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

------

Episode 1 airs tomorrow. I'm hyped for the beginning of a new season, so here's a thread. :p 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:
-----


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

- - - -


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.

[MFauli]

Kanatas shocked face while seeing nothing but A WOMAN!11 OMGZ! :D

Good episode overall. On one hand its veeery convenient that theres another ship (that theyll use for spare parts). On the other hand if there wasnt a second ship, well, the story would be over. Or transform from "how do we get home" to "lets play civilization". ;o

As for the "whos the traitor" speculation, Id say theres only 3 candidates left: pink girl is the most suspicious with her weird behavior. Maybe we"ll see a SteinsGate, thoigh, and its the young girl. Ofc, the "out of nowhere"-twist would be Kanata. Maybe Theres more to how his teacher died and hes taking revenge of sorts.

[David75]

Still watching, lagged though as I wait for x265 encodings... stuck with limited mobile data plan by the sea... :cool:

Since FTL theory also involves time differentials and wormholes also imply time leaps, they could play that time loop card Steinsgate like as Mfauli said.

Regarding the other ship that can be salvaged, well it's really convenient they landed on the right spot even if safe band is small, it still runs around a planet... It would have been a little better on a water planet with only one island and they find the ship while flying around. For some reason if feels in a very bad state for a ship made with space and planet flight resistance in mind.

Also, I don't think they need salvaged parts to get back to earth. Finding the radio that was taken ep 1 is another possible route, expanding on finding the culprit and motivate them to change their mind to survival/help mode...

Stating the obvious ? Seira=Aries, anagram, physical ressemblance and the devices on her head let me think this could be the only way to get her out of coma and move at all... From Charce story she could become a nice candidate for the culprit. Also I wonder if her photographic memory is linked to her head equipment.

Next, new member... or not. Having only one "survivor" from another ship opens questions about other crew members. Was she operating the ship alone ? I doubt it. Are all others dead ? probably since they didn't use life support functions at all. So how did blond beauty get into the only hibernation capsule ? decision from everyone in the crew, or is she dangerous ? Or is the planet even more dangerous than what we've seen so far ?
Btw, only one hibernation device for a ship with life support for 10 or more people is another moronic plot device if you ask me...

[Kraco]

Yeah, back when I was reading the manga, I also noted how unlikely it is that they just happened to land within a walking distance of the other ship. It's one of those minor flaws of this series. It would have been easy enough to make more believable in myriad ways, though, so who knows why the author didn't.

One hibernation device is better than none. Possibly the ships weren't mean to have such devices at all, but for some reason one was added. It could be a matter of budget, regulations, who knows. No matter how you look at it, that ship model isn't exactly excellent. It's full of compromises, which is kind of believable in a certain sense and could be explained by the circumstances of its origins. Just like if you took a 15,000 euros ordinary car, which could be just fine if nothing fancy, and then started to list all the things it's missing compared to some 50,000 euros BMW.

[MFauli]

I like to think of the hibernation capsule as a medical device. When someone is severely hurt and theres no doctor, put him in stasis until you get home. Its not meant as a device for regular use, thus one is suffice.

[David75]

I also thought about that medical stasis function.
Reading both of your comments an idea could be that stasis needs too much power/resources that are limited on those spaceships.
As Zack stated, they are limited range ships, so why not.
time travels again:
Zack also said this ship is/feels like a model of the past. At least I think he did.

Culprit (potential) not discussed yet:
-Funicia: split personalities ? her puppet show is very weird. She feels a bit young to be an assassin and able to just remove the radio from a ship. But loli murderers/assassin with top intellect, steel nerves and olympic strenght/moves are a bit too common in anime...
Used as a child bomb or some sort with brainwashing and specific training ? Nah, too bland.
-Quitterie: Not enough background. She probably feels the most stereotypical of all the characters with her rich girl syndrome. Might be a reason to suspect her after all :D
-Zack: Cold, logical, top intellect. Doesn't mean he doesn't have a loose screw somewhere...


Now let's get back to the first convenient plot device : the ship being at the right place when they got out of the wormhole.
It really feels like everything was scripted.
And in fact scripted from long before their trip as the characters themselves discussed.
But also, for some reason they are almost all from influential/rich or in power families.
And they all have traits/attributes that are useful for the adventure or lead a country...
Kanata is a leader
Zack is a good prime minister
Quitterie represents health/medicine
Background flower : arts/entertainment
Esposito: industry (I know... stretching a bit here)
Ulgar: army/defense
Charce: well biology, fauna and flora knowledge->food
Aries: airhead, mandatory in a sane society :D
Funicia: excess luggage :D


I feel like they are undergoing a hidden test that is performed once in a blue moon when very talented teens have potential for leading roles in society. Some kind of McPa coming of age in ultra hard/insane mode. Survival means they are good candidates for future leading roles in society.

But in that case-everything is scripted- the question regarding wormhole technology remains, why keep it secret and not use it globally ?

[Kraco]

-Funicia: split personalities ? her puppet show is very weird. She feels a bit young to be an assassin and able to just remove the radio from a ship. But loli murderers/assassin with top intellect, steel nerves and olympic strenght/moves are a bit too common in anime...

Funicia, haha. How could you ever suspect her? I like it how she's not actually a loli character in the stereotypic anime sense but instead a kid who behaves more or less believably as a kid. That underlines the question of what exactly is she doing there in the first place. She's not an older girl just looking younger (a rather typical loli archetype) or a child genius (not a super uncommon type either).

[David75]

She's dangerous because she can't be suspected :D
Child soldiers do exist and are dangerous against soldiers with values that might overcome or at least delay their basic survival reflexes.

[MFauli]

Episode 8:

I mean, it was always bs that they were supposed to be non-related when they looked the same so much. Sisters was the reasonable assumption. Ofc, since we need drama, them being clones makes more sense.

Im starting to think that the connection between these kids is that they've got shitty parents 💁

[Kraco]

If you make a whole bunch of identical deep space exploration ships, that modularity isn't actually a bad choice as long as it doesn't increase the cost by tens of percents and doesn't bring too many compromises with it.

I think it was already at this point of the manga that I started to guess a few things.

One other thing I started to think about is that since Kanata wants a spaceship, shouldn't he be able to keep this one? You know, finders, keepers.

[David75]

I wonder what event Polina was referring too. I also hope she's not related to Quitterie/Funicia.
Well Modularity, landing at the same place... that's a bit too much still.
Kanata able to fool a carnivorous plant that killed a crew of astronauts in their prime ?
Oh another anagram, Planet Icriss=Crisis. They seem to like anagrams.

It doesn't feel like Polina is dangerous, unless she used that plant to kill the crew.


PS: was able to turn on a distant pc, use it to encode the ep to 250mb or less to cope with my data cap. Happy I learned those tricks years ago. Will be able to reduce lag and watch shows with no x265 alternatives /mylife

[Kraco]

Kanata able to fool a carnivorous plant that killed a crew of astronauts in their prime ?


It seems like the plant flipped the car over, instantly wounding or at least slowing down the dudes.

[David75]

Why not, that thing seems fast. Thanks.
Only tags remained, I guess they were wearing other non edible equipment, but fine. Let's wait for what happens next planet.

[David75]

New ep out






•-–——–-••-–——–-••-–——–-••-–——–-••-–——–-••-–——–-••-–——–-••-–——–-••-–——–-••-–——–-•

I failed to apply the DNA results to everyone on board. I still have doubts for Aries=!Seira

Regarding Astra and Polina, at first I thought it was some kind of time travel, but since Polina's experience and birthdates for the crew were in the right timeline... But I forgot alternate universes that are possible with white/wormholes, except it's Polina (and her crew ?) who leaped and came to Astra's universe. Probably during a test for the wormhole technology ?
Since timelines and spacehips are very close in both universes, it's fairly possible that earth and astra universes started experimenting wormhole technology at the same time and Polina's ship leapt from earth's to astra's universe.

And I wonder if the second wormhole we've seen ep 1 is the one going back to earth's side, so that they can send Polina back even with the risk associated (like being sent in space without ship and lifesupport...)

In my humble opinion, I would have prefered to have Polina and the rest both crossing universes. Astra's side remaining there, I feel like it restrains the story and Polina's usefulness for the Plot in the future. We're not in a StarTrek setting were it was fun to have a very mixed crew.
But I might be wrong.

About their will to become citizen and have their 'parents' charged with something... Well, teenage clones are still teenagers...
They are fighting against seasoned adults who were able to create them, hide them from society in plain sight for 16 years or so and find ways to send them to their deaths in plain sight too !
Do these teens think it will be easy to get what they want ?
Pretty sure their DNA sources, past surprise, will quickly react with countermeasures.
First: there's still a potential timebomb on board, someone who might kill everyone.
Second: it's pretty sure there's a fairly large space around planet Astra under space patrol surveillance. Their ship will be detected and checked very far from the planet, giving time to their 'parents' to prepare countermeasures

[Kraco]

Back when reading the manga, I guessed beforehand the cloning, memory transfer, and consequently the reason for the poor treatment. I consider the larger plot really good (despite some of the silly things that happened), so I was happy to predict it. However, the other mystery, Polina, is quite elusive, like you also noticed, David.

Zack's eternal poker face is working nicely here in the anime. It's pretty funny to imagine their marriage when Quitterie is the total opposite. If this trip or the body takeover hadn't happened, though, it's an open question if they had ended up together. Quitterie can't read him at all, so would she still have fallen for him? Now it's kind of understandable in the closed environment and her witnessing all the time how reliable and skillful he is. And cool.

[MFauli]

Lol, this episode felt like an exposition overload. So many twists in one go.

I agree that it comes off as majorly naive to think they can just return and their "parents" will be dealt with for them. It hasnt been touched upon, but my immediate fear was "fuck, theyre clones, theyll get treated bylaw enforcement as not-citizens aka killed".

Not sure I agree with the dimension jumping theory. Its a bit too cheap imo. My guess: The time data in Polinas ship was wrong and shes been in hibernation for many hundreds of thousands years, explaining the tectonic shift on "Astra" aka earth v1.2.

Btw someone help me: Where did their spaceship come from? So their parents want to get rid of them. Create controllable mini wormhole for that. Only to park a spaceship next to the exit point???

[David75]

I also thought about the hibernation pod going around its time counter... But that would require geological time and the ship isn't design to not crumble over 200 million years or so needed for a massive geological change. It still had energy to power basic systems and the pod itself, I can't think designers would put that much energy in a short range ship.
Also, it would be impossible to find nametags for her crew after such a long time.

I thought universes, but maybe Polina and earth are just from a far away place in the universe. That would not mesh well with ships/timelines being so compatible. The parallel universe feels better as a bandaid idea.

Last for Polina, I remember she was fearing some big event that was to come before she got into hibernation and should have happened when she was in stasis. I wonder what scale of an event that was. It felt like some catastrophe on a large scale, was she part of one of many crews seaching for a planet to relocate earth's population ?

Spaceship at the exit point might be a gift from one of the 'parents' that didn't want their child to die in such a way. They stripped the radio though. With a short distance ship and low food/water reserves, they thought they would not come back and understand their situation.
Regarding civil/human rights remember they have names/identities, they are citizens of one country/state in Astra. They are DNA clones, but they have their own administrative ids. I don't think that clone law supercedes human rights and nationality/citizenship, but who knows ?

[Kraco]

I agree that it comes off as majorly naive to think they can just return and their "parents" will be dealt with for them. It hasnt been touched upon, but my immediate fear was "fuck, theyre clones, theyll get treated bylaw enforcement as not-citizens aka killed".

They live in a democracy, by the looks of it. Their plan to live forever was ruined by the universal genome screen law even the top politician among them couldn't stop, and by trying to do so, he apparently tried to resort to desperate measures and got his reputation tarnished (which was what gained Ulgar's brother's interest in the first place). They don't have that much power. Their power is limited to their own sphere of influence, and doing strange things even there can be troublesome. For example, the school principal was complaining about the difficulty of having Funi join the training camp.

[David75]

They still were able to create the situation with cloning, citizenship and living for years, with the last killing scheme that is going unnoticed for now...
I guess the way it unfolds depends on how the qualities of the young versions fare against same qualities with seasoned adults and their relations...

[David75]

An another ep.



•-–——–-••-–——–-••-–——–-••-–——–-••-–——–-••-–——–-••-–——–-••-–——–-••-–——–-••-–——–-•



So there's a gap between Polina's and everyone else's timelines. I wonder of it's there to hide the fact that only some happy few had access to the wormhole and they let everyone else die.
But it doesn't work. From what I remember from ep 1, Planet Astra was fully civilised. Hard to think they had enough time and resources to build everything in under 30/40 years.
Also Polina is supposed to have been in stasis for 12 years but the Asteroid did not crash yet, 2049 was the year it was to happen. And everyone else's timeline is 2063. That's 14 years. So there's a gap of at least 2 years, but probably 4/5 years since they were still searching for a planet candidate.

And yes, wormholes are easy to create, just get the right remote control :D. Finding the culprit was not thrilling/interresting at this point in the story.
The only point I find strange is creating a world wide community, abolishing countries, but keep a monarchy somewhere. When the goal is to prevent wars from ever happening, it feels strange to have two diverging social systems.

I almost forgot that Polina's timeline had no WWIII. So we still need to know how Polina leaped to another timeline (or Worldline ala steins;gate)

[Kraco]

Yeah, finding the murderer wasn't super exciting. Although to be fair I don't think there were too many exciting possibilities left. I kind of feel like in the manga it still worked a bit better, even if I don't anymore remember how exactly. Again, I might be remembering wrong.

I have to say I like the whole Earth/Astra thing. It's one thing I couldn't predict beforehand, even though I guessed the whole cloning thing precisely. These two together created a very solid setting for the story, much better than most other space adventures would have. As you can also see, the seemingly weird and unbelievable coincidence/convenience of a space ship just waiting for the kids in the space was very nicely explained. It's the place where the ships were built, so it wouldn't be so strange one was there once they became useless; they were only used to find a new habitable planet and the people themselves were moved via the wormhole tech.

[David75]

Wormhole tech and the ship being there were better coincidences than finding Polina's ship for sure.

[MFauli]

"Someome" did predict that it's a matter of time ;p

[Kraco]

Episode 11


-- - - - -



There it is, pretty much all of the personal conspiracy, that is, the clone murder plot.

Kanata should have made sure his cut off hand was left with only the middle finger up, though.

[David75]

We know more about Charce and Aries, but it's not like we cared and/or it was that much more useful to the story. At this point in time it felt fillerish. Charce's lie story was pretty enough and close to the truth and would be a basis for Aries' story.
All in all, the most important part is that Aries' head contraption is purely decorative, which we knew from another flashback. I prefered my sci-fi "roman" way of interpreting them :cool:

Kanata's original will rejoice, Kanata can aim for paralympics now. And with their body/training basis can aim for worldclass events!

Background flower had a line !

[Kraco]

We know more about Charce and Aries, but it's not like we cared and/or it was that much more useful to the story. At this point in time it felt fillerish. Charce's lie story was pretty enough and close to the truth and would be a basis for Aries' story.

It's not exceptionally easy to come up with a plausible explanation for an intelligent person with no obvious insanity problems willing to kill a whole bunch of innocent people plus themselves. Sure, in RL we have no end of suicide bombers and such, but those aren't exactly what I'd call intelligent people, quite the contrary. Having been brainwashed since the birth was a passable explanation.

[MFauli]

Kanata will get a cool robotic arm, no worries 💁

Didn't like the flashback. Because flashbacks always suck.

One dumb detail, however: So a law comes and says 'cloning is illegal' ... and THAT is enough to make a king quit his dreams of immortality?! Not believable at all.

[Kraco]

Kanata will get a cool robotic arm, no worries ��

Didn't like the flashback. Because flashbacks always suck.

One dumb detail, however: So a law comes and says 'cloning is illegal' ... and THAT is enough to make a king quit his dreams of immortality?! Not believable at all.

Cloning humans has been illegal already in our time in most countries. The law was about the genetic screening of all humans. So, it would have inevitably revealed any clones around. Simply cloning being illegal didn't stop them because they believed they could keep the crime hidden. When it turned out highly unlikely in the long run due to the screening law, since most of the clones were living rather normal, public lives, they needed to make the clones disappear without leaving corpses behind, yet with a very plausible story/circumstances to explain the disappearance so that no criminal investigation would be launched. After all, there would still likely be tissue samples around here and there if the cops started to look for them.

[MFauli]

I get that, but:

Some anti-cloning law ............. vs ............ IMMORTALITY

🤷*♀️

[Kraco]

I get that, but:

Some anti-cloning law ............. vs ............ IMMORTALITY

��*♀️

Their current scheme made it impossible. Who knows, maybe they'd like to try again with a different plan in the future. As it is, forget about immortality, they would be sent behind bars, wasting even more of their remaining life.

[Kraco]

Episode 12 Final




- -- - - - --



The anime was pleasantly similar to the manga, but there were tiny differences here and there, such as censoring this ultimate truth:

https://i.imgur.com/UyfsDlU.jpg

It's pretty funny he needed to buy back the ship, although it's actually even stranger he could buy it back. Imagine trying to buy a unique historical artifact from a museum. There's no way that would happen unless the museum was located in some godforsaken dictatorship. You'd think the government would have sold him some semi-modern, used but fully functional ship for a reasonable price instead, considering who he is. But I guess this was a symbolic thing needed for the conclusion of the story.

The whole history rewriting sounds impossible to pull off, but surprisingly it could actually happen. The whole affair happened after a war that killed half of the population, so all the survivors would have been sufficiently PTSDed to go along with it. Those who didn't, well, maybe they were left behind to welcome the asteroid or hunted down afterwards.

This is a jolly good series, all in all. A solid story with a good mystery that ties the beginning to the end.

[David75]

It's nice we had a closing part to the story.
Regarding the time shift, I remember we evoked a time paradox several time with Polina's arc.
In my mind I had the ship's state that felt older that only 12 years. But somehow finding nametags in a very good shape convinced me it was plausible... when in fact now I think finding those nametags 112 years later is bullshit, even more in a such a pristine shape. Same goes for the vehicule.

And the hibernation pod only had starte date:2051 and body states : low/cold/freezing and can be reanimated (I think)
A bit strange there's no duration, but it's necessary for the plot.

A nice show, nice story. Some animation quality drops, but quite a few. I don't think there's a high "rewatchability" index as a large part of the show is finding answers.
At least one/two shows per season with at least that quality overall would be nice.

[Kraco]

I don't think there's a high "rewatchability" index as a large part of the show is finding answers.


Yeah, I could watch this anime despite having read the manga just to see it animated and hear it voiced, but that's about it. It's pretty hard to imagine rewatching this as the weight is indeed on the mystery. As space adventure this was kind of mediocre, especially with the silly details. Action usually makes for better rewatch value, but more or less none of that is present in this title.

[MFauli]

Finally got to watch it. I have nothing to add so I just want to say: It's great how this anime spends an extra episode to wrap up everything. It's so frustrating how 99.9% of all shows go for the dramatic finale and then, bamm, credits running. Astra really ended in a way that left little/nothing to be desired.

Wish more anime ended like that.