This week in Kanata no Astra happens almost entirely inside the spaceship, and with that we come to learn more about some characters, the “conspiracy theory” and how once again they need to work together to save their asses. Put frankly, I found the way the discussion turns into a suspect game just based on Funicia’s mistranslation a bit of a stretch, but it does provide a nice mix of tension for the cast. It’s normal for someone like Quitterie to lose her composure for a moment there, after all, it’s never easy to hear that “the culprit is amongst us”. All the guessing game heads towards Yun-hua and Ulgar at the moment, but for me they are simply red-herrings. The thing that makes them suspicious is that we don’t know their motivation/ perspective in the first place so that we (and our cast) can’t entirely trust them. In this case it’s normally the person who appears the most normal is the one behind it, but I don’t want to point any finger at this early stage because it can ruin the mystery fun.
Is it just me to think that putting Kanata as the guy who solve this case is a bad idea? He has two characteristics that are not suited for this investigation. First, he isn’t the type who can hold the secrets for too long (more on that later), and second, he can act childishly at times, which isn’t good for the job. Speaking of the first point, I’m quite pleasantly surprised that he decided to address the matter to the whole group. Normally it would fuse some tensions as one person starts to suspect everyone, and indeed Kanata no Astra addresses it. But to address it in this manner also means that the culprit is in the exact same situation with the rest of them. If they fail to reach back home, that person would die as well. As we see later on how everyone except Yun-hua are together to save the ship from crashing, it’s another statement that in order to survive this, everyone needs to bring their best to work together.
That message is certainly true for Ulgar, the lone wolf in this group, and the one who would think about his own survival first, at the cost of others. I’m sure we will know more about how he becomes the way he is, but as of now all we know is that he’s the son of the Vice-President (which also means he’d know more than he lets on), and that he prepares himself for all sorts of survival skills (which is exactly what this situation calls for). He’s good at shooting, and as the cliffhanger reveals he has an actual gun. So far, despite his attitude, he actually joins the others when the situation gets desperate, but I do expect a situation where his personality clashes with everyone.
At the same time we have a timid Yun-hua who has her own crisis that she isn’t worthy enough. I’m sure she has some hidden talent and she will eventually open up to the cast, but for now she remains a dead weight, both for the team and for the show so far. One final bit is that the accident appears to be pure incident, but no one knows for sure if there’s anyone behind that. I’m not too sold on the “putting these kids to that trip in order to kill them” theory yet, mostly because they need more building up on that than just “I can see how you guys can be dangerous in the future so it’s better to kill you first” reason, which I get right now. I guess for now is to keep an eye on the little Funicia. Her past is intriguing and there ought to be reasons why she, of all people, is there in this ship in the first place, right?!
ps: still not a fan of this boxy ratio aspect.
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