Kanata no Astra – 09

Before I jump into the praise (warning: there’s going to be a lot of it) with both feet, let me just say – I’m well aware that there were a few flaws in this diamond of an episode.  That, however, didn’t stop me from having a shit-eating grin on my face for a good chunk of it.  Especially towards the end, where Zack’s announcement was brilliantly staged and then, we had one of the all-time great bombshell moments in modern anime.  Damn, that was good stuff.

In the first place, let’s get the niggles out of the way.  I’m not crazy about exposition where a bunch of people sit around explaining stuff.  Was there any reason for the “parents” to have that meeting at all, apart from exposition?  I would argue no, but it is what it is.  We did at least meet Luca’s real “father”, Felice Genma (the legendary Ueda Yuuji) – the clear wellspring of Luca’s artistic talent.  And of his gender situation – Genma dreamed of a future where he could transcend gender.  Yes, where he could – because of course Luca is his clone, not his son. And the plan was for him to be his vessel.

That takes us to be other quibble I have, which is that the kids on the Astra (starting with Zack and Kanata) connected the dots between the Quitterie/Funi revelation and the truth (as they can define it currently) a little too quickly.  In the Kanata no Astra manga, should you choose to read it, this is explained better and the leap is more realistic.  The research Zack’s father was doing on transplanting memories is explained in much more detail, and overall he and Kanata have much more to go on before they decide that all of the crew are clones.  It’s not a huge deal because I don’t think what we saw was totally unrealistic, but it was more of a stretch than it was in the original.

But you know, in the end I don’t much care.  Why?  Because this is all crafted together so beautifully by Shinohara, first of all – it’s a really good sci-fi premise and the way it was built up to is really elegant.  I love the way even as he reveals some facets of the truth, those reveals beget more questions – and there’s still a lot here we don’t know.  Aries points out the incongruity of her own situation, most obviously (there are theories that spring to mind but of course I’m not going to debate their merits).  And if Zack and Kanata are right, there are elements of how events have played out that don’t make perfect sense (yet).

The other reason I don’t care is because the cast here is really sterling.  Kanata no Astra could never work if the kids weren’t relatable and interesting, but they totally are.  There are a lot of compelling questions raised about nature vs. nurture here, which Zach in fact alludes to.  If the kids are clones and their originals are the sort of people who’d do what they’ve indeed done, the apples seem to have fallen pretty far from the tree.  Shinohara (through Zack) isn’t off-base with his general take on behavioral genetics, but to have a bunch of cloned A-holes grow up in generally loveless situations and turn out as well as these loveable goobers did requires a certain belief in the goodness of the human spirit.

The aftermath of all this is just perfect, really.  I love the way Kanata – taking on the fatherly side of his captain’s role – goes to make sure everyone is coping OK.  And that they all basically are.  And then we have Shinohara giving us maximum goofiness just when things are really heavy and dark, as is his wont, with Zack’s proposal and its hilarious aftermath.  It should be incongruous, this scene as its written tonally after the events of this episode, but in Kanata no Astra it totally fits.  It would have been a great ending to the episode – but we know KnA eps don’t end that way…

Just when you’d forgotten about Polina, she impacts the narrative in a major way.  While I was watching this (shit-eating grin time) I was flashing back to the manga and how gobsmacked I was.  Think on it – has anyone on the Astra ever mentioned the word “Earth”?  I remember looking at that blue planet and getting swept up in the moment, and only after several glances noticing that something seemed off.  In short it hit me the same way it did Polina – and then Shinohara drops the bombshell.  It’s one of my favorite plot twists in anime for a long time, mostly for the way it was so cleverly played – there was no cheating here, but I sure as hell didn’t see it coming.

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10 comments

  1. S

    I really liked the lights decor that Luca put up, especially the way drawings of past adventures were in focus when Luca said that those enjoying themselves more are the winner. The atmosphere with these kids are always cheerful and vibrant, it tickles me pink seeing how good they are at making the best of a downer situation and turning it into a party.

    As for that twist at the end, my assumption is that the years are misleading because they started a new year numbering like the switch from BC to AD. So hundreds to thousands of years might have passed since Polina’s time. The twist seems a bit too fast when the clone reveal hasn’t sunken in yet though, I guess things just escalate sometimes.

  2. Luca is a marvel, really. All of the kids (well, apart from maybe Yunha) are pretty effectively given co-equal status but Luca always stood out for me.

  3. e

    *GLEE*
    *MORE GLEE*
    They are doing a good job adapting the story so far indeed. And while at the expense of some logic shortcuts cutting the occasional infodumping from the manga makes for a more consistently good pacing on screen. Plus the comedy about Zack’s demeanour and delivery vs what he’s actually saying was well delivered… it was one of my fave bits from the manga.
    As a source manga reader can’t speak of being surprised by the big plot twist this week or speculate, altough maybe I had underestimated how much you had actually ended up enjoying the manga Enzo – you were a bit skeptical before diving in and needed a bit of prodding 😛 – … or maybe a good adaptation stands up more in a meager season too.
    Still, I’m glad (read : 3-episodes worth of Astra high catch-up, gushing ahoy ) we have KnA on the current season schedule. Missed these kids and the series endearing qualities… the yearly anime menu might offer ‘objectively’ better/deeper/more ambitious dishes but this one is my happy sunny spot darling and as such ended up my most anticipated watch of the week. A spring of fondness, fun and just a sprinkle faith in the goodness/decency of others when the chips are down, topped with just enough brain stimulation <3

  4. F

    Yeah i always had that little nagging in my head when Polina was so confused about if nothing happened with earth a while back when she was defrosted, now it makes sense Polinas group was just one of the exploratory vessels and earth is probably destroyed.
    And the other exploratory vessel found the new planet, hell maybe that vessel even is the Astra (The ship) and like the kids it was dumped in space to hide the past from the Astra (The Planet). That would also explain why the ships were copys of each other.
    I hope this is fine i didnt read the manga, just my assumptions from the anime.

  5. Y

    Whhhaaaaaattttt?! Double plot twist! 😀

    Didn’t read the manga so it’s good to know the info dump was smoother in the original. I gotta agree the way the kids figured out they were clones kinda came out of nowhere and it robbed the reveal from some of its drama.

    Still so fun though! It’s by far the show I’m looking forward the most every week. Although, gotta admit I’m back on the kimetsu no yaiba bandwagon… I know you dropped it but it’s been consistently fun the past few weeks. Zenitsu is nowhere to be found… Probably has something to do with it 😛

  6. I’m backed up on Yaiba now, which is what often happens when I drop series, and no time to catch up. After the internet-breaking episode failed to wow me (and the follow-up was outright weak) it kind if seemed as if there wasn’t much upside left for me. But time permitting, I may try to catch back up.

  7. Y

    There was an internet breaking episode? I don’t follow the animé scene at all besides your blog so I had no idea. I’ll try to Google it… I’m curious now 😀

    Personally I just thought the quality picked back up to pre-zenitsu level.

  8. It did, but there was an episode with a beautifully-animated fight scene which folks were raving about. Of course the next one… Well, spoilers.

    To me, the success of this series is great production and Nezuko waifu mania. The writing was never that good but it starts to become a bigger and bigger problem as the show progresses.

  9. p

    Can’t say I’ve thought about it a lot since then, but I sort of had a feeling that Earth was not in the picture from the iwakan I felt with the multitude of bizarre place names in the first episode spaceport, it went beyond your usual Japanese “inventivenes” with Western-ish names. My thinking went more along the lines of a no-Earth alterverse than a hidden/gone Earth one, though. (I know some or maybe all of them were supposed to be anagrams, but that didn’t make them looking any less bizarre.)

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