you to check if you’d like it or not. For me, I immensely enjoyed Kanata no Astra and certainly would’ve liked for it to have a few more episodes.

If you played an open world exploration game with survival themes, there’s a solid chance you’ll get a familiar vibe from this anime known as “Kanata no Astra”. (English title, Astra Lost in Space) Taking a page out of the sci-fi genre brings together a story of space travel. It takes place in the 2063, a time period where technology has evolved and is a revolution of growth. It’s not too often these days when we get an anime adaptation based on a manga that have already been completed. Mangaka Kenta Shinohara (best known for his work with Sket Dance) began the series in 2016 as part of the Shounen Jump+ lineup. The series itself was not very popular but did eventually win the price of the 12th Manga Tashiou award. Consisting of 5 volumes, it seems a single cour adaptation of 12 episodes would make this run smooth. Or does it? Actually, the first episode premiere is a 1 hour long special and makes a strong impression to showcase the premise of the story. We meet a group of students from Caird High School before they soon get caught by a mysterious entity. The conflict evolves as these students are tossed into an unknown orbit and they resolve to return home. Along the way, you can expect this journey to bring together a lot of survival themes, character bonding, and startling revelations. But from the beginning, it’s also important to establish the principal cast. That’s why we have Kanata Hoshijima, the main male protagonist and captain of the Astra vessel. With a strong head attitude and determination, he stands as a capable leader with a dream of exploring the universe. What draws audience into his character also relies on how he can command his crew and achieve his goal. It seems every episode, the show tests the crew to tackle new challenges like an open world game. In essence, the show itself deals with space exploration while getting the audience to understand its characters. The remaining crew members consists of a balanced range of personalities. Among them is Aries Spring, the airheaded pinkhead who brings in a peculiar curiosity. Now, you’d think a show like this may feel depressing at times because of the premise. However, Aries brings together a sense of cherry energy and hope for the crew. She’s essentially the type that anyone can get along with. This is contrast to cooler and more levelheaded characters such as Ulgar Zweig or Zack Walker. Others such as Charce Lacroix and Yun-Hua Lu sparks a great interest in their characters because of their background stories and origins. The only characters that feels less exciting are the Raffaelli siblings. You can be the judge but to me, both of these girls brings little value to the overall story. If you remove either one, there’s little loss to brood over. That being said, I do think the cast is well balanced. As the space adventure venture deeper into the depths of the universe, there’s evident character bonding with great importance. In fact, character bonds is one of the most important elements in this show. In later episodes, Kanata realizes what the crew has in common about their parents. It’s a sad revelation and in truth, there’s many other secrets hidden from the crew and audience. While the show is not a mystery, it definitely sparks curiosity for the audience to see what will be discovered. Each planet they encounter puts their lives at risk as they venture into the unknown. Thankfully, the show keeps its space adventure refreshing as the crew encounters a colorful amount of planets. There are planets with strange wildlife such as Vilavurs, Shummoor with its otherworldly plants, or even a paradise with beaches such as Arispade. Hell, the show is very open to its exploration content that it sometimes feels like playing a video game. It feels immersive as if you're there with the crew. If you played games like No Man’s Sky before, this may trigger some familiarity. Thankfully, the anime has its own main story that runs much deeper than just the crew returning to their home. A word of warning though. Be prepared for character drama. There’s an unsettling amount of them that builds more and more with each episode. Some characters even begins to show their true colors. An elephant in the room also remains with the fact the true gender of Luca Esposito. It may not a big deal for some people but I can easily bet that the character can be somewhat a source of controversy. And finally, do be aware that the show retains a degree of realism despite all the sci-fi elements. When we meet Paulina Levinskaya later in the story, she reveals how fragile lives can be as the only survivor of her crew. It brings together the question if these students may or may not end up in her situation. I mean, the chances of death in this show is quite real considering all the factors. But unlike a video game, these characters only have one life and there’s no chance to restart over. Lerche as a studio takes on Kanata no Astra as their first project with major sci-fi elements. Combining with the story about space exploration, there’s actually a lot to expect when you see the facts. One of the more noticeable visual context is the letterbox format that makes each episode run like a mini-movie. This is especially true for the first episode that feels more like watching a movie than your standard television. Visually, it works for this particular show as it highlights the videographic imagery of the backgrounds. There’s a lot of open world planets and this format makes them stand out with stunning effects. The alien planets shows a great deal of colorful variety and I applaud the staff for giving each of them a form of uniqueness. Character designs are also molded with care similar to the manga. Finally, I’m surprised at how much human expressions are shown throughout the show. With the harsh and dangerous journey, there’s many signs of character struggles that are shown in the faces of the cast. Kanata no Astra is a show that I believe can be described as a ‘dark horse’ of the year. It didn’t get mainstream attention compared to some other anime but manages to capture what science fiction is about. With its sci-fi elements and odyssey of obstacles, every episode brings something new to the table. Even if you’re not a big fan of character drama, the show still works together as a fictional adventure. Did I mention, it’s one that is complete without worrying about a ‘what if’ ending? See, that’s the beauty of a show based on a complete manga. And as a space adventure, you can believe this anime is the real deal.

Kanata no Astra could be an anime that surprised several viewers. In my case, I was bewitched by some episodes until I noticed that the show is mediocre science fiction with several plot flaws and unfinished ideas. The scenario is good at the beginning; A group of students is drifting in the dark space with only one goal in mind, returning home. I was surprised to the point that I ignored the strange CGI moments when the characters looked like dead puppets in the first episode. I ignored the device created in a few hours that could diagnose if the food is good or bad with a "delicious" sound that seems ridiculous. I ignored the luck these students have during their trip with some minor risks for space travel. Everything is conveniently configured and ready for their survival. I even ignored a significant detail in the middle of the story I find hilarious. I asked myself "why people cannot fix their cars that simple, there are many cars nearby," but this group doesn't have a spaceship nearby, so ... you will understand if you watch this anime. However, I cannot ignore a plot that is not consistent, a scenario that ignores the details and uses strange ideas to create a secondary storyline. That new story is far from the survival goal placed at the beginning. The real risk is not space. In this story, space is not as dangerous as it seems, the real threat is humans, and that is very unfortunate. Also, all those "extra" additions created a strange story that I cannot stand because it is silly, stupid, the name "Astra Lost in Space" does not fit anymore. As the plot progresses, observe that the story is full of coincidences plotted by a mastermind who leaves more questions and few answers. Those coincidences created several unfinished stories that affected the behavior of the characters. For example, they are not worried about space and all the surrounding dangers, and they do not care if they cannot find food, they are concerned by a human inside their ship that could turn against them or a conspiracy group, that is ridiculous. The highlight of each episode is a mixture of dramatic events like "my father never loved me," some actions like "hey, the device found good food, this animal tastes delicious." Then, the authors added some conspiracy events "Someone is an enemy, say nothing, we have a great meal tonight" and some real survival events but with a stupid outcome like "the spaceship is failing but don't worry, it will solve somehow. " Unfortunately, the storyline is a mixture of useful elements without proper development and conclusion. Although I liked the first part, the plot, the writing, and the dialogues are very average. All these lead to unusual character behavior. They are afraid about their life and the next minute they are singing kumbaya. The characters are average. Do not come to tell me that they are stunning with a fantastic background because they are not. If you pay attention, all the characters have the same context and have the same problems, except Aries. In other words, all characters are generic like clones. The characters fill a convenient spacecraft crew: it has a hero, an expert in phytology, a genius/pilot, an expert in weapons, an expert in crafts, a medic, a singer, a villain, a survivor and a girl. The most normal character is Aries, but the plot affects her directly, sadly. The animation and art are adequate. There are some bad parts, but not so remarkable. The colors are very vivid and created a pleasant atmosphere from planet to planet. The camera angles and the speed between the scenes are acceptable and, combined with a good score, create an impressive visual wasted by a mediocre plot. The sound is good; it fills the scenes and is used intelligently. The songs are acceptable. Finally, I liked the first part, but I did not like the conclusion. I think the ending is ridiculous and affects all the characters directly in the wrong way. Here we have a good animation with a good idea but developed poorly with many coincidences that can bore the audience because it makes the anime silly and empty.

Astra Lost in Space is the perfect example of a series with earnest intentions that cannot help but undermine itself at every turn. It claims to take its story seriously but plasters it with candy-coated visuals and drawn out comedy. It wants us to buy into the survival of these kids, but refuses to give them hardship. It wants to be cinematic, but never warrants it. It wants to have cliffhangers, but fails to generate tension. It wants to develop its characters, but instead fabricates their plots out of thin air only to still drop or homogenize their stories despite that. It works passably as lighthearted entertainment, but any ambitions beyond that fall staggeringly low for the most part. To start with, the actual concept of characters being stranded in space, or being on some sort of traitor hunt isn’t original even to anime, with material such as They Were Eleven, Infinite Ryvius and Rokka no Yuusha already present. The execution could’ve made up for the unoriginal concept, being a successful blend of wonder, danger, adventure and sci-fi with character driven proceedings to make each cast member deservedly memorable in their own right. Sadly, Astra’s tendency to have its cake and eat it too undermine every one of these by forcing those aspects to take turns. For a show with “Lost in Space” in its title, it never throughout its entire run (beyond perhaps, Episode 1) communicates ANY genuine sense of danger. The colorful visuals lack any sort of grit to make situations tense, the planetary dangers are never more than minor inconveniences, and it will refer to either a forced, sappy character moment or a forced, sappy comedy moment any time you think it will get serious. The use of blood is nearly non-existent beyond a total empty consequence, and there is no visible death or even could-be threatening pursuers on their tail. Instead, Astra decides to have a beach episode on what should’ve been a hostile alien planet. Complete with forced fanservice. One episode though does seem like it would actually be about survival when the ship crashes with a broken engine. This lasts for all of.......10 minutes, before just so happening to find another ship that just so happened to land on the same planet, be the same model as theirs, AND have a detachable portion to get the ship up and running again. This did everything possible to trivialize a potential dangerous situation. It nonetheless tries to make moments feel intense by tagging nearly every episode with a cliffhanger, but most of the follow ups are either not worth it or straight up fakeouts. One twist, involving an unexpected character, has basically nothing to do with the actual point of the show and feels like it was just there to have another twist, or shatter the show’s gradually poorly conceived main setting. The one attempt to add consequence as the series nears conclusion fails to actually create a major ripple as a series about survival should make. So, yeah, the survival aspects of the plot are a complete bust, but hey, maybe all that time was really focused on enjoyably investing character drama to make this cast one of the most charming and memorable ensembles as of recent. Well, not exactly...... In my review of Persona 4 The Animation, I mentioned how the series managed to effectively juggle lighthearted, distinct character moments with a serious plot, presenting strong personalities to the entire cast with unique personal conflicts that were properly built before their prominence and still touched on after their climaxes. It even managed to effectively lead into scenes that were more serious without feeling out of touch. Sadly, Astra’s character moments, however they may be, can’t even come close to poignant. In this show, character handling is present, particularly in the first 2/3 but done in the laziest way possible. Generally, a character will have basically nothing on them at the beginning, then randomly, some event will happen that forces them to dump their entire backstory out, a “survival” event happens that said character supposedly helped with even if they do nothing for it, and then the character is instantaneously forgotten about otherwise for the entire series. This is the case with Yunhua, Quitterie, Luca and Ulgar. And the worst part about these moments is that it never feels like the characters have personal conflicts and relatable doubts they want to overcome like the Persona 4 characters. Instead, it comes across as them wanting to just not have to deal with shitty parents. Nearly every backstory is working along the exact same motif and the series only becomes more plot driven overtime, so there’s nothing interesting to really learn about them for viewers. And then other characters like Aries or Zack don’t have this attempted depth at all but instead are purely driven by the plot without any real attempts at actual change. It’s incredibly disheartening all around that this is what the show focused on so much, yet it’s so predictable, boring and lacks both interesting issues at play and palpable story effect for far too much of the show. Kanata’s the one exception to this rule since for once he feels consistently driven overtime, and that’s cool, but I still think that there was more the series could’ve done with his character arc in regards to genuine survival stakes we currently don’t have. All of these aspects are made ever more detrimental by a certain plot turn in the last third of the series. At this point, all character proceedings are dropped for a plot driven focus featuring extremely poorly thought out sci-fi and a traitor reveal that questions why the character even needs to exist and makes the character in question look like an absolute idiot for not capitalizing on opportunities way earlier that the show decided to section off for “antics” that needed to exist unnecessarily. When a series like this wants to make a plot twist that completely changes the direction of the series, don’t do it when you only have four episodes left to do it in! Doing so will make the conflict feel unearned and lacking the proper fleshed out focus. A show like Madoka Magica heavily hinting at the plot turn early on and giving it 80% of the run to be fleshed out did far more for its thematic heft than what little attention Astra gives it. It’s genuinely disappointing given the topic it attempts to cover with this is actually pretty interesting if it had any time to make impact or didn’t make those outside the field look like complete morons, but that’s what you’re given as flat as it is. Speaking of flat, there’s also the animation. While certainly having color and showing potential early on, it’s stiff to an almost painful degree. Characters barely feel like they’re moving at all most of the time, as it swaps between manga frame to manga frame at an incredibly frequent rate. Having more animation would certainly liven up affairs because there isn’t anything interesting done with the shot composition once the first episode’s space scene is over. It also would help the space setting look far more distinctive. Shows like Space Dandy are light years ahead of it, and even older series like Outlaw Star and hell, Sonic X Season 3 managed to make their space settings more interesting to look at, as well as more tense. And yet despite having color and a few semi-interesting planets early on, the animation never properly conveys grit over Crayola colors, which for a series like this riding on the survival of its characters should be required. But nope, this lack of effort contributes to the emptiness of the entire Astra experience. As for the music, it’s passable, nothing less and nothing more, which it should be better given the scale thousands of other space based projects do with their scores. Conclusion Astra Lost in Space in general could be seen decently as simple lighthearted entertainment that starts semi-well and ends better than what most of the middle comprises as, bu…

Kanata no Astra is something done damn right. It is something that easily goes under the radar because of the dull poster, unattractive plot with generic shounen characters that has personalities that everyone can deduce. However, it exceeds bar of expectations and shoot to the top. It has a simple beginning. Everyone is lost in space, with only a deserted spaceship. Seeds are subtly planted throughout 10 episodes, waiting to be reaped and the studio excels in showing this. Blending shivering tracks and chocking atmosphere, a thriller sub-genre is slipped in that could send chills down your spine. The events unfold, the conflict rises, the twists emerge one by one to get us and them closer to the truth. The setup of ambience is elevated accordingly with it as the camera rolls back to present the very core of the show – they are all alone. They have no one they can truly trust, no one to rely on, they only have each other. Just when all the hope seems lost, teamwork joined the room. With trust on short demand, it was not pure friendship. They have to aid each other regardless of their true intention to survive. With that, the diverse quirks of the characters are no longer just eccentricities, but the vital skills they need to survive in various unprecedented events, all while complementing each other’s weakness and utilizing combined advantages. It was a captivating portrayal of unity amidst all the uneasiness in store, and it was delivered well.  In this sci-fi adventure, Kanata is the athletic leader that can PUNCH realization into others, with a bit of recklessness and playfulness. Charce, is the right-hand-man with exceptional knowledges on biology. Air-headed ArieS is the one who always seems clueless, yet serve as an important link between the members. Zack, the tech and mathematics prodigy. Ulgar, the quiet and mysterious boy with seemingly ulterior motive. The list goes on and on, with insights on the characters being revealed one by one.  They are seemingly not connected, but they don’t know it yet, that they are brought together for a reason. A reason that has enclosed themselves in a frame for so long, that they would not have found their purpose and their identity in life if they weren’t together in that spaceship. And it's thrilling to deduce and see how it all tie together. The animation is handled by Lerche. This studio once handled ‘Assasination Classroom’ with its colorful characters and ‘Classroom of Elite’ with its psychological outlook. As such, facial expression and character design spells out the characteristics of each character. The characters are given a subtle clue on their expression of what they are planning to do next and a glimpse of how dead serious they can be with each of their act. It is this element that gives us, the audience a chance to do our guesses on the mystery unraveled, analyzing the extent of their action that gives away their thoughts. Overall, I really enjoy the style of the direction of the show and the story only gets better as it goes on. In the end, it connects everything from the beginning to shape the bonds created and to end the story with a perfect closure that befits their whole journey. With that, they begin their new journey. The only thing left to do now is to experience it all unfolds before your eyes.

I can't recall the last time I saw an anime with as inconsistent writing quality as Kanata no Astra. I swear, this anime flip-flops between being really cool and being downright stupid every five minutes. It makes for a very strange viewer experience but if nothing else it sure keeps you curious. I'll put it this way: the actual premise and setting of Kanata no Astra is really intriguing. Space anime that aren't mecha are rare enough to begin with, but to on top of that make it a sort of survival story with a great deal of exploration of the unknown celestial bodies of space is a great combination. You can also definitely tell that the author had a clear idea of how the story would finish before he started writing it, and as a result the overarching main mysteries of it all are quite interesting and a bit surprising as well. You'll be able to guess some of it but certainly not all of it, and those surprises might just be all you need to make it a worthwhile viewer experience. But on the other hand, where Kanata no Astra really suffers is more in the details of it all. Anyone that actually pays attention will notice lots and lots of minor things throughout the story that either just plain don't make sense or feel way too dependent on random coincidences. For starters there are the planets that the characters end up visiting throughout the series which somehow all end up feeling about as one-dimensional as the procedurally generated ones in No Man's Sky. It's all one big biome with an ecosystem that is seemingly very small but still filled with nothing but over-the-top fantastical organisms, not to mention they're still conveniently edible for humans (not to mention the device that measures the level of organism edibility). Then there's the pacing which feels very jumpy considering that there are several weeks in-between every planetary stop for our main characters, yet they seem to always pass by in a breeze as if nothing of note happened meanwhile, even if some massive plot point had just been brought up in the past episode. It's not like the travel time is the same as going through a loading screen in a video game but it often feels like the plot treats it as one. It just doesn't really make much sense. Sometimes the author does try to come up with an explanation to make an otherwise one-in-a-million coincidence plausible, but it still often ends up feeling rather forced. For example there's one episode where he clearly wanted the main characters to randomly come across a certain object on a planet they were visiting, so thus naturally on this particular planet it just so happened that only a very thin strip of land around the equator was actually habitable, and it just so happened that on a certain part of that strip there was a bunch of hazards which could cause you to crash your ship, and it just so happened that the characters not only do so but then also end up disembarking and walking to the exact they needed to find the object in question... etcetera. Like it's not illogical but it's just layered coincidences upon coincidences to force the plot in a specific direction rather than feeling like an organic universe and as a result it just doesn't come across as natural at all. Now the mysteries in Astra that are more closely tied to the main plot are eventually explained further down the line, albeit some in more satisfactory ways than others, but again it's the details along the road that are not really properly addressed. The characters themselves are also a bit of a strange bunch. Some of them are supposed to be geniuses but sometimes they end up doing some really stupid decisions anyway. But either way I still consider them an enjoyable group in the context they're presented, and when all is said and done and you know the truth behind their respective pasts, it definitely gives them a better outlook than it does at first. At the end of the day, the idea of exploring the unknown in space has always excited me and honestly that's still the main reason why I enjoyed this anime despite everything. For the most part, Kanata no Astra doesn't have the best writing and there's no way around that fact, but it still has its moments where it shines. More importantly though, in the end I'm not sure it really matters. Yes, it could potentially have been a really great anime if it had been better researched and polished, but it is still an enjoyable anime in a very unusual setting and that also has a proper conclusion. That's a lot more than can be said for most anime. I think the best thing you can do is to simply try to not take it more seriously than necessary because if you can look past all the triggering little details spread out throughout it then you should have a much better viewing experience.

Do you know that feeling of eating a nice piece of candy which leaves you wanting some more? So you eat a whole lot of candy and it starts to make you feel nauseous, you continue eating the candy because you want it to feel like that first piece of candy again but you end up just feeling more nauseous and miserable. That's kind of how I felt during this series at times and especially during the last episode. The story had some potential and the overall plot was quite nice, the execution on the other hand was just dreadful to me. Dramatic moments got dragged out and were way too emotional to be realistic.

Anime is often criticized for how underwritten their stories can feel. Unfortunately for Kanata no Astra, it has the exact opposite problem. Kanata no Astra is now the sophomore effort of SKET Dance mangaka and Gintama alum, Kenta Shinohara. I remember when Kanata no Astra first began publishing, it didn’t cause as many heads to turn as it has now, nearly 2 years after it's finished its run in Shonen Jump+. At the time, it didn’t really seem like anything other than an attempt to fulfill shonen manga’s need to reinvent itself with different settings and concepts. To my surprise, when I finally decided to dip my toes into its 40-minute pilot, I was greeted with a solidly entertaining introductory episode that more or less defied my expectations while also showing quite a bit of promise...and by its halfway point, all of that potential was lost in space. Most of the positives I have to mention about Astra start and end with its technical aspects. Even when Lerche can’t seem to catch a break as far as the material they choose to take on, they’ve managed to consistently polish and stylize their shows to the point that they’ve become one of the more exciting studios putting out projects. Astra isn’t an exception to that. Besides some recycled CG shots of the ship darting through hyperspace, overall I’d say the look of the show is pretty good. The design of the planets and their denizens is decent although the character models fall short of standard with typical faces and bodies down to the spikey-haired athletic shonen protagonist and busty love interest. The direction isn’t anything special and as far as action goes there are really no stand-out sequences of key-animation, however on that note, it never significantly dips under its average, at least to the untrained eye. The music is decent, I guess, but not really anything I’d go out of my way to listen to on its own. I won’t hang my hat on this show’s presentation though because there are far more interesting details to divulge. Clearly, when Kenta Shinohara penned the idea for Astra, he had a very specific end-goal in sight. That’s perpetuated by the finite amount of planets that needed to be circumnavigated as well as the flippant pace in which the characters managed to best these planets with an eerie amount of ease. This makes me question as to whether or not Shinohara was actually all that interested in the adventure aspect of the series which drew me to it initially. I played around with the idea that perhaps his superiors rushed him to the finish-line as so many mangaka are nowadays, but Shinohara isn’t exactly wet behind the ears by any means. SKET Dance was popular enough at its apex that it ran for nearly 300 chapters and he also worked alongside Hideaki Sorachi of Gintama fame which was a commercial and critical darling. Had the story been given just a little more room to breathe, I feel like Shinohara could’ve sown together a masterpiece. I really enjoyed those first few episodes of Astra, ironically, for the lack of chemistry between the group. It was almost like watching The Breakfast Club but in a sci-fi context. These characters had no connection on the surface (until an inevitable plot twist forces one between them) and all of them had wildly different personalities and niches to fulfill as part of a singular unit. Shinohara did a good job of clearly defining their personalities and setting them up to believably pace out a codependence and comradery between them. Had Shinohara doubled-down on the adventure and the urgency/intensity, this easily could’ve been the next One Piece or Made in Abyss but in a science-fiction setting (granted very soft sci-fi), and how awesome does that sound? Unfortunately, as the series continued, it became increasingly evident that the adventure was heavily manufactured in service of a (if you could believe it) faux political thriller (with plot twists on top of plot twists). The minute that this show started to play around with the potential of the inciting incident being intentionally perpetrated, I started to check out. Shinohara plays with heavy concepts like cloning, eugenics, and even suicide with about as deft a touch as a Hiro Mashima. And after a point, I felt like I was watching something adapted from a Hiro Mashima manga except with not nearly enough fan-service or camp to keep me sane. All of these incessant plot-twists that Shinohara feels the need to include about these characters and the situation revolving around the circumstances of their adventure are needless and contrived, they’re so out of left-field and jarring that they compromise the simple but effective formula it had carved out for itself. I’d go so far as to say the series would’ve been saved had all that obfuscatory plotting been cut in favor of focusing more on the adventure/world-building. These plot twists are used as a crutch to squeeze pathos and force development out of these characters. At best, they served to momentarily play up the histrionics, as if that was needed. Your characters are on a friggin space adventure, why is any of this needed? You’re in friggin space dude, space is cool! Show more of that! I could care less about the needlessly convoluted political subterfuge pulling the strings of this ship to its destination, your focus should lie squarely with the adventure not the cause of the adventure! Every time Shinohara further explores the backstory of the plot he’s crafted, I’m left mouth agape wondering how exactly any of this got green-lit. It’s so poorly plotted that it almost crosses into kitsch territory, and frankly, that’s the only context I would be able to imagine myself enjoying this show ever again if need be. It’s a shame that I can’t really go into specifics because most of my criticisms are rooted in the plot and I’d rather not have to spoil to get a point across. Garden-variety anime nowadays have such dime-a-dozen cockamamie plots that I typically have no trepidation about spoiling. That really just goes to show how solid of a concept Astra had to work with to where I couldn’t really predict in what direction the story was going in. And to be fair, even after the story continued to pull back the veil on what was REALLY going on, I still had no sense of what the hell Shinohara was doing with this story. Even if you like this show, you just can’t overlook the messy plotting. I could suspend my disbelief when the characters were conveniently teleported into the dark abyss of space within the vicinity of a derelict spaceship with no casualties. I can suspend my disbelief that these kids are prodigious enough to basically fulfill every essential function required of their journey, like they’re friggin Starfleet. And I can even suspend my disbelief about a conveniently placed ship of the same model with the EXACT same parts that they needed to fix their original ship when it inevitably breaks down on just the right planet where that ship was placed (what are the odds right?)...okay, maybe that one was a bit too far. By the end, I just felt beaten senseless by all these asinine and unnecessary plot twists, plot conveniences, and plot devices. They say “the plot thickens”, well, the plot was certainly “thick” and probably not in the way it was intended. To me, the beauty of shonen has always been its puerile simplicity. Shows like Demon Slayer and Haikyuu!! work with such rudimentary concepts but make do with what they’re given to cobble together compelling stories. And with the way the industry is nowadays, higher concepts have a place to flourish, shows like Dr. Stone and Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure are the foam that rises to the top of the seasonal anime microcosm. Astra...isn’t really either of those things but desperately tries to be both. Astra sabotaged its own plot with its need to pull boneheaded plot twists out of its hat to the point of becoming a campy shadow of what it probably intended to come out as. With the added caveat…

Almost one hour long and a wide screen aspect ratio, those were my first impressions of the first episode of this anime. Astra in Space caught my attention from the info of its source material than anything else. A well received shounen oriented sci-fi adventure, and not only that, but it’s also short being only 5 volumes long. With a story that short it seemed that Astra had something that it wanted to accomplish. However as the episodes ticked by i failed to see what it was trying to do with its story or why it was considered good. Sure it is enjoyable, but that’s really it. Astra takes place in a futuristic world where kids being sent to another planet as a school trip is seen as a no big deal. With an ensemble cast of highschoolers and one child heading to one of these planets. And just like in the synopsis, they all get mysteriously sent somewhere else and have to survive getting back home. The writing for Astra is kind of a mixed bag, the best way I can describe it is that it all sounds good on paper, but what’s presented falls a bit short. The idea of being stranded in space is a good idea, but in reality it seems like it’s more of a detour. The characters have a road map of how to get home, and just need to planet hop a few times for supplies. The show also knows how to use planting and pay off very well for both within and episode and for later on down the road. However the pay-off are sometimes underwhelming or even nonsensical. I feel like a lot of that can be attributed to the tone of the show. Astra has a rather happy-go-lucky attitude through and through. I mean, I don't want it to be grim-dark, and it does have some undertones and angst thrown about. However when the show has kids facing the daunting expanse of space, hostile alien planets, and even conflicts amongst themselves it never has the feeling that something bad is going to happen to them. No matter how much peril the characters face none of it feels perilous. There are also some plot twists, but just like before it only seems good on paper. They don’t really add or re-contextualize anything. They do kind of drop hints early on but like most of their pay-offs it’s rather underwhelming. The characters are rather decent personality wise. At their introductions in the first episode they all fall into a stereotypical category. While it is done purposefully in order to develop them as characters, it’s pretty predictable how they will develop from their very first interactions with other characters. From the mean older sister coming to love her younger sister, the shy girl trying to be less useless, or the angsty teen being understandably angsty. Of course these are the more basic examples but it more or less holds true for every character. What is a little less satisfying is how compartmentalized many of them are. With a total of 9 people on the ship and the show being 12(13) episodes long only so much focus can be put onto each character. This leads to some characters only being partially fleshed out and then put aside and never having much relevance later on unless it is necessary to the plot. Finally the production or more precisely why it decided to use the aspect ratio that it did. Astra predominantly uses a wide aspect ratio. For a few other instances it goes to a more full screen aspect ratio. Usually something like is used as a motif or hint to the viewer. But what does it mean for Astra? From the first episode it seemed that it would be a contrast between the spaceship and space. With the spaceship being widescreen giving it a feeling of being cramped due to the lack of vertical space. With the full screen being attributed to space itself as the screen expands more the same way the universe expands. However since they rarely leave the ship there’s not much more to it. It could have been used for the more open spaces of planets or breathable planets that allow them to take off their helmets, but it’s not. Instead it is used rather flippantly, for the few rare times it is actually used. it’s rather confusing why they used it in the first place. Everything else about the shows looks and sounds are decent albeit par for the course , it’s just that one thing that came off as weird. I really wanted to like this show but many things about it worked against its favor. Maybe there was some essence from the source material that didn’t properly transition into the adaptation, now that would be a rather shame… Funny enough after finishing the anime I was reminded of another anime called Uninhabited Planet Survive, now that’s an anime about kids lost in space.

There's this episode in an anime from 2012 titled Humanity has Declined where the characters are trapped inside a manga, and they have to act out the panels in order to progress through the pages, rise in the ranks full of other people in the same situation and hopefully finally break free from their predicament. Why am I telling you this? Well a certain character gets the genius idea to keep adding twist after twist at the end of each panel so the readers keep interested in what's happening. It does work for a while, but eventually people get sick of it once they realize there's nothing of substance beyond those twists and their rank quickly drops as a result Coincidentally, that can also be used as a perfect description for the space faring adventure, Kanata no Astra. It starts out well enough with an interesting premise as the characters have to scramble for survival, living together for months in this little ship with an ever increasing psychological toll while also exploring unknown worlds, but it quickly devolves into twist after twist each episode until it barely makes sense anymore and all we get when it's finished is a half baked ending that just immediately solves all the mess of a plot at that point and everybody lives happily ever after, since they clearly didn't have the time to deal with even one of the fifty can of worms they decided to open, most of which could be central plot lines for a single show themselves were they in more capable hands Some say that a good hook alone doesn't make for an overall well rounded story unless it's competently written and the same principle can be applied to twists too, and their overuse as a crutch for an actual story instead of tying all the lose plot threads is a recipe for disaster. One of the worst offenders of this was probably when a certain episode ended with a big twist about their destination, with one character utterly shocked and dumbfounded, seemingly knowing as much about it as everybody else considering their dialogue, but then they proceeded to give everybody a nice expository history lesson for the crew and the audience at the start of the following episode This could've been a very nice survival show, the habitable planet hoping was a nice idea which also doubled as a means to give some nice variety of environments and scenarios but there's no point in dwelling in what ifs, we have to work with what we got. And what did we get? An average at best anime depending on your tastes, even the planets themselves start to get real boring after the focus shifts to the "twist of the week" style of writing. The characters are a mixed bag with some having simple but consistent and relatively enjoyable personalities and others having many issues and changing at a near moment's notice because there either wasn't any time to develop them or they got hit with the twist + flashbacks treatment which I'm sure is bound to get people at the edge of their seats when it happens for the Nth time

First time I write a review, but this has to happen. I had a day off today and saw this anime somewhere in MAL. It was Sci-Fi and the Rating was really nice. So I thought "Why not"? Started with an 48 min Episode. And oh boy, that 48 min hooked me really. I don't get this feeeling very often. And as I proceed, episode for episode I get more hyped. I wasn't prepared for that. What i really love, are Plot-Twists. And I don't get them very often in Anime. But this great Anime presented me like 5 of them! And the music! The music is the cherry on top. This Anime is really a piece of Art. It's an Anime like this, that shows me one more time, why I love anime.

A generic shounen clasped into the survival genre, and tagging along with the ride is the space adventure styled with ALL that sci-fi realism put into it, plus hints of momentous comedy, like why so? Mash that all together, and you'll get the (damn near close) masterpiece that is the newest creation of SKET Dance mangaka Kenta Shinohara's latest project, Kanata no Astra (or Astra Lost in Space for pure English weeaboos). For the majority who are fans of Shinohara-sensei, the similarities in the generic space from SKET Dance copies directly over to this series, and I wouldn't be surprised if it divided the people watching this series from the get-go. Spanning 5 volumes and 49 chapters, this is pretty much a respected and complete source adaptation that is more than just a roundabout package, it's one of pure satisfaction and redemption. And I'll keep this spoiler free as much as I can, you just have to watch to find out! Story: Set in the Earth of the future where space travel is commonplace, a group of seemingly randomized characters are signed onto an excursion that is something like travelling overseas, but with a commercial spaceship. The happy-go-lucky Aries Spring is sent off in good spirits with the bunch that is Team B-5, a team of 9 school teenagers on a journey to camp on the distant planet McPa. Upon arrival on said distant planet, a sudden burst of a black hole sphere emerges that caught the team off-guard, sucked them into the sphere and pushes them out into outer space that is light years away from their current time. Desperate to keep the team together, Team B-5 leader Kanata Hoshijima races to save every group member and raise questions and answers about the situation that is their jouney home on an abandoned spaceship (which they christened the Astra), as well as to find out the culprit that triggered the sequence of events in the first place. AND THIS IS ONLY THE SET-UP, the foreshadowing of things to happen. Being a relatively new reader to Shinohara-sensei's work (though I have read and seen a few of SKET Dance before), my heart was nevertheless ready for the endless amount of reveals and plot twists that this rounded story could become, that is handed over to the production staff at Lerche with studio director Ando Masaomi at the helm. And truth be told, it may seem like it's the usual case of badly executed generic troupes and cliches that everyone can smell like miles away, I thought that being one with the comedy actually gave the series a tad bit of fresh air to ease the intentions of Kanata and the others whilst in their detective forms of discovering the uniqueness of each other. And along the way as the crew develop bonds in the conquest to eventually reach back to Earth, when all it seemed that the goal was the endgame, suddenly became a convoluted (but straightforward) mess of a puzzle to figure out the REAL reason behind all this. That's where the plot twists play into effect, and it changed the course of the game willy-nilly that I admit, took me aback by sheer surprise at knowing the manga source material and treading that infallible path to greatness. If you're wanting to risk knowing a lot from the get-go, then I'll apologize firsthand as this series plays THAT game with you, you just have to slowly fill in the blanks as you progress, pretty much like detective framework. Oh, and there's also some cues of world-building, and Shinohara-san knows that all too well that if the world-building took precedence over the events that were happening, it would not make do for a finish to the series overall, albeit make it feel longer and stretched out that it loses the charm. So people who have been wanting these world-building aspects, you're not gonna find out here as it only explains at the basis and no further. Characters: Kanata and Co., the crew of Astra really is the dynamic stronghold behind the series. All the 9 teenagers are (not that really) special and unique to one another, but in the face of death, they constantly put their grudges aside and work together to escape harm's way. It may not seem like they're meshing together, but when it does, you can tell straightaway. The leader of Team B-5, Kanata Hoshijima, let's just say that he is an all-rounder in everything he does...not without some sacrifice. Due in part of his younger days being tormented that his teacher taught him everything about space (which riled his interest in space travelling), his low-brow abusive father taught him to be an athlete instead, following the family tradition. And through his hard times, he is constantly being optimistic about everything around him, in both good and bad times, you can count on him. The odd one out, Aries Spring, I kinda wished we had a moment of canon where I ship both Kanata and her, but it was never meant to be. Having recently just transferred into the new planet and joined the team, her unique trait is photographic memory, where if seen once, she will remember for time to come. She sometimes can be an airhead, but that's part of her charm, alongside trying her best to match Kanata's optimism. The cool and intelligent info-source onboard, Zack Walker, one look at him and you can tell how much of the experience is embedded upon him from young. He is, like Kanata, a natural-born leader, and someone who takes charge of his own duties and obligations to the fullest. Everything about him just screams knowledge, and when Kanata and the others are in need, Zack is the first to be called upon to resolve the issue. And, the surprise kicker is that he chose the girl to marry since childhood, out of just mere "childish" words: The tsundere (is it?) Quitterie Raffaeilli, along with her sister Funicia. At first glance, both of them looked the same and are raised by the same family, but it is then and there that after the passing of her parents, Funicia postmortem was the adopted daughter to Quitterie the only child. While Funicia tries to get along with Quitterie, whom has a harsh childhood with little to no acceptance of the family's love, it's through their madness that they eventually reconcile and see each other as siblings, in no regards to their origin. As for Quitterie, her foul behaviour is one to be accustomed to from the get-go, but slowly opening up to Zack and the others proves that she still can be changed for the better. Luca Esposito is the son of a politician, however his origins are a doozy. And I ask you, how would you want to meet with someone who is genderless? Hell, that Luca is! Luca looks like a boy from the outside, but in the Earth of the future, transgender humans are a source of controversy, and even I admit that the reveal was not expected, but not in the way of how the anime delivered in a silent killing way, which makes it even more suspenseful. Onboard, he is the engineer to Astra, and I can't say how much Kanata and the others truly needed him (or it) at desperate measures. However, the next friend and foe is not so kind to him: Ulgar Zweig, the son of the vice principal of the school that sent Kanata and the others out to space. His antisocial and quiet behaviour is one to be highly cautioned at the beginning, but even that doesn't stray his intentions of an ultimatum: to kill those in relation to his brother, being a freelance journalist and got killed at the hands of injustice when he was young. Even as the series progresses, that hostile behaviour is one that reeks of the presence of him trying to establish the link that eventually even if Luca is killed, there is no way that his killing is redemption. Lu Yunhua, the supposedly shy girl of a mom that was an opera singer (IDK why, but Japan likes to assume that Asians are best being opera singers, and it is true to a degree). It doesn't say much, but the Asian stigma applies to her greatly, as parents demand A HELL LOT from their own children, so much so that it is low-key abusive and berating their own children's path of the futur…

Kanata no Astra is pure garbage, but it's the garbage everyone talks about. The way the show started, I was thinking this was going to be something of "Star Trek the Anime", which in a way that's how the first half of the show was supposed to turn out. Eventually, as with all bad sci-fi shows, it turns out into this weird primordial soup of just too many different sci-fi concepts. It tried too hard and honestly just fell really flat on its face. The writing is boring, art is static and not even Japanese voice acting could save this show. Story - 3 Prepare yourself for a cringefest of the most idiotic characters spouting the cheesiest lines about teamwork and friendship. I actually feel embarassed that I had to listen to it more than how the VA's must have felt reading it. I think from a conceptual perspective, the story wasn't too bad, but the execution (mainly the dialogue) was just pitiful. You could have actually hired a highschooler to write the script for you and it would have turned out better. Art - 1 If you're someone with a brain, you might notice how incredibly static and non-moving everything is in the show. If you're thinking that's bad, it's actually worse, because not only is everything static, everything looks like it's made out of MS Paint and the animators just fill-colored every scene. Actually even saying that would be too kind for this show because someone who used fill-color would actually have time to put things like proper shading and good color tones to at least make things look decent. I wouldn't be surprised if you told me this was drawn by amateurs, in fact I would be more surprised if it wasn't the case. Sound - 4 I wasn't really paying attention to the music that well but nothing really stood out to me as a good theme or even remotely exciting. At the very least it has music so I guess it's better than nothing... Character - 3 The characters are generic and bland. Essentially every character is some literary plot device to be used and thrown away. That's all characters are in this show, overused napkins to cover up the messy plot the writers of this show came up with. And unfortunately they don't even do a good job of cleaning up, the show still turns out to be a steaming hot pile of stinking trash. Enjoyment - 5 The story is a child's creation of a teenage highschool drama set in space. The art is a lazy attempt to pass off half-worked drawings as decent animation. The characters are plot devices which have no other purpose in the show aside from existing to continue the story. Everything is just so wrong that it's a miracle this even exists. But as weird as it sounds the show being this bad is probably the one thing it has going for it. Kanata no Astra is like that one fat kid everyone can bully or make fun of. People love talking trash, and I'm no exception. It's that show that people can discuss and criticize with others and oddly enough, you can because it's one of the more popular anime airing this season. And I guess it's because despite being terrible, it does have unique parts of its story which are cliche, but not too common in relation to other airing anime. Being the only one of its genre airing also gives it an edge in popularity strangely enough. In the end I guess even a show as terrible as Kanata no Astra is preferred over watching an overgeneric isekai. Overall - 4 Would not recommend, EVER! But if they ever make a sequel, I hope it's as bad as the first one!

Going by my score of 9 you can tell I definitely highly recommend it however at first when I started watching the characters and story made me believe it to be a somewhat cliche adventure story with weak characters. However it takes time to develop characters and eventually dives off into numerous twists that were well set up and foreshadowed. It's a very highly enjoyable show and definitely the most fulfilling ending I've seen in quite a bit. The story of being lost in space could be said to be like any other adventure story like exploring an abyss for instance, however luckily instead of focusing on just the adventure aspects, Kanata no Astra focuses on characters and progression while still maintaining the sense of adventure and wonder. This plus again I can't stress enough how much I appreciate the ending, make for a great tale of adventure and fulfillment. The art style is very good and there were absolutely no issues with it, if I were to be asked if it was memorable artwise I'd have to say no but it definitely is great art without a doubt. The sound is also great and fitting, the soundtrack feels spacey and the voice acting is fitting especially as you get to know the characters. The characters begin seeming like caricatures but evolve into their own selves with well developed backstories and motives. The characterization is very well done. Enjoyment is definitely very high as this is the most fulfilling show I've seen in awhile, overall I highly recommend it!

This show has laughs, mystery and a lot of heart. Astra probably isn't the best show set about people lost in space, but I do give it a giant A+ for effort when it comes to keeping me invested in the overall plot and mystery. The show follows a group of teens (and an elementary schooler) who get lost in space after a wormhole shows up on their field trip to another planet. Storywise I think this is where the anime most strongly stands, it has a bit of an episodic format to start off, but in the second half the episodes race (at a good speed) toward the conclusion, where not a single plot thread is left unanswered (the conclusion for this anime makes it seem like their ending off a 100+ episode series, and has a better conclusion than some of those anime). I think the first few episodes take a bit to get on their feet, (the episodic format of planet to planet and each characters tragic backstory not particularly interesting when you don't know the group) but where this anime really finds its footing is not in the space drama but in the mystery aspect that grows throughout. Where reveal after reveal takes your mind on a magic course, and you're second-guessing parts of earlier episodes, and wondering where each small hint leads as you theorize different elements. Art is typical but never distracting--artistically it's told with a letterbox 16:9 format, they sometimes break away from (like when showing space, which I found quite fascinating). Sound has some good tracks, but nothing stands out; often the opening is left behind to use that extra minute of screentime to parade more information in. Character-wise they all start out very generic tropes; the nice one, the nerd, the jock leader, the princess, the dark edgy one, etc-- except surprisingly they actually grow out of their tropes. An example is most of the characters don't appreciate Kanata (the leader, who proclaims to be captain) in the beginning, however, it involves to everyone having gained a respect for him after he recuses Aries in the first episode, and he's the heart that brings the team together. He evolves from they typical someone who "must save everyone" to having a reason for having this attitude than being a shounen protagonist-- and a reason to realize he's most suited to be the captain in the group, which is why he takes on the role. Most of the main cast grow out of their tropes as the series goes on, and in the last episode, there wasn't a single one of them I didn't like (whereas in the first episode I had much doubt about a few). Each character breaks away from what you presume them to be in at the start, truly giving the series an edge, and making me invested in what will happen. Honestly, this was a really fun series for the 12 episodes they had (the first and last of those episodes are 40 minutes, so really it's like 14 episodes!) I came in expecting a bland space team adventure, but in the end, I got to experience an unravelling (well paid off) mystery, and a conclusion that's written better than most 12 episodes series (and most anime in general) ever get.

Per aspera ad astra, through hardships to the stars, a very good adaptation to the anime, Kanata no Astra or Astra Lost in Space. So: Story Pros: Basically what you have here was a Japanize version of "Lost in Space" where a group of youngsters, whom were supposed to go camping in some planet called McPa, but as the title suggest they found themselves getting suck into a wormhole and found themselves floating in space, but by some luck they found what looks like an abandon ship, from there their adventure to going home starts and their journey of self discovery as they struggle to know each other and help one another becomes the focal point of this anime/ manga story plot. Cons: Though minimal ,you won't find any death flags around here. Verdict 8/10 Art Pros: There was still the usual eyecandy uniform and swimsuit service. Cons: Don't expect to see any panchira and Quinttrie's boob flash. Verdict 4/10 Sound Pros: Good ending theme. Cons: Nothing in paticular. Verdict 7/10 Character Pros: Thought there were suppose to be 9 of them, later on 10 with the addition of Polina , it was basically Kanato who carries everything around here, basically he was like a version of Captain Kirk , who doesn't take things stting down, which basically earns him the respect of his crew. Cons: While Kanata was portrayed as the sensible and mature one among the group , it was kinda unfortunate that the rest were portrayed as immature and with some life issues. Verdict 6/10 Enjoyment Pros: The fact that this was set in the future, basically make me see this as some new to the table, but then gain I could be wrong, then gain for this to have a clean ending was something to me worthwhile. Cons: Nothing in particular. Verdict 8/10 Overall Verdict 9/10 It was worth watching, it has a clean ending, you might say it was the best 12 episode anime you've ever watch.

"Kanata no Astra" es simplemente una mala obra, la cuál no entiendo de donde sacó tantas buenas calificaciones. Es una obra extremadamente inconsistente en tono. Formalmente intenta mezclar misterio, supervivencia y drama con comedia escolar, pero la transición entre estos registros es torpe e inconsistente. Esa indecisión tonal destruye la tensión, y una historia que podría haber resultado intrigante termina resultando pueril, infantil e irrelevante. El elenco está construido sobre personajes arquetípicos shonen de manual: el idealista que cree que la amistad lo resuelve todo, el personaje edgy que en realidad solo requiere “afecto” para sanar sus traumas, la chica tímida, el gracioso, etc. Estos personajes no evolucionan, no tensan la trama y rara vez toman decisiones con consecuencias dramáticas reales. El guion intenta justificar sus trasfondos con el recurso más barato posible, prácticamente todos perdieron a un ser querido y eso los llevó a actuar como actúan. Es una solución tan infantil y mecánica que reduce el drama a trámite, como si el dolor fuera una casilla que hay que marcar para tratar de generar simpatía. Los primeros episodios son los más funcionales de la serie, el misterio inicial y la premisa de supervivencia generan cierta expectativa, te preguntas si tal vez los personajes puedan enfrentar algún peligro significativo. Pero a medida que avanza, la serie abraza más lo escolar que lo espacial, y cualquier peso dramático se disipa en gags que parecen diseñados para un público que exige alivio constante. La coherencia temática y tonal, que debería ser columna vertebral en un relato de supervivencia, aquí queda relegada a la anécdota. El misterio se vuelve mas funcional y predecible, incluso el opening te hace spoilers bastante serios. En conjunto, "Astra Lost in Space" es un ejemplo de cómo una premisa interesante puede arruinarse cuando el autor no tiene claro el tipo de historia que está contando. Entiendo por qué puede ser popular es ligera, amable y optimista, ideal para un público de unos 7 a 12 años de edad, pero sus virtudes para el espectador masivo son exactamente aquello que la vuelven débil para cualquiera que exija seriedad, coherencia o desarrollo dramático genuino. Es un producto infantil, idealista y olvidable, incapaz de sostener su propio misterio sin trivializarlo, por lo cuál solo lo recomiendo para un público más infantil e impresionable, que sea capaz de emocionarse o impresionarse con algo así, pero incluso en esas, me parece una serie perjudicial por los temas "intersexuales" que mete de manera gratuita, en ese sentido se sintió como un refrito de "11-nin Iru!", pero mucho menos emocionante. Por lo que... sí, definitivamente es una mala serie y no la recomiendo. ENG: "Kanata no Astra" is simply a bad work, and I don't understand how it got so many good reviews. It's extremely inconsistent in tone. Formally, it tries to blend mystery, survival, and drama with school comedy, but the transition between these registers is clumsy and inconsistent. This tonal indecisiveness destroys the tension, and a story that could have been intriguing ends up feeling puerile, childish, and irrelevant. The cast is built on textbook shonen archetypes: the idealist who believes friendship solves everything, the edgy character who really just needs "affection" to heal their traumas, the shy girl, the class clown, etc. These characters don't evolve, they don't add any tension to the plot, and they rarely make decisions with real dramatic consequences. The script tries to justify their backstories with the cheapest possible trope: practically all of them lost a loved one, and that's what led them to act the way they do. It's such a childish and mechanical solution that it reduces the drama to a mere formality, as if grief were a box to be ticked to try and generate... Sympathy. The first few episodes are the most functional of the series. The initial mystery and the survival premise generate a certain amount of anticipation; you wonder if the characters might face some significant danger. But as it progresses, the series embraces the school setting more than the space adventure, and any dramatic weight dissipates into gags that seem designed for an audience that demands constant entertainment. Thematic and tonal coherence, which should be the backbone of a survival story, is relegated to mere anecdote. The mystery becomes more functional and predictable; even the opening sequence contains some pretty serious spoilers. Overall, "Astra Lost in Space" is an example of how an interesting premise can be diluted when the author isn't clear about the kind of story they're telling. I understand why it might be popular: it's light, friendly, and optimistic, ideal for an audience of about 7 to 12 years old. But its virtues for the mass audience are precisely what make it weak for anyone who demands seriousness, coherence, or genuine dramatic development. It's a childish, idealistic, and forgettable product, incapable of sustaining its own mystery without It trivializes the subject matter, which is why I only recommend it for a younger, more impressionable audience, one capable of being moved or shocked by something like this. But even then, I find it a harmful series because of the gratuitous "intersex" themes it throws in. In that sense, it felt like a rehash of "11-nin Iru!", but much less exciting. So... yes, it's definitely a bad series and I don't recommend it.

This show's premise is simple: a group of high school kids were involved in a summer camp gone wrong when they found themselves thousands of light-years away from home. Estranged with one another, they have to trust work each other and cooperate in order to survive against all odds. Despite its futuristic sci-fi setting, this show is ultimately a coming-of-age story, whose narrative revolves around an ensemble cast of dynamic and flawed characters, and I think they told the story magnificently. One thing that this series does well is subverting tropes. Yes, the characters may seem cliche at first, but as the show goes on, you will understand that there's more to them than meets the eye. The character development they showed throughout the series was top-notch, giving this show a unique charm that only a few great coming-of-age stories possess. For a single-cour series to effectively juggle this ensemble cast with ease is nothing short of impressive. Like all shows, nothing is perfect, and Astra Lost In Space certainly isn't. From quick expositions and lack of plot details (not plot holes nor contradictions) to ethical and philosophical discussions, the science fiction aspect of the show was handled in a mediocre way, but not neccesarily bad it makes the whole show unwatchable. Thus, I would argue that this show overall caters to a much younger demographic who would turn a blind eye to the show's "unrealistic" take on space travel. However, this doesn't take away the show's charm at all. Nope. Not in a billion light-years. This series knew it wasn't going to be a highly realistic science fiction literary piece. That's why you should never judge a coming-of-age story with a sci-fi setting using the criteria for judging a hard science fiction piece. Few anime series have the gall to tell a brilliant, short closed narrative with a consistently good narrative from the very start to the very end. Astra Lost In Space or Kanata no Astra, is a very good coming-of-age story with a very meaningful character development. The quality of this show always make up for this flaws. This is a show that does a few mistakes as possible, and if you're already getting attached to the characters, don't worry. It will pay off beautifully at the end. SCORE FROM OBJECTIVE ANALYSIS: 8.5/10 SCORE FROM PERSONAL ENJOYMENT: 10/10 WOULD HIGHLY RECCOMMEND!

One thing I've recently noticed about myself is that I am not a big fan of Sci-Fi (even though my favorite anime is Sci-Fi), but I am a big fan of some sub genres of that genre, and mecha is not one of them. Astra Lost In Space is one of the Sci-Fi shows that I loved and am glad to have caught up on when I missed its weekly episodes. The story is simple as the title says, a bunch of people are lost in space. Their main goal is to get back to their planet. Along the journey, lots of revelations take place. The characters learn the whys, hows, and the whats of all this journey. Why did they get lost? Who are they? Is there a link between them? Each additional plot point will have your mind bobbling at its intelligence and how well it is prepared. Sometimes you'll even think to yourself, "How could I have missed that detail?". It's built up in a way that is very accessible to any audience, yet still hides a lot of secrets behind its obvious plot. The characters are also very lovable. We have a large cast of characters, each with their own stories to tell, personalities to show, lives to experience. Each character adds something to the show. While Kanata may seem like your usual shounen MC, his determination and sacrifices are just mind-blowing. I usually dislike characters with no depth, but he's really an influential figure to have in the show which keeps the crew going. The other casts are all very dynamic and remarkable and add a lot to the anime, making it really fun and quirky. The art design is also very smooth, characters look really good, colors are vibrant and full of life, and it all flows smoothly. Black borders cover the frame of episodes most of the time but it was never really an issue. Sound design is also pretty good, though I don't have anything remarkable about it in mind. Overall, Astra Lost In Space is one of the few shows I have enjoyed so much in a long time. It carries info dump that doesn't overload your brain, so if you feel exhausted, instead of going for a boring ecchi to reload yourself, have a taste of a space anime that is made very accessible, yet at the same time, is a genius craft.

I really don't understand the hype surrounding this anime. It's average at best. And God knows I love space in all its forms. But here, it all rings hollow. The characters are caricatures, the plot is flimsy, the mysteries and twists are predictable. The animation neither moved nor transcended me. A cosmic disappointment. They've missed out on what could have been a great anime. The story had potential and the playground offered by space exploration and stellar survival is infinite. Unfortunately, it doesn't take long before you're faced with an unpalatable dish. The story bites its own tail, we go round in circles, the assassin is burnt out a mile away from the very first two episodes, and the sub-plots are rubbish. The animation left me cold. Yet for the first few seconds of the first episode, I thought I could believe it. When she swirls around in the stellar immensity, with no communication and her thrusters flat, I thought to myself: ‘ah finally, an anime that starts well and is better than Gravity’. What a joke. No other scene comes close to matching the intro, you get the impression that after a few minutes they've run out of resources and inspiration. In short, I'm disappointed.