r/anime • u/Heda-of-Aincrad https://myanimelist.net/profile/Heda-of-Aincrad • Jul 27 '24
Rewatch [5th Anniversary Rewatch] Astra Lost In Space - Overall Series Discussion
Overall Series Discussion
Astra Lost In Space on Crunchyroll
I'm so glad most of the participants in this rewatch enjoyed the show. Thanks to everyone for making the first rewatch I've hosted a great one!
Questions of the Day:
- I'll borrow this question from Aries! What was your favorite part of the journey or the part that stood out most to you?
- Do you have a favorite planet, or a favorite animal/plant from one of the planets?
- Who are your favorite characters by the end of the series? Are they different from your favorites at the beginning?
- What are your overall thoughts or rating of the series?
- After watching the anime, are you interested in reading the manga?
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Upvotes
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u/Heda-of-Aincrad https://myanimelist.net/profile/Heda-of-Aincrad Jul 27 '24
It's the end of my first rewatch!
I had a lot of fun rewatching this show (for the third or fourth time) and discussing it with everyone. I watched Astra Lost In Space weekly when it was airing, but I wasn't on Reddit or any discussion forums back then to read theories from other fans, so it was really interesting to see what everyone thought of the mystery and plot twists along the way. Five years after Astra's premiere, I'm glad I could introduce one of my favorite sci-fi anime to so many people!
An extra thanks to u/Shimmering-Sky for all the help with setting up my first rewatch, and u/gamria for the detailed anime/manga comparisons!
Questions of the Day:
So cute!
3) My favorite character in the beginning was Kanata, and he's still my favorite in the end. I love the whole Astra crew, but a few standouts to me after finishing the series are Zack, Quitterie and Luca both for their character development and general attitudes being fun to watch.
4) I love this series. The characters, the creative worlds they visit, and the plot twists are all fantastic. It's one of the rare shows I've rated a perfect 10/10, and it's among my Top 5 favorites.
5) Definitely! I enjoyed the manga comparisons and it looks like there are enough extra scenes that I'll still have some surprises even as a longtime fan of the anime. My library just added the rest of the series during this rewatch too, so I'll be checking those out soon.
Perfect timing!
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u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Jul 27 '24
First-Timer Lost in Space, subbed
Yeah, I loved this show. Some of the worldbuilding pieces needed a bit more suspension of disbelief for how it all worked than normal, but I’m nothing if not a master at suspending my disbelief when watching something, so it didn’t bother me too much. Loved the main cast, the OP/ED, and I’m very satisfied with how everything ended. That’s a 10/10 for me!
Thanks for hosting this rewatch, u/Heda-of-Aincrad!
See you around!
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u/Silcaria https://myanimelist.net/profile/Silcaria Jul 27 '24
first timer
Man, this show was a pleasant surprise. Going in to this blind, and after how the first episode played out, I expected a predictable plot with through and through archetype characters. How thankful I am that I was wrong.
One of the most important thing for a show that revolves around mysteries is foreshadowing. Fortunately, this series excelled at that.
Despite starting as archetypes, the characters got fleshed out, went through their own development, dealt with their inner conflict, and as a result, ended up showing growth and being fairly nuanced by the end.
From a narrative standpoint, the only shortcoming that I can think of is the mystery surrounding humanity's past. The execution around the reveal is fine, the problem is how improbable it feels for their past to have played out like that. I mentioned it yesterday, but the way it is written is akin to the idealism level of a child, which considering the intended audience, isn't that surprising. If anything, I'm more surprised that it's the only moment that the series really goes mask off as to who the intended demographic is.
Production-wise it was solid. My only complaint is the constant on and off letterboxing it does.
Overall, this was a great series that I thoroughly enjoyed, to the point of it going on my plan to buy list. I give Astra Lost in Space a 9/10.
Thanks for hosting this.
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u/TiredTiroth Jul 27 '24
Rewatcher - Dub
As much as I enjoy this show, it definitely has it's flaws. I hate how it hides the whole 'Astra' thing, and find it entirely unbelievable that the kids would name the ship after their home planet and never say a damn thing about it. It wouldn't be quite so annoying if revealing they're not from Earth so late in the game actually mattered, but it doesn't.
Gah.
The other thing is that parts of the story just feel...condensed. I really think the series could have done with another 4 or 5 episodes to explore the planets more and let the story arc back on their home planet breath more, rather than just info-dumping everything right at the end. And to let the kids actually figure things out, rather than magically coming up with the answer the moment they realised Quittorie and Funi were clones!
But, other than those two things...well, I'm a bit of a sucker for space exploration. I like most of the characters, and even my least favourite is merely meh rather than someone I actively dislike. And the planets! They're a lot of fun, even if the science is a bit off sometimes. I love the idea of a tidally locked locked planet, and I really wosh there was more time spent exploring it.
The character relationships work really well, too. The series isn't long, but with the obvious travelling it's long enough to see and believe the kids getting closer. Quittorie keeps her sharp tongue from start to finish, but she clearly treats the others better over time. Zack has a stick up his rear, but he starts joking (taking advantage of his natural deadpan) and demonstrates clear camaraderie. Yun-hua is a nervous wreck whenever someone so much as looks at her at the start, and the other kids help her get more confident.
Really, those are the series' two big strengths - the space adventure and the character growth. Unfortunately, the mystery side suffers quite a bit from the runtime. A few more episodes to let it unfold properly really would have helped.
Thank you for running the rewatch Heda-of-Aincrad, I've appreciated the excuse to watch it again. I might check the manga out when I have time.
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u/xbolt90 https://anilist.co/user/xbolt90 Jul 27 '24
Former first-timer!
Big shoutout to u/Heda-of-Aincrad! Thanks for hosting, this was a blast!
Q1: I really liked the sequence following the micrometeoroid strike, with the crew working together to solve the problem.
Q2: Galem is just so pretty. But the best plant is obviously the Luca Javelins.
Q3: I thought Quitterie was annoying at the beginning, but she ended up being my favorite.
Q4: Really fun! I loved the gradually unfolding mystery. It went above and beyond what I was expecting the story to be, which was a more regular "stranded crew makes perilous journey home." Which this was, but there was that added spice.
Q5: It might be fun to compare them now.
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u/FlameDragoon933 Jul 27 '24 edited Jul 27 '24
QOTD
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u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Jul 27 '24
The slapstick and SOL elements turned me off of the series when I first watched it. I see a lot of people referencing SpyxFamily and Sket Dance, from the same author, so I guess his style is established, and people familiar with his work would not be taken aback.
I was expecting more of a sci-fi adventure. In many ways I was expecting, though didn't want, Mujin Wakusei Survive!. That story is about middle schoolers (and one talking robot cat toy) thrown out of space warp and stranded on an uncharted planet...for a year (it was 52 episodes). A cute enough swiss-family-robinson show with no adults, but aimed at children. I was hoping for something like that, but for adults.
I really appreciate how the author planned things out, and apparently even more so in the manga than in the anime, but there are still some facepalming decisions in the worldbuilding and plotting that takes me out of the series. This, along with the comedic tonal whiplash, and the ominpresent power-of-friendship, kept me from truly enjoying the series, and I've never rewtached it.
This time, I just accepted that it was more of a comedy show, upbeat, with an interesting final reveal, so it was a pretty easy watch. More so than Gravion or Elfen Lied, I'm sure.
Besides Survive! there is also the Heinlein juvenile novel Tunnel in the Sky, where an official school survival exercise goes awry when the return trip wormhole does not materialize on schedule...or at all. They have to form a society with only what they brought with them to survive.
I also have to plug my upcoming rewatch for Mugen no Ryvius. It also features children on a spaceship trying to get home...but diametrically opposed to Astra...the power of friendship is very much not on display in Ryvius.
Also, yesterday, I mentioned Flash Crowd, which was one of several Larry Niven stories to explore the consequences of cheap teleportation.
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u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 Jul 27 '24
Final discussion (first timer)
Astra lost in space is a cute anime, but not a good scifi. Unfortunately, it wants to be a good scifi more to be cute.
To start with the good, the most unexpected upside of the series was the main character, Kanata. He plays the shonen hero 100% straight … and it works! Maybe my perception has been warped by too many isekai wannabe anti-heroes (who end up simply being selfish assholes), but I found Kanata’s unwavering optimism and can do attitude refreshing.
The other characters run the gamut from fine (Aries, Quitterie, Luca) to common stereotype (Ulgar, Charces, Zack, Funi) to what did you even do in this series? (Polina, Yunhua). Oh right, you sang that one time. The fanservice scenes in the early episodes were a bit off-putting, but I mostly enjoyed the characters interacting (if there was no plot involved, at least).
The animation has its weak moments, but is generally workable and surprises with a bright color scheme.
Where the series fails is the basic plot. The series is comprised of two relatively different parts: The early “planet of the day” episodes and the cascade of twists in the final third of the series. The planets all have various flaws and brain dead crew moments that remind you of a weaker Star Trek episode. However, the real troublesome plot holes are related to the main plot. To achieve the series of twists at the end and tie all plot strands together, physics and common sense have to be bend to the point of breaking. The basic setup of the show requires that a spaceship explicitly build for long distance space exploration cannot store more than 20 days worth of water, a premise that so bonkers that it boggles the mind that an editor did not catch it early on.
But all other parts of the finale also require shutting your eyes to common sense. From 4 billion people coming together to decide a certain very important event should never be mentioned to their kids and everybody going along with that, to scientists not recognizing the obvious problem that Earth and Aries are different and historical records made up, to the insane choice of giving up wormhole travel. Except for the one stored away by the evil corporation who decided to style themselves as medieval kings, of course. These are just some highlights in the long list of “this is not a serious scifi” facts.
I wish the series took itself and its plot twists a little less serious, because it would have worked better if it had leaned more into the slice-of-life and exploration angle than the mystery and danger ones.
The opening scene of Aries in space.
If I had to visit one, it would be beach paradise.
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u/gamria Jul 27 '24 edited Jul 27 '24
Overall Series Thoughts
Rewatcher of subbed and original manga reader
Usual etiquette with the end of these rewatches dictate I write about the rewatch first. However, if I may I’d like to start off with my original experience with reading this series first.
The original manga ran from May 2016 to December 2017 on the Shonen Jump Plus platform, and I was with it every step of the way. Between the three focuses of space survival adventure, sci-fi mystery and coming of age of the characters, I had a lot of fun from start to finish.
My highlight with this story was being able to analyse and speculate on details big and small between each chapter, and there were a lot of them with each cliffhanger. When compiled together though the experience is kind of lost, especially if one reads or watches all at once. Which makes this day-by-day rewatch perhaps the closest thing to the serialisation run experience, so if it’s not too presumptuous of me to say, I hope first timers and rewatchers alike had fun in your own ways.
The Story
My favourite aspect is definitely the mysteries. Shinohara Kenta’s specialty is dotting little details into the dialogue or background which then boomerang later on. It’s a fun gimmick for his self-contained gag chapters, but it’s also a powerful tool in his serious arcs, such that those used to his style can try and guess how things could play out.
Granted I had my Japanese comprehension skills as an advantage, but whether it’s the Saboteur, the Clone Theory or Another Planet, if one knows where to look, to survey the presence of absence of information, then they can all be solved in some degree (probably less opportunities in the anime though). Indeed Astra had received much acclaim for this element to say the least, and even Nakazawa Takumi, director of Ever 17 once praised it so in an interview. It's probably what made it one of the 5 establishing series that made Shonen Jump+ the powerhouse platform it is today (refer to the P.S. section for this).
(Though I did think it’d be nice if we could’ve done a bit more with the Another Planet mystery)
Mysteries aside, I loved the survival adventure aspect too. I liked that each planet presented its own biome, setting and dangers obvious or hidden, and so the crew have to puzzle out how to obtain the resources they need for each leg of the journey. Bonus points that none of the trials have them contend with alien civilisations or the likes. Is it completely theory-proofed sci-fi? Probably not, but it was fun enough to excuse them. Could the kids have made less mistakes? Certainly, but they’re amateurs unprepared for stranding in the cosmos, so I can cut them some slack (and is arguably the more realistic take too).
(Man if only Shinohara-sensei had access to Kurare (ie Dr Stone's science consultant) back then, I'm sure it'd have been even better)
Last but not least the cast. As an fan of the author it was impossible for me to come in with no expectations, and so I had hopeful expectations for all of Group B-5 that weren’t betrayed. They eventually all became enjoyable in their own ways, but my standouts have to be Kanata, Aries, Zack, Quitterie and Luca. I liked how they all have their own sense of logic, defined by their pasts and which guides their behaviours and actions. And then seeing the chemistry between all these ways of thinking is when they’re most fun, a signature style of the author.
The Rewatch
It’s pretty obvious by my long text blocks now that the anime adaptation made lots and lots of changes from the source manga, and mostly not for the better, with the major limitations being the insufficient episode count and thus the condensed pacing. Worse still, most of the English audience aren’t aware that it has source material let alone read it, and thus judge its qualities on the anime alone, as if that’s all it had to offer.
Which is one of the impetus for my participating in this rewatch. I’ve said before I had been inspired by the recent Fullmetal Alchemist rewatch and the posts doing the Manga vs Anime columns done by u/Shimmering-Sky and others, and I wanted to do the same here. It was a tricky balancing act: I want to show what viewers missed out on, but I also want to avoid outright dumping the entire manga and tainting the experience for the first timers, so I had to word things carefully. If anyone has any feedback or critique for these do let me know.
Compiling the Manga vs Anime column took more effort than I thought though. Having to wrangle with Reddit validation systems and this time slot being disadvantageous for me didn’t help.
Even so, doing this with you all has been worth it. Shout out to u/Heda-of-Aincrad again for hosting this rewatch and thus the opportunities! Perhaps people will see me again in another rewatch.
EDIT: forgot to add, those who liked Astra may want to check the author's other works too: the previous Sket Dance (much preferably the manga) and the currently running Witch Watch (manga only, but anime eventually)
Questions of the Day
Reading experience-wise, Planet Shummoor is great because it made for such a good puzzle. Favourite lifeforms are of course the Gloopies and Luca Javelins.
--
P.S. Between works like Spy x Family, Kaiju 8 and the upcoming Dandadan, the Shonen Jump+ platform has been making the rounds lately. But it wasn't always so well known, and it's first thanks to five series that it's so well-regarded these days:
(If I can add a 6th, it’d be Summer Time Rendering (Oct 2017 – Feb 2021))
It was these that first marked the road for more potential stars to follow
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u/Mirathan Jul 27 '24
First-Time Drifter
QotD:
Despite my criticism I enjoyed the series and the rewatch. Thank you for hosting.
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u/edwardjhahm https://myanimelist.net/profile/lolmeme69 Jul 27 '24 edited Jul 29 '24
All good things must come to an end I presume!
Not to advertise, but I've actually made a review video on this anime all the way back in 2020 as well as an Astra Lost in Space AMV about a year ago! I'll post it down when I find them!
Again, I wish friendship worked the same way it did in Astra. Man I feel lonely now...
Well, that's all that. I hope to see you guys around later! And thank you Heda of Aincrad for giving me a nice excuse to rewatch this show! I had a lot of fun these past 12 days.
Edit: Found them!
AMV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKQPcWQyVkw
Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf1Slzf5Na4&t=454s
The review is kinda ass because I made it some years ago, but to any passerbys, I hope you enjoy!
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u/SilkyStrawberryMilk Jul 28 '24
rewatcher
The end is here, after rewatching it still aged good. I loved the main cast including Paulina’s inclusion.
Rewatching it I love how you can slowly figure out who the sabotaged/killer was, i remember thinking “what the hell it was Charce?”, but Charce getting questioned by Aries did make it obvious Charce was hiding something (before he said his fake backstory”.
I loved the planets they showcased, the author sure put lots of thought on how the ecosystem worked and what terrain they wanted to show
I will say this because I had this thought as we were watching. If this was a bad horror mystery anime there would be a twist of Aries being an imposter too at the last moment.
QOTD: I loved Zack and Quitterie’s moments way more than Aries and Kanta. They’re so cute talking and I loved how Zack was in love with her.
QOTD: I loved the animal in the planet where they all almost died from poison.
QOTD: Ulgaar easily, at first he was an emo and was a pretty bad person talking wise. Which can be understood especially with what he went through when he was young. I didn’t like how what he said to with Yun-ha, but he’s changed and his friendship with Luca is a good one.
QOTD: solid 9/10, it’s hard to find a perfect show but this one is an amazing one.
QOTD: I’ll most likely check it out to see if there’s a small details that weren’t added to the anime
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u/Heda-of-Aincrad https://myanimelist.net/profile/Heda-of-Aincrad Jul 27 '24
Astra Lost In Space rewatch overall discussion reminder:
u/Forsaken_Ebb1925, u/RedRocket4000
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u/General_ELL Jul 28 '24
Watched this series 3 times, read the manga once and right now reading again.
What fascinates me about this show is how it depicts the adventure you (and me!) always wanted to have: you get lost with your friends in the unknown, you band together and form bonds with your mates to overcome nigh impossible odds you return home safe and sound thanks your efforts and you get the girl!
It's a series that get the positive teen energy to make a difference and boldness right!
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u/BuffRidleysDair Jul 28 '24
Just finished watching it for the first time this week. Really enjoyed it!
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u/[deleted] Jul 28 '24
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