Takumi, a gifted chef, was just let go from his job. He lands a gig at an old boarding house called Astro-sou, but hesitates to accept after learning he must also live there full-time. That is until he meets the beautiful and charming caretaker, Mira, and he’s sold. The two begin to work together and their connection deepens. But Mira has a secret: she isn’t from this world!
Novelty
There was no real novelty here. I suppose this series did attempt to modernize the formula that Maison Ikkoku, Urusei Yatsura, and Kimagure Orange Road pioneered by relating it to 2020s culture. I felt that the implementation wasn’t genuine, though.
Plot
“Hopelessly unemployed young adult moves into a maison with a group of random people” is a well you can return to. But, returning to the last point I was making, this series doesn’t feel genuine because the story was paper-thin and the story glides from point to point.
Design
Astro Note has that shiny, fake effect going on. Hard to blame this particular series for a modern industry style, though. I did have an instant wow moment in that 80s space anime vibed intro, though. That was such a slick effect. Why couldn’t we have have had more of that?
Characters
There was never a point in the series where I wouldn’t have traded out one of these characters for the ones they were doing a take-off of. The characters aren’t un-endearing, but this did feel like a box-checking exercise. Geek with a secret. Unemployed salaryman. Pop idol with a tsundere thing. Crushworthy housekeeper. Handsome yet worthless alien. Unemployed former student. There’s some character growth here, certainly, I don’t know if it’s due to the low episode count, but the character development doesn’t feel earned.
Astro Note struggled to create real value in the relatively short time investment.
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