The Great Anime Marathon of 2020! #31 – #35: Space, the Final Frontier…

These are the voyages of the weebest weaboos to have ever weebed. Boldly watching all the strangest animu that can be viewed in as short a period of time as possible. This time, our continuing journey brings up to all the space related anime we can handle.

We’ve got quite a mix, jumping from anime that are scientifically accurate for their time, all the way to comedies and straight up space battles with mechs and antagonists that make absolutely no sense. Where ever we’re going, it’s not just boldly, we’re diving right up in there, head first with not a care in the universe for our sanity.

The following is a spoiler-free list of anime I’ve seen this year in no particular order:

#31: Planetes

• Season 1: Complete series to date (dub)

I’ve decided to start us off with the best and most scientifically accurate portrayal of life in space you can find in any anime released so far. We’re heading back to the golden age of anime with Planetes, a story that starts with a simple premise but has a very important message.

What is that message? It’s simple. If we, as a species, are to boldly go where no one has gone before, out into the far reaches of space, we need to do it as a united planet. Either we’re all going boldly, or none of us are, even if you can’t stop progress, it has to be that way.

That’s the vision of Planetes, but the story starts us off in the most humble of places, with a crew of a space debris collection agency in charge of cleaning up Earth’s orbit. Most people see them as nothing but glorified garbage collector’s, but these are the people who keep the space around Earth safe enough for space travel to even occur. As we’re shown very clearly in the anime, a single screw floating around up there can end the lives of many.

Planetes is a story that has everything, space adventures, corporate greed, terrorists, a love story, guys who think they’re samurai’s and ninjas… I’m not even kidding. This is one of those anime I would highly recommend to everyone who watches anime and definitely to those who love the idea of humans boldly venturing out into space.

#32: Bodacious Space Pirates

• Season 1: Complete series to date (dub)

You would think an anime with the name of “Bodacious Space Pirates” would show something of interest, but you’d be wrong in that assumption. From the production company who brought you Macross Frontier comes an anime that is entirely formulaic and completely bland.

Just to make it clear, aside from the company who animated it, this has no relation to Macross, I’m just using Macross Frontier as a comparison between something good… and this.

This anime was so bland that I can’t even remember most of it. Some chick inherits the captaincy of a space pirate ship, yada, yada, some kingdom out in space, things happen, high schoolers, because… Japan.

Don’t bother with this one… I mean, it’s not terrible, it’s just… nothing.

#33: Astra: Lost in Space

• Season 1: Complete series to date (dub)

This one’s an interesting one… Part of this anime infuriates me because they show the danger of going down to an unknown alien planet without your helmet on, but every episode before and AFTER that event shows the characters go down to the planet without their helmets on as if that event didn’t mean anything.

Don’t get me wrong, Astra: Lost in Space is fun in its own way, but there’s so much about it that just rubbed me the wrong way for me to see it as nothing more than just a standard anime with the usual tropes, etc. Basically, the name of the game is, “if you’re optimistic enough, you can do anything!”

Some will appreciate that view of things, others will understand my frustration at how stupid this anime can be at times. I spent most of the series hoping that every single character would die because they were being so stupid all the way through that they SHOULDN’T have survived.

With all that aside, this does have some interesting twists and turns along the way, so if you can get over how stupid the characters can be in their decision making process, there’s some good stuff in there.

#34: Space Battleship Tiramisu

• Season 1 – 2: Complete series to date (dub)

Speaking of stupid, oh boy does this anime get stupid… but you WANT it to be stupid, because Space Battleship Tiramisu is so damn hilarious. It’s one of those anime short series where each episode is 8 minutes long and packed with jokes that make fun of space and space themed fiction, both modern and classic.

It starts off as being something a little strange, but once you get through a few episodes, and especially once you get into the second season, the series goes into full swing because it’s created its own universe that it starts to make fun of along with everything else.

This anime answers the important questions of whether you’re able to change your clothes in the cockpit of your space mech, whether anyone will notice that you’re completely naked inside the cockpit of your space mech, and most importantly, whether you can eat food while sitting completely naked inside the cockpit of your space mech.

#35: Aldnoah.Zero

• Season 1 – 2: Complete series to date (dub)

Okay, here we go… just like with previous entries, I’ve put this anime at the end for a very good reason. There are things I want to talk about with this anime that is going to devolve into a mindless rant, and it’s all thanks to a single character.

Warning: From here on out, this entry contains spoilers for Aldnoah.Zero.

Before we get there, let’s explore the other side of the coin before we talk about the real problem for this anime. The first season starts us off with an interesting enough premise, with a range of characters that could have potential and some cool mech battles along the way.

The series protagonist, Inaho Kaizuka, is strangely competent, but it’s never explained why or how he’s strangely competent… he just is. The biggest problem with his level of competence is the fact that he seems to make all the right decisions at all times and is somehow able to analyse the situation better than everyone else around him who has more experience than he does… and this is before he gets his cyborg eye that he somehow hacks to work better than it was designed to work and do all kinds of crazy shit.

Why? How? It’s never explained why he’s so good at what he does… but he is NOT the problem! No, the problem with this anime comes from the transformation of one of the characters between season 1 and season 2.

We’re talking about Slaine Troyard.

Throughout the first season, Slaine is seen as a character who is stuck in the middle of the opposing Earth and Mars forces and only wants to serve the First Princess of the Vars Empire. He is loyal specifically to her… but somehow, between these two seasons, something happens and he decides…

“I need to murder everyone on Earth, FOR REASONS!”

For what reason(s)? I have no idea, no one in the anime has any idea, I don’t even think Slaine knows why he’s doing any of the things he’s doing in that anime. He is literally siding with the people he hates, using the good name of the Princess he has dedicated his life to, fucking over EVERYONE just so that he can get his genocide boner raging all over Earth.

Why? What is your plan? Why are you doing this? Why drag her down with you? Who are you doing this for? What is happening?!

I don’t understand the thought process this guy went through that got him to the conclusion of, I need to kill everyone on Earth and take it for myself by siding with the people I hate who are using the person that I serve, who I am now using for my own ends as well despite hating how everyone else used her.

Fuck Slaine, holy shit.

Fuck this anime. None of that series made any fucking sense and I can’t believe anyone would greenlight this shit. Seriously, none of this is ever explained or hinted at or makes any logical sense… none of it. Hell, even if the character of Slaine was such a hypocrite, no one around him seems to question any of the nonsensical things he’s doing… they’re just rolling with it, because, hey, why not?

I mean, if you’re wondering why this anime has two stars instead of one, the reason for that is that some of the battles are actually pretty good. Aside from that, the protagonist is unnaturally over-competent with no explanation, and the antagonist’s motivations are never explained and make ZERO sense at all.

Don’t watch Aldnoah.Zero… or watch it and then try to explain to me what the hell any of that was.