Stardust Telepath

is a Japanese four-panel manga series written and illustrated by Rasuko Ōkuma. It has been serialized in Houbunsha's manga magazine '' Manga Time Kirara'' since May 2019, with its chapters collected in four volumes as of September 2023. An anime television series adaptation produced by Studio Gokumi aired from October to December 2023.

Characters

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:A young girl who has a fascination with outer space and aliens. However, due to being ridiculed for her belief in aliens, Umika became shy and introverted and finds it difficult to communicate her true feelings to others. Due to the sense of social isolation she suffers, Umika believes she can only communicate with aliens and dreams of traveling to space in a rocket to visit them. She went to the same junior high school as Matataki.
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:A young, energetic girl who happens to be Umika's classmate. She claims that she is an alien from outer space who is stranded on Earth, but everybody believes she's only joking. Umika is the only person who believes her, and the two quickly become friends. Yu suffers from amnesia and doesn't remember her life before coming to Earth, but still desires to return to her home planet. She also claims she possesses the power of "foreheadpathy", where she can read the emotions of a person if she touches her forehead against theirs.
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: The vice president of Umika and Yu's class, Haruno is polite and helpful to everybody, especially towards Umika. She is a self described "lighthouse connoisseur" and also believes Yu is an alien. Her dream is to travel to space to spread Earth's culture to aliens and she quickly becomes friends with Umika and Yu.
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: A young tomboyish girl with a penchant for mechanics and a passion for robots. Her hobbies were met with mockery from her peers in middle school, leaving Matataki embittered about people and developing an aggressive and solitary disposition. Umika attempted to befriend her out of genuine interest, but was coldly rebuffed. However, after challenging her to a bottle rocket duel, Umika mustered the courage to express her admiration for Matataki; this leads to her joining Umika's group of friends. She's a fan of the mecha anime "Ganbarion", and wears goggles on her head to emulate the main protagonist.
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Media

Manga

Written and illustrated by Rasuko Ōkuma, ''Stardust Telepath'' initially started in Houbunsha's '' Manga Time Kirara'' magazine on May 9, 2019, as a two-chapter guest work. It began a full serialization in the same magazine on July 9, 2019. The first was released on July 27, 2020. As of September 2023, four volumes have been released.

Volumes

Anime

An anime television series adaptation was announced on October 7, 2022. It is produced by Studio Gokumi and directed by Kaori, who also supervised the scripts with Natsuko Takahashi. Takahiro Sakai designed the characters and served as chief animation director, and Asuka Sakai composed the music. The series aired from October 9 to December 25, 2023, on AT-X and other networks. The opening theme song is by Miku Itō, while the ending theme song is by SoundOrion. Crunchyroll licensed the series outside of Asia. Muse Communication licensed the series in Southeast Asia.

Episodes

Reception

In 2021, the series was nominated in the seventh Next Manga Awards in the Best Printed Manga category.

The anime adaptation received mixed reviews. Yuricon founder Erica Friedman, reviewing the first two episodes, resonated with the desire of Umika to "find a solution to her loneliness outside human society," called the anime's focus on the fun from amateur rocketry as "terrific," said the series is "off to a good start," and praised the opening sequence as "quite lovely." However, she criticized the "extremely high-pitched voices" and found the focus of the series around "people with severe social anxiety" made her anxious, which lessened as the series went on, and she criticized the series for having animation "not to my taste," for occasional fan service and hoped the story will be about "making friends with neurodivergent classmates and building hope along with rockets."

In Anime News Network's anime preview guide for Fall 2023, Richard Eisenbeis described the series as about "a young person trying to find her place in the world" and developing skills that can be used repeatedly "to make friends," while Rebecca Silverman said the series reminded her of ''Wish Upon the Pleiades'', praised the imagery as adorable and related to Umika's social anxiety, but enjoyed less as it continued, with a strong dislike of the teacher, Nicholas Dupree argued that compelling parts of the protagonists "have been sanded down to comedic gimmicks by the end credits," and James Beckett praised the series for lively animation but for only being a "slight variation in the usual coming-of-age comedy formula."

Reviewing the first episode, Vrai Kaiser of ''Anime Feminist'' was more positive, calling it "about that fantasy of heart-to-heart connection," praised the empathy, gentleness of the show's tone, how the feelings of Umika in being alone in the world is a "deeply resonant one as a queer viewer," and said that if the series mages the "same emotional tenderness...and mental health struggles" as '' Bocchi the Rock'', it will "turn out to be quite the keeper." In a later ''Anime Feminist'' digest, the series was described as a "sweet sci-fi yuri about an anxious girl bonding with a psychic alien."

Notes

References

External links

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{{Studio Gokumi

Anime series based on manga
Crunchyroll anime
Extraterrestrials in anime and manga
Houbunsha manga
Muse Communication
Science fiction anime and manga
Seinen manga
Studio Gokumi
Yonkoma
Yuri (genre) anime and manga