Asteroid in Love

Asteroid in Love

Asteroid in Love anime series cover art
Asteroid in Love

Series Overview

Asteroid in Love (Koisuru Asteroid / 恋する小惑星〈アストロイド〉) is another “cute girls doing cute things” anime. This time around, the cute things the girls are doing are geology and astronomy — cute! But as you’re probably aware, the activity the girls do in series like this isn’t what actually matters.

Does anyone really care what activity the girls are doing? This season I’m watching cute girls go fishing, last season I watched cute girls do Earth sciences, and the season before that I watched both cute girls play board games and cute girls shoot rifles. At the end of the day it’s all the same.

The activity the girls are doing and what little story there is behind it are irrelevant. What sets these series apart from each other are the characters, art, and music. And even then there aren’t many differences, which is why you’ll notice I rate most of them around the same score.

I’ll tell you right now that Asteroid in Love is pretty average as far as the cute girls doing cute things sub-genre of slice of life is concerned. It doesn’t stand out at all, but it’s still an enjoyable series to watch if you’re into this kind of anime.

If you’re looking for the next hit like cute girls go camping or cute girls go to Antarctica (which is actually a dramatic adventure, not a slice of life), you’re not going to find it here.

Finally, I do want to mention that I’m not hating on this sub-genre of anime. You could say the same things about almost any other sub-genre that falls under the umbrella of slice of life. It’s just that cute girls doing cute things anime are even more cookie-cutter than the rest.

Earth Sciences Club

The Earth Sciences club is a composite of the Geology and Astronomy clubs. Both clubs lost too many members to remain functional, and so they were combined together. However, this causes a rift between those who want to study the Earth and those who want to study the stars.

Mira Konohata is the protagonist of the series and aspiring member of the Astronomy club. She ends up joining the Earth Sciences club in order to further her dream of discovering an asteroid. Mira also wears a star-shaped hair clip which always reminds me of Luluco.

Ao Manaka also hoped to join the Astronomy club. Like Mira, her dream is to one day discover an asteroid. And although they don’t realize it at first, she and Mira actually planned to discover an asteroid together as children before they were separated.

The Earth Sciences Club from the anime series Asteroid in Love
The Earth Sciences club

Mai “Ino-senpai” Inose was a member of the Geology club before it was turned into the Earth Sciences club. She’s obsessed with geological maps and likes to explore in search of geological formations that have been hidden by man-made structures.

Mikage “Sakura” Sakurai was the former president of the Geology club and current vice president of the Earth Sciences club at the start of the series. She dislikes that the Geology club had to be “watered down” by being combined with the Astronomy club.

Mari “Monroe-senpai” Morino is the former president of the Astronomy club and current president of the Earth Sciences club at the start of the series. Her dream is to one day become an astronaut. Unlike Sakura, Monroe-senpai doesn’t mind that the two clubs were combined.

Asteroid-Speed Pacing

One of the things that’s a bit strange about this series is the pacing. The pacing for the individual episodes is fine, but the pacing for the series as a whole is extremely fast. So while each episode is fine on its own, the series feels pretty rushed.

This isn’t necessarily a problem, because there’s not much of a plot, but it can make the episodes feel a bit disjointed at times. And the probable reason for the anime being structured this way is due to the source material being a 4-panel manga.

If you’re wondering just how quickly the series progresses, it has 12 episodes that span a two-year period. And since Japanese high school is only 3 years long, that means characters are coming and going in just these 12 episodes.

Mira, Mari, and Ao using a telescope from the anime series Asteroid in Love
Mira, Mari, and Ao using a telescope

To put that in context, most similar series take place over the course of a single year. And that’s even true for those with more episodes. Love Live!, which is basically just “cute girls become idols,” has 26 episodes to cover a single year. That’s more than twice as many episodes and it only covers half the time span.

When you have a 12 episode series in which older characters are graduating, and younger characters are entering the club as freshmen, things get a bit more complicated. I’m not saying that it’s hard to keep track of the characters, but it would be nice to stick with the same group since the series is so short.

I’m not saying I think this series needed to have another cour or season, but that would probably have been the preferable way to do it. Either that or simply don’t introduce the new characters and keep the series to a one-year span.

Conclusion

Overall, I think Asteroid in Love is a 6/10. It’s enjoyable to watch, and slightly above average overall. But I’d say it’s pretty average among other series within the same sub-genre. And aside from Ino-senpai, none of the characters really stood out.

Both the OP and ED for this series are pretty good. I prefer the song for the OP, but I think the ED has better visuals.

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