Review of Astra Lost in Space

Almost one hour long and a wide screen aspect ratio, those were my first impressions of the first episode of this anime. Astra in Space caught my attention from the info of its source material than anything else. A well received shounen oriented sci-fi adventure, and not only that, but it’s also short being only 5 volumes long. With a story that short it seemed that Astra had something that it wanted to accomplish. However as the episodes ticked by i failed to see what it was trying to do with its story or why it was considered good. Sure it is enjoyable, but that’sreally it.

Astra takes place in a futuristic world where kids being sent to another planet as a school trip is seen as a no big deal. With an ensemble cast of highschoolers and one child heading to one of these planets. And just like in the synopsis, they all get mysteriously sent somewhere else and have to survive getting back home.
The writing for Astra is kind of a mixed bag, the best way I can describe it is that it all sounds good on paper, but what’s presented falls a bit short. The idea of being stranded in space is a good idea, but in reality it seems like it’s more of a detour. The characters have a road map of how to get home, and just need to planet hop a few times for supplies. The show also knows how to use planting and pay off very well for both within and episode and for later on down the road. However the pay-off are sometimes underwhelming or even nonsensical. I feel like a lot of that can be attributed to the tone of the show. Astra has a rather happy-go-lucky attitude through and through. I mean, I don't want it to be grim-dark, and it does have some undertones and angst thrown about. However when the show has kids facing the daunting expanse of space, hostile alien planets, and even conflicts amongst themselves it never has the feeling that something bad is going to happen to them. No matter how much peril the characters face none of it feels perilous.
There are also some plot twists, but just like before it only seems good on paper. They don’t really add or re-contextualize anything. They do kind of drop hints early on but like most of their pay-offs it’s rather underwhelming.
The characters are rather decent personality wise. At their introductions in the first episode they all fall into a stereotypical category. While it is done purposefully in order to develop them as characters, it’s pretty predictable how they will develop from their very first interactions with other characters. From the mean older sister coming to love her younger sister, the shy girl trying to be less useless, or the angsty teen being understandably angsty. Of course these are the more basic examples but it more or less holds true for every character. What is a little less satisfying is how compartmentalized many of them are. With a total of 9 people on the ship and the show being 12(13) episodes long only so much focus can be put onto each character. This leads to some characters only being partially fleshed out and then put aside and never having much relevance later on unless it is necessary to the plot.

Finally the production or more precisely why it decided to use the aspect ratio that it did. Astra predominantly uses a wide aspect ratio. For a few other instances it goes to a more full screen aspect ratio. Usually something like is used as a motif or hint to the viewer. But what does it mean for Astra? From the first episode it seemed that it would be a contrast between the spaceship and space. With the spaceship being widescreen giving it a feeling of being cramped due to the lack of vertical space. With the full screen being attributed to space itself as the screen expands more the same way the universe expands. However since they rarely leave the ship there’s not much more to it. It could have been used for the more open spaces of planets or breathable planets that allow them to take off their helmets, but it’s not. Instead it is used rather flippantly, for the few rare times it is actually used. it’s rather confusing why they used it in the first place. Everything else about the shows looks and sounds are decent albeit par for the course , it’s just that one thing that came off as weird.

I really wanted to like this show but many things about it worked against its favor. Maybe there was some essence from the source material that didn’t properly transition into the adaptation, now that would be a rather shame… Funny enough after finishing the anime I was reminded of another anime called Uninhabited Planet Survive, now that’s an anime about kids lost in space.