Review of Astra Lost in Space
Kanata no Astra is a surprisingly well done anime. It's not without its flaws, but the overall work is fantastic. It mixes humor, suspense, drama and actual intriguing concepts about hidden history into a very entertaining anime. The first half of Kanata no Astra seems like a complete rip-off of a mish-mash of American space movies, sometimes lifting moments outright from movies like Interstellar, Gravity and Passengers. But, as the anime goes on, it gets really good once they start delving into the history of the characters and how it is they ended up on the Astra in the first place.Astra's strongest points are its humor and the constant suspense it creates as the crew tries to figure out why they are in the situation they are in and who is manipulating certain events. The anime is very funny. And although the humor tapers off in the final episodes, when they wanted to make you laugh, they really could nail it.
Astra's weakest points are the crew, and it gets a little muddled towards the end. The crew itself was a weakness, because they were so cliche. Kanata with his overbearing positive nature and bravery to the point of stupidity. (It was just a dog tag, man.) Yunhua as the typical (mostly useless) shy girl, you had TWO Tsundere characters in Quitterie and Ulgar, the stoic in Zack, they basically just ripped off Sanji from One Piece and called him Charce in this, etc... But, even though they were cliched, the humor and story were so well written, you could really get behind them.
The other thing that someone what hurt it, is that after they swerved you with one big reveal, they then drop another big swerve right after that. The first huge swerve was jaw-dropping and totally unexpected. And it actually made me get behind the entire crew in a major way. But, that second swerve just kind of muddled up things and ended up being unnecessary in the end. The anime would've ended a little better had it just stuck with the initial plot line that focused on how they all ended up on that space trip. They didn't have to go so grandiose trying to add a world-changing swerve just to have a grand ending. Sometimes less is more.
In spite of those flaws, and a way too convenient and positive ending, the overall experience was exciting and fun to watch and I would recommend this for anyone who is into sci-fi or sci-fi comedies.