Alternative Names: Hoshiai no Sora
Score: 7/10, 4/5
Length: 12 Episodes
Genre: Drama, Sports, Psychological, School Life, Slice of Life
Another month another review arriving far later than I would have liked. While the COVID-19 crisis certainly hasn't helped my work ethic, I can hardly claim that it was the only reason this review has been in the pipeline for so long. No, one of the other key factors that held me back from writing was the simple fact that I couldn't wrap my head around how I wanted to address Stars Align. While, historically, this series stands as yet another fine example of the anime industry backstabbing its creative talent, it is also a series that I am simultaneously in love with and deeply disappointed by. Toward the end of the series' first season, the staff was informed that the project was getting pulled despite there being plans for a second cour that would give us a satisfying conclusion to this original anime directed and written by the director and screenwriter for both Escaflowne and the Code Geass: Akito the Exiled movies, Akane Kazuki. With this decision coming down on such short notice, Akane and the rest of the staff were apparently given no time to course-correct the show's pace or even change the ending of the first season to be anything other than the melodramatic cliffhanger we were left with. So, because of that wonderful industry practice of killing creative potential in the cradle, I'm already inclined to look at this series in a negative light. Yet despite that historical negativity I know will cling to this series whenever I think of it, it is also a series with a lot of thought and heart that went into it with its themes of working through things together and coming to terms with and accepting yourself in spite of outside influences. From its more realistic depictions of queer characters to its honest and harsh depictions of abuse and cruelty, the way this show introduces and handles these topics make it a wonderful representative story. As if to bring it all back around, though, I can't say I'm particularly happy with the direction Stars Align took toward the end. Leaning more and more into darker subject matter, the harsh but uplifting character drama the series that deserves a great deal of praise steadily devolved into melodrama that spoke to something far more nihilistic. With all that said, I feel like it's fairly obvious that I don't know how I feel about Stars Align when all is said and done. On the one hand, I don't feel like it's much of a stretch to call the series a representative masterpiece. On the other, the series' shift in tone toward the end made it feel like it was ultimately going to betray its initial appeal so it could lean more into some easy shock-factor melodrama. On yet another hand, though, the facts surrounding the development and cancellation of this series make it feel like any praise or criticism is inherently invalid because it is, at the end of the day, an unfinished product. So, rather than offering my critiques of the series' various successes and failures, I feel like it might be more appropriate for me to go through the series main story beats and just let you decide for yourself whether Stars Align could have been something great or if its cancellation was a blessing in disguise.
Or, rather, that's the only goal I have in mind since this is the...6th draft of this review I've made over the past month.
Starting from the top, Stars Align is a series that can be seen as a series with two interconnected stories that each bring something to the overall experience. One of these stories, which I will refer to as "the A Plot," is fairly straightforward underdog sports story. Focusing on the two perspective characters of Katsuragi Maki, an aloof but athletic boy who has just moved back to his hometown with his mother, and Shinjou Toma, Maki's childhood friend and the captain of Shinjo Minami Middle School's failing Boy's Soft Tennis team, we are introduced to both the problem and solution to the show's primary conceit. Namely, in the interest of trimming the budget and making room for clubs that might accomplish something, the student council has challenged the Boy's Soft Tennis team to qualify and win a match at Regionals or be disbanded permanently. Desperate to live up to his brother's legacy as Shinjo Manami's soft tennis champ and seeing no way to accomplish this monumental task on his own, Toma sets his sights on recruiting Maki to the team as his doubles partner--all but guaranteeing that they'll at least be able to get to Regionals thanks to his know-how and Maki's raw talent for the sport. The only problem with this plan, however, is that Maki isn't even remotely interested in joining any clubs, let alone a failing sports team, when he's already so busy taking care of the house while his single mother works to keep food on the table. Not one to be denied, though, Toma does everything in his power to find some way to win his estranged friend over. From begging to outright spying on his home life, Toma tries everything until Maki eventually caves when Toma outright accepts his audacious request to be financially compensated for his time, offering him a deal of 10,000 yen ($100) a month for his services plus the cost of his equipment and an additional 10,000 if they manage to win.
Keep in mind, all of this is stated and happens just during the show's first episode.
Not to be outdone by the A Plot's front-loading the show's first episode with exposition and a pretty solid idea of how things are going to go from this point forward, Stars Align's secondary story, "the B Plot," comes in at the last minute with a stinger that will set the tone for the series as a whole. Just as the show's credits taper off, Maki and Toma finalize their deal and walk away grinning like a couple of idiots, and the show's ending theme starts to ramp up, the music is abruptly cuts off and we immediately shift to a scene with Maki making dinner and waiting for his mother to come home. At first, everything looks like it'll just be a nice, happy talk between the two of them while his new uniform and racket are hung up and set next to the living room table. Then the doorbell rings several times over, drawing Maki over to his ominously darkened doorstep. Understandably cautious, since he's the only one home, Maki checks the door's viewport only to see black while we are shown a finger covering up the other side. Weirded out but also a bit curious, Maki unlocks and opens the door, immediately jumping back as that same hand dives into the crack and forces it open. In this single moment, any lingering questions about who Maki is, why he feels so detached from the world around him, and why he's moved back to his hometown in the middle of the school year are made crystal clear. This home invader is none other than Maki's father, come to "borrow" money from his ex and son while Maki is home alone. From his slurred speech to his disheveled outfit and the grubby footprint he leaves on the family's pristine floor mat, everything about this bastard's introduction sends shivers down the spine as he forces his way past a cowering Maki and starts to scope out the home that he's not even supposed to know about. As if that weren't enough, though, the dark cruelty of this scene only gets worse. With an unflinching display of casual violence we watch as Maki gets smacked and kicked around by his father when Maki demands that he leave and lies that they don't have any money for him to take. Clearly used to this song and dance, Maki's father proceeds to monologue about how his ex wouldn't even try hiding the money and guesses where Maki might have hidden it. Meanwhile, Maki is left to desperately crawl into a corner and curl up into a ball, making himself a smaller target. Guessing correctly that the money was taped to the lid of the A/C, Maki's father simply takes the money and leaves with a casual comment that Maki should tell his mom that he dropped in, leaving us with one last scene of Maki silently prepping dinner, like he was at the start, but with the addition of a fresh patch on his cheek to cover the bruise.
Ugh, I feel gross just remembering that first stinger.
And with that, the end of the first episode, both the A Plot and B Plot of Stars Align have made themselves known and we've learned what to expect from the series. Namely, we see that each episode will mainly feature the A Plot's sports drama that will drive the story forward and then it'll suddenly shift to the B Plot's dramatic barbs that teach us a little more about the cast and keep us hooked throughout the otherwise formulaic A Plot. Just because the formula has been established at this point, though, doesn't mean it necessarily wants to be consistent. For example, rather than ending with a stinger, episode two leads with the B Plot as we watch some punks bullying Asuka Yuuta, one of Toma's few friends, for being gay. Not wanting to push the envelope too hard right out the gate, though, things quickly take a turn for the better as Yuuta ends up being saved by Toma whose less-than-stellar reputation alone is enough to make the bullies run for the hills. On top of establishing who this new character is and what will likely be the source of most of their drama, this lighter handling of the B Plot also makes it clear where this series stands on the topic of homosexuality--a fact to be praised since so few shows even try to talk about it outside of crude humor and misrepresentation. After this ordeal passes, though, the series goes right back into its usual club drama as Maki is introduced to the other team members and is given a clear idea just how bad the team's situation really is. From a lack of interest, practice, and motivation to a rebellious streak that almost leads to one of the members attacking Maki with his racket, there is little room for doubt that things can't get much worse for the soft tennis team than this. Yet, despite this bumpy start, this second episode also shows us just how invested Maki is in getting this team up to snuff and how exactly he plans to do that.
Though, along the way, he also makes it pretty clear that he has no interest in making friends.
Within mere minutes of meeting the team and getting the opportunity to size-up just how big of an ordeal he's gotten himself into, Maki starts working toward making the soft tennis team better and does so from several different angles. First and foremost, he uses his clear status among them as the smug outsider to goad them into actually practicing. In doing this, he gets to see their form and how the current pairs work together while he learns how the sport is played. When the team starts faltering and outright failing to keep up with a new player like him, though, Maki gets fully invested in being the team's antagonist, believing that mocking, jeering, and outright insulting them might be the only way to effectively kick these layabouts into gear. The only downside to this plan becomes immediately apparent when, as I mentioned before, Maki nearly gets beaten over the head for his effort. As crude and harsh as his methods are at the start, this absolute trouncing by "the new kid" does ultimately serve its the purpose of igniting a competitive spirit in the team that only grows over the course of the third episode where Maki single-handedly destroys each of their established pairs. Yet, loath as the team might be to admit it, getting to see Maki grow as he competes with them pushes them to get better as well and does steadily earn him some respect and recognition as their second-in-command.
This building of begrudging respect and trust is, of course, just another part of Maki's plan to remake this team from the ground up though. After all, much like the show plays with its A and B Plots, Maki's master plan relies on him playing two distinct roles for the team. When he's with the whole group, we see him play up being the antagonist to get each member moving so they fall back into the cynical slump that put them in this position in the first place. Whenever he's not playing with them, though, Maki takes on more of a support and strategist role that works with the team's individual pieces to improve the whole. Detached and clinical as that might sound, we start this process as early as the show's second episode when Maki pushes Yuuta to become the soft tennis team's manager, effectively killing two birds with one stone. On the one hand, getting a manager would help bolster the team and make them feel a little more appreciated since they've never had anyone to support them up until now. On the other hand, extending this offer to Yuuta gives the shy, vulnerable boy a place to belong and easy access to his crush, Toma, since Maki managed to pick up on Yuuta's preferences pretty quickly. Apart from Maki's more direct approach with Yuuta, though, he often goes out of his way to support each member of the team once he notices that something might be going on in their personal lives. Never prying and never directly injecting himself into their problems, like so many anime protagonists, Maki's approach to support relies mainly on building a sense of understanding between him and his teammates. One of the best and earliest examples we get of this comes during the third episode when Maki watches Ameno Itsuki, the team's Machiavelli, lash out and strike a local bully with his tennis racket for mocking his older sister and their difficult family situation. Rather than rushing to the bully's aid or trying to clam Itsuki down like some wild animal, like the rest of the team, Maki nonchalantly backs Itsuki up and says that he'd probably do the same in that situation, mentioning that he also lives in a single-parent home. Then, just to further deescalate the tense situation, Maki jokingly scolds Itsuki for breaking his racket since they're are so expensive, basically claiming that the bully's pain wasn't worth the financial cost. Though it takes some time to sink in, this small moment of empathy eventually wins Itsuki over to Maki's side as he quietly but meaningfully makes the effort to change in the locker room with everyone else, plainly displaying the burn scars he suffered as a child for Maki to see and react to. Having been informed of the history behind those scars by the rest of the team beforehand and being no stranger to the scars of abuse, himself, Maki correctly and cleanly just ignores the scars and talks to Itsuki like normal--making it clear that he acknowledges Itsuki's bravery but isn't going to make a big deal of it--which is clearly what he was hoping for.
Who knew troublemakers with a violent streak could be such good boys?
Throughout the entire series, Maki steadily nudges and shoves his way into properly earning each of the player's respect. Through his own efforts to excel at the sport and his constant acknowledgment that they are all people with various hangups and problems that they're dealing with, we're given a visual and logical reasoning for why the team grows to accept Maki for all his flaws as well. As a team, we see how they support each other and make their already tough lives a little more bearable without ever overstepping their bounds to "solve" each other's problems. Yet another great example of this fact comes when Maki and Toma aren't even present and we see the rest of the team muscle a jock from one of the other sports teams into respecting Yuuta's discomfort at seeing another boy shirtless. Even though he's not technically on the team and doesn't go out of his way to talk to them, we see that every one of them has accepted Yuuta as one of their own and are willing to go to bat for him. Through these little acts of understanding and kindness, we see how Maki's initial wave-making steadily pushes these troubled but ultimately good kids into being the found family they need. This slow but meaningful character progression, then, gives us a solid explanation for why they manage to come together as a team and win some matches at Regionals, saving their club from being disbanded. What's more, it also offers us some hope that things will ultimately turn out well for them no matter how terrible things get for them in the B Plot. With their club and each other, we see that they have an escape from their troubled lives that'll help them become better people.
Or, at least, that's the direction this show felt like it was going up until its sudden and incredibly distressing ending.
As I've mentioned, the series undergoes a rather drastic tonal shift toward the end. Rather than leaving us with an ending that is hopeful and satisfying, Stars Align leaves us with something much darker and more nihilistic as it shows us how all of Maki's efforts and the connections he made might ultimately mean nothing when all is said and done. To be more specific, the last few episodes throw out some hits that none of the cast can ever really come back from. The first of these is a long and intense scene of Soga Tsubasa, one of the team's two "jock" characters, getting into a fight with his "Soccer Mom" father and breaking his arm after being pushed down a flight of stairs. Though he is found wandering the streets by his best friend and the second "jock," Takenouchi Shingo, and is immediately taken to the ER, this incredibly rough scene comes right before Regionals, forcing the team to be down a player and leaving Tsubasa feeling like he's betrayed the team by getting hurt when they need him most.
Another one of these moments comes on the heels of Maki and Toma's final match at Regionals after they just suffered an unfortunate but satisfying loss, having already secured the team's survival. Throughout the series, we've gotten small glimpses of Toma's troubled family life as he struggles to be as great as his older brother, Ryouma, and deal with a mother who seems to be so in love with her older son that she only has contempt for Toma. In one last, final "fuck you" to her hated son, Toma's mother drops the bombshell that she's getting a divorce and moving away with Ryouma specifically because she can't stand to be around Toma any longer. Though the series hints that there might be more to this situation than there seems in this moment, we're still left with thr cliffhanger of Toma reeling after all of this has just been thrown in his lap. Left with no resolution to this sudden development in Toma's story, we're left with more-or-less the same feelings of sudden betrayal after just seeing our main duo actually have fun playing soft tennis, now that nothing's on the line anymore. As if that cliffhanger weren't bad enough, though, Stars Align ends it all with one last twist of the knife that was, honestly, a long time coming but one that only feels worse because of where it cuts off. Namely, upon returning home after his match and racing up the stairs of his apartment complex, happier than he's even been up to now, Maki finds a shattered glass on the floor; his mother's friend, his surrogate father-figure, Shou, nursing their left cheek; and the usual envelop of money lying on the table, empty. Maki's father paid them a visit while he was out and hurt one of the few people Maki loves. In the series' final scene, we see Maki standing outside his father's apartment with a convenience store kitchen knife, resolved to kill the bastard and end their suffering once and for all. Then, it all just fades to black, leaving only the series' title.
You can probably imagine how mad I was with the series by this point.
Needless to say, this cliffhanger ending has eternally left a sour taste in my mouth every time I think about this show. And, honestly, that's a real shame considering how much I loved it. Pair that final note of disappointment with all the darker moments of the B Plot and you can probably piece together why I'm so conflicted. On the one hand, everything about this series was fantastic up until that point. It's a deeply personal character drama with some legitimately hard punches to offer on the nature of child abuse and how its victims try to cope and live their lives in spite of it. Meanwhile, while that drama steadily unfolds, we're given a perfectly acceptable but fairly average underdog sports anime that managed to tick all the boxes it needed to and ended up pretty satisfying in its own right. Then there is, of course, the problems that reality threw at this series, leaving me with little else I can say other than that I simultaneously love and hate this show. Yet, at the same time, because the series ended on the note it did, I'm also left with no small degree of curiosity for how things might have turned out in the end. As much as I might loath those last few punches from the B Plot and how dark things got, I can also see how the series might have been building up to this darker tone the whole time.
This is a sentence that holds a lot more meaning than it initially seems.
Let's take, for example, a moment from one of the show's best and most fulfilling scenes--the one that put this series on the map for a lot of people. In this moment, Maki and Yuuta are simply talking about Yuuta's feelings and confusion toward their identity and sexuality. While, yes, it has been established at this point that Yuuta has a crush on Toma, the feelings of otherness born from this acknowledgment led Yuuta to explore the various corners of the LGBTQ+ community. This exploration has opened up a world of possibilities to the still mostly closeted Yuuta, now wanting to be called Yuu, but also left them even more unsure of where they fit in on the spectrum of identity. Seeing an opportunity to try out identifying as a girl for a little while, Yuu turns to Maki for help and some personal affirmation during this temporary transition. Maki, for his part, takes all of this perfectly in stride and affirms for Yuu that identity is a complex issue that they should take their time trying to figure out. In much the same fashion he did with Itsuki, Maki goes on to explain that he grew up aware that some people face these problems thanks to his surrogate father figure, Shou, who is a trans man and helped Maki grow into the kind and accepting person he is today. Yet, in the same breath, he offers that line that he feels "out of place just by living." In this scene, this line comes across as an odd attempt at empathy, following the line that Yuu feels that neither "boy" nor "girl" really fit who they are right now which makes them feel out of place in Japan's very binary society (if it can even be called that). When taken in the context of how Maki internalizes how he and his father are connected and his ultimate decision to deal with his father once and for all, though, that line takes on an entirely different meaning--one that is just as dark and Poe-faced as the series' ending.
Taken from yet another angle, it can also be easily seen how the show's more light-hearted message about the importance of finding a place to belong and a community of people to connect with could be twisted into how all of that is incredibly naive. Namely, since Maki and the team never solve anyone's problems and only really ever exist as a support team that helps their members when they're with the group, the tragedies these characters face doomed to continue. Yuu, for all the growth they go through thanks to the team's unwavering support, is still stuck in a family situation where their mother takes their transitioning as an attack on her. While the team might help Nao come out of his little fantasy world and engage with the real world while he's with them, nothing is being done about the psychological abuse he's suffering under his helicopter mother. As nice as it might be for these kids to be happy together, the series never shirks from the fact that the real world is far crueler than high school. So, following that logic, the cast's lack of any proactive, lasting solutions to their problems makes their darker endings an inevitability rather than a sudden and unprecedented swerve from something that initially feels much more hopeful. If that was the ultimate message this series was going for all along, though, I'm honestly left feeling even more confused and conflicted than I was before.
That said, I don't have much more I say about Stars Align. It's a series that showed a lot of heart, thought, and promise but left me an absolute mess when all was said and done. I love it. I hate it. I have no clue how I really feel about it. Apart from some basic art and animation problems I could nitpick, I have nothing else to offer. My only hope now is that it'll get the conclusion it deserves someday or one of you will help me get through this with some thoughts or commentary of your own. Though I'm still working on getting my head and this site up and running like it used to, I'm always more than happy to hear what others think about the shows I cover or even what they'd like to see me cover at some point. So, until I can find the time and mental energy to write again, I hope you all are staying safe and enjoying some good anime.