Anime original by Telecom Animation Film
Streaming on Crunchyroll

Premise

Takumi lost his job and applies to be a chef at an old boarding house and meets the caretaker, Mira. They hit it off, there’s some weird residents and Mira is an alien. Oh yeah, there’s that.

Peter’s verdict: “If I were a salmon, I’d be out to avenge the desecration of my spawn”

After one episode of this, I am a mixture of intrigued, nostalgic, and tired. It opens with a gloriously fuzzy 80’s space shoot-out sequence with zero context (note that chief director is Takamatsu Shinji, who has directed various episodes of various Gundam over the years if that helps).

Cut to Takumi having Mira fall onto him off a ladder and *NOW That’s What I Call Cliché*. Turns out Mira just copied and pasted someone else’s job listing and put their location in because she’s oh so silly. We’re introduced to the other strange residents of the boarding house (the child, the deadbeat dad, the wannabe idol, the dog, the old man), Takumi feeds them, and they beg for him to stay because the food Mira makes is dangerously bad, etc etc.

Right at the end of the episode we’re shown that Mira is *literally* from another planet. That’s why she doesn’t know how things work, or have a smartphone. The dog is also an alien by the way. They discuss trying to find something and that’s the end of the episode.

A lot of this show feels very 00’s aside from the space fight sequence which feels earlier still. It’s hitting nostalgia vibes with the music and visuals, but still having elements of the modern day scattered about. There have been a lot of “guy takes over a boarding house” anime, including my first anime Love Hina, though many of them revolve around a guy ending up with a harem. Instead, I’ve heard Astro Note episode 1 compared closer to Maison Ikkoku, although with sci-fi elements added. I may also compare it to Princess Jellyfish as a house of unusual occupants and someone comes in from the outside, and the art style feels closer to that too.

So what do I think. Well, I enjoyed episode 1 in as much as I didn’t hate it. I intend on watching more of it, though it hasn’t fully gripped me yet. It’s a solid Average out of 10…

…is what I would’ve said had I not gone back through the episode again to get screenshots for this article. Not only was it a lot of fun because of how ridiculous everyone is (I really had to reign myself in for adding too many screenshots) but I’m noticing a bunch of things that could be nothing or could be really important. For example, at 15:47 there’s someone in the kitchen in the background that hasn’t been introduced or acknowledged who is giving off Sadako (The Ring) vibes. At 17:22 there’s a clock that seems to have some cameras in? For those who don’t watch episode 1 a second time (which is most people) there may well be a moment where the anime goes “this was here the whole time” and you go back and go “oh yeah” and I’m certain I haven’t noticed everything. I guess I’m sold on this show huh.

Also there’s an idol.

Jel’s verdict: Noteworthy

This is exactly the kind of dumb anime comedy I love. Just a bunch of weirdos bonding together in strange circumstances, making loud jokes and silly faces. It’s been a done a million times, but Astro Note manages to find it’s own retro-ish city pop vibe that is also very appealing to me. It’s like this anime could have been made at any point in the past 40 years and somehow feel both and old and new at the same time. It’s a mood that stems a lot from the visuals and music, so it’s hard to describe here, you really just need to watch it yourself.

I do have some concerns. The main couple is pretty dull. They’re nice people and I don’t hate them, but they are too perfect and boring for a show this colorful and vibrant. The jokes based on their relationship are also the most tired and formulaic. Thankfully between the unemployed salaryman and the indie idol, who are both delightfully acerbic, they pick up the slack in this first episode. I hope we get a few more wacky characters to balance things out in the future.

I understand this may end up being what the rest of the GLORIO crew call a “Jel” show, and maybe it’s not going to be something everyone enjoys. But I really liked this first episode, and I think it gives Astro Note a good foundation to build on.