Koisuru Asteroid

The last time we had an anime that is based on the constellations and the stars was Sora No Manimani. Yeah, that was more than a decade ago. However, that series wasn’t really about cute girls doing cute things. Uh huh. You have some weird high school romance via the theme of constellations and stars in the background. Don’t want all that crap, huh? Then be glad with just the cute girls doing cute things astronomy version in Koisuru Asteroid. Yup. A bunch of cute high school girls rekindling their old promise to find and name an asteroid together. Aww… How cute… If only finding and naming an asteroid was that easy.

Episode 1
When Mira Konohata was young, she was at a town camping trip and met a boy named Ao who was very knowledgeable about the constellations. They became acquainted and promised to find an asteroid to name. That was the last time she saw him, though. Now Mira is a high school girl. But her dreams are dashed as the astronomy club has closed down! Don’t worry. As teacher Yuki Endou puts it, it has combined with the geology club to become earth sciences club. She is the club’s advisor. Along with her friend, Moe “Suzu” Suzuya, they try it out as they see the awkward ‘confrontation’ of the newly merged club. Mari “Monroe” Morino is the president from the astronomy side with first year Ao Manaka while Mikage “Sakura” Sakurai is from the geology side along with Mai “Ino” Inose. Sakura’s attempts to lure Mira to her side with gems fails as Mira is adamant to be on the astronomy side. When Mira tells of her promise, this has all of them realizing that this Ao is that same Ao from Mira’s past. So Ao is actually a girl?! Yes, Ao still remembers Mira. Both get quickly acquainted. Promise back on track. Ao has trouble speaking since she looked tomboyish as a kid and many teased her about it. Suzu is optimistic that they’ll get along fine because she is Mira’s childhood friend. That night they call each other just to point out Mercury and Venus in the sky. Got to start from somewhere. Next day, the girls convene to discuss about club activities. Oh, Suzu won’t be joining since she will be busy with other stuffs. They discuss about the club budget that will also determine what kind of activity they will do for the cultural festival. Because of their difference in expertise, there isn’t a single activity that they can exactly do together. So to attract more people, they think of writing a newsletter. Now the problem is what to call it because both sides of the divide have their own ideas that sound pretty bias to their specialty. Eventually, Ao comes up with the best name: Kirakira. As it means sparkle, both stars and gems share that quality.

Episode 2
Endou organizes a riverside BBQ so they can have a rock hunting activity as well as stargazing later. She also ordered some bread from Suzu’s bakery. Normally Suzu would have left after delivering the bread but after seeing how cute Ino is, she decides to stay for the extra benefits. Sakura guides Mira in picking the rocks. Woah! Almost picked up dog poo there! In the end, she picked up too many rocks that made it impossible for her to carry. Oh well, catch and release. After the sun goes down, Monroe sets up the telescope so that everyone can see Mars and Jupiter. They also talk about the constellations as Ao shows her talent in some asteroid history. Yup, they’ve been naming asteroids long ago and there are about 500,000 named asteroids currently! They also see a few shooting stars. By the time Endou got out of her car (because staying outside was too freezing), the meteor shower show is over. Back at the clubroom, they are discussing on how their first print should be. Mira is in a dilemma to write an article. What if it makes someone interested and that someone soon finds and asteroid and names it before her?! WTF?! Is this what it’s all about?! Mira writes her article but since she has writer’s block, she asks her sister, Misa for advice. She points out what she has written feels bland. Damn, she fell asleep while reading it! Poor Mira felt so insulted and storms off. Though, Suzu points out it was her fault in the first place. How does it feel to work something so hard and then get rejected? With Ao asking for illustrations, Suzu suggests drawing so Mira gets an idea to draw inspiration from Greek mythology. The earth science club’s first print is out. Suddenly there are lots of people who want a copy. You can thank Misa for promoting it. She is after all the student council president. Only then everybody realizes Mira is her little sister. Damn. To celebrate this success, Endou gives them tickets to enjoy themselves at the hotspring. They talk about the different mineral properties in such baths around Japan. After the bath, a couple of old ladies talk to them. It seems they know about Endou as she used to be a regular customer. It was her only way of de-stressing from her stressful teaching job. Mira realizes how hard it is to be a teacher so she buys a souvenir for Endou when she returns as appreciation.

Episode 3
Suzu has to keep tabs on Mira and Ao studying for the remedial tests. Otherwise they’ll be talking about astronomy stuffs. Suzu wants to show Ao the secret manga Mira draws but of course embarrassed girl won’t let her. When Misa enters, Suzu flusters. It seems she admires her for some reason. Misa meets Ao for the first time. Even so, she finds her familiar. Aha. The main protagonist whom Mira based in her secret manga. Not her too! I guess Mira won’t let Ao read that manga. Ever. When Mira gets too close to Ao to see her reaction, it is Suzu who gets jealous and shocked instead. Mira gives Misa a rock as a good luck charm. She proceeds to create a mini altar for it! Mira and Ao help Suzu at her bakery. Maid outfit, I approve! With Suzu’s Spartan training, they’ll get by. Later, Suzu’s little sister, Megu joins in. Man, she’s a bit tall… Growth spurt? Because of her tomboyish traits, she is more suitable in a butler outfit. And you can tell the place is busy and packed with people. At the end of the day, the girls are paid. Mira wonders why there is much more than usual. It’s because Suzu has taken lots of secret photos of them! Megu had to apologize on behalf of her sister… When Mira and Ao are walking in the streets, they see Suzu and Ino together. It seems they are following Ino’s map to somewhere. Eventually the duo are busted. They learn Ino has Suzu accompany her in exploring some enclave based on this map. Because of her love for maps, it’s the reason she joined the geology club. They might be different specialty but they’re still related somewhat. After finding the landmark, they take a break as they learn more on why Ino is so into maps. Apparently a friend introduced it to her and she has been hooked ever since. Mira wants to try treasure hunting too so Ino will draw a proper map for them. No Mira, not on your hand. Back home, Ino tries to do so but hits a dead end. So she calls Sakura for advice. Whatever she draws for them will be their treasure. Next day, she gives Mira and co a treasure map for them to find after school. It leads them to the treasure, a group picture of that landmark they took together that day. Mira and co had fun and Ino is glad she could share this fun with them.

Episode 4
Is everyone so hyped up for summer camp at Endou’s grandma’s house?! Trolled you girls! They can use grandma’s house to save on lodging expenses while they go visit the geology museum and JAXA. At the geology museum, Sakura has a field day looking at all the exhibits. Remember that stone that Mira found at the riverbed? She accidentally split it and she thought there was some fossil in it. They are also here to ascertain that. Unfortunately the experts say it is a pseudo fossil. Yeah, some geological explanations. But not all is lost because if you really look closely, there is some small fish scale there so there is still some fossil in it. The geology girls are happy when then expert gives them a full detail list of the geological map where they found the stone. Next day, they visit JAXA. Even watching the intro video has Mira and Ao crying like babies… Monroe seems to be shy so Sakurai asks the experts on her behalf on certain space things. At the end of the day, returning to grandma’s place, since grandpa is also a fan of space, he sets up telescopes for them to see the moon. Then grandma shows them a recruitment poster of Shining Star Challenge. Endou once participated in it but couldn’t find anything. Too bad this year’s entry is already closed. Endou had a dream to find and name an asteroid too. So why didn’t she know about Mira and Ao’s dream? Well, she was sleeping during their club meeting… No reaching the stars for now so they complete the night playing sparklers. Before going to bed, Sakura commends the astrology side for having dreams. You see, it is Monroe’s dreams of becoming an astronaut. Because she was nervous about it, that’s why she was asking on her behalf. Sakura doesn’t find it embarrassing because it is better than her who doesn’t have any. Ino then realizes she wants to do something so the next day, they take her to the map making centre. You can tell how happy she is when her eyes sparkle like that.

Episode 5
Beach episode! Suzu notices Mira getting close to Ao and hence jealousy? She challenges her to see who could be Mira’s best friend. First challenge: Serving her favourite food. Doesn’t matter, Mira eats them all. Second challenge: Who can swim and reach to her the fastest. Better hurry or the riptide will pull you under. Final challenge: Riding a banana boat? Yeah, everyone falls off. In the end, Ino tells them why not all of them can be best friends. That could work. And that’s it for our beach episode. Bummer. On another day, Mira goes with Sakura to a mineral show. Lots of nice stones but Mira can’t go off by herself since some staffs speak in English and only Sakura can speak Engrish… I’m sure Mira would love to buy all the rocks but budget constraints… Eventually she got a few nice ones. Back to school, the girls see Sayuri “Eve” Ibe hanging outside their clubroom upside down and trying to peek in! Along with Ayano Usami, they are from the newspaper club and Eve’s plan is to find any scandalous material to blackmail clubs! Newspapers not selling well? This girl is more stupid than Mira so you bet Monroe has recorded that self-proclaimed statement she said out loud and proud. Hence Monroe ‘blackmails’ Eve to help them provide an exhibit for the cultural festival. After a few discussions, they decide than a boring (drilling, that is) exhibit would be good. After a mini experiment demonstrated by Endou, everyone else suddenly comes up with cool ideas on how to make this an interesting boring (oxymoron?!) exhibit. But! Sakura pours cold water on it. She is being pessimistic it won’t work and that they can’t ask others to help them. Endou doesn’t mind. Even if it is not the real thing and their mock exhibit will look haphazardly, it would be a waste to just scrap it all completely. Got your positivism and motivation back? Thought so.

Episode 6
Sakura and Ino start their boring activity. As in the drilling. Eve and Usami come check on them and noticing they lack the manpower, they seek the baseball club to come help. With the raw man-power, the boring is done quickly. Endou gets the honours to extract it but some parts ended up broken and out of shape instead of a cylindrical one. Hey, they’re using a cheap makeshift machine, right? Meanwhile our astronomy girls are making planet models. We hear Monroe thanking her grandma as she is the reason she is interested in this. After finishing the models, the best reward is to look at the real moon up in the sky. Oh, I take that back, the best reward is Suzu coming by to give them some nice pastries. Without Sakura here, the girls go ‘out of control’ with Suzu carrying Ao and Monroe snapping away like mad. The festival is here and what is even better than a double of geology and astronomy exhibit? Why, a maid café!!! I approve!!! Looking beautiful in those maid outfit, girls! Endou isn’t their first customer and just to check on them. Also, she tried out all the food on the menu. Yeah, she’ll be back by snack time. As the day goes by, we see several visitors coming in and the girls trying their best to provide the best service and information to them. Even Misa visits but can Suzu stay calm and not resort to bribery or anything? Eventually family members start visiting. Ao’s mom wants to take a picture of her daughter in a maid dress and for the first time everybody hears a high pitch shriek never heard before. At the end of the day, the event is a success and the girls are tired out. But there’s a surprise in store. Monroe and Sakura announce that they would be stepping down as their club roles. Don’t worry, they’ll still be around as normal club members. Hence they pass the leadership to Ino. Yoroshiku ne, buchou. You bet Ino is in shock. No more sleepy, huh?

Episode 6.5
WTF?! Are astronomy and geology so hard a subject that we need to have a recap episode???!!! We better learn our constellations and minerals if we want to see the rest of the season!!!

Episode 7
With Ino as the president, Mira becomes the vice and Ao the treasurer. Yeah. That’s all the members, right? Then there’s the issue of Kirakira being sold out because Misa named the koi in the inner garden? Ino is still sad and nervous of her new position. So as not to be sad forever, the club has a request for astronomy viewing from the neighbourhood kids. It is hard for Ino to get them to be quiet and focus but thanks to Suzu and Megu handing out treats, they become good kids. As the kids are awed with the constellations, Ao notices one of them, Haruka not particularly interested and bored. But after talking to her and giving some motivation, her enthusiasm is back on track. While the event is a success, back at the clubroom, more woes for Ino since all the pictures she took turned out blurry. One day, Ao is sick and didn’t come to school. Mira and Ino are of course worried for her. Suzu then advises on how to cheer her up but it is a trick because Mira realizes too late this pick up line she says before Ao just made her look more like a fool. Embarrassing! In no time, Ao recovers and returns to normal school activities. Monroe helps Ino on the blurry camera picture problem. As she is still having trouble, Monroe gives her some hope that there is software to retouch and tweak it. Of course Ino doesn’t have to force herself to use something totally new and alien if she feels comfortable in using an older and more familiar technology. Sakura comes in with the good news that her application to her first choice university went through. Apparently Monroe also applied for the same university albeit they are taking different majors. They are supposed to wait after the juniors finish their exams so as not to add to their anxiety but I guess it’s too late. Especially when they see Monroe acting strange the day after. So Sakura warns them to act normal and not show their worrywart face before Monroe when she comes by. Ino tries to do things on her own instead of relying on her senpai. Hence she talks to Endou if there is still time to apply for this earth sciences competition.

Episode 8
Ino enters the local earth sciences Olympiad. The winner will represent the nation for its international version. Nervous at first, she meets a fellow participant, Saeki and they become friends. As the test starts, Ino finds some of them easy and some not so easy. I guess Saeki is a genius because she breezed through and used the remainder of her time to sleep. In the aftermath, Ino scored awful but she is glad to have met and learnt from other people outside the club. The girls then prepare for a nabe for Christmas. Only, it is laced with spicy chilly! Only Monroe and Sakura can handle to spiciness. Then they all go up to the roof to watch the stars. Monroe and Sakura then give their juniors a photo album. They compiled all their photos of their time together. Too touched that Ao starts crying?! During New Year, the juniors visit the shrine. It is then Ao reveals that she is moving away because her dad has had a job transfer. It will be during spring break. Mira is most affected as she goes into shock! She’s actually panicking! What about their promise?! Ino tries to calm everybody down and think rationally. Hence she calls for an emergency meeting with her fellow club members and the newspaper duo too. It is to discuss on how to support Mira and Ao’s goal given the current circumstances. You thought Mira being depressed for being a bad friend is bad enough. Why, Suzu is worst! She comes in and kidnaps Ao! Let’s elope!!! She’s serious!!! When that failed, the discussion resumes and Ao wonders why they’re doing so much for her. Oh silly. You should’ve guessed it by now. We’re friends! We love you! And then here comes Misa to give her input. She asks if Ao has ever talked to her parents about not wanting to move. She didn’t because she thought as a child, her opinions don’t matter. Mira suggests putting up a fight and not give up. No, not throwing a tantrum like a child. Because Misa will be going to a faraway university, she suggests Ao propose to her parents to live at her old place with Mira. Wow. That sounds like a (yuri) dream come true!

Episode 9
Ao talks to her mom. Must be all those emotions in her words that mom will talk again with dad tonight. Also, a call from Mira’s family that they too are open for discussion on this. I think we know how it’ll turn out. Sakura sees Suzu so that she could learn how to make Valentine chocolates. She claims it is obligatory chocolates but we know better. This has also Suzu think about her own predicament about giving chocolates to a certain someone. Sakura gives those chocolates to her club members while Suzu finally gets a chance to give hers to Misa. Filled with her feelings. With Monroe giving the good news that she has passed her entrance exam, time for a short reminiscence of Monroe and Sakura first joining this club and they butt heads a lot. The girls take a commemoration photo and exchange presents. Monroe sees their photo album and didn’t realize she was smiling this much. Fact: Nobody has seen their own face with their own eyes except through mirrors or pictures! During spring break, Ao moves into Mira’s house. However because Mira opened a present meant for her without Ao’s permission, they got into a fight. Oh dear. Off to a bad start. And what’s this about their differing theories on how the moon was formed? Oh my. But it doesn’t take long before the girls reconcile because it’s that kind of show. As the new school year starts, Mira and Ao happily try to recruit new club members. Only, Ino tries to stop them because they haven’t got permits for recruitment yet! So uhm, illegal solicitation?!

Episode 10
Suzu spots a new hairstyle. Does this help cope with Misa’s absence? Before Ino starts her plan to recruit more members (because Mira’s true intention: Get more club funding!), suddenly here come a couple of new first years interested to join! So lucky. Meet Chikage “Chika” Sakurai who is Sakura’s little sister and the one Ino met at the local earth sciences Olympiad, and Yuu “Nana” Nanami who attended their school’s cultural festival. Of course there is Megu but Suzu brings her here to check things out. When Nanami notes their last festival wasn’t helpful enough, Nana further explains that she isn’t interested in astronomy or geology but meteorology. She wants to know more about the weather and climate to help others. Mira and Ao also get ready to enter the Shining Star Challenge that has them require to write a short essay. To welcome the new members, the seniors buy food for a BBQ. Too bad on that day it rained… See why meteorology is so important? Thanks to Endou, she managed to find a small open hut so as not to let this BBQ go to waste. Nana also elaborates on her dream to learn meteorology because 3 years ago her relatives got involved in a flooding incident. Though no casualties, the damage was high and she doesn’t want to see that sad looks on their face again. By trying to predict the weather and natural disasters, she hopes to save many. Seeing she is so serious, Chika gives her a stone to help calm her down. So this girl is more of into geomancy than actual geology? This club is getting weirder. Once the rain stops, they see a lovely rare phenomenon. WTF is this circumhorizontal arc?! So it’s a horizontal rainbow, huh? Come night fall, the weather is nice for them to set up a telescope to see the moon. A few days later, good news for Mira as she passed the first test for the Shining Star Challenge! But… Ao failed! Oh my. Bummer. That sure killed the mood. But instead of wallowing in despair, here is a live streaming video of Monroe and Sakura to lecture them on using this to learn and improve. So the gang sees off Mira and Endou at the airport. They’ll be flying to Okinawa where the challenge is. But wait. What’s this?! Ao is also coming?! Did nobody see her and this coming?! Who sponsored her air ticket?!

Episode 11
It seems Ao didn’t do this on a whim. She had help with her friends booking tickets and so as well as gotten permissions from her parents. As per Suzu’s advice, she didn’t tell them because Endou would certainly reject. Ao gets permission to be an observer like Endou once the necessary paper work is done. The Shining Star Challenge group first take a lecture. We are introduced to some of the participants and in particular Asuka “Tomorin” Tomori and Shiho “Makki” Makita. Yeah, because they are the ones who will be getting along with Mira and Ao. After the lecture, the group is taken to tour one of the few large antennas throughout Japan. Some explanations of how this digital telescope works… After that, the group splits into further groups. Our girls are on the optical group and their next tour is the observatory. Because Tomorin is not prepared to take notes, she ropes in Ao to join in. Permission granted. Ao is one lucky girl. More astronomical lessons on how to conduct observations… Then it is time to look for an asteroid using the hi-tech software. Is this what they’ve been waiting for? However as bad weather is looming, they don’t have much time so they start early. As Endou has been here many times, she reminisces about those young days with her friends. One of them is now an astronomer overseas. Endou laments she failed to find an asteroid but instead she found something else more precious: Encounters with other people. We also learn Makki isn’t particularly interested in astronomy. As she wants to be a school counsellor, she wants to expand her horizon and meet many new people. So that answers our question why she is interested in Ao’s ‘brain’. As for Tomorin, she is more interested to meet Neon Amane, a famous idol who is into astronomy in person. With the bad weather persisting, looks like they can’t go on looking. Sad news for Mira and Ao. So instead they practice looking using past photo data. Yo girls, don’t be impatient in trying to find an asteroid so fast. They get the chance the next day as the weather clears up. You can thank you buddies back home for making a bunch of teruterubouzu.

Episode 12
More lessons and the search for their elusive asteroid continues. During that, Tomorin and Makki ask the duo about their dreams and their future beyond that. Mira believes that in the event if they have achieved their dream, they hope to find a new one from there. The asteroid search continues and to cut things short, they didn’t find anything. Maybe next, next, next, next, next time. They present their findings and of course they had a lot of fun and educational experience. With the end of the Shining Star Challenge, our girls return to their respective homes. Of course for Mira and Ao, returning to their earth sciences club and relating their wonderful experience to everybody waiting. Ao takes this chance to thank everybody for making this possible that would be otherwise impossible by herself. With their spirits high, Endou gives them access to the school rooftop so they could watch the stars. What a beautiful night as they could see Jupiter and at least 4 of its moons. And then cue for flashbacks of what they did throughout this series which serves as some mini montage recap or something. Yeah. We’ve come so far, right?

Keep On Rocking: Dream Big, Shine Bright & Sparkle More!
At least they have an excuse to continue staying together because they haven’t fulfil their promise yet. Who knows what new dream they want to achieve after naming their asteroid. Finding another asteroid and naming it after their senpai! Yes! That would be great! But until then, you girls keep on your great efforts while we anime viewers bow out and go watch something else. Heh. We’ll see you again once you get another season. If that actually ever happens! Yeah, I’m starting to think the possibility that they would have a higher chance of finding and naming an asteroid rather than this series getting another season!

Well, I can’t say that I am totally disappointed. Because I already set my expectations so right before I started watching this series. As expected just like any other cute girls doing cute things genre, there isn’t anything much to expect and hope for. It’s not that bad. But the story and plot isn’t anything particularly special. The usual bonding of a small group of friends in a club as they move forward and achieve their goals and dreams. That summarizes up this series as well as other shows of the same genre nicely. So if you’re expecting some plot twist or some amazing storyline here, you’d be very much disappointed. I’m such a veteran in watching so many of such shows in this category for the past few years so I’m quite ‘numb’ to its overall ambiance.

Having said that, I guess the characters play an important role in making the series interesting seeing it lacks a main plot. What else can I say about the ragtag weirdoes of this club? Everyone has their own quirks that make them cute. Their dynamic interaction among each other makes the club and the group livelier and thus enhancing the quirkiness of the group. So lots of cute and funny light hearted moments that would make you grin a little otherwise those not really used to this kind of pacing might find it awfully boring. It’s like they want to create some awareness about astronomy as well as geology but personally I don’t think it is going to make many interested. After all, those are very tough subjects and you can’t just simply get in just because on a whim you became interested after watching this show. It doesn’t work like that. Interest and passion are one thing. Perseverance and hard work are totally another and this is where all the time and effort goes to. So think you still want to find an asteroid or star now?

Sure, this series does have some very basic introductions and explanations about the stuffs, theories, concepts and equipment relating to astronomy and geology but just like I always said, those are just touching the tip of the surface and if you are truly interested to further your interest in such subjects, it is best to go do your own research. Because there is only so much an anime can bring out and introduce you to. The rest is all up to you. So while it is a good thing to see that these young girls here do show interest in their related fields, I fear that some might get the wrong idea that they make it look like very easy. It’s not. Knowledge of the stars and the rocks comes from many years of studies and research and while some of the girls here do possess that sort of knowledge, they make it look like it is so fun and easy. It’s not. Okay, maybe I’m being pessimistic here. After all, when you really love a subject, you definitely put more passion into it and it shows. Something feels wrong if you don’t like a subject and explain it to others half-heartedly. So yeah. Astronomy and geology looks quite the fun subject only because these people are really so into it. And if you really want more explanations on such topics, short ONA episodes were released during the run of this series should enlighten you further. If you missed them, don’t worry, they’ll be included in the BDs and DVDs so you can pay you 2 cents worth to get your cute girls explain those hard stuffs to you ;p.

So interestingly, not all the characters share the same passion and goal. It shows that despite the umbrella theme of astronomy and geology, there exists various branches, subcategories and divisions under them. For instance, Ino’s interest isn’t really about geology and rocks but rather to make maps. Hence the only closest club that could get her close to her dream is this earth sciences club. And then we have Nana who isn’t interested in the stars or asteroids but rather the weather which of course sounds more helpful than looking for bug chunks of stone in space. To each her own. So whatever their dreams may be, they are sure starting off on the right steps and especially it is best when they are still young and have the passion and energy. So suck it up Mira and Ao. You’re in for the long ride to find and name an asteroid. Heh. You don’t think you could just easily find one while you’re both still in high school, eh? Be prepared to painstakingly put in time and effort to look for that UFO in space. You might become grandmas and still not achieve that dream. So are you prepared for that? The answer is obvious, no? And don’t laugh at them wanting an asteroid named after them. It’s not uncommon. There are many animals, theories, concepts named after people, you know…

This also means having myself being confused over the several terms. Yup. I thought I knew what astronomy was. Until I realized that there is a big difference with astrology. Yeah. Now I’m freaking confused! You mean it’s not the same? Never actually thought about it… Then there is astrophysics… And geology with geomancy. Oh dear. Got to revise those definitions again.

Mira and Ao’s relationship feels pretty normal. It’s not like they really spam it in our faces that they are really that close. Sure, lots of moments that they do things together ever since Ao got into this school. This isn’t a yuri anime, no? Wait. Is it? That’s the potential of cute girls doing cute things genre. You might step into that yuri boundary and with Ao and Mira meeting new people and having new members, it feels like their yuri harem is expanding slowly like the universe! HAHAHAHA!!!! Oops… Sorry… Thinking about it, I bet trying to find and name an asteroid is just an excuse for them to stay friends. It could have been anything else. But nope. Something hard like an asteroid to keep their friendship going on for years to come. Will it end once they do? I don’t think so but this reason sometimes feel like a shallow justification for their friendship. Which isn’t. On a second note, Mira loves giving everyone a nickname. I am assuming this means she is friends with them, no? So why is Usami the only one who doesn’t have one? Not friends?

Other non-earth sciences related characters sometimes I feel their characters just play a comical role. Like Suzu who is supposed to bring comical relief to the group. Well, if the earth sciences group isn’t too comical enough for you, here is a bread girl who extremely loves cute things and worships Misa. I wonder how long distance relationship will work out for her. Don’t worry. It’ll work out. Somehow. And then you’ve got the newspaper club duo who often hang out at the earth sciences club just for some scoops but I have this gut feeling that they want to join the club, just that they’re already in one. So there are no other clubs to bug? I suppose there isn’t an interesting mix of a club out there with (cute) weirdoes compared to this one. If you remember, there was a club during the festival that did some death game! I want to know what it was all about and happened to that club!

The art and animation lean towards the cute side. So don’t get too overwhelmed to see cute girls sparkling with all the cuteness. You thought astronomy and geology are pretty dry and hard subjects so they pretty much inject lots of colourful stuffs in here so as not to make it look dull. Wow. If only the subjects were that easy… But still, nice skies and rock formations to look at in certain scenes. Anyway, this anime was produced by Doga Kobo who specializes in lots of cute girls doing cute things anime (or at least anime with lots of cute looking girls) such as YuruYuri, New Game, Gabriel Dropout, Himouto! Umaru-chan, Watashi Ni Tenshi Ga Maiorita, Uchi No Maid Ga Uzasugiru, Anima Yell, Mikakunin De Shinkoukei and Sansha Sanyou. So don’t be surprised to see if some characters look closely like other characters in those aforementioned animes.

Voice acting, didn’t recognize anybody. Not even Nao Touyama as Sakura. Probably wasn’t paying too much attention… Anyway, the casts include Tomoyo Takayanagi as Mira (Mikan in Machikado Mazoku), Megumi Yamaguchi as Ao (Hifumi in New Game), Maria Sashide as Ino (Hana in Watashi Ni Tenshi Ga Maiorita), Sumire Uesaka as Monroe (Sanae in Chuunibyou Demo Koi Ga Shitai), Reina Ueda as Suzu (Ayado in 3D Kanojo Real Girl), Lynn as Endou (Kirisu in Bokutachi Wa Benkyou Ga Dekinai), Sumire Morohoshi as Nanami (Koyori in W’z), Konomi Kohara as Chika (Kasumi in Asobi Asobase), Mai Fuchigami as Misa (Ocoho in Radiant), Aoi Koga as Eve (titular character in Kaguya-sama Wa Kokurasetai), Megumi Nakajima as Usami (Kaede in Kampfer) and Natsu Yorita as Megu. The opening theme is Aruiteikou by Nao Touyama. Sounds rather okay for an anime pop and quite fitting for this series. It is a pop ballad for the ending theme, Yozora by Minori Suzuki. Somewhat reminds me of Sora No Manimani’s Hoshikuzu No Surround and of course I still prefer the latter.

Overall, if you want a relaxing anime about friendship and moving forward with your dreams, this series could be that motivation to also make you realize that instead of sitting here watching animes and doing nothing, you too can get up and go achieve your dream! Yes, my dream is to watch as many animes as I can so I’m really fine and in the midst of achieving it, thank you. Otherwise, this series is just your another cute girls doing cute things for the season and to some a big yawn fest. The only time when I am consulting the stars is so to predict the lottery number and looking for rocks only in search of gold or precious stones or metals. That’s where the money is! Hey, gotta be a realist too, you know.