#Wakabayashi Tomihiro

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Mira-san doesn't have a boyfriend. If she hires you as a cook, I'm sure she'll fall for you. She'll fall for you. She'll fall for you, no doubt. She'll fall for you. She'll fall for you. - Astro Note - Episode 1

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Astro Note Episode 9 Review - Moving On From Love

I was thinking of doing two episodes in one review, but I don’t have the time so here’s Episode 9 review of Astro Note. Episode 10 review might be out in the weekend. 

There are two plot points converging in this episode. The first is the conclusion of the Takumi and Aoi unrequited love and the second is Ren and his dad’s argument about parent visitation day. Surprisingly, these two plot lines actually tie into each other as they both talk about love in a way.

For the Takumi and Aoi part, people in-universe always seem to say that Takumi’s a jerk or a scumbag for playing around a girl’s feelings, but I don’t really get why people in the story perceive him to be bad when he’s anything but. Sure, he’s a little clumsy when it comes to love and feelings, but he’s actually a really decent guy. He never wandered about when it came to his love for Mira and doesn’t give Aoi a flicker of hope that they could be together. He flat out rejects Aoi but does it in the nicest way possible. I also like how he feels bad about not realizing who Aoi was at first and I liked that he owns up to it by taking her out for a picnic and then realizing that she was Onigiri-chan from back when they were working at the hotel together. Aoi actually takes the rejection like a champ as she’s happy that Takumi finally remembers her, but knows that her love will never come true. It’s finally time for her to move on.

For the Wakabayashis, their issue revolves around Ren not telling Tomihiro about the parent visitation day as he flubbed previous ones. Despite Ren’s insistence on not wanting him to come, Tomihiro still insists on coming because of one simple reason: he loves Ren. It turns out that Ren isn’t his biological son, but his mother was his lover who died. He decided to take care of Ren since it was better than him going to the orphanage. Even if they aren’t related by blood, Tomihiro considers Ren to be his son and that he wants to be present in his life. I do like that despite Tomihiro being a deadbeat dad, he does everything he can to make Ren happy from holding back on the beer and even getting day jobs so that Ren doesn’t always see him as jobless. Even Aoi tells Ren that he’s fortunate to have Tomihiro as a father.

The ending was pretty shocking. Why is Shoin in Room 8? We all know Octo is Naosuke, but him not being an actual dog is a secret only a few know. Ren thinks he’s a cat, however. While Aoi found comfort in Naosuke, she doesn’t like him because she’s afraid of dogs, which shocks him even more. I just hope that Aoi doesn’t get herself involved in another love triangle because the love triangle with Shoin, Mira and Takumi have yet to be resolved. I wonder what’s going to happen…

[senjo]

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“Astro Note” The First Promo

The Astro Note television anime's official website unveiled the first promotional video, the opening theme. The first showing of the original anime is slated for April 2024.

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Astro Note Episode 1 Review - Romcom With Aliens

Everyone’s going “This is like Maison Ikkoku”, but I don’t know what that is. I looked it up and it’s one of Rumiko Takahashi’s works with a similar premise. Is it fun? Please let me know. Anyways, I’m always someone who has to watch something weird every season and this seems to be that ‘weird’ anime.

Why is it weird? The story starts off with a space chase as someone in a spaceship escapes from a bigger spaceship and lands in Japan. Then the story transitions to the “alien” already settling on Earth and is landlady of Astro Lodge where the main character Takumi Miyasaka is looking to work at. Unfortunately, the landlady, Mira Gotokuji, actually put in wrong information about the place. Astro Lodge was stated to be a restaurant in the job description, but it’s actually a share house that serves breakfast, but the landlady is looking for a chef because her cooking is catastrophic and her tenants want food because they were promised so. After Takumi shows off his cooking skills, Mira apologizes for the mess up, but he decides to move into Astro Lodge because he wants to cook and because he developed an instant crush on Mira the moment he laid eyes on her. What Takumi doesn’t know is that she’s actually an alien looking for a key and her protective poodle Naosuke is also an alien. All he knows is that she might be a widow and his chances to be with her might be harder than he’d expect.

The premise is pretty simple. It’s like a romcom and slice of life mixed with sci-fi in a way. Since it’s anime original, how the story will go is to be determined. Right now, I think I’m liking what I’m seeing so far. Other than Takumi, everyone in the share house seems to have their own secrets. Mira and Naosuke are aliens and Matsubara is an underground idol. Yamashita is stated to be a novelist, but nothing shows up when searching him. There must be a catch; Takumi predicts that he might be using a pen name, and I think so too, but I think that he might be writing erotic novels. Heck, I think Mr. Wakabayashi is the most suspicious of the bunch. He may not be an alien, but it’s weird how he’s unemployed but still wears a suit, pays his rent and affords an education to let his son Ren go to school. I guess the characters’ real identities will be revealed as the show keeps going.

To be honest, the animation is pretty average. It’s not great, but it’s not bad either. The funny faces are hilarious and the food porn looks great, but other than that, it’s pretty simplistic. The soundtracks not that memorable either. The opening and ending songs were great and the insert song of Maaya Uchida and Soma Saito singing during Mira and Takumi’s outing was nice; Terurun’s song was nice too. The songs without vocals aren’t that memorable, honestly.

The voice acting cast is actually the strongest in this anime. It’s an all-star cast with Soma Saito and Maaya Uchida as the leads. They fit the characters well and I love how Soma Saito screams so loudly during the scene where Naosuke bites his head. The supporting cast consists of Shinichiro Miki as Yamashita, Tomokazu Sugita as Mr. Wakabayashi, Rie Kugimiya as Ren Wakabayashi and Junichi Suwabe as Naosuke. Such a solid cast and they’re all amazing at comedy, so I’m not too worried about their performance because they will always do a solid job. I am not familiar with Ai Furihata, who voices Matsubara, but given that she voices a Love Live character, her singing skills are good. I quite like her singing voice a lot. The way her voice lowers during funny scenes was nice to hear too!

I’m liking what I’m seeing so far. I just hope that the story stays consistent. I’ll be tuning in next week to see what will happen to Takumi. What are your thoughts on this episode?

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Astro Note Episode 12 Review + Final Thoughts - Happy Endings For All

The ending, while happy, was something I did not expect and that’s a good thing. I mean, I didn’t predict that this show would turn into a mech one and that the mecha robot would be participating in a final battle Astro Lodge and fish aliens. I like the unpredictability this show gives!

I didn’t expect that the reason the Hubby king was after Mira was so he could marry and have babies with her. He failed with Adara, so he was settling for Mira. The reason why he wanted to marry a Wido was because he wanted to have beautiful and talented children. That’s a very dumb reason, but I didn’t see that coming. I’m guessing Widos are objectified and glamorized like how Asians are objectified and glorified by Western countries. I also didn’t expect that Shoin’s house was a spaceship and that it cannot transform into a mech like Mira’s. He was promised marriage with Mira if he abided to the Hubby king’s order, but it was all a lie. Geez, all these people are trying to court Mira, but Takumi comes out the victor because she professes her love for him to the aliens.

I also didn’t predict that the Astro Lodge tenants would be chilling and eating food. They’re so free-spirited! Though, if I was in my house that turned into a spaceship and I wasn’t the one piloting it, I too would be chilling and waiting until the pilot finishes their task. Freaking out over alien attacks would only last a moment.

Mira decides to renounce her right to the throne and decide to stay on Earth and on Astro Lodge as its landlady. I honestly did not predict this. Usually, these types of stories have it to where someone from another planet would go back and leave Earth. Astro Note breaks all of those cliche tropes. She says that she doesn’t want to be tied down by duties she doesn’t want and rule a place she had no attachment towards. Honestly, go Mira for chasing after what she wants! I’m glad that she actually decides to stay!

Mira’s decision of not wanting to be tied down actually inspires the tenants. They all get happy endings, surprisingly! Ren decides to wear skirts to school and it seems that his friend Haruto and the girl with the frilly dress are okay with it! Tomihiro feels proud that Ren is becoming confident and it seems that he got a job of his own too! Aoi finally gets a job as a legal assistant to Tasuke’s lawyer, the lady who helped her out with Tasuke when she was homeless. She even grew to like dogs as she is seen petting her boss’s Cavalier Spaniel at the same bench Shokichi sat on. While the Naosuke and Aoi romance didn’t happen, I’m glad that it stayed a platonic relationship. He’s the reason why she became more assertive now. She even gave Naosuke a radio so he can remember her with it; she even submitted an entry so that Naosuke can listen to the song she requested on the radio. Aw, it’s like what he did for her in the previous episode. Teruko is finally seeing some success as an idol as she’s on the front cover of a magazine! I seriously thought Shokichi died, but it was a fake out. It turns out that he wants to go to space with Naosuke and visit Planet Wid so that he can write a book about it; he’s trying to finish writing a sci-fi novel that revolves around a man meeting a space alien girl—sort of like Adara and Mira’s situations. Takumi gets a job in a restaurant where he works lunch shift. I didn’t expect Shoin to end up being a tenant for good and returns to being Takumi’s apprentice. He is last seen working at a bakery where he’s a hit with the female customers. The only one who didn’t get a happy end was the Hubby king and he deserves a bad end for all the trouble he caused.  I actually like that everyone got happy endings and that there’s no need for a Season 2! Everything concluded satisfactorily. 

However, Naosuke is going to go back because he wants to. Mira revokes his duty of protecting her for life, so he decides that he’s going to protect the key. I guess that’s his version of a happy ending? At least Shokichi will come along with him, so he has a remnant of Earth with him.

This is probably one of the happiest endings I’ve seen in anime. While some things did get rushed, it was a nice blend of comedy, romcom and sci-fi.

Final Thoughts

I just decided to watch Astro Note because it looked like a weird anime and I figured out I was a weird anime enjoyer. Yes, it was weird, but it was surprisingly entertaining! I do like that the writing makes it in a way that some predictable things aren’t as predictable as I would assume like with the whole ordeal with Ren liking skirts or the whole finale.

It’s not a perfect anime, but I did enjoy the characters and gags a lot. However, if I were to be a critic, I’d say that not all characters got fleshed out in this 12-episode run. There’s a lot I don’t know about Shokichi. Heck, even Takumi doesn’t get fleshed out a lot. All we know about him was that he lost his job at a hotel due to bankruptcy and is working at Astro Lodge now. I’d like to learn a little bit more about him like where he’s from or his background before getting into cooking. Heck, I would’ve liked to learn a bit more about Shoin too! I feel like characterization got shoved to move the plot forward. It’s also a crime that we didn’t see what Planet Wid looks like. Despite that, the anime does do a great job showing that Astro Lodge is a share house full of kooky tenants; the supporting cast are all kooky and it’s presented well.

The voice cast was stacked, surprisingly. A lot of A-list actors and actresses are casted here! We have Soma Saito and Maaya Uchida as the leads and the supporting cast consists of names such as Shinichiro Miki, Junichi Suwabe, Tomokazu Sugita, Rie Kugimiya and more. This anime is perfect for anyone who’s a fan of any of these actors. The only voice actress I’m not familiar with is Ai Furihata, who voices Teruko, but that’s because I’m not into Love Live. She does do a good performance, though!

The soundtrack fits the whimsical atmosphere, but I did like the opening and ending songs a lot. The opening sound is sung by Ai Furihata and the ending song is sung by Soma Saito and Maaya Uchida. I really like it when anime voice actors participate in the opening or ending songs. It makes them feel rather involved, you know?

I think that this is a good anime to just kick back, relax and laugh at the craziness transpiring. It’s nothing too serious to think about. If you like animes like that, I suggest you try watching this!