Asteroid in Love

DGFischer Mar 21, 2020

8.8

The storyline of Koisuru Asteroid is simplicity itself … the growing friendship of two girls who had met once before and have a new chance at deepening their love for each other as they work through high school.  So simple that the series needs a supporting cast to sustain the central premise.   Possibly a smart move, if the additional characters do not clutter the story with their own goals and interests. Let’s get to the core.  Mira met Ao one evening as both were star-gazing.  Mira was impressed at Ao’s depth of knowledge about astronomy and learned that while there was a star called Mira, there is no astronomical body named Ao.  Finding an asteroid and giving it the name Ao would be nice.  Mira left with the mistaken impression that Ao was a boy.  Years later, Mira and Ao met at a meeting of their high school’s science club.  Shocker one: Ao is a girl.  Shocker two:  The science club is a reorganized club formed from the union of the Astronomy and Geology Clubs. This brings together all the tiny strands which weave together this rather fragile plot.  The mutual distrust of the separate clubs presidents, Mikage and Monroe, who worry first about the proportions of astronomy vs. geology-types in the club membership.  Suzu, who is Mira’s old friend worried about the new friend in Ao.  Finding field trips and activities which cater to both fields of discipline.  The shy and unconfident Mai who becomes president of the club after Mikage and Monroe’s graduation.  So much trivial dressage connected to the main goal of the story.  Find that asteroid and name it Ao.  The destiny of the world is in the offing. No wait!  No, it’s not. That’s the problem with Asteroid in Love.  All the episodes are developed upon vignettes, tidy little stories within stories.  Example:  Suzu and Ao have a best friend contest at the beach, Mira and Mikage visit a geological display, the club meets on how to present their club at the cultural festival.  One episode with three story thrusts.  Confusing at best, making viewing the whole series a challenge.  Thank God for the mid-series recap … though it confused me. At episode eleven, we are on the edge of either Mira and Ao discovering their asteroid … or not.  Anime does not guarantee success stories.  The ending of Chidori High R.S.C. is a fine example of ending on a downer.  You hope for the best for these two girls, but then you don’t know if you want the happy ending, or are just glad that the series will be done. Ah, but kudos for the animation.  Those eyes of Mira ... reflections of the cosmos!

Scientiiaa Mar 27, 2020

7

Asteroid in Love is a Japanese manga series by Quro (which is their only anime and manga). An anime television series adaptation by Doga Kobo(Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun, Plastic Memories, Himouto! Umaru-chan) premiered on January 3, 2020. Asteroid in Love centers on Mira Kinohata, who is dreaming of joining the astronomy club, when she enters high school. Her hobby was born because of a man, whom she had promised to discover new asteroids when she was younger. However, when Mira’s high school life starts, she finds out that her school only has the earth sciences club, a club that consists of the astronomy and geology clubs. What is more, Mira finds out that a man that she wanted to see again so much is actually a girl. Alongside their fellow club members, Mira and her old friend Manaka Ao take part in various astronomical activities, hoping to one day discover an asteroid. Asteroid in Love is bright and colorful. While all characters do look somewhat average and nothing special, they are also charmingly cute at the same time. Not only do all the characters look cute and even unique, the backgrounds are quite beautiful.  As a result, this is a very appealing-looking series, with no fan service, which is just pleasant to watch. Character wise, the show is fine. All characters have different personalities and receive enough development as well as the screen time, which makes watching the series interesting. It is not just any slice of life, Koisuru Asteroid has a story to tell and it makes it somewhat unique. Enjoyment wise, the show is quite enjoyable, but I am slightly disappointed, too. I am very grateful to the creator for the fact that that show had no yuri and no fan service. Disappointment wise, I would love to see more focus on club activities, to tell the truth, astronomy is limitless and there are so many charming and interesting things about it, but that not much of a problem that the series focuses more on character interactions than on club activities. All in all, I am surprised, to tell the truth. While it might be somewhat difficult, or even unreal for some to marathon the whole series in one day, which you should not do, unless you are a hardcore slice of life fan, watching this show little by little works wonders and quite enjoyable, I must say. A must watch for hardcore slice of life fans.

Etue Mar 28, 2020

6

Asteroid in Love despite feeling relatively similar in ways to something like ''a place further than the unviverse'' is in actually ultimately a show that doesn't really compare positively to the mentioned anime. This show is a Slice of Life show with the theme of having one big dream for the main characters that act as an overarching plot or goal to achieve and everything that the show does could be building toward this goal. Now I have to say,  though it might be a bit of a spoiler but most of the series does actually not really build toward this dream. The show is mostly a slice of life show which starts with heavy implications that the two main characers were or perhaps still are into each other though this show does play it save on that front by mostly ignoring that part of the past. So expect very few lovely dovely situations between the characters as you get further into the show.  Story Now the show feels at first like it's centered around the big dream and the main characters relationsip. This quickly switches to getting along with an awkward senpai who actually gets the longest ongoing character arc in the series and when it finished the series goes on with another smaller arc. The series however doesn't stick to the opening casts but keeps adding characters which would be fine but those characters ultimately eliminate other characters and makes this series feel like it doesn't build up characters but cycles through sets that our lead two cycle through. The ending arc adds another set of two before the prior two additiations really have done much. Ultimately I feel the characer arcs for everyone but the main two and perhaps Sakura-senpai feel rushed and tagged on rather than having influence on the over arching plot that in other anime substantiates them.  Characters  Normally I wouldn't mind having an overarching story in a slice of life but this show little time we get with most of the secondary lead characters  just doesn't feel like a proper slice of life with a properly build up stable cast. As soon as the show switches out characters it's suddenly in a hurry with two new ones. One of which barely gets time spend on them while the others growth as a character mostly happens as a very paralel story that we seem to miss parts of. The final arc adds two other characters who do seem more interesting than what we have from most of the secondary main characters but by this time there's very little to get familiar with them. Overall most characters other than the main characters and sakura/mikage don't get much time spend on them or their subplots. The main part of Mai's arch just happens and is over extremely quickly despite being the character that we actually get the most screentime with it mostly happens in the background and to me didn't feel genuine. Morino's arch even happens inside her head and while touching because we never really had buildup for her awkwardness it just is a single emotional moment that feels like her character was somewhat mistreated as the girl who's just there. Suzuya's arch on the other hand is surprisingly nice to have around and functions as an emotional support character but also eats screentime of the already expansive cast despite having very little impact in the overarching plot while I loved her arc her character redesign seems kind of  lazy in the anime making her appearance stand out much less. Sound and Animation  Now the voice acting in this and the animation is all consistent, some of the sky viewing shots can even be called beautiful though it's not eye wateringly so for the most part. The animation get's things done and the voice acting is tasked to get us emotionally attached to the characters in as short of a time span as possible which for the most part does succeed. The opening song feels like it fits the start of the series but toward the end as the character archs changes just remains unchanging. The ending theme is somewhat stronger but neither really fit the show for the entire run of it.   Conclusion This slice of life series has little focus which is it's largest weakness. At first it seems to be about the main characters. Then we have a quite substantial arch surrounding the most troublesome character in the club making it feel like a show about the characters but than later stories are haphazard and short and switch focus quickly becoming very episodic or more of a background plot. As a slice of life it takes little time to familiairize with the main cast but quickly adds characters that all get a little or little to no attention. It's not a starry eyed big dream anime either in the way things play out but it also doesn't feel like a proper slice of life. It's character drama just isn't a big focus either as all the build-up toward drama fizzles out silently in a back corner. As a slice of life it comes of as confused. As a big dream anime it feels directionless. As a drama it feels understated. It's a fine show that accels nowhere among fine shows. As moderedly strong as it's starts as silently it's later plots fizzle out. It can be enjoyed but it's likely an acquired taste even among slice of life.