I came across this series right after consuming one of SJ’s recent series The Promised Neverland. A friend I know on Twitter recommended two titles to me, Kimetsu no Yaiba and Astra Lost in Space. The latter was the one he loved the most and he told me it was a more obscure SJ title that has yet to see deserved praise. Given my sense of empathy, I wanted to look into Astra Lost in Space first to see if I would love it as my friend.

I was highly impressed with the art and character design, immediately thinking about why this has become notable to the manga community. Astra Lost in Space does start out fairly generic with a nice little premise about nine kids being mysteriously sent to space, wanting to return to their home planet. As the chapters progress, I gradually started to get attached to the characters. The combination of teamwork and leadership with the element of survival on an unknown planet created intrigue and decent character development.

As the story progresses (Particularly in the halfway point), the plot starts to really kick in with so many plot twists that made all of the character development more impactful. The connections the kids have had some of the most intense moments that highly entertained me and had me caring for the characters by a big degree. Reading that last chapter, seeing everyone happy with things back to normal, I could not help but feel empty.

Astra Lost in Space is a short, but powerful journey about friendship. I highly recommend reading the entire series in a day, as the manga has only 49 chapters. Give it time to let its story take loose, and I can guarantee you will be hooked to the end. I really hope to see an anime adaptation in 2018, because the creator (Kenta Shinomura) deserves to earn many rewards for creating a fantastic manga. I look forward to his next work. I hope his new series will follow similarly to Astra in terms of focusing on great character development and story.