A Galaxy Next Door

 A Galaxy Next Door (おとなりに銀河) is a romantic supernatural slice of live anime based on the manga of the same name by Amagakure Gido.  The anime originally aired during the Spring of 2023.

 

    Goshiki Shiori is the princess of a semi-super natural people from a remote island.  She has come to the mainland in search of experience in the outside world.  Once she turned 18 her grandmother allowed her access to her private manga library.  Goshiki was instantly drawn to shoujo romance manga and decided she wanted to experience that type of love life.  One artist in particular attracted her attention.  She diligently studied his style, becoming able to faithfully recreate it.  She sought out his publishing company and applied to be one of his assistants.  The artists, Kuga Ichiro, struggles to find success writing manga. He is determined to continue his career in order to pay for his younger siblings future college expenses.  Ichiro has been left to raise his two young siblings alone, following his fathers passing.  He not only cares for them but also maintains his families share house.  He was serialized as a teenager but has struggled to make a successful story that will ensure his success as an author.  Goshiki shows up at the best time as he faces a perilous deadline and currently has no assistants.

    His is utterly amazed by the abilities of the proper and reserved Goshiki, considering her a stroke of luck.  Their relationship becomes complicated soon after she begins to work as his assistant.  After an all-nighter working to meet a deadline they both pass out in his office.  He wakes to find her slumped over a chair with what appears to be a drawing utensil stuck in her back.  Fearing she is injured he grabs at the object to remove it only to be struck with an unusual sensation.  Horrified by what has happened, Goshiki reveals that it is a part of her body that is tied to her peoples heritage.  The act of Ichiro touching it has meant, by her peoples traditions, that they are destined to be wed.  Ichiro questions her adherence to the traditions of her people, when she is trying to forge a path in the world for herself, unfortunately there is a bit more to their connection than a vow of matrimony.  They have been interlinked in a metaphysical level now, Ichiro being receptive to her emotions and any relative distances between them.  This is a new level of complication to his life where he is trying to ensure the success of his young brother and sister, not exactly focused on his own happiness or companionship.  What does the future hold for these two people now that they seem to be linked in multiple facets.  Can Goshiki really defy the will of her parents and heritage or are they able to reverse the bond that was unknowingly created out of concern for safety.

    I wasn't sure what to expect from this series so went in quite blind.  The supernatural aspects don't really take a lot of precedence in the story.  The marriage bond is really the only thing that is of any importance but beyond the start of it everything else related to it was mostly mundane in nature.  What is surprising is Ichiro's willingness to accept that Goshiki's family has any supernatural elements to them at all.  Once she tells him about her secret he goes along with it without further ado.  Its also quite strange how quickly everyone excepts Goshiki instead of questioning her anachronistic mannerisms and behavior.  The story quickly shoves any of these easy narrative targets and instead focuses on the two main characters relationship with each other as it evolves over time.  Beyond that though its a pretty straightforward story.  The characters don't hesitate a great deal and their lives progress towards the conflict of Goshiki's family and her desires to break away from tradition.

    This series isn't bad but it isn't amazing either.  It was enjoyable but easily forgettable.  A lot of reasonable conflict and complexity is brushed to the side in favor of focusing on the day to day details.  The entire concept of Goshiki's family circumstance is largely ignored, explained away with the retelling of a semi legendary tale of her grandmother as a young girl.  Whats really hard to swallow is how an entire island population so readily accepted the change her grandmother brought to their community.  Was her family perceived as royalty beforehand?  How was she capable of so easily converting the inhabitants previous view of reality to fit a new dogma that lead the younger Goshiki to be revered like a sacred princes in the Heian era?  Ichiro's circumstance seems significantly more realistic on its own, but when compared to Goshiki's...its definitely irrelevant beyond set up.  Maybe it was due to the nature of the anime and the time constraints, but there seems to be a lot of narration and plot that could have taken place or might have been omitted for unknown reasons.  By the end of the story it seems like we barely even know any of the characters.

    It is currently available in sub and dub formats on Crunchyroll.