Hoshiai no Sora (星合の空): Anime Thoughts and Review
| Genre: | Coming- of-Age, Societal Issues, Family, Sports |
| Recommend: | Highly Recommend! |
Finished watching Hoshiai no Sora (星合の空) and OMG they can’t just end it there!!! THEY JUST CAN’T!!!
~Even in an ever-changing world, only the starlit sky will not change.~
“Hoshiai no Sora (星合の空)”, also known as “Stars Align”, is yet another under-rated and superb anime in 2019 that you NEED TO WATCH NOW if you haven’t caught it yet. The other two 2019 anime being “Run with the Wind: Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru” and “Vinland Saga“.
Don’t be fooled by the style of animation drawing, this is definitely not your typical sports anime nor your run-of-the-mill anime.
Hoshiai no Sora is an original anime series that shines the spotlight on many societal issues: Gender Identity (LGBT+), Domestic Abuse, Divorce, Helicopter Parenting, School Bullying, Cyber-bullying, Self-worth and does so in such a delicate and sensitive way that is really impressive.
Take a look around the Internet and chances are you’ll see many reactions similar to mine. Hoshiai no Sora is really an amazing story and once again reminds us how anime really is such a powerful medium for story-telling.
The only criticism that I have of the series is that it is a little bit extreme to have the ENTIRE soft tennis team all having some sort of family problems to deal with. (See section on “Character Spotlight” for more information. Slight Spoilers) However, the issues were all handled really well by the animation team, both in a thought-provoking and sensitive manner, so you can overlook this.
Apart from that, everything else was pretty well executed. I especially love how the anime tries to show that while even though one might find themselves in a seemingly hopelessness situation, friendships and having a passion for something (such as sports) can really help them to continue to hang on and/or even try to change for the better.
As it is, this anime is probably not for everyone, due to the dark and uncomfortable realistic themes it explores.
However, I do highly recommend you to watch it, if possible. It has become increasingly rare to see such societal topics being explored, and done well, in anime today, so Hoshiai no Sora really sets itself apart. It is even more impressive, seeing how this was an original anime story, something which we really don’t see much of nowadays.
Okay, the above was my initial thoughts and raw (re: real) reaction after finishing the series in real time. I have since sat down to collect my thoughts and provide a (hopefully) more articulate version of my review and thoughts on the anime in the next few sections. ^ ^ Please read on if you are interested.
Page Contents
What is Hoshiai no Sora about?
Hoshiai no Sora (星合の空) or “Stars Align” is a coming-of-age sports anime that on the surface, looks at how a failing and weak junior high school soft tennis team eventually gets their act together. We follow the growth and journey of the soft tennis team as they work towards playing in an inter-school tennis tournament.
In reality, Hoshiai no Sora is an anime that takes a frank and sensitive look at some of the struggles, uncertainties and family problems that kids today might be facing. It examines the different relationships between parents and their kids and the effect of these dynamics on the children.
As the series progress, we start to discover that several members of the soft-tennis club are facing deeply personal struggles, uncertainties about their future and family problems that has a great impact in their lives. The anime takes us on a journey as the characters attempts to navigate school, their future and relationships amidst these struggles.
Hoshiai no Sora Character Spotlight
**Slight spoilers ahead.
Maki Katsuragi & Toma Shinjo
Katsuragi Maki (桂木 眞己)
The main lead of the story. A newly transferred student, Maki had initially wanted to maintain a low profile. He was ‘scouted’ by Toma due to his athletic reflexes and talent for tennis. Maki is the best tennis player in the “soft tennis” club and helps the club achieve a renew vigor and aspiration in succeeding in the inter-school soft tennis tournament. He is also great in doing household chores and a very good cook.
Independent, quiet and mature beyond his years, Maki is hiding a secret. With his parents divorced, he is trying to escape from an abusive father while building a new life with his mother. He is closest to Toma, who is the only one in the club to know about his abusive father and family struggles.
Toma Shinjo (新城 柊真)
The captain of the soft tennis club. He is very serious about playing tennis and believes that the team can be strong again, with the right players and attitude. Due to dwindling club members and the threat of the club being dissolved , he actively tries to scout Maki into the team, even going as far as striking a contract (deal) with him.
Faced with a mother who actively dislikes him and shows blatant favoritism to his older brother, Toma struggles to find a place in the family. Nevertheless, he tries to keep a positive outlook in life while constantly trying to please his mother. Toma is also a very supportive and good friend to Maki.
Shingo Takenouchi & Tsubasa Soga
Shingo Takenouchi (竹ノ内 晋吾)
The mood-maker of the soft tennis team. Shingo is generally very positive, as well as kind and supportive to his team-mates. He loves his younger sister very much and they are really close. Unfortunately, he has a strained relationship with his mother who distrusts him. His parents also have made plans for his academic future against his wishes.
Tsubasa Soga (曽我 翅)
One of the more athletic members of the soft tennis club. The youngest of three brothers, Tsubasa played football up till middle school before he quit to join the soft tennis team. He has great confidence in his sports abilities and is a pretty direct person. His father disapproves of him playing soft tennis, viewing it as an inferior sport compared to football. As a result, Tsubasa has a strained relationship with his father.
Istuki Ameno & Rintaro Futsu
Itsuki Ameno (雨野 樹)
Quiet and aloof, Itsuki can be rather guarded about his feelings. Despite his words, Itsuki really treasures the soft tennis team. He is also quite self-conscious about his body, only feeling comfortable changing in front of those he considers close friends to him. This was due to a burnt scar on his body caused by his mother (likely suffering from post-natal depression) pouring boiling water on him when he was a baby.
Rintaro Futsu (布津 凜太朗)
The vice-captain of the soft tennis team. Rintaro is really kind and supportive of his team-mates. Perhaps the most well-adjusted member of the team with loving parents who support him, Rintaro starts to doubt himself when he found out that he was adopted. He starts to struggle between his loving adopted family and finding his real parents who gave him up due to a teenage pregnancy.
Nao Tsukinose & Taiyo Ishigami
Nao Tsukinose (月ノ瀬 直央)
Soft-spoken and evasive, Nao has somewhat of a dual personality. In front of his friends, he is often seen as jovial and cheerful but in reality, he is under a lot of pressure and is very unhappy at home. His mother (a typical helicopter parent) greatly disapproves of him joining the soft tennis team, believing that it will only distract him from his studies.
Faced with mounting pressure by a controlling mother, Nao has to resort to telling lies in order to stay on with the soft tennis team. The soft tennis team is where Nao finds solace and peace away from his mother and he refuses to give it up. As a result, Nao is increasingly guilty and frustrated about having to constantly lie to everyone and the situation is taking a mental toll on him.
Taiyo Ishigami (石上 太洋)
Due to his gentle personality, Taiyo frequently ends up mediating among the more head-strong members of the soft tennis team. He is a competent player but often gets nervous before matches which affects his performance. As both his parents are from the Kansai region, he has a Kansai accent despite growing up in Tokyo.
Yuta Asuka & Kanako Mitsue
Yuta Asuka (飛鳥 悠)
Sensitive and Observant, Yuuta was invited by Toma to be the manager of the soft tennis club. With support from Maki and Yuta’s sisters, they are currently exploring their gender identity, having not decided on an identity (a boy or a girl or other identities) yet. Yuta is hiding this exploration and questioning of gender identity from their parents which is a source of stress. Yuta also seems to have a crush on Toma.
Kanako Mitsue (御杖 夏南子)
Kanako is part of the “going home club”, someone who never joined a school club/activity. She stays at the same building as Maki and is often seen hanging around the soft tennis team. Kanako has struck up a friendship with Yuta and Maki and is generally accepted by the entire team as “one of them”. Although she doesn’t have much friends in school, Kanako is a popular illustrator on social media. The only problem is that she is not drawing things that she likes but what her fans want. Nevertheless, having met Maki and the soft tennis team, she starts to desire to change, gains confidence in herself and look forward to a possible future.
My thoughts on Hoshiai no Sora
(Stars Align)
I really decided to start watching Hoshiai no Sora purely based on the fact that I too played Soft Tennis (Mini Tennis) as a kid in school as well. There are plenty of Tennis anime/manga around but very few which focuses on Soft Tennis, so my interest was piqued.
To be perfectly honest, my first impression on seeing the cover of the anime was a tad dismissive. I had thought it might just be the run of the mill sports anime, especially since it was rather short (12 episodes). The synopsis certainly didn’t suggest otherwise.
I’m happy to acknowledge that I was wrong and Hoshiai no Sora blew all my expectations out of the water and beyond.
What I got instead was a rich, moving, thought-provoking and highly engaging story.
As mentioned at the start of this review, what I really liked about Hoshiai no Sora (and found it so impressive) is its excellent and sensitive handling of some of the societal topics that are affecting our kids and youths today.
Gender Identity (LGBT+), Domestic Abuse, Divorce, Helicopter Parenting, School Bullying, Cyber-bullying and Self-worth
Hoshiai no Sora tells it as it is. There is no cookie-cutter solution nor a magic wand to make things better. However, despite the heavy themes, as the episodes progressed, there is still a slow but steady sense of hope that things might become better for some of the characters. Well… that is until that cliff-hanger of an ending which I will talk more about later. ><
Moreover, you just can’t help but root for the kids in the anime. With the soft tennis team, each of them had found a temporary safe haven, friendship and support that was otherwise lacking from their family. Even though the kids are all facing stress and personal struggles, there’s still the desire to change with the hope that things might be better.
In particular, the way the anime team handled the issue of gender identity with Yuta was really well done. In fact I can say it is perhaps one of the best representations and explorations of LGBTQ+ in media that I’ve seen so far.
With Yuta, we see their struggles, doubts and fear about their identity. We also see how with support and acceptance (from Maki and Yuta’s sisters), Yuta now has the possibility and confidence to explore their identity, allowing them time to decide who they want to be. The entire revelation was sensitively and realistically handled. Yuta’s mother still doesn’t understand and she may never well do so but at the very least Yuta has found the strength to overcome their fears and to start exploring their self-worth and identity.
In Hoshiai no Sora, there is also a sharp focus on the relationship dynamics between parent and child. Through the characters, we see a myriad of dysfunctional and complex relationships that might exist in families.
Personally, I felt that Hoshiai no Sora really resonated with a lot of viewers (overseas especially) because many of us could identify with the challenges, if not, with the similar emotions and feelings, faced by the characters. Many of the issues and family dynamics portrayed in the anime are increasingly common in today’s society. Perhaps not to the same extend as the what some of the characters are going through but you get the idea.
Hoshiai no Sora also reminds us that abuse often isn’t just physical. Mental and Emotional abuse is far more common than we think and these are often the scars that are the hardest to heal. It is also the type of abuse that many find it hard to articulate and/or find it easily dismissible.
Note: If you are currently feeling emotional distress or know someone who is experiencing abuse, please talk to someone, seek help and/or approach someone for help. There are national hotlines and organizations in every country that can help with such situations. Speak to a friend or someone who can listen to you. It might not immediately solve the problems but it will definitely make a difference in your life.
Of all the dysfunctional family dynamics in the series, the two parents that I really had a problem with was the mothers of both Nao and Toma respectively.
Someone really needs to step in to let them know how terrible they are to their children. Unfortunately, no one does so and the cycle of hurt continues. *sigh* Here were two perfectly sweet kids and through no fault of their own, the mothers have caused so much suffering and stress to them.
In my opinion, I find Toma’s mother to be really selfish. It is really terrible the amount of emotional abuse she has dished out to her son over the years by alienating him and always favoring his older brother. What I found especially unforgivable was just when Toma had started to embrace hope for the future, she selfishly dropped a bombshell on him that really shattered him. (Although we never got to know why she disliked him so much. My own suspicion was that Toma was the child of an affair, hence the strong dislike.)
As for Nao’s mother, she’s the embodiment of the whole “helicopter parenting” phenomenon. A parenting style that I’ve personally always felt to be incredibly selfish and ridiculous. A child is more than his academic grades. The amount of stress placed on a child/youth can be devastating and through Nao, we see just how detrimental this stress and expectation has on his mental health and character.
I could really go on and on about all the characters in Hoshiai no Sora but that would make this already lengthy review too much and I don’t want to scare you away. *laughs*
It is so sad and a pity that the animation team and studio were forced to cut the original 24 episode story into 12 episodes. Kudos to Akane Kazuki (Yes, the very one who helm The Vision of Escaflowne, another of my favourite anime in the 90s) who wrote the screenplay for sticking true to his vision and never compromising on it despite the episode cut. You can refer to his official twitter account for the whole saga.
And that leaves us to the cliff-hanger of the ending in the anime!!! The episode cut meant that we never got to see what happened next for Maki and his friends.
If you have watched the final episode, you’ll totally know what I mean. I literally was screaming at the screen and feeling so sad at the potential implications for Maki. I had really hoped Maki, who has already been through so much, does not choose the destructive path that will lead to his ruin. That man is totally not worth it!!
Update: Happy to share that there’s now a fan movie special that shows snippets of what could have been if S2 was not cut. (Refer to the Special Fan Movie section for the video clip)
Thankfully the fan movie special helped alleviate some of my fears and doubts, at least for Maki, but it left me with more questions about the others’ future!
Highly highly recommend!
Please consider supporting the official goods if you enjoyed this anime. Every little bits helps in having the rest of the story told.
Controversies
Unfortunately, as excellent an anime as Hoshiai no Sora is, the anime has had several controversies.
The first of which were the claims of plagiarism of the dance moves/choreography shown in the ending song animation sequence. TBS Entertainment has issued an apology. I personally felt that this controversy could have hurt the anime initial reception in Japan. The dance moves were pretty neat and I really wondered why the team did not just ask permission or just pay for licensing rights.
The second controversy, which is arguably the most gut-wrenching one for fans of the series, is the production committee of Hoshiai no Sora deciding to shorten the series at the last minute.
As a result, this forced the animation team/studio to cut its original 24 episode run into a 12 episode series. Rather than clumsily closing the series and abandoning their vision, the team opted to end it in its original manner before the planned “second arc”… which led to the “NOOOOO! They can’t end it there. They just can’t ” screams that erupted from me and countless fans across the globe.
Nevertheless, Akane Kazuki has promised that he will continue the story, in one way or another. Here’s to finger crossed that we might see a S2 one day.
Interestingly, Hoshiai no Sora (Star Aligns) was very well-received by the global anime fans and the outpouring of support and comments online (twitter) caught the anime director and the team by surprise. It also led to quite a few chatter among the Japanese, igniting their interest in the series due to the support of the overseas anime fans.
Unfortunately, the Japanese anime industry is still stuck in its archaic way of measuring success: Domestic sales of DVDs and Blu-Rays. *sigh*
Having been an overseas anime fan for many, many years, I have had a lot of frustrations over how Japan value its overseas audiences. The Internet has made it infinitely easier for overseas fans to interact and get their voices heard now but there still is a long way to go.
Back in the day, we really had to come up with ingenious ways to get our manga/anime (legally of course) and literally had to jump through hoops to get our hands on goods and stuff. There are a lot of challenges and frustrations that could be minimized if the industry was a little more adventurous and embracing of changes… but that is a topic for another day.
Anyway, this is just a mini-rant. Don’t mind me. ^ ^
Hoshiai no Sora Special Fan Movie
My reaction and thoughts about Hoshiai no Sora was written shortly after the series ended in Japan, sometime back in end 2019. So I’m happy to say that the strong support from the (overseas) fans has spurred the team to release a special fan movie, with clips on what might have happened in the “second arc”.
Even though it’s called a movie, it’s only about 3.5 minutes long but hey, we take what we can get^ ^
Netflix or Amazon if you are reading this (a girl can dream), do consider picking this series up. It’s really a gem and a story worth telling and sharing across the world.
「その後の彼等…」
While I am relieved that it seems Maki might have not opted for the destructive path (as implied in the cliff-hanger ending), it also leads us to more questions about everyone else. Especially Nao. OMG! It seems our worst fears for Nao might be true. I hope his former soft tennis team-mates and friends might be able to help him, despite being in different schools.
Many have shared their thoughts and analysis of the fan movie special. Do check them out if you are interested.
This just shows how much potential and story there still is in Hoshiai no Sora. I really hope I get to watch/read the continuation someday.
Please consider supporting the official goods if you enjoyed this anime. Every little bits helps in having the rest of the story told.
My Final Thoughts on Hoshiai no Sora
Hoshiai no Sora is really a thought-provoking and excellent anime series. I highly recommend all to watch it. Yes, the cliff-hanger of an ending might be a deterrent but not watching it because of that would mean missing out on a really good anime series.
Hopefully this review would interest you to pick up on this excellent anime series. If it does, it would really make my day. ^ ^ Just a recap:
I would also just like to say a big thank you to the animation team for sticking to their vision, never compromising on their story despite the episode cuts and sharing this story with us.
All we can hope for is that the full story can be told in whatever media formats that is possible, a S2 would be the best, but as it is, I’ll take whatever format that could allow us to see the full story of this truly deserving anime series.
Good news! Hoshiai no Sora seems to be official translated into Portuguese and Spanish! Hopefully, with more global support, we might see the anime being picked up by another sponsor/company. NETFLIX or AMAZON, are you listening?!!
I, for one, will be patiently waiting for a season 2, in whatever format that Akane Kazuki and his team can share with us. I sincerely hope that the Hoshiai no Sora kids all manage to overcome their struggles and challenges eventually and see a hopeful future where they can lead good and fulfilling lives.
~Even in an ever-changing world, only the starlit sky will not change.~
More Information
To find out more about the anime, you can visit these pages:
- Official Anime Website: https://www.tbs.co.jp/anime/hoshiai/
- Official Twitter Account: https://twitter.com/hoshiaino_sora
- Official Goods Store: https://8bitshop.jp/shopbrand/ct12/
The anime is available on Funimation.
Hoshiai no Sora Music
The opening and ending songs of Hoshiai no Sora are really nice. I highly recommend all to take a listen.
Both songs are available on Spotify. ^ ^ Do support the music artistes and the anime soundtrack if possible.
Opening Song: Suisou 「水槽」 by Megumi Nakajima (中島愛)
The opening song, Suisou 「水槽」, encapsulate the feelings and mood of the series really well. Listening to it will always pull a tug on my heart-strings.
Ending Song: Kago no Naka no Bokura wa 「籠の中の僕らは」by AIKI from bless4
As for the ending song, it also fits the series pretty well with its message of a growing desire to break free of one’s cage and start to change at one’s own pace. I sincerely hope that the boys and girls of Hoshiai no Sora will find the peace and support as they move towards their future.
Check out my other Posts
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- Anime Thoughts – Hakumei and Mikochi
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I’ve also done up a few guides on purchasing anime goods/figurines and the list will continue to expand. Do check them out as they might be useful for your own fan- collection journeys!
- Geeky Goods Spotlight: Forwarder, Buying Service & Proxy Bidding (Anime Goods)
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