Space has always been a source of marvel and wonder for humans. At least, it has been ever since science evolved enough for us to understand that our “rock” actually is but a small thing rotating around our source of life, which itself is but another medium-sized star among an uncountable amount of them hurtling through the darkness of the universe. And while it can be easy to feel discouragement and despair at the sheer impossible magnitude of the sea of sidereal bodies, it is also a fertile terrain for study, passion, imagination, and love. This very love is what drove Triangle Staff to deliver Oira, Uchuu no Tankoufu.

Something needs to be understood before anything else when it comes to this work: it isn't finished.
In fact, it was originally planned as a 6-episode OVA, but only 2 episodes were actually made. Unfortunately, this here is not a case of Top wo Nerae, Gunbuster! as the contents originally planned weren't remade to fit into the new timeframe and therefore the anime didn't manage to deliver the entire planned story: Oira, Uchuu no Tankoufu was purely and simply aborted, so don't be surprised when episode 2 comes to an end while the space shenanigans have barely started.

The anime tells the story of employees working for Planet Catcher Corporation to deviate asteroids and comets from their orbits, “capture them” and strip mine them of their resources. However, their attempt to capture Halley's comet turns into a disaster when a nuclear military satellite is accidentally sent on a crash course with the miners' base. Abandoned by their country and their corporation, the crew must find a way to prevent the base, deviated from its normal orbit due to the incident, from threatening the Earth and avoid getting vaporized by their fellows.
Juxtaposing this catastrophe scenario, we have Ushiwaka, our protagonist, who desperately wants to pass a certain space certification. In fact, so much so that he's willing to outright ignore the life-or-death situation and refuse any attempt at having him rescued just because it would make him fail the test.

Already there's a strong contrast that is being drawn, and it's not a good one: while the scientists and other miners are affected by the incident and trying their best to survive and avoid various dangers linked to space, the “storyline” of our main character feels disconnected and any atmosphere of urgency suffers as a result. It's not unlike the way Katz from Gundam Zeta ended up ignoring orders repeatedly and launching himself mindlessly into terrible situations from which he needed to be rescued and at the potential cost of getting everyone else killed because of his stupidity. The fact that Ushiwaka acknowledges the current situation and yet choses to disregard it just to be able to go back on his own to the space station, (taking insane risks, going through situations that would kill most people, and wasting his peers' resources at trying to help him) doesn't exactly make for a good lead or a compelling storyline.

The other characters aren't exactly very likeable either, mostly because we don't get to learn much about them, but also because some act in a rather “non-human” way. Granted, I don't interact much with scientific people and I have no doubt a lot of them have strange quirks and habits, but to have a man convert instantly an amount of time from hours into seconds doesn't feel very natural and does nothing to help heighten the tension. But the worst offender, and something that seems to have been noticed by some people, is certainly Noda, the instructor for new employees and Ushiwaka's uncle, who, in episode 1, is seen swatting away rather forcefully a floating corpse during an EVA. Now I am not religious, and I don't believe in anything like a soul, but I do believe in respecting the dead, and such a seemingly mundane act, as well as how casually people act regarding the victims of the incident, seems to suggest that dying in space is a rather common occurrence and that human life has become rather cheap in that far away future, which begs quite a few ethical questions. But it also irked me a bit: the poor nameless lad suddenly had his fire and probably dreams extinguished during his slaving away for some megacorp, would it fucking kill you to give him at least some level of dignity in death?

If there are some undeniable strong points, it's certainly the visuals. Because the OVA does have some lovely visuals and a strong, consistent animation, good shading and great machinery design, with the opening being the only flaw. And while the way gravity is handled in that anime feels a bit inconsistent at times, it is pretty realistic and I can't exactly complain considering how few anime handle EVA, although Uchuu Kyoudai and Planetes remain the best in that category.

Overall, it's actually rather hard for me to properly rate that anime if I can be honest. Even my review feels pretty dry now that I read it as there isn't much to talk about. What we have here is a sketch, an essay started by a student who left the examination room after 1h and never came back to finish his work. I have done some surface-level research on the internet but it seems nobody has an idea why Triangle Staff axed the project so suddenly. Lack of funds, maybe? Or perhaps the project was a bit too ambitious at that time? Anyhow, it is kinda sad because what could have been a good, memorable OVA about a catastrophe in space ended up being a failed project that doesn't deserve any limelight. OVA amateurs like me will find some interest in Oira, Uchuu no Tankoufu, but it has no chance of reaching out beyond that niche public.