Review of Astra Lost in Space

This is my first review. I had a lot of feelings about this anime overall. At the beginning of the anime, I was not really convinced if it was worth the watch. The plot seemed quite promising, but the characters were really annoying and were ruining my overall experience. However, I did not want to give up and stuck until the end. ***CONTAINS SPOILERS*** Story: 9/10 The story was very original, complex, and twisted. Straight from the beginning, I loved the idea that a group of teenagers was stranded in the middle of space, basically isolated. Therefore, they band together and try to survive and successfullyreturn home. Each episode shows the adventures and challenges the characters need to overcome as they explore different planets. In the meantime, revealing fragments of the truth behind the real reason why the characters were stranded in space. I was impressed by how the characters were actually clones and the originals planned their murders so they can cover all the evidence due to the law of illegal cloning. It was a very dark twist that even I did not expect but that was just the start. When the characters’ spaceship was broken and were stuck in one of the planets, they found an old ship that has been abandoned (I do not know for how many decades). Inside that ship, they found a woman in a hibernation. This woman’s presence enhanced the plot as it was revealed that the planet that the characters were trying to go back to was Astra and not Earth, a different planet but very similar to Earth. In addition, they had no idea about the planet Earth’s existence and its history. Furthermore, they turned time back by 100 years so they can cover all the data from Earth, so it was not 2063 but 2163. The planet that they were placed in originally was Earth itself without realizing it. It was mind-blowing.
However, I was a bit disappointed as there were 5 volumes and 12 episodes. It looked very short and I believe that there is a lot of potential. I believe that the story should go deeper into the reason why the government was trying to hide the history of Earth. In other words, I wanted more development on corruption and to show that the world they believed was a utopia was actually a dystopia. A fabricated world. In addition, I wanted more action with the originals. I wanted more conflict like even when the teenagers have returned home, they still tried to find ways to kill them. There were still trying to silence them.
Characters: 4/10
I was actually very disappointed by the characters to the point that I was getting frustrated. As I was watching the anime, I started to get used to some of them, but it was still not enough to make me actually care about them. I did not care if they all died in the end. All the characters had very shallow or stereotypical characteristics, which really annoyed me. For example, we have the stereotypical attractive and athletic boy who wants to be the captain so he will be there to save the day. Then, we have the genius guy with the glasses who knows somehow everything about riding a spaceship when it was probably his first time being in space. I do not where he got that experience but my god that is some talent I must say. Next, is the anti-social girl and guy who have very traumatizing pasts, so they act like jerks and horrible or useless, causing problems for the team. Finally, this must be the worst example ever. The girls have no personality at all. It was very shallow and bland. All they did was shouting, screaming, crying, being disrespectful towards the other members, and talking about irrelevant stuff when they are exposed to a life-threatening situation. Also, they had no ambitions whatsoever. As for the guys, they were a little bit more interesting because they were actually doing something. They were engaged in different activities, despite being extremely dangerous, unlike the girls who only criticizing what they were doing.
Art and Animation: 8/10
I enjoyed the art, but it was not the best. I like the different vibrant colors, giving me the vibe that they are in an unfamiliar, different, and futuristic setting. Also, I loved how photographic they looked. I think it was a good technique making it very mysterious and intense to a certain extent.
Sound: 4/10
To be honest there was nothing special about the sound. It was boring and very generic. It was so generic that I forgot that there was any opening theme. Also, the lack of sound lost some of the suspense that I believe would be quite good.
Enjoyment: 7/10
There was definitely some potential with this anime, but the characters were not very significant. They did not stand out. There was no realism between their interactions with one another. It was fake and confusing. Also, I wanted more development because I believe that the ending was too rushed, trying to glue everything all together within the time duration. There were things that were not developed, and I was very disappointed.
Overall: 7/10
It was not the best anime but it is worth a shot.