Astro Note

It would seem as if each season, we get one or two anime which are a complete, absolute throwback to a few decades ago: clichés, simplicity and a return to the roots of anime. Yes, Astro Note is one of those anime that has no business in this time and age, but which nonetheless makes its presence known for those who will acknowledge it, either to throw them back to their younger days and fill them with nostalgia, or to allow the modern youth to experience what anime was like some 30 years ago.

Astro Note is straight-forward in its plot, its characters and its setting, ... it has all the clichés of a late '80s and '90s anime: varied color palettes and colorful character designs, dumb action, sci-fi aspects, mechas, space travel and an overall lack of a deeper lore. The anime tells a story that's easy to follow, albeit rather uninteresting, and instead it focuses more on the relationships between the characters and the daily events of their lives, using its plot merely as a motor instead of necessarily a focal point of the anime.

If its meta contents weren't some of the most retro things there are to find here, Astro Note makes sure to provide a full-on old-time experience: the animation is rather fluid and at times can be very detailed, but at the same time it has that sort of granular, slightly-lacking quality that makes it seem outdated, which creates a bit of an interesting contrast given that decades-old anime didn't have such degree of detail and smoothness. Its sound design doesn't lag behind the animation, as the anime prefers simplistic and at times repetitive sounds, with a soundtrack that is pretty much city pop-influenced and draws heavy influence from '90s anime OPs and EDs. The general feeling of the audiovisual experiences in this here anime is rather upbeat and accessible, but certainly a bit pompous for people who like more grounded and serious experiences.

One of Astro Note's highlights is, certainly, its variety of characters; their design is vibrant, varied and somewhat unique. No characters look alike, you've got everything: a regular male protagonist in his 20s, an adult NEET with an unnaturally elongated-head, a cute and small gentle old man, an idol, and even a talking dog-like creature. Each character has a certain degree of simplistic development, and their personalities and stories are defined and somewhat relatable. In a way, the cast in Astro Note is both peculiar and nowhere out of ordinary, each character as its own appeal, but none of them are necessarily unique in the way they act or think: they can be good people at times, and bad people at other times, many of them face issues that you or me might face in our lives, they can sometimes make you admire them, and they can sometimes make you see them under a bad light; none of them are perfect, they're just normal, and thus they're rather relatable.

Now, as nostalgic and appealing as this anime can possibly be, it is not without its faults, and in fact, it's a bit more of a flawed anime than anything else. No, it's not bad, necessarily, but it's certainly not remarkable. Astro Note works as a filler, perhaps as something you might watch alongside other things in your "Watching" list, and this is because it's quite frankly tedious: it doesn't follow an interesting plot, it's a bit more of a slice of life without a clear trajectory, as a romcom it inevitably falls into regular clichés, and it provides no innovation at all in its storytelling or character development. It is repetitive and perhaps predictable, and watching more than an episode or two in a day is a bit hard because the anime certainly fails at being captivating and capable of retaining its viewers' interest as it lacks a proper structure, suspense or, a deeper plot. Astro Note relies entirely on its recurring topics to provide entertainment: the antagonists trying to sabotage the protagonists, the male main character trying to win the female main character's heart, the talking dog trying to not be found out: it's the same thing over and over again, and it's tiring.

Now, the question is: is Astro Note worth watching? It can't be said that it's not worth watching, but it's certainly miles from being a must-watch. Anyone with a taste for the oldies might find this appealing, specially those who grew up in the '90s and 2000s watching similar anime, and mostly for the sake of nostalgia. Otherwise, this is just something some niche anime fan might watch, because there's simply nothing fascinating about Astro Note, it's just an OK anime, another one in the huge sea of Japanese media, which is filled with many great works that are certainly much, much more appealing than this. In other words, unless you've got the time and interest, this is an anime you can skip, albeit a decent one, in case you're willing to sit through its 12 episodes.

When I first picked up Astro Note, it felt like a cozy callback to 90's era anime, with a bizarre yet simple premise and an eclectic cast of characters. But the more I watched, the more that coziness stepped aside for the increasing bizarreness of the growing plot.

Sure, the show starts off with an alien girl taking up residence in a boarding house full of eccentric individuals, with the goal of finding the mystic McGuffin of her people the Wid that would legitimize her claim to the throne, all while the Evil Hubs try to thwart her, so it's not like we aren't starting ... at a very 90's-era level of ridiculousness (and as an added bit of ridiculousness, Wid is meant to sound like Widow and Hub like Hubbie or Husband, which leads to all manner of misunderstandings throughout the show). However, as the show goes on, the main plot continues to grow more bizarre until it basically jumps the shark, IMHO.

However, the greater fun of the show comes not from the plot, but the characters and their development. I meant what I said when I called this cast eclectic, but the cast is one of the strongest elements of the show; as the show progresses, we get significant moments with each member of the house, learning more about them and seeing their struggles. Despite the show having a 90's feel, the characters all have a very modern depth to them, at least once you get to know them more.

So where does that leave the show? If you go in expecting a cozy little rom-com, this isn't for you. If you want a show that is full of the same randomness and charm as classic anime, however, then this might just be up your alley.

The only watchable rom-com released in the past decade was Love is War. Astro Note is kind of just such a middling and frankly just boring rom-com anime that brings absolutely nothing to the table.

The most fun thing about this show was that fact that Gintoki and Kagura's voice actor are coincidentally caretaker and child in similar roles. That's about it. I'd actually go ahead and say that the characters are the least of this shows problems. The show is host to many typical rom-com tropes, such as a love triangle, dense protagonist(s), and comedic side characters. And actually, the side characters --residents of Astro ... lounge-- are pretty fun. They fit the rom-com setting quite well and I could see them interacting in ways that could be funny. The problem is that the scenarios of this show are extremely insipid and boring. Teruko, the
Wakabayashi family, and Shoukichi are barely even present in the show even though they are core residents of Astro lounge. It really does make these potentially good characters just turn bland and fade into the background, where we can all suffer the same old rom-com love triangle setups involving shoin, Mira, Takumi, Aoi, and the dog.
While I was quite surprised at how solid the foundation of the show was, from decent characters to a very normal rom-com setup story, I could tell that the show was still an anime-original for how corporate and bland some of these episodes end up being. A lot of the episodes don't even make use of any of the characters and the comedy completely falls flat. There's a lot of plot devices and direct confrontation that's handled poorly, and despite the show trying to be comedic every step of the way, there was never any compelling manzai or comedic moments that I found fun. For example, there's an episode about a bug eating contest and it starts out like it could be fun, but there's no interaction with the characters AT ALL. The setting of the bug eating contest is purely there to progress Mira and Takumi's relationship rather than it being actually funny or interesting. Like, can you believe that the only thing that happens in this contest is that Takumi eats a lot of bugs and ends up winning, with literally nothing in between? None of the other Astro Lounge participants compete with each other, sabotage, or otherwise goof around? Is this even a rom-com? It's kind of disgusting actually...