If you’re wandering parched through the desert, even a puddle is going to look like an ocean.  This anime season has the look of a desert to it, but Kanata no Astra is no puddle – I’d say more a good-sized lake – so it looks forking huge to me.  Sure, there have been many seasons in the past where this series would have been more of a solid mid-pack draft horse, but it’s certainly not be blamed for that.  And if the nature of the competition has it looking more like a thoroughbred, good on it for being good enough to pull that off.

The Japanese love that word, sasuga, which no English translation can truly capture (it says something about Japanese culture that “as expected” is about the greatest compliment you can receive).  Kanata no Astra has all the sasuga in the world going for it.  The manga is finished, and at 5 volumes it’s easily compact enough to be adapted in one cour.  It has a solid if unspectacular staff at Lerche, including director Andou Masaomi.  It has an incredibly linear, direct and unpretentious premise that just works.  In sum, this is an adaptation that seems about as close to screwup-proof as you can get.

And they didn’t – not if the premiere is anything to go on.  It was, in a word, sasuga – it delivered exactly what I expected, and that’s a good thing.  While there’s something contemporary in the execution of Shinohara Kenta’s story, the bones of it are classic anime sci-fi.  A bunch of kids on a school trip to space (it’s 2063), are mysteriously transported 5,012 light years across the galaxy by a mysterious orb which appears before them on the planet McPa.  McPa is supposed to be a “national park” planet, where they can safely survive for five days on their own before being picked up by the adults, but it winds up being anything but.

Nine kids stranded in space, far from home, buffeted by hormones and boredom, trying to survive and not drive each other crazy at the same time.  It just doesn’t get much more classic than that in anime terms, for those of us old enough to remember.  And indeed, the overall feel of the piece is solidly retro.  But the details stamp it unmistakably as a contemporary series – the niches the characters inhabit (and yes, they are generally pretty tropey at first glance) are thoroughly modern millies, and their banter sounds more 2019 than 1999.  Not in a bad way, though – just a way that doesn’t come as self-consciously “old-fashioned”.

Kanata no Astra is very much an ensemble piece, but there are two characters who are more or less first among equals.  The first one we meet is Aries Spring (Minase Inori), who’s the clear dojikko of the cast.  She calls her teacher “Mom” (he’s a man), calls the middle-aged lady at the starport “Sir”, and would forget her head if it wasn’t screwed on.  The second is the titular Hoshijima Kanata (Hosoya Yoshimasa, who has an uncharacteristic lightness here that I really like in the role).  He rescues Aries’ bag from a thief and promptly gets arrested for it, almost missing the flight as a result.  He also has a tragic past which acts as his primary motivation, both in going to space and in life generally.

Needless to say there’s more to both of these kids than meets the eye (indeed, we already see hints that Aries’ dingbat exterior hides a sharp mind), and there’s more to all nine of them for that matter.  I’ll dig deeper into the individual characters as they feature prominently in future, but most important in the premiere is Zach Walker (Takeuchi Shunsuke) who despite his tender years has a space pilot’s license (which will immediately prove critical).  I also quite like Luca Esposito (Matsuda Risae), the first one whose curiosity gets him swallowed up by the orb, who has a cheeky eccentricity which makes him quite distinct in the group.

I think the decision to launch Kanata no Astra with a double episode was a good one, because it allows the story to effectively exposit its entire prologue and jump off into the story proper next week.  And it’s the sort of show that fares well in extended viewing – lost of restless action and forward momentum, crisp comedy, a fair bit of suspense.  22 minutes would have felt really short, especially where they would have had to leave things off.  The events of the premiere are really well-executed, especially Aries being adrift in space and the panic which ensues, to go along with the complicated rescue Kanata launches.  It’s almost all done in 2-D animation too, and the overall look of the premiere is really pleasing – classic without being dates, and quite detailed and fluid.

Kanata no Astra has a lot of charm,  no question about it.  I think Shinohara’s magic (and given how little I thought of Sket Dance, it surprised me) is in being able to maintain a near-perfect balance between goofy comedy and genuine danger and suspense.  And I thought the anime captured that seamlessly, porting it to the screen without a hitch.  Not every gag works, but the feckless nature of the humor makes you kind of smile even if they don’t.  Kids acting like kids, placed in a life or death situation but still having to put their spacesuits on one leg at a time and live their daily lives – it’s depicted in a really believable and charming way.  I really like Kanata no Astra, I figured it would make a slam-dunk transition to anime, and that seems to be exactly what’s happened.  Thank goodness.

OP: “star*frost” by nonoc