This was a surprisingly difficult series review post to puzzle out, though that might be a little surprising.  My overall take (either on the seres itself or the finale) isn’t going to surprise anyone – I’m a fan, obviously.  But there’s a lot to unpack here.  I don’t want to spiral off into a 2000-word opus going over all the exposition, first of all.  And how much, if any, should I talk about my nitpicks – which I certainly have?  Is it disingenuous to gloss over them because, in the end, they don’t really matter to me?

I suppose I can start with why those nitpicks don’t matter (seems as good a place as any).  In its simplest terms, it’s because for me Kanata no Astra is and always has been primarily about the characters, not the conspiracy.  And because I unreservedly think this double-length finale nailed that side of things without a hitch.  The plot is important too of course, and while the resolution of that is where I have some quibbles (as it always is with this series), I do think both Shinohara and Lerche did a great job with that side of things too.  But if there were going to be some flaws in the diamond, I’d rather they be with that part of the series because on balance, it’s less important to me.

To get them out of the way, my minor gripes are as follows:

• Things went a little too smoothly on arrival, considering how much of a danger the B5 kids presented to so many people – and just how powerful those people were.
• Ulgar’s cop connection Lt. Grace (Yusa Koji) – though Aries hilarious refers to him as “Sergeant Pepper” – is a bit of a left field revelation for the’ sake of convenience.
• I struggle to believe an entire generation could keep the secrets Charce revealed, no matter how incentivized by tragedy.
• The government gave in a little too easily when it came to letting the truth out.
• I would have liked to have seen more exploration – especially after the time-skip – of this very interesting question Shinohara raises: is it better to have a peace bought with lies, or chaos earned with the truth?

Like I said, though, in the end I just don’t care that much about any of that, because I love these goddam kids so much and their story was told so beautifully.  They were fucked over by the people they should most have been able to trust, yet still managed to find the strength to trust each other – and they built on that trust not just to survive, but to build a fraternity that would last them their entire lives.  Ultimately, you know, I think Kanata no Astra is a very optimistic story (some would even say naively so) especially where human nature is concerned.  But that’s one of the things I love most about it.

There are a lot of little moments in this finale that I really loved.  Like the lame game Zack designed to help Kanata deal with his boredom while he recuperates from his (unanaesthetized) surgery, a reminder that these kids are still just that.  And the way Luca puts his arm on Ulgar’s shoulder at an especially painful moment – a silent, simple gesture of solidarity and support.  And Funi still having the damn puppet, even when she’s the same age as Quitterie before the timeskip and in high school.  Shinohara displays a great eye for the small details in this series, an appreciation for their importance in taking these character relationships and making them that much more real and engaging.

I don’t think there are too many surprises in where the crew of the Astra ended up.  I sort of suspected Charce would end up becoming king as soon as he revealed the truth about himself (it was a pleasure watching his original and the retainer who engineered Seira’s murder hauled off like petty cons), and Ulgar becoming a reporter like his brother makes perfect sense.  Naturally Yunhua would pursue singing, though I admit I didn’t see Quitterie becoming a model.  As for Luca, things are intentionally left quite open-ended there – which I think is totally appropriate.  The whole point of Luca’s character and his philosophy is that being his true self is all that matters, and it’s clear that’s never stopped being the case.

As for the two couples. well – of course, they’re two couples.  Quitterie and Zach were pretty much a fait accompli already, and once Kanata held out his hand to Aries as they prepared to face the unknown on the bridge on their return to Astra, that die was cast too.  My favorite part of the postscript, honestly, was Kanata buying the Astra with the profits from his book (heh), in doing so fulfilling the promise he made to Zach seven years earlier.  And Charce of course fulfilling the promise he made to Kanata, leaving behind the yoke of office to adventure once more as his captain’s right-hand man.

In short, character-wise the ending was pretty much perfect – showing us the way the bonds these children formed together can never be broken by time or circumstance, and the great sense of gratitude they feel towards each other.  And to Kanata, of course, for being the one who made them all believe it was possible to survive and never letting them forget that the priority was each other.  Kanata no Astra is no sweeping epic – rather, it’s like a perfect (even with its imperfections) little self-contained whole (all the more so as its double-episode bookends provide a template for how series just a bit too long for a single cour should be adapted).  A simple story which confidently puts one foot and front of the other and gets exactly where it needs to go while wearing its heart on its sleeve.