Alternative title(s): Otonari ni Ginga
Manga Adaptation by Asahi Production
Streaming on Crunchyroll

Premise

Ichirou Kuga is a struggling manga artist who must balance his professional life with taking care of his two young siblings – no easy task when reliable assistants are so hard to come by. With looming deadlines threatening to overwhelm him, Kuga is thrilled when a beautiful young woman named Shiori Goshiki applies for the assistant position and turns out to be extremely talented. However, there’s far more to Goshiki than meets the eye, and Kuga’s life is transformed when he discovers that she’s no human but an alien princess… to whom he’s apparently just become engaged.

Artemis’ verdict: Take Me to a Galaxy Far, Far Away

Okay, so it’s not as bad as all that. In fact, this episode wasn’t honestly bad at all per se. It was, however, incredibly boring, to the point where I found myself all but nodding off in places. This is the kind of series where the protagonist is very much a bland blank slate so that the viewer can imagine themselves in his place, being doted upon by whatever the creator’s version of the ideal woman happens to be (but don’t worry, he’s a struggling artist with a tragic backstory, which is how you know he’s completely deserving of her devotion). The ‘twist’ here is that said woman is not a human being but rather an alien, and you’ll get absolutely no points for guessing that due to some random alien custom, they wind up accidentally engaged by the end of the episode.

A Galaxy Next Door is nowhere as raunchy as it possibly sounds, as it seems more concerned with playing the happy family/childcare card than attempting to be fanservicey, for which I’m immensely grateful. However, that doesn’t prevent the premiere from being extremely unimaginative and by-the-book, and I foresee plenty of predictable idealized romance and stock-standard family hijinks to come. If you want to watch an anime about a hardworking manga artist just doing his darndest to meet his deadlines and pay the bills, go watch Bakuman or Kakushigoto, and if you want a heartwarming slice-of-life family drama, try Sweetness and Lightning… or still Kakushigoto. A Galaxy Next Door isn’t anything offensive, but it certainly doesn’t bring anything new to the table.

Jel’s verdict: Next show, please

This feels like an old school magical girlfriend anime masquerading as a modern day dad anime. That idea could be OK, but it’s not working for me here. There’s no spark or chemistry between the main couple, which is critical for this to work. I also think the main lady’s unconditional devotion to this person she’s never met is kind of cringey. Despite the classier than usual presentation, it still feels like wish fulfillment on the part of the author. I will just second all of Artemis’ recommendations for better, like minded shows and move on.