Kanata no Astra

[MFauli]

The year is 2061, when space travel is now possible and commercially viable, and the students of Caird High School embark on their Planet Camp.

But soon after Group B5 arrived at their planetary camp site, a mysterious and unforeseen sentient light sphere warps its 9 members into outer space, stranding them 5012 light years away from their home planet.

With the discovery of an old, unmanned spaceship nearby, the students must stay strong, manage their limited resources and remain united in the darkness of space, so that all of them can survive their long and likely perilous trek back home aboard the Astra

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Episode 1 airs tomorrow. I'm hyped for the beginning of a new season, so here's a thread. Hope you guys make thread for other new anime, too. Gotwoot really is the only place where I can talk about anime without all the usual crap.

Anyway, description sounds like a mix of Planet Uninhabited Survive and Ryvius. could be good.

[Kraco]

The manga was good. I won't spoil anything, but I'll say it has a solid story with some twists, like all good stories should have. It's not perfect, but which story would be? I think I'll watch the anime as well. You don't see space travel scifi every season.

[Buffalobiian]

It's not perfect, but which story would be?

FMA. FMA is perfection man.

[shinta|hikari]

@Mfauli - What usual crap?

[MFauli]

Episode 1:

I liked it. Solid start. The hand puppet is fantastic.

That said, two points of criticism:

1.) It's obvious (as of now) that this is,a light-hearted show. I had hoped it'd be a more serious, dramatic adventure where people actually die, but that didn't happen and it doesn't feel like it will happen. It would have been the perfect opportunity to set a different mood if the smaller silver-haired boy had died due to not closing his helmet quickly enough. Would have made for a chilling 'oh shit, this isn't a game ...!' moment. But that's my own fault for expecting something different.

2.) This however was frustrating to watch: Oh no, we have be ressourceful with the thruster! *keeps holding the thruster even though it's space and you only need a short initial thrust to control direction* 🤦*♀️😘
The risk of Aries' rescue felt very forced. Had Kanata just used his thruster normally, he coukd have saved her easily. And the others' shock when they realized Kanata is off trajectory ... why was it like their last moment idea to realize 'hey, we could help them!' :/
Very forced situation. I hope that's not representative for future episodes.

[Kraco]

2.) This however was frustrating to watch: Oh no, we have be ressourceful with the thruster! *keeps holding the thruster even though it's space and you only need a short initial thrust to control direction* ��*♀️��
The risk of Aries' rescue felt very forced. Had Kanata just used his thruster normally, he coukd have saved her easily. And the others' shock when they realized Kanata is off trajectory ... why was it like their last moment idea to realize 'hey, we could help them!' :/
Very forced situation. I hope that's not representative for future episodes.

You are right about their initial flight to the ship. It could have been better depicted as being wasteful due to inexperience; I doubt they have too many hours in zero gravity/real empty space under their belts. However, when Kanata went to save Aries, there were a few real factors to consider: He obviously wasn't very good at aiming at such a small target, he needed to stop before the end, and then accelerate and navigate back. All consumed fuel. Since they judged he didn't have enough fuel for all that, they decided to use the rope. However, that brought a significant change: Since he needed to drag the rope with him, he needed more fuel, no matter how carefully the others tried to feed it. Still, you have to ask: Didn't the ship have any resources to offer for refueling, haha.

I won't be addressing a lot of things in this thread to avoid spoiling anything. I'm quite pleased by the production values so far. VAs seem fitting as well. Although I know everything beforehand, I think I'm going to enjoy watching this.

[MFauli]

Episode 2:
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I'll give it one more episode, but it's looking like a drop. That was Pokemon levels of consequences :/

They're on an unknown planet and treat it like a vacation ... and indeed that's what it turned out to be. Even the way Bitch saved the captain was comical coincidence.

It's easy enough to follow, so maybe I won't hard-drop it. However, if the season gets busy ...

[Kraco]

Looks like meat's back on the menu, boys!

I suggest you don't drop this, MFauli. Like I said, this has its flaws, but I promise you this also has a very solid story, even if it doesn't look like it right now (although I hope you watched until the post-ED scene). It's just the occasionally naive behavior of the characters and the occasionally naive writing that rubs a discerning audience the wrong way, but that's it. It's just small, individual details. Don't forget that all of these guys and girls aren't yet adults, they are basically high school kids. In my opinion what's wrong about this show is a lesser thing than what was wrong about the Legend of the Galactic Heroes, for example.

Although that being said, if you really dislike what you are seeing, all in all, then you are obviously better off dropping this.

This seems to be working just as good as the manga. I'm happy with it. It was nice to see Funi finally getting closer to Quitterie in the manga, and it was equally good here.

[MFauli]

Nah, then I'll keep watching ;o

My gold standard for this setting is Uninhabited Planet Survive, which also had children
, but managed to portray survival on an alien planet truly dangerous.

[Ryllharu]

I'm really, really struggling with this one. It is painfully derivative, the humor is awful if that's part of what they're going for (and in a season full of great comedy series to outshine that part of it...), the characters are dated sad clichés...

- The only thing the series has hooked me with is wanting to rewatch the better series that it reminds me of, like Stellvia, Gunbuster, and Kiddy Grade. All of which had much better initial episodes, and much more interesting characters. And all better scifi (except Gunbuster, which was as hard scifi as it could be).

- Even the gags are derivative and bad. Beego was...basically a ripoff of Date a Live's Yoshinon. Aries' misspeaking is annoying, not cute or endearing because it is so stupid.

- The rescue scene is just a combination of Gravity and The Martian...

I struggle to believe any of it is a coincidence. The series is from 2016, well after each of the things it is either an homage/ripoff to.

The Yoshinon issue aside, the sisters are the only likeable thing about the series.

It's well on the trajectory of failing the three episode test for me, and if it does I'll just rewatch Stellvia.

[MFauli]

Episode 4:

Best Episode yet. I just found disappointing that boobs girl didn't get to do anything actual useful. Great, singing for your dying comrades, meh. I expected Kanata's dumb suicide plan (wtf) to backfire. Then she would have left the ship, found Kanata and brought back him as well as the mushrooms. Would have given her an objectively useful task. Bummer.

Still, enjoyable episode.

[David75]

It's a shounen adventure with fairly good animation and nice watch. I do not expect it to be perfect.
Kanata certainly is one of the most of not the most suicidal of all, young testosterone male style.
But the logic behind is action is in line with the pitch. Spores surely interact with antidote mushrooms.
If there's no animal infected, there's no need to expand energy to grow antidote mushrooms.

Lower your expectations and have fun

[Kraco]

I found it funny in the previous incident (ep 3) how the backup generator isn't connected to the ship's systems directly, and instead they had to run a cable through the corridors to get the power where it belongs. Back when reading the manga, I remember commenting that it's the designer of the ship who wants them dead. I also remember writing some theories on how the fungus knows when to release the spores. This series has quite solid plots worth discussing, even though sometimes they boast kind of silly details.

Episode 4:

Best Episode yet. I just found disappointing that boobs girl didn't get to do anything actual useful. Great, singing for your dying comrades, meh. I expected Kanata's dumb suicide plan (wtf) to backfire. Then she would have left the ship, found Kanata and brought back him as well as the mushrooms. Would have given her an objectively useful task. Bummer.

Still, enjoyable episode.

She actually solved the whole case by mentioning how the bird got all better after eating the fruit she fetched from the stalk fungus. Kanata never thought about it. He's not really the type to think back to things to recall details. However, Yunhua very much dwells in the past.

[MFauli]

Episode 5:

Enjoying a happy neach vacation ... can't say I like that in a SURVIVAL story, but oh well, it fits the established tone. 🤷*♀️

The scenes with the parents were interesting, but 2 things I'm wondering:

1.) Unless they can 100% prove how the kids died, how can anyone greenlight next year's event?

2.) They were adamant that there couldn't have been another spaceship ('it's more likely that there were 2 boats lol'). Why? I thought space travel was an everyday occurrence in this universe.

Yunha looks worse with short hair btw

[Kraco]

Enjoying a happy neach vacation ... can't say I like that in a SURVIVAL story, but oh well, it fits the established tone.

It's kind of the theme of the show to have all the planets to be so different. Even if they have been quite friendly, in the end, so far.

1.) Unless they can 100% prove how the kids died, how can anyone greenlight next year's event?

I don't remember how it was in the manga, but what exactly where they even arguing about? When a person goes missing, it's natural a (decent) government will search for them for a while, then wind down the efforts eventually. There's only so much you can do, plus it's not possible to pump taxpayers' money endlessly into something that only benefits a few individuals. However, typically people need to remain missing for years before they are declared dead. Of course anyone can fund privately the search efforts, but it's costly business. Aries's mother, who was the most vocal at the meeting, looks like the least able to fund anything, honestly. On the other hand, we have already seen in flashbacks some of the parents aren't the most loving ones, like Yunhua's mom, who totally removed her daughter's self-confidence.

2.) They were adamant that there couldn't have been another spaceship ('it's more likely that there were 2 boats lol'). Why? I thought space travel was an everyday occurrence in this universe.

A simple motor boat costs practically nothing compared to a jet aircraft, let alone a spaceship. Furthermore, you'd think there were some kind of records of every FTL spaceship, whereas the world is full of motor boats that are only known by their owners and a bunch of closeby, related people.

Yunha looks worse with short hair btw

It must have been that becoming a new person haircut, not an attempt to look better.

[MFauli]

Hm, I guess it's because just yesterday they brought in the news that tourists are now again visiting a certain beach in Tunesia where a couples years ago over 30 tourists werre shot by some guy. Now police patrols that beach all the time. Guess I would have liked to hear about any measures that ensure that no more kids get lost ;o

[Kraco]

Hm, I guess it's because just yesterday they brought in the news that tourists are now again visiting a certain beach in Tunesia where a couples years ago over 30 tourists werre shot by some guy. Now police patrols that beach all the time. Guess I would have liked to hear about any measures that ensure that no more kids get lost ;o

Damn, I wonder what I even imagined I read when I was answering to that part of your comment... Now that I read it again, I was talking about something totally unrelated. Sorry about that.

Anyway, when you drop a bunch of high school kids on an uninhabited planet for a survival course, it's never going to be like a tourist beach, even if the place was pre-surveyed.

[David75]

Gun guy and Luca's father had the exact same line about how losing a child is painful. Felt suspicious.

To date, even forgetting some inconsistencies, we have no explanation for that "wormhole" that can send people thousands light years away in under a couple of seconds.
And it's coupled with how lucky they are to have had their suits, think of closing the helmet (Luca did it just in time it seems) and land in space but near a fully functional ship with heaps of energy and proper lifesupport.
Would that mean that some people know about those wormholes and can use them ? Because even Mr Genius did not know about them.
And should more people know, said wormholes should replace the need for spaceships. Even if they were sent to space, the trip was safe and they ended quite near to the objective : the ship.
So even if you can't control it finely, you can still use it.

[Kraco]

Episode 6

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They are starting to figure out something, even if it's still ambiguous and flimsy. The story is likewise starting to reveal its strong points and thus also why this isn't even exactly a survival story. I feel sorry for Ryll for dropping this so soon, but I'm not blaming him because these days I end up dropping so many series myself.

Ulgar is quite close to being an edgelord, but I still like his character. While he's not the only neglected kid in the group, he's, so far, the worst off: Having the only person he was close to murdered. So, he has some reason to be edgy. Consequently he's also the one who has the dimmest view of the society. In fact I like all the characters in the show. Like in a proper short story, they all have their definite place (role) in it and a reason why they are like they are. That's a huge difference compared to most modern manga/anime where the cast is simply filled with archetypes and then the author tries to come up with some use for them.

[Kraco]

Episode 7


- - - -- -



Though Charce isn't my favourite character of the lot (only beaten by Yunhua, whose existence you might as well ignore with the kind of background flower she is), I think I'd have reacted like he did and laughed if I had told a sad life story and got so much crying in response.

This episode is obviously the point where shit really begins to hit the fan, of course after the initial trip through the wormhole. It's also only at this point where the story starts to set itself apart from series that rely on other things than the story itself. And by the looks of it this is also the point where I'm alone watching the show anymore. I wonder if I had also dropped this if I hadn't read the manga beforehand and thus known it's a solid story. Who knows.