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!

iforinsignificant May 29, 2021

6.8

Sometimes you just can't pinpoint things and that's how I feel about this show. I had fun watching this but I couldn't help but be disappointed by the massive yuri blue balls it gave me! I mean, come on, give me a break here. They should have pulled the trigger with something here even if not the main characters. A bit of a spoiler warning (the show didn't consider this important so maybe it's not) but I feel like I have to mention this. One character actually confesses and is pretty brutally rejected, her treatment in this show is despicable to be quite honest. They didn't even have the decency to show the moment, it was mentioned in passing like it wasn't a big deal and the character didn't show up for a while. Just give something to be happy about to the likable characters for once, why do these shows have to tip-toe around actual yuri relationships? Is it because people are still biased against this stuff and the creators are worried that it won't make money if they pull the trigger? There were a lot of opportunities here even with the leads and all were squandered. Now I have no hope going forward of anything positive happening in this context but they'll probably keep teasing us with the subtext if there is any more... In any case, this really puts me off reading the manga. Whatever, I'm used to being disappointed. Let's look at some positives. This is primarily a show about nerds being nerdy and I quite enjoyed how it was portrayed. It actually made me want to learn more about the topics mentioned here. The fact that I already have an interest in learning these things especially regarding space also helped. They went into some detail about how they go about discovering asteroids and it was very interesting with all the techniques and data analysis. Makes me wonder how people went about discovering these tiny things (on a cosmic scale) when there weren't computers. I'd say this was a bit of an educational experience with some fun characters, one of the leads could be annoying at times though, especially at the start but she grew on me pretty quick. The animation was also pretty good which was kind of a surprise. To summarise, a good premise with tons of yuri potential completely and utterly discarded but I kind of liked the educational aspects of it. The characters had really good chemistry, it's a shame it wasn't utilized properly and the introduction of new characters near the end wasn't handled all that well as we didn't really have time to connect with them. It would have been better to end the season with the graduation of the seniors instead of what we got to have more of an emotional impact. Would recommend but don't hope for anything on the GL side... *sigh* As a fan, I feel discriminated against...

krofire Jan 1, 2022

7

Doga Kobo’s 2020 tale of a high school geosciences club is testimony to a faith in adding anime teenage girls to anything in the belief it makes entertainment. Does it work? Well, we have been here before. To say this is somewhere between “K-On!” (Kyoto Animation 2009) and “Yuru Camp” (C-Station 2018) is being quite generous. The entire sub-genre was turned on its head in 2018 with the arrival of Madhouse’s “A Place Further Than the Universe” such that anything since has struggled to be relevant. “Asteroid in Love” comes over as purely generic with little in the way of stand-out or memorable features. If anything, it does seem to be a little desperate in pulling out all the stops in order to generate some appeal. Every single anime trope is crammed in here. One noticeable feature is the complete absence of the male gender. Several episodes in and we were happy in the belief that this show was set in all-girls high school. It is not, but you would not be too mistaken in thinking so. Look again closely: this is co-ed. Boys turn up in a couple of episodes as vague fringe characters yet every single member of the Earth Sciences Club is a girl past, present and future. What can you say about a show that is so desperate to make astronomy cute that every character has to be a kawaii girly? So, is there a story? The central narrative concerns the main character Mira Konohata who meets a character called Ao Manaka some years before they met again in high school. Ao was interested in astronomy and Mira promised they would find a new asteroid together and name it after Ao. Fast forward a few years and the two meet again at the Earth Sciences Club. Once you get over the joke (that Mira had thought Ao was a boy) then the rest of the narrative has them enjoying their time in astronomy with the aim of finally finding their asteroid. Spoiler alert: there are no asteroids. If there were, they wouldn’t be in love. Crunchyroll currently has this show tagged under “romance”. Unclear as to why. Clearly Mira has a crush on Ao and vice versa. But there is more. Club member Mai Inose has a crush on the President of the newspaper club Sayuri Ibe. Mai’s friend Moe Suzuya has a crush on Misa Konohata the student council president. The show is flat under the weight of girly crushes. Moe Suzuya’s family own a bakery so the girls get chances to dress up in old fashioned maid uniforms. Then there is the bit with the bunny girl… They do a maid café at the Culture Festival. It pretty much writes itself, doesn’t it? It’s cute, funny, wholesome and heart-warming. But you have seen it all before. Well executed but painfully unoriginal.