Astra Lost in Space is a little bit of an interesting case when it comes to manga since you can both easily guess what is going to happen next yet still be curious to the mystery of it all. The manga itself tells the audience that it is both a romcom and a space mystery thriller. On one hand, I could tell you exactly what happens at each point in the romcom portion of the series in my sleep while on the other hand the mystery aspect of it all was genuinely puzzling. Since I'm not one to dislike generic romcoms, this all totaled up to a relatively enjoyable time... that is until I hit the last volume. But we'll get to that eventually.

So the plot is a fairly simple one that allows for a lot of creativity. Having 7 kids go from planet to planet with the hopes of returning home gives a lot of room for different situations to arise to challenge the kids and to help them bond with each other. The only potential drawback to it all is the limitations of the mangaka's own imagination. And fortunately I think that most of the scenarios presented here are pretty fun and unique. Each new planet essentially serves as its own mini-arc, with a whole new set of challenges compared to the other planets that give time for characters to interact and form bonds. In all actuality it's a simple formula that may become repetitive for some, but that serves it's job well. While all this planet hopping is going on, there is a parallel plot line of figuring out why the crew is out here in the first place. There are two mysteries to be solved here: what ties the seven members of the crew together, and who is the potential murderer within the crew (if there is one at all). Now, I personally thoroughly enjoyed the first mystery. It was one that I didn't see coming that was able to fully bring together a lot of the little bits of information we get from each character as the story progresses. This is the reason why I'd give this series a much higher rating than just your typical romcom or space adventure. It gave me a reason to stay invested and to continue reading. We'll talk about the second mystery later.

I probably won't be talking too much about the characters here since they really aren't anything special. They all have fairly stereotypical character types with one or two special talents tacked on and a 'sad' backstory. Of course they change a little bit as the story progresses, but it's never in a way that sets them apart from the vast amount of shounen manga that have come before and after Astra. Simply put, they are passable. You could have fun with the tropes but don't expect too much.

So now, let's talk about this last volume. I believe Astra was a solid 8/10 for the first four volumes of the series for the reasons I talked about before: the mystery aspect was thoroughly captivating, and everything else was fun and interesting, albeit not the deepest or most well written. But the last volume hits the audience with some hallmarks of bad writing/storytelling. Some minor spoilers ahead. The last volume of Astra Lost in Space does two major things wrong. The first is its handling of the second mystery, the one of the murderer. Now, this may be a more personal take on the issue but I think that the way the mystery was tackled at the end here was essentially unneeded in terms of overarching arcs within the story. It also allows for some of the most shounen conflict resolution I've seen in a hot minute (which is not a good thing). However, the more important grievance here is that of the heavy exposition dump at the end. This in and of itself has a lot of problems: first, the heavy pushing of themes that were not present for the rest of the series makes no sense overall; second, exposition dumps in general are not the best way to convey information as it halts all momentum up to that point; and third, who the heck does an exposition dump in the last 20% of a series? Almost everything the series had built up until that point was slowly broken down for me as pages upon pages of bad writing choices piled up. If this were to have happened in the beginning of the series or to a series I had liked less then that wouldn't have been a problem. But it's the fact that it happened at this exact point in a manga that thoroughly did not need it that makes me so sad.

So was Astra Lost in Space good? Yeah... or it was at least. If I could make any recommendation, it would be to leave out the entire last volume from your read. It adds very little to the story as a whole when looking at the first 4 volumes and it does a lot more harm than good. I can understand if some people like the ending because it gives some sort of extra stuff to think about after completing the series, but if that's what you're looking for you're better of searching elsewhere. It's rare for me to get so heated about the ending of any particular series, but Astra Lost in Space really did it for me.