(This review was originally written on March 27th, 2020)

Before I start, I'd like to note that according to my My Anime List account, this is the 375th anime I've watched/completed. Man, time sure does go by fast, doesn't it?

Shows about cute girls doing cute things have been done to death at this point, with many of them being rather poor in quality and don't try to really stand out in any way. But in recent years, some studios have actually been making an effort to put out genuinely good CGDCT shows such as_ A Place Further Than The Universe, Natsuiro Kiseki, Non Non Biyori, Kemono Friends_, and Laid Back Camp. Koisuru Asteroid, or Asteroid In Love, is another one of the good ones, though it may not seem that way right off. The show itself is about girls in an astronomy/geology club that got merged, and two of them, Mira and Ao, want to discover an asteroid. Most slice of life anime tend to focus on the school antics rather than try to be more ambitious, and while Asteroid does start off rather cliche, seemingly another run-of-the-mill cute girls anime, after episode 4, it actually does start to be really good.

For one, the animation is fairly nice. The character designs, while a little stereotypically moe, are decent enough, and the movements are fluid and smooth, without any shortcuts, though I do have to wonder why they made Mira's eyes two different colors. I do admit, I really like the eyecatches that show constellations and the various club members being displayed in constellation form. I thought those were really cute and funny. The music is nice as well, though not very memorable. But both the opening and ending theme songs are well sung, easy on the ears, and completely fit the kind of feel the show is going for.

But the characters either make or break a show like this, and if the characters stay the same throughout the show, they run the risk of being static, boring, dull, and stale. Thankfully, after episode 4, Asteroid actually tries to flesh them out and have them break away from their established archetypes. Mira's actually not a ditz who's dumber than a sack of bricks, Ao makes an effort to be less shy and more bold, at one point Inose winds up in a higher position in the club and has to learn how to be a leader, so on and so forth. The status quo actually changes halfway through the series, and the characters are forced to change along with it. The slow pacing helps as well, with the show taking care not to rush its storyline and bring the best out of its characters, especially in the later episodes. Trust me when I say the show gets much better after episode four. That said, not every character was great, as the two newspaper club members were kind of annoying, especially the green haired girl and her annoying high pitched voice.

Now, this show isn't for everyone, and some people are just plain tired of shows about girls having fun, and that's perfectly fine. I personally like several similar shows better than Asteroid that did more with their premises and fleshed out the characters even more (Cases in point, Figure 17 and Place Further Than The Universe). Plus, Suzu's "I'm gonna obsess over every girl I see for funsies" antics got old really fast, and one subplot near the end of the series really baffled me in how easily it was resolved. One character is revealed to be moving, and the girls try to find ways to allow her to stay with the club. The solution they come up with manages to make things easy for anyone, but I question whether that sort of thing would actually be able to happen. I mean, I know my parents would never let me do what one of the characters did here just to be able to stay with her friends. Revealing the character in question is a spoiler, so I won't, but I wanted to point that out, as I found myself unable to let go of my suspension of disbelief for that particular scenario.

So is Koisuru Asteroid one of the best shows ever? Not really. But it's a cute little time killer for when you want to kick back and relax.

Edit, July 14th, 2020: I'm docking some points, dropping the rating down from 76 to a 73, as I think I understand fully what about the show has really bugged me: There's no conflict at all! The show has no stakes, all potential problems and hardships are resolved in the most clean, perfect ways possible while glossing over more depressing elements that could really benefit from having center focus. It's like the show is being really careful to manufactured to be as stakeless as possible, refusing to let the characters experience actual, lasting hardship that would actually challenge them and let them express an emotional range. It's trying so hard to be nothing but idyllic and nice, it comes off as insincere, deliberately avoiding some more bleak or realistic conflicts so it can present a facade of eternal charm and cuteness. I mean, I still like the show, but after reading another review that points out this fundamental problem, I couldn't help but feel inclined to agree.