Koisuru Asteroid, The Time Moe Was Successful

I want to find an asteroid, and then name it Ao

I have always hated the Moe genre. Of course when I mean I hate the genre, I don't mean I hate it in all its forms. To me moe could only work if it was but a subsidiary genre of the anime, something that was just added to add some spice and bring in some fans here for the cute girls. A good example would be Rifle is Beautiful, a small show that I appreciated due to its Sports show aspect, but that coincidentally was a moe show. In other words, the "cute girls doing cute things" wasn't the main focus, but just something extra added to the show. However, since the appearance of K-ON, many and many shows started popping up trying to put the focus on the Moe part, trying to make Moe the main genre of the show. However, whenever I watched any of these shows, despite the fact that the cuteness did bring some warmth and fun, it disappeared close to instantly. The thing is, this disappearance of the warmth made me feel quite empty watching these shows. It wasn't due to anything the show was doing, it was simply due to the shows actually were empty besides these short spans cuteness. This realization made me quickly realize that the Moe genre should never ever be put in the front, as it had nothing to truly build a story around.... Or at least so I thought, until Koisuru Asteroid appeared. As the world started burning and panicking due to Corona, Koisuru Asteroid appeared. As usual, when choosig my seasonal shows, I actually don't choose them and watch literally anything, making a quick drop of certain shows 3 to 6 weeks later if they feel boring. Koisuru Asteroid, during the first weeks, was purely boring. The story was simply girls doing earth science stuff looking cute and all. And frankly, I was counting on dropping it. Yet, after the 6 weeks drop period, I somehow found myself keeping it. I don't know if it was because I dropped more shows than usual, but I decided to stick with this show to the very end. And boi do I not regret it. As you reach the middle of the show, the anime starts taking an actual look into what it can do using Slice of Life. Of course, Slice of Life is by no means overtaking the show, it is merely sharing the spotlight with moe, trying to merge with it in interesting ways. And this merging of the two genres is one of the most exquisite things I've seen in recent animes. Starting a bit late, but starting nonetheless, the show begins to finish the carving out of its characters' models, and starts working into making them something more than hollow puppets. Each character has their own sets of worries. Some are born from their personalities, some from their dreams, some from a lack of either. And as if a interesting characters weren't already good enough, the show goes on to make it even better. Each and every setting, story or even dialogue from now on, no matter how small it is, brings its importance and development in at least one characters. A simple museum allows us to explore a characters' dreams and insecurities, while also letting us understand the passion of others. The interactions between the characters, be it by clashing or simply lending a hand, bring forth a new world of possibilities: Ridding one characters of its fears while creating insecurities in the other, answering one character's question by having it solve another's issue. Many and many more of these allow for each of the characters to develop and change throughout the whole show making for an unending feeling of joy. Along with that, it sometimes makes use of the opposite, making sure one character lacks in interactions for a bit in order for him to develop. All of these discoveries, changes and new understandings of characters allow you to latch on quickly onto characters. You quickly become attached to them, and the sight of them leaving the the picture that is the anime brought me close to tears. However, this as a whole is nothing but slice of life territory, and frankly, would it be ONLY slice of life, this show would be average at best. But this is when the Moe genre shows up out of nowhere, and throws you for a loop. See, during the first episodes, we got used to this cheerful and cute side of each and every single one of our characters. There is not a single spot for sad or dark feelings. But when Slice of Life starts to kick in, these feelings do appear, which is why it would feel logic for moe to be out of the picture. But instead, moe goes and says "Plus Ultra" and suddenly realizes its hidden potential. Because each of the characters are nothing but balls of cuteness and happiness, any sad feeling gets multiplied by the sudden change. These characters were our joy, our light in the show, something that could never be hurt or touched by anything sad. And yet, here we are. That small comparison allows to make the small insecurities that the characters have about their futures that much bigger, big enough for us to compare them to our own issues on the subject, attaching ourselves even more to the characters. And that's when the endless loop begins. As you've latched on to their characters, their cuteness and the warmth they give off will not simply disappear anymore. It'll not only last longer, but come at you with more impact, as it is a smile that exists despite the issues they're facing. Because the warmth you feel is that much greater, you get even closer to the character, and any issue once again repeats the previous process, locking us into a loop where we simply just appreciate the characters more and more the more time we spend with them. It is a simple idea, but frankly, it has given birth to an amazing work and for that, I truly recognize its valor. Conclusion This show is definitely nothing special if you're watching simply for the sake of killing some time. The amount of interest you have to put in in order for you to even get put in the loop I mentioned is quite high, and I therefore do not recommend it. After all the story is third rate at best, and the character types quite unoriginal. But on the other hand, if you're ready to put in the effort to try and even slightly care about these girls infatuated with geology and astronomy, you'll find yourself an anime with amazing art, truly carved out characters that are quite the opposite of hollow, as well as characters that I think will stick to you for a while. Even if like me you do not enjoy any form of moe, you should still give this one a try, as it is the utmost best anime the Moe genre has to offer.

This review may contain spoilers

My first encounter with this anime was way too ironic. I checked the seasonal anime on Crunchyroll to find some I could watch. Then I discovered this anime and read through the plot summary. It did sound boring to me, so I didn't watch it. Then someday, when I was bored and searched for something to watch, I discovered this anime again and started watching. I fell in love with it at first sight and it's my absolute favorite. I know this review is going to be super subjective, but I don't care about that, because I want to share my feelings about this anime with everyone.

Story

The story of this anime is extremely adorable. It follows two girls, who want to find an asteroid and join the Earth Sciences Club. It is perfectly written as it progresses slowly in the start to get a feeling for the characters and their goals. The story develops so much, that you won't believe its only 12 Episodes. It has great arcs for every main character and some side characters so that you are satisfied and can't think about anyways it could've been better.

Characters

The Characters are each individual and have different aspects to offer. First, we have Mira Konohata, who seems to be an airhead, but is actually really empathic and has the right things to say in important moments. Ao Manaka is a quiet character, who is very introverted, but can get very passionate about things she likes, such as astronomy. Then we have Mikage Sakurai, who loves geology and seems to be really mean, but is a very nice person, who has problems to show it. Mari Morino is a person, who is very helpful and seems to be really wisely about a lot of things. At last, we have Mai Inose, who is a very nice and open-minded person, who wants to help everyone. The characters are interacting in a way that I haven't seen a lot. They are helping each other and gather some interest in the other subject.

Music

There is not much to say about music. The soundtrack is just awesome with a great Opening by Nao Touyama and a really good Ending by Minori Suzuki. The instrumental songs are really good too as they increase the feeling you have in each scene. The music fits every mood perfectly and increases your hype even more.

Visuals

The anime has a wonderful art style and great animation. It is really detailed and you feel good looking at it. The colors are well-chosen, especially when you look at the eyes, which are perfect, due to the decent coloring.

Conclusion

This is a perfect anime for me. All aspects are absolutely appealing to me. I can understand when people don't like this anime because everyone has a different taste. But I would recommend giving it a shot because it is so different than the majority of ''Cute Girls Doing Cute Things'' anime.

This is my first review so don't be too hard with me and it surely has a lot of grammar mistakes. I am going to write more reviews to improve my writing.

Have a nice day :D

Introduction:
Titles about cute girls increasingly make themselves known in the world of anime, as every one of them tries to show us bits of life from the best side, and even encourage us to try new hobbies. "Koisuru Asteroid" is an another one of the new productions in which we will go outside where the fresh air is, and bring along our telescopes and maps to see the beauty of the world around us. But is it a title able to endanger other sweet slice of life anime?.

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Story:
Imagine that you are out camping with your family. Suddenly at the camp you notice a boy who looks just about your age. You decide to approach him and talk in order to find out what is he doing. At first, you have a modest conversation, but later it turns into taking a promise to find an asteroid together and name it Ao – the same name as the boy. It sounds like a great dream, right? Mira – the main protagonist of this series, just so happens to be in that exact situation at the time we meet her. However, not everything went according to the original plan the kids had. After that one time they have never met again and in the span of many years realizing their dream became something uncertain. Yet the situation changes in high school when they finally get to meet each other in the earth sciences club room. But this is not the end of the surprises because the boy from the beginning turns out to be a girl, and the misunderstanding was caused by a typical boyish hairstyle that Ao had in those years. After joining the club they begun to slowly approach their shared goal, with the help of all the club members.

The story is pleasant and very sweet as it revolves around astronomy and geography, but it is also a very typical slice of life and besides the main theme we will not witness any innovative ideas. The episodes are mostly clusters of scenes taking place at school, home and more often outside. The author limited himself to the very general knowledge from these scientific topics and on the first hand, it is a good procedure that allows us to discover the world and the galaxy with the girls, but on the other hand, someone, even if a little bit familiar with the topic, will be disappointed. You can even get the impression that the author is not interested in these topics at all, and all of the curiosities look as if they had been taken from a random natural science book. Also, very often the chance to present an interesting possibility got replaced with simply looking through a telescope. Very little time was actually devoted to these themes, and the pace itself was so fast that, at times, it was hard to find your way around, especially at the beginning of the episodes. The plot didn’t skip a beat, getting straight to the action without having a care in the world if we are prepared for. This lack of an explanation caused a huge inaccuracy of the plot and it really hurt the eyes. Although the first episode was really good, everything in between the start and the finish was as chaotic as it could be. Yet, the finale of the season was very decent. At the end, the focus was centered around what it should have been centered on from the beginning and the last episode’s ending said goodbye to us with a very good punchline.

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Characters:
"Asteroid in Love" introduces us to a huge number of cute girls, much more than in other titles of the moe genre. Each one of them is different and the relationships between them get sweeter with each episode. I very much liked how the balance between the two groups was kept, and members of both the astronomical and geographical side began to take an interest in the other group's love, tightening the ties between them. However, the characters were not written ambitiously, for example, if were to put them alongside the vast choice of other characters with the same personality type, then we wouldn't find any difference. Each character in this anime has specific predefined behaviors that stick around throughout the season. Although each of the girls have their own understandable backstory and many good reasons for dedicating themes to what they are doing, none of them stand out and seem truly unique in a sense that would make them memorable. Also by observing their relations, you can quite easily see hints of the yuri genre with the course of events itself showing it, although the anime never tells us about it directly.

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Graphics:
The employees of the Doga Kobo studio have always been great at drawing cute characters and making cute animations, which they managed to prove, notably in the productions “Sewayaki Kitsune no Senko-san” and “New Game!”. Here it is no different than the rest of their productions. The graphics looked beautiful in all the places that they needed to be. Playing with the color palette resulted in a very effective combination of cold and warm colors present in the designs of all the characters. How all of them look really catches the eye. Unfortunately, you could also see the effects of a tight and limited budget - for all the things in the further part of the set we were shown slide shows. But it didn't bother me that much, as all the other aspects effectively obscured this flaw.

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Sound design:
The soundtrack is quite meagre and at times it's hard to pay attention to it at all, but all the tracks fit perfectly with whatever is happening on the screen. Nevertheless, we can’t go about without mentioning the opening and ending that are exactly the thing which awakens this show’s full potential. Brilliantly composed sounds combined with the voices of Nao Tōyama and Minori Suzuki create something that should not be overlooked. It is something you should listen to even if you haven’t watched the anime.

The voices of the characters were lent by more or less known seiyuu. Half of them have already voiced characters in various series, while the others are just starting their careers. Still, they did a nice job, and paying attention to their character’s quirks and personalities was absolutely not an easy thing to do.

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Summary:
The potential of Koisuru Asteroid definitely hasn’t been fully reached. The main problem with this production is the small amount of knowledge and novelties about it’s main theme that were given us. A pace too fast also qualitatively killed this adaptation. "Asteroid in Love" might have had a better chance of fighting for the title of one of the best slice of life, but unfortunately it failed. Because of that the sequel needs to improve upon all of these above mentioned flaws. Fixing all of that is a necessity and it should be a known fact that good graphics and atmospheric sounds by themselves aren't enough.

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Text by: @Scr33n
Revised and corrected by: @xkrayz