English Dub Review: Astra Lost in Space “Confession”

After it was discovered in the last episode that Charce was the Traitor the whole time they adventured together, he reveals that the story he previously told was not only fake but in reality, he was originally supposed to be a clone of the Vixian King Noah as his singular purpose was to be a spare body and was raised not knowing the consequences of his existence. When Charce reached the age of 17, a law passed called the “Genome Control Act” which banned the use of cloning, and much like the shitty parents that were revealed in another previous episode, the “originals” devised an elaborate plan to cover their tracks, when the King assigned Charce with the mission to eliminate the other clones along with himself.

At first, Kanata remains skeptical and rightfully points out how Charce always deactivated the wormhole before it could completely do its job. But in response, Charce explains that he stopped his attempts because he didn’t want to harm Aries, who later reveals to be Princess Seira’s clone. In an obligatory retconned flashback, Charce reveals his true past, where Seira helped raise him and actually treated him like a person. But unlike her royal father Noah, she was opposed to the cloning project and further adding to her disgust towards her father’s misguided intentions, Aries was born without her knowledge. Unwilling to subject Aries to a similar screwed-up fate like Charce, Seira secretly had Aries'”surrogate mother” Emma smuggle her out of Vixia to live a normal life and had faked the newborn’s death, however, later on in a tragic moment for Charce, Seira was killed by an assassin with Charce being the only witness. And further adding to Charce’s tragic backstory, Charce was unable to be a witness in court regarding Seira’s murder as his existence was intended to be kept a secret in the first place. King Noah driven mad with guilt was less than thrilled by this and consequently sheltered & abused Charce for not being able to save Seira and felt his mission to be a young vessel for Noah was his only purpose in life.

We however do get a counter-point to Charce’s convictions as Kanata remains unconvinced, and goes as far as to point out how much Charce has really enjoyed interacting with everyone, and that their friendship is genuine, which given his sheltered nature, it re-contextualizes Charce’s adventuring into the unknown and exploring everything with the crew was arguably the best thing that’s ever happened to him. The other students also try to convince Charce that he-too has free-will like is also capable of change and doesn’t have to be burdened or take to heart the singular purpose Noah had for him. Overcome with guilt, Charce attempts to commit suicide by using a backup wormhole controller and creating a wormhole between himself and everybody else. But in a tension-fueled suspenseful scene, the episode ends in a way that completely fucked with my expectations, But let’s just say a price had to be paid to change Charce’s mind…

Our Take

That was quite an episode. The Aries reveal would’ve been more satisfying if they had been more subtle with the hints for it in previous episodes. Especially the Intro that showed random footage of Aries’s name spelled backward at one point. It was also kinda obvious she was Seira’s clone ever since the flashback was first shown and they clearly had the same voice actress Megan Shipman who also does a good job voicing both characters while making them both different and distinctive in a number of ways. I also feel bad for Aries with the revelation that both she and her mother weren’t biologically related, but at least unlike the other “parents” of the cloned crew-members, Emma actually gives a shit about Aries as a daughter even if she isn’t genetically hers.

Honestly, it’s almost hard to show empathy towards Charce but it’s good to know that despite how emotionless he attempted to be in the face of those who confronted him, he really does want to live and care about the others like everyone else. But it’s awful, the way he was raised. Conditioned to believe he was nothing but a vessel for King Noah, and then Noah making his own daughter have to go through his twisted attempt at immortality with him just so he doesn’t have to face reality and then using Seira’s mother who died from an illness as an excuse further emphasizes how despicable every other “parent” within the Astra crew is at this point. What I found the most unrealistic was how “random” the death of Seira was. Out of nowhere, an enemy faction kills her? and said enemy faction found out where Aries was out of sheer happenstance and arranged her participation in the space trip so that, she would also die in space? That just sounds so implausibly elaborate and stupid but those are the only nitpicks I can take from this.

Never did I expect to go into this show we would get so much storytelling and plot twists. Good to know they addressed many of the hanging questions. However, with one more episode left (Which is said to be an hour-long) what kind of twists could they possibly reveal at this point? How can they top this shit now? I’m expecting nothing less than a grandiose conclusion to the entire story next week.