Ranked #977

Sora no Manimani

I’m quite surprised that there have been only a few reviews for this well-made, yet somewhat-underrated series.

If you like astronomy and want to learn more about some stargazing basics, this series “inspires” and is perhaps an anime of choice. (At least for me, I started stargazing using the techniques I learned from the show.) On the other hand, if you are not that into the subject, you may not enjoy it at all.

Story:
Sora no Manimani is a romance comedy, slice-of-life anime with an astronomy theme. The story involves a bookworm (Saku Ooyagi) who really hates outdoor activities, but was coerced into follow his hyperactive, childhood friend (Mihoshi Akeno) into the high school astronomy club. At that time, the club was desperately recruiting new members otherwise they will be suspended. Of course, they eventually could manage to find total of 5 members, and the story goes from there.

The main focus and the most enjoyable scene of each episode are the stargazing scene. The series goes over several important patterns and constellations of the northern hemisphere night sky of every season. They cover the basics of how to stargaze with naked eyes, binoculars, and telescopes. You can learn a lot of useful tricks on how to find some important stars as well.

Comedy is another good part of this anime. The humor is generally decent. The series made me laugh out loud several times. The show is overall refreshing to watch, and at least will keep you smile while going over it.

There are also some stories about romantic relationship between each anime characters, especially the love triangle (or perhaps, quadrangle) between club members (Saku, Mihoshi, and Hime). However, in my opinion, the romance part is probably not the strength of this series, and if you are looking into anime with this kind of plot, I would rather recommend other ones.

Art:
The character designs are generally adorable. Studio Comet did a nice job with the animation. The animation style is appropriate for this type of series, i.e., pretty easy to digest and simple on the eyes. The animation quality is pretty high.

Interestingly, the details of the night sky (e.g., the position of the stars and constellations) in this anime are quite accurate even in some very minor scenes. I am sure the production team has done a lot of research on this. I can even practice stargazing using some random starry night shots from the anime.

Sound:
The OP & ED songs are okay. Nothing really stands out, but I think it they fit the genre of the anime well. The background music is good in general. Voice acting is nicely done.

Character:
All characters are likable, and most of them are adorable. The interactions between the characters provide several enjoyable comedies and are fun to watch. A few of the characters are quite well-developed especially the main ones, but most of them just come and go. A lot of characters were introduced quite late in the season, so there was not enough time to explore them. The studio claims that there will release some OVA or DVD specials later, which hopefully will focus more on the backgrounds of these people (e.g., the past stories of the President of the Astronomy Club).

Enjoyment:
Sora no Manimani is one of the most enjoyable series that I have seen. Thanks to lovable characters, nice comedy, great voice acting roles, good quality animation, and most importantly, the astronomy theme.

Overall:
I would recommend Sora no Manimani to anyone who is interested in a romance comedy, slice-of-life anime with an astronomy theme. It is probably the best series about stargazing that I have seen in the market so far. read more

Ok. 1st I shall review this anime as an anime lover. I have one word to describe this anime. Underrated. Perhaps some people don’t even give a second glance when they hear it is about astronomy. What’s so nice about looking at stars? Boring… However, that is not the case. You DO NOT have to know anything about astronomy or even possess any interest about astronomy to enjoy watching Sora no Manimani. (You may just watch it for the comedy).

However, do consider this question. If right now, in the night, there is a telescope placed directly in front of you, pointing towards the moon, would you be interested to take a look through it? If your answer is yes, then chances are you do possess some interest towards astronomy.

Basically, Sora no Manimani is just a slice-of-life and comedy anime, but with an astronomy theme and some light-hearted high school romance. It begins with the quiet and reserved Saku Ooyagi returning to his hometown after many years, reuniting with his ever-energetic and enthusiastic childhood friend Mihoshi Akeno in High School (much to his dismay). There, she literally drags him into the astronomy club where his “misadventures” (in a good way) begins.

Sora no Manimani has the comedic feel of K-ON! and Azumanga Daioh. It’s hilarious and crazy at the same time. With the constant antics of hyper Mihoshi and the constant misunderstandings of her relationship with Saku, you find yourself laughing out loud at every episode.( though it gets lesser near the end).There’s also the Sunohara-alike Edogawa to bring out more laughter.

Romance in Sora no Manimani is light-hearted and forms most of the plot. We get to see some really interesting (and funny) relationships between the characters as the anime progress. Most of the time, the romance isn’t very deep though.

The animation quality is quite amazing. The stars appear blinking and The Milky way and the winter night sky have been drawn beautifully. They’re almost like the real thing outside. The constellation art looks original and grand too. The stars have also been depicted in their correct positions, they're not just randomly scattered across the sky. Just look at how many stars of different brightness there are in the winter night sky and you will know how much effort was put in. Kudos to Studio Comet.

Music is pretty good too. The opening and ending songs may sound quite average at the beginning but I’ve grown to like them. The background music is beautiful too especially in the stargazing scenes and some of the more moving scenes.

Now comes my review as a fellow “astronomer”. (DO NOT read this part if you haven't watched the anime or know little about astronomy.) I was in the astronomy club during my junior college(high school). If there was one thing I learnt from there was that astronomy was not all about stars. Where were the deep-sky objects??? (pardon my ranting). Nebulas? (huge interstellar clouds of gas where stars are born) Globular clusters? (Spherical collection of stars that can contain tens of thousands to millions of stars. It’s really beautiful to view in the telescope). Where were the galaxies? It wasn’t as if they didn’t get the chance to use the telescope. Heck they even had the whole observatory (the gigantic rotating ones) twice to themselves!!! They could have even viewed supernovas with that!! (At least they did show M52, an open cluster). The moon they viewed was also disappointing since it wasn’t the side with most of the craters.(guess that can’t be helped).

Putting those aside, Sora no Manimani is DEFINITELY still a joy to watch. I cannot help but smile and nod in agreement when characters share methods, tips and tricks about stargazing. The methods to identify neighbouring stars and constellations have also been explained very well too.

Let me end my review with a quote from the anime (subbed): “There aren’t very many people who’ll buy a telescope to stargaze even if they’re curious, but given the opportunity, they will choose to. And fortunately, we can create that opportunity. And because we can, we want to share it with everyone.”. I believe this has been the intention of the manga’s author from the start. Sora no Manimani wasn’t meant just for astronomy enthusiasts. It was catered more towards sharing the world of astronomy with an audience who did not know about astronomy or “seemed” uninterested about it. (Maybe that's why deep-sky objects were left out).

I’ve enjoyed watching Sora no Manimani. I’ll recommend this anime to anyone out there, regardless of his or her opinion about astronomy. After watching Sora no Manimani, perhaps you’ll find the “astronomer” in you. (Cheesy, I know). I’ll give Sora no Manimani an 8/10 (very good). Perhaps there’ll be more to watch and “see” if there’s a season 2.

Finally, when you’re out of your house at night, going out with your family or friends… don’t forget to gaze up at the night sky every now and then...

(My 1st review. Any comments/questions you have or wrong facts in my review do PM me!)

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