They set this up  so it could be a half season or more, which with a normal shounen story would be.

Not here!

No, that whole 'Rescue the Renard Arc' was a bit over two and a half episodes if you count the foreshadowing.   This was brilliantly paced with an incredible amount of badassery from various characters...

^{NOT a Mary Sue.}

...each example of which would, in a normal show, be spread out over one or two episodes. This one, they wrap it up good and tight, and tie a bow on it with any loose ends.

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Indeed it did.
Mostly off screen.

Astra: Lost in Space has been a really good series, where our young heroes have survived against all odds in the face of all manner of interesting science fiction scenarios. In the process of surviving those perils, they have uncovered a conspiracy, another, much larger conspiracy of incredible scope and the series has expertly set up the fact that their getting home is going to start an entirely new set of adventures that could easily provide fodder for an entire new season including some genuine conundrums and really interesting concepts with sinister implications.

Instead, these many fascinating plot threads involving many perils and a gut punch to their entire civilization is wrapped up in a convenient retrospective monologue after a time skip.

To be fair, the show has a logical resolution . It just happens off camera.  This really could have gone on for 12 more episodes even if there were additional twists. Instead, we get 15 minutes added to the episode length and a lot of exposition. The troubling and sinister implications of the larger conspiracy are only hinted at.

Among the sinister implications: how an entire generation was silenced. Also: the fact that that everybody is disarmed and all weapons have been outlawed...yet this is a very heavily armed world government....A government that has decided to perpetrate a incredible lie "for the sake of peace". Note that this very rosy reading of the motivations behind the conspiracy comes from the guy who has been raised to die.

However, the biggest disappointment to me, aside from the "missing" 12 episodes, is the fact that Acting Dr. Gyru and Pinky McTwo Tone, two absolute geniuses who saved the day multiple times, DO NOT get their promised places on Kanata's spaceship. They stay home and do girl stuff. .

It looks like the series got cut short and the writers dealt with it as best they could. As it stands this was still a very above average series. The last episode is just SO perfunctory that it is a genuine disappointment.

On the other hand, the result is that this ends up being a show that is much more about the journey and the destination, and despite the let down of the journey's end, the road show itself was a hoot.

The first 12 episodes were good enough that I still recommend it though. With the caveat that the last episode is an afterthought.

(And I eagerly look forward to the show being finished in the fanfic.)

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Astra: Lost in Space continues to surprise.

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"Reeeeeee!1!" in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, .....

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It's vanishingly unlikely that any show could really live up to this trailer.



Indeed, after that awesome opening scene, the show reveals mediocre production values, a contrived and bizarre situation involving a cosmic space wedgie and unchaperoned teenagers in outer space. In addition to the aforementioned teenagers, there is a ten year old who talks through a hand puppet.

BUT WAIT!
By the end of the first episode , it is beginning to appear that our adolescent heroes predicament is not nearly as random as they thought  and from that point the show begins to live up to the promise of that trailer...in a completely different way than expected.

This is a throw back to the old Sci-Fi juvies. While only a 2 or 3 on Moh's scale of Sci-Fi hardness, there are a lot of interesting of sci-fi ideas and they are explored intelligently. The characterizations are solid too and the show manages to develop, maintain and ratchet up a surprising amount of tension as our heroes learn more and more disturbing facts about the pickle they are in.  Additionally the series manages to maintain a near perfect balance between being absolutely horrifying and surprisingly upbeat.

I'm really enjoying this show right now.

And boy, howdy that latest episode...

I have no idea where this is going, but I'm thoroughly enjoying the trip.

Recommended!

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