Let’s start with the elephant in the room, shall we?
Not long after Hoshiai no Sora’s final episode aired, director Kazuki Akane took to Twitter and broke the news that the show had been planned for 24 episodes. That order was reduced to 12 this spring, two years into the show’s production, and rather than restructure the story to fit the new one cour length, Akane decided to keep the story intact and air only its first half. If you’ve seen the final episode, you know that the show ends without a proper resolution for its dozen-plus plot threads, so this decision undoubtedly did some damage on the narrative side of things. With the production having advanced to the animation stage before learning of the slashed episode count, though, it might have been the only option available.
Naturally, people have Big Opinions about this situation. Fans of the show are disappointed and even outraged; less-than-fans see it as an explanation for the series’ kitchen sink approach. Many commenters online are blaming the show’s production committee for jerking around the creative staff (though Akane’s tweets don’t blame a particular party), and are using Hoshiai no Sora as an example to complain about the committee system in general. There are certainly problems with this system – its failure to allocate sufficient profits to animation studios chief among them – but much of the fan reaction seems akin to yelling at the clouds. In fact, original anime are more dependent on committee money than the usual manga and light novel adaptations, so without this admittedly imperfect system in place, it’s unlikely Hoshiai no Sora would have been funded at all.
Did Akane and his team get screwed? Absolutely, and if you loved this show, you’re not wrong to be upset about the circumstances of its ending. But if you consider the director’s assertion – that he proceeded with his vision for the first half of the series despite everything – then some problems start to arise. Why was the summer tournament such a rush job? Why were so many cuts from episodes 10 and 11 reused in episode 12? Why was there a seven episode gap where Maki’s dad didn’t appear if, as the final cliffhanger indicates, he was an integral part of the larger story? I don’t think Akane was telling the whole truth when he said, “We made 12 episodes with the 24 episode structure intact.” Most of the athletic stuff was clearly squeezed into the final quarter of the show, to the detriment of nearly every other story at its disposal.
My laundry list of complaints about this episode runs long, but honestly, I don’t want to go through them one by one. Last week’s post served as my major argument against Hoshiai’s storytelling practices, and my opinion hasn’t changed, even in light of what happened behind the scenes. You can check that out here if you like, and I’ll have a final review of the series up tomorrow. It won’t contain nearly so much discussion of the show’s production troubles, so if I disappointed you with this post, swing by in about 24 hours for my final thoughts on what was once fall’s most promising new anime.
