Stardust Telepath

Wszechmistrzyni★ 9

As an autistic girl, Umika's social struggles and pervasive sense of alienation are EXTREMELY relatable. It's really common for autistic people to feel like we're aliens waiting to be taken back home or eternal observers, who never really are a part of any social group. Like our words and feelings can't reach other people, because we tend to communicate differently. Still, we do our best to never lose hope that someday. somewhere we'll find our tribe. I know she's just supposed to have a stutter, but I do get strong autistic vibes from Umika. Her being relatively immature for a high schooler and having a specialinterest in space (similiar to mine!) only add into it. Another character that could fit the description is Raimon, who literally stopped coming to school after she gave up on socializing to focus on her special interest of building robots. This whole "I don't do things I'm not interested in" thing deeply resonates with me. She became avoidant after she got shunned for her unusual interests and what other people perceived as rude remarks - pretty usual autistic experience. Also, feeling like we are more logical than other people is a pretty common coping mechanism among autistics. I went through a similar phase myself, where I was sure "normal" people's perceptions of the world were way more surface level than mine, which is a toxic mindset that's fairly easy to fall into.

KANLen09★ 7

Stardust Telepath - Reach for the stars...(erm, ahem) aliens in the sky...through some rocket building and good ol' tried-and-true friendship tropes. The ever-so-popular Manga Time Kirara's CGDCT-themed anime adaptation has once again struck this season, and it should be a no-brainer that if you've watched one show before of that premise, the rest will be the same no matter what. The differential, however, lies with the plot, and in this fall, brought to you by mangaka Rasuko Ookuma, this is Hoshikuzu Telepath a.k.a Stardust Telepath, a take on the ever-so-loving theme by combining the one element that makes it magical: the Yuri genre. I'm sure that justby the show alone, you would think that this is the first kind of CGDCT show to focus on the outer space side of things while having a "plot" that supports it by shooting rockets into space. But did you know that a similar formula has already been done, and it's by a long landslide of time forgotten? That would be mangaka Quro's Koisuru Asteroid a.k.a Asteroid in Love, which had Doga Kobo's Winter 2020 anime adaptation. For those old enough like me to have watched the latter back in the day, you can tell the inept similarities between both shows almost to the point of uncanniness (despite Koisuru Asteroid's manga coming out much earlier than Hoshikuzu Telepath) in pretty much everything, from the usual cute moe fluffiness to the deep character development moments, which to me, sadly, is almost like a carbon copy when put up in comparison. But there is a silver lining, and that Rasuko Ookuma's plot is derived from a Hitori "Bocchi" Gotou-like character meeting her support soulmate Nijika Ijichi, if she literally came from outer space. That's the story of Umika Konohoshi, the young girl who has a fascination with outer space and aliens, who became shy and introverted and finds it difficult to communicate her true feelings to others when that same fascination was ridiculed by others to the point of being very closed off. Like Bocchi, Umika develops social anxiety that's only further exacerbated by the amount of social isolation deriving from her liking of the supernatural, and she believes that she can only communicate with aliens and dreams of travelling to space in a rocket to visit them. That's where Yu Akeuchi comes in: the supposed alien character who somehow finds herself crashing on Earth, not knowing how it was ever done, and other than this causal effect that she now suffers from amnesia, she still desires to return home to space. This is where the worlds of both Umika and Yu collide as classmates, where, as much as the latter proclaims that she literally came from outer space, the class chooses not to believe it and takes it as a joke. Not so much for Umika, as she believes that this meeting marks a monumental moment in her life having an extraterrestrial as a dear friend whom she can talk to with her outer space aspirations. That's where the Yuri genre comes in with the tint of Yu's "foreheadpathy": the linking of foreheads with a person (similar to a kiss) that allows her to read their emotions. For the most part, Umika is a rather tame version of Bocchi, being a lot more quiet, timid, and petit-feeling as compared to the latter's social anxiety that warrants her not wanting to mingle and socialize with people. But what she makes up for in her weaknesses is the "faith as little as a mustard seed" level of confidence that grows over time of her conviction to want to travel to outer space, which Yu fervently supports because that's her only one-way ticket back to her home planet. And both Umika and Yu are never alone in this regard, as their class vice president Haruno Takaragi soon joins them in the same endeavour, aside from the fact that the small town's lighthouse that Yu has designated as her temporary dormitory just so happens to belong to her family, being a "lighthouse connoisseur". Together, the trio starts thinking about how they're going to send Yu back home in space and decides that they're going to start from scratch with the humble bottle rocket. But with their inept knowledge of experimenting with typical bottle rockets, they soon hit their stride and need someone with better expertise at helping them achieve their goal. This is where Matataki Raimon comes in as the mecha robot connoisseur, who has a penchant for mechanics and a passion for robots. However, Raimon is also a character who, like Umika, has her hobbies belittled by people, so much so that she engages in people-warfare by developing an aggressive and solitary disposition, aside from being the class dropout, being bitter, and not wanting to trust people ever again. It took Umika as many times as she could to convince the annoyingly persistent Raimon to help them build better bottle rockets, though this comes at the usual cost, which she has her own ego boost to fulfill while getting alienated by her own peers. And as par for the course of the "usual CGDCT group of 4 girls", their character developments, especially Umika and Raimon, who are peas in a pod, do work their usual charm, which is elevated by Yu's forehead "kiss" that provides that subtle distinction to stand out from the rest. Together with their class teacher, Akane Emihara, the Rocket Research hobby group gets its start in the rocket building mix. Director Kaori and Studio Gokumi are once again back on the CGDCT train after almost 5 years since Winter 2019's Endro~!, which is still my all-time favourite CGDCT show to ever exist. And I think they each did a decent job on bringing Rasuko Ookuma's story to life, full of its "not-so-much-Koisuru Asteroid" astronomy symbolism that it's as ever delightful to watch from a CGDCT perspective. Even the music can be aesthetically whimsical, from Miku Itou's rather surprisingly good OP song (which definitely fits the show to a T) to SoundOrion's ED song...which sounds rather meh-ish, but does contribute to the show's CGDCT-targeted theme. Most people would tell you that Hoshizuku Telepath is better than Koisuru Asteroid in terms of the story, plot, and characters. Heck, even to its subtle use of the Yuri elements, which I definitely agree with and found to be more enjoyable. But from a personal perspective, between both shows, I feel more for the latter, thanks to its musicality, which I still fondly remember after almost 4 years, that gives it the touch that edges better than this show. Still, don't take my word for it: Hoshikuzu Telepath is a good show with little to no problems at all; you might like it even more than I did.