Kanata no Astra (Astra Lost in Space)

In the year 2063, space travel is feasible and commercially available. As the cheerful Aries Spring arrives at the spaceport to attend a camp on the distant planet McPa, her purse is suddenly snatched by a reckless thief. Luckily, the athletic Kanata Hoshijima is able to retrieve it for her, and Aries soon discovers that he is among the group of teenagers who will be traveling with her on the excursion as team B-5.

Upon arriving at their campsite, the group's trip takes a turn for the worse when a strange sphere of black light sucks them into the vast reaches of outer space. Stranded with seemingly no hope, they find an abandoned ship nearby that provides them with the means to return home. However, they soon discover that they are not as close to their campsite as they initially thought, but are in fact thousands of light-years away from home.

With this realization, the nine members must cautiously manage their resources, maintain their strength, and unite as one to conquer the darkness of space together. While the reason behind their trip's sudden obstruction remains unknown, they nevertheless embark on the treacherous voyage back home aboard their new ship, the Astra.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

The series won the 51st Seiun Award for Best Dramatic Presentation in 2020.

Episode Videos

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Adaptation:

Kanata no Astra

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Characters & Voice Actors

Hoshijima, Kanata

Main

Hosoya, Yoshimasa
Japanese

Spring, Aries

Main

Minase, Inori
Japanese

Raffaeli, Quitterie

Main

Kurosawa, Tomoyo
Japanese

Esposito, Luca

Main

Matsuda, Risae
Japanese

Lacroix, Charce

Main

Shimazaki, Nobunaga
Japanese

Zweig, Ulgar

Main

Uchiyama, Kouki
Japanese

Lu, Yunhua

Main

Hayami, Saori
Japanese

Walker, Zack

Main

Takeuchi, Shunsuke
Japanese

Raffaeli, Funicia

Main

Kino, Hina
Japanese

Seira

Supporting

Minase, Inori
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Cook, Justin

Producer

Tanaka, Shou

Producer

Higa, Yuuji

Producer

Ogata, Mitsuhiro

Producer

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Opening Theme

"Star*frost" by nonoc

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Ending Theme

"Glow at the Velocity of Light" by Riko Azuna

Reviews

Mar 13, 2024

RyanSpring

Recommended

I'd like to start by saying that this anime gave me an existential crisis. Demonstrating my unparalleled creativity, my username here on MAL, RyanSpring, is literally just my real life first and last name. So, going into this completely blind, in a world where every female character in anime is Mai, Sakura or Mikasa, I really had a moment when it was revealed that the lead in this anime is named Aries Spring. Do I... have a daughter somewhere? Is this a sign from the anime deities above that I SHOULD have a daughter and that I should name her Aries? Is Aries Spring in ... fact my MOTHER or grandmother and I've been lied to all my life? These questions will haunt my dreams for the rest of my life, so thanks Astra Lost in Space, and with that strange tangent out of the way let's get to the actual review.

I really wasn't expecting to like Astra Lost in Space anywhere near as much as I did. I thought it'd be just another anime in my very large collection that I'd watch, think is fine and move along from without ever giving it much thought after the fact. I'd never seen anyone talk about or hype up this anime, nor have I seen it appear on "best of" lists that everyone seems to love making, so while I immediately concede I may have simply liked this more than most members of the community do, I really was taken aback by how into this I was.

First of all, it's beautiful. This anime is only about five years old, and almost every remotely modern anime looks nice, but in this case the color palette really pops off the screen with how bright and vibrant it is. The characters have all sorts of different hair and eye colors, none look remotely alike unless they're supposed to, and the various planets our main cast visit as they attempt to make their way home are equally gorgeous. The fauna, oceans and landscapes found on these fictional planets in many cases make the characters feel like they're on a paradise vacation rather than lost and in a very dire situation, and it's easy to see why. Many of these locations are places I'd love to visit if they were real, and none of them felt too similar to each other, each beautiful both cosmetically and mechanically in their own way. There is a true sense of adventure and wonder in this anime and that really, really elevated it for me. I haven't seen the evocation of that sense of adventure done this well since watching the first season of Made in Abyss a solid four or five years ago.

The pacing here is solid, as it's only 12 episodes and it needs to cram a whole lot of adventure in there, and we're more or less off to the races from the word go. Many episodes, particularly early on, end on cliffhangers which absolutely pushed me even further into losing sleep that night and wanting to watch just one more episode. At first, the plot is straightforward enough, but admittedly in the latter stages of the anime it goes pretty far off the rails. I concede that a certain level of suspension of disbelief is required to enjoy this anime, but this is FAR from the most egregious offender I've encountered in that regard, and while I found many plot points perhaps convenient or implausible, none of them ever crossed the line for me into ridiculous, offensively stupid, this could absolutely never happen territory.

I really liked that they opted to make the 12th and final episode significantly longer than the others. If for whatever reason 16 or 24 episodes were not greenlit, but they didn't want to rush the ending or leave loose ends, this is absolutely the correct solution and I wish more anime would do this. I'm glad they took their time, addressed the fate of each character from the main cast, of which there are many, and didn't fall victim to the constraints of the short episode count they were working with.

My only other nitpicky criticism would be that the anime felt a little preachy at times. There was perhaps just a bit too much of "the power of friendship", "the power of positivity", "we can do anything if we work together", blah blah for my liking, but I was enjoying the show as a whole so much to where I was able to overcome this annoyance.

Existential crisis aside, I really liked Astra Lost in Space and think of it very highly. The plot was fine, even if not revolutionary, but the exceptional sense of adventure, strong pacing and gorgeous visuals really came together for me and delivered an experience I'll absolutely remember and continue to recommend for years to come. If you're even vaguely a fan of adventure or space anime, don't miss this one.

OBJECTIVE RATING- 8-9
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT RATING- 9

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May 26, 2023

AeroGunz

Mixed Feelings

“Astra Lost in Space” is what happens when You take a movie from 1998 and turn it into an anime… sort of.

In 1998 “Lost in Space” directed by Stephen Hopkins was released. It was a story about a family that, thanks to a sabotage, was lost in deep space. Their goal was to get back to earth. Along the way they visit planets, conquer adversities and grow closer as a family.
Now take that premise, turn the family into teenagers (because of course, it’s anime) on a school trip and You basically know what to expect. Now this isn’t a 1:1 comparison. The anime ... actually has some twists and turns that were… a mixed bag to be fair.

“Astra lost in space” follows the adventures of 9 teenagers after they become victims of a mysterious phenomenon that sends them into space and forces them to use an abandoned spaceship to get home. Not willing to trust each other at first, they become closer as they visit new planets, fight alien fauna and flora, and become aware of a secret about themselves and the world they come from that could change the course of history.

Despite having 9 characters for most of the show, they are not equally written and some of them get the short straw when it comes to quality. Kanata, Ulgar and Charce are the highlights of the show when it comes to character writing. Kanata because he’s basically the vessel for the viewer. It is through his perspective we experience most of the show and from the very beginning he establishes himself as motivated and protective towards his companions.
Ulgar has a pretty nice arc during which he changes from an asshole who gives off the vibe that he would kill You in Your sleep to someone who is trusted to handle the most dangerous weapon that the crew possess.
Charce in the beginning is an annoying, intelligent, pretty boy, but towards the end all his secrets are revealed and is given a totally new light to shine.
Zack and Aries are ok. They have their roles and their interactions with the rest of the crew are pretty entertaining. The problem with them is that they are flat. They do have a little growth but all in all it’s an example of “the more things change, the more they stay the same” regularity.
The rest of the crew, despite being interesting in theory, are done dirty. You could easily delete Quitterie, Funicia, Yunhua and Luca and the show could still work. Their only role is to act as catalysts for the growth of others. Especially Luca who becomes the key to Ulgar's change. They do have episodes when they can shine but it’s not even full episodes, it’s just a few scenes and that’s it. Talking about wasted potential.

The plot itself is pretty interesting… up to a point. Let me explain. The first 3/4 of the show is pretty interesting. A type of “planet of the week” formula. They find a new planet, they explore it, have an adventure, resupply and go on their merry way. Repetitive? Yes. Boring? No. Not really. The planets they visit and the adventures and struggles they encounter on them are distinct enough to keep You invested in the plot. That’s when the show is at its best. When the crew explores new worlds and come together to conquer adversities. If the whole show would be like that I would not complain much.
Unfortunately in the last 1/4 of the show they throw in a twist. A pretty big one. One that could, in theory, elevate the show. But it doesn’t. Don’t get me wrong, the idea itself is pretty ok. The problem is that the show has only 12 episodes and adding that kind of twist toward the end kills the pacing by rushing a lot of elements. They tried to pack too much new info in very few episodes. The whole thing feels rushed. The dialogs that were simple but solid become needlessly complicated and pretty much giant info dumps. Given another 12, hell even 6, episodes more the story would have more time to breathe and sink in more naturally. The mystery that was set up in episode 2 is resolved by an ass pull. I know the show relies heavily on coincidence (without it the plot wouldn’t even happen after all) and plot armour but that was on the level of Goku pulling out a new attack from his ass mid fight. I guess the mystery itself was handled in a lacklustre way by not giving any clues to solve it, so the writer probably wrote himself into a corner and that was the only way they knew how to resolve it. Bad writing nonetheless.

Despite the flaws with the character writing and plot the show is really enjoyable. Seriously, with all the incompetent writing this show has no business being this hooking. I watched the whole show without even noticing the flow of time. Yes, most of it is because the banter is pretty good and the initial premise is thought out. If it wasn’t for the last few episodes the show would probably become one of my favourites. The twist part… yeah… it kills it a bit for me.

All in all I think this show deserves a shot. If You can forgive plot holes and over reliance on deus ex machinas You can have a blast with it.

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Mar 8, 2021

RemigAre

Not Recommended

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 ...

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