Stardust Telepath Spoiler-Filled Review

Stardust Telepath, also known as Hoshikuzu Terepasu or Hoshikuzu Telepath, is a sci-fi yuri series. It’s based on a three-volume manga illustrated and written by Rasuko Ōkuma. Kaori directed the series. She supervised the show’s script with Natsuko Takahashi. Studio Gokumi produced the series.

Umika Konohoshi (voiced by Yurie Funato) is a girl, who like Shoko Komi in Komi Can’t Communicate, Bocchi Hitori in Hitori Bocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu, or Hitori Gotō “Bocchi” in Bocchi the Rock!, is extremely socially awkward. She barely even makes her way through her class introduction, hinting at low-confidence, and can’t talk or laugh like others, or make friends. Just as she feels like she’s from another planet, she comes across Hujinomisaki High School transfer student, Yū Akeuchi (voiced by Seria Fukagawa), who declares she is “an alien,” whose spaceship broke down. Yu can read the feelings of anyone when she touches her forehead with them (called foreheadpathy), catching Yu off guard, realizing that Umika is going through stress, worries, shock, and anxiety.

Stardust Telepath goes on from there, with Umika and Yu becoming better friends. Umika tells her about her dream to get to space in a rocket, and comes over to her “house”: an abandoned lighthouse. Curiously, Yu has amnesia. She can’t remember anything about what happened before she arrived on Earth, or why she is there, and calls Umika her “bestie…for life.” This series is more than what some call Hitori Bocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu with extraterrestrials. Its endearing, cute, sweet, fun, and has adorable characters. Umika becomes dedicated to learning about making rockets, but becomes depressed when learning the challenge toward making them. Afterward, class vice president Haruno Takaragi (voiced by Moe Nagamuta), appears on the scene. She’s cheerful and outgoing, but terrifies Umika when wondering if she went with Yu to the lighthouse on the cape.

In an attempt to protect Yu, she lies about the lighthouse, while Haruno calls it one of her favorite spots. As the second episode goes forward, she opens up more to Haruno, especially after she calls her voice sweet and beautiful. She reveals they are trying to build a rocket to space. However, Umika gets embarrassed after Yu touches foreheads with Haruno. Later, Umika decides to start with soda bottle rockets before building more complicated ones. They launch one at the lighthouse, together. Umika and Haruno talk about what they would do if met extraterrestrials in outer space. Yu is amazed by the bottle rockets until it’s revealed that the rocket landed in the ocean. There are some funny scenes like Yu drinking a whole soda by herself to make a soda bottle empty.

By the second episode, Stardust Telepath started to give me vibes similar to the 2020 slice-of-life anime, Asteroid in Love. Erica Friedman once listed as a “yuri anime” and said it looks like “a yuri story” (I’d say it is only yurish). Like that series, this one has “fundamental cuteness,” but has more going for it. Additionally, there are some similarities with an ever-popular romantic webtoon, Down to Earth, which involves an extraterrestrial coming to Earth and falling in love with a human.

I can’t blame people for comparing the series to Komi Can’t Communicate or calling it “Bocchi the Rocket.” But there’s much more going on. I would even say this series is more than a sweet sci-fi yuri about “an anxious girl [Umika] bonding with a psychic alien [Yu],” as Anime Feminist once described it. Rather, it centers around the importance of reaching out to others, getting out of your comfort zone, and making friendships, breaking through misunderstandings, miscommunications, and missteps along the way. Yu helps Umika along this process, bringing her extroverted nature to assist her, while Umika tries to become a “gregarious introvert.”

I can understand why some don’t like high-pitched voices or dislike series centered around those with social anxiety. It makes sense why some people don’t find as much value in cute girls doing cute things. However, I like how Umika is autism-coded. Her desire to find a solution to loneliness “outside human society” makes sense. Although I don’t vibe with Umika’s desire, personally, the message undoubtedly resonates with queer viewers. The opening sequence is lovely. I have no issue with the animation, the theme of building friendships through rocket-building nor the idea that Yu is receptive and empathetic, with similar interests to Umika.

Whether the series distinguishes itself from other series or not, it surely is heartwarming, cute, funny, and low-key, often with light comedy. It is faulty to say that the protagonists are a “gimmick” rather than having fleshed out personalities, as it is clearer as the series goes forward. It has lively energy and colorful animation, even if not everyone vibes with the “cute girls doing cute things” idea, which drives the beginning of the series.

In the third episode, the final protagonist makes her debut: Matataki Raimon (voiced by Shiki Aoki). She loves robots and is skilled with mechanics. She reminds me of Entrapta in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. Matataki’s tomboyish nature mixes with her solitary and aggressive nature. People mocked for her hobbies in middle school. She also loves an in-anime mecha, Ganbarion. Often, she wears goggles on her head to complete her look. Haruno, Umika, and Yu bust in on her in the aforementioned episode, with a flashback to how Umika couldn’t become her friend in middle school, because she didn’t have the courage to talk to her. As it turns out, she and Matataki aren’t that far apart. However, their worlds aren’t connecting. The only thing that pulls her in is a bottle rocket challenge.

Unsurprisingly, the hard-nosed nature of Matataki impacts Umika deeply, causing her to cry and lose faith in herself, believing she can’t do anything on her own. Luckily, Yu and Haruno are there for her, and try to make her feel better. The icing on the cake, if you will, is when Haruno gives Yu and Umika a key to a secret room in the lighthouse, a special place she came with her grandfather. The rocket duel, in the fourth episode, comes to a head. It follows the introduction of a nice girl (Kei Akizuki) who later becomes the rival of Umika and her friends. Matataki wins the contest, but lets Umika say her piece: she praises Matataki’s goggles and hopes to see her in school. While Matataki lashes out at her for this, she ends up coming to school anyway, even letting Umika wear her goggles!

From there, it appears that Matataki is warming up to Umika and re-adapting herself to school life, even blushing when the strict homeroom teacher, Akane Emihara (voiced by Natsumi Takamori) hugs her. Later, she collaborates with Yu, Haruno, and Umika in writing a club application form. She ends up listing Umika as club president, to Umika’s surprise. Even so, some cracks begin to form. Raimon questions whether coming to high school was worthwhile. Umika and Yu become friendlier with the class president, Saya Kagami (voiced by Yūko Ōno). Yu and Umika get closer, as friends. Umika remains embarrassed when she notices others observing Yu’s foreheadpathy with her. This leads some to call them the “forehead girls.” Matataki, although weirded out by it, starts to accept it.

The sixth episode of Stardust Telepath advances the plot forward, with Emihara’s failure to make them a proper club. Umika argues they need to build up accomplishments so the school can accept their club. All four of them (Yu, Umika, Matataki, and Haruno) go to the secret base under the lighthouse. As a result, Matataki gives them lessons on how rockets work, shares her numbers with Umika, and they begin preparing for the model rocket competition. They watch a rocket launch by Kei Akizuki (voiced by Saho Shirasu), head of a rocket launch club at another school. In response, Matataki says they will challenge them. She declares that if she loses, she has to pay them 900 yen, and attempts to inspire Umika in one way or another. The colorful backgrounds and flowing animation easily accompany the action, especially in this episode.

The seventh episode opens the cracks between Matataki and other members of their amateur rocket club (Umika, Haruno, and Yu). For one, Matataki predicts that Umika will mess up her presentation with other club members. She is annoyed after Umika caused many rockets to fail, after teaching her and others. This is strangely after she is given presents, like sweets. Even worse, she acts bullish, believing she can lead the model rocket building and design alone, without anyone else.

This doesn’t end well. Yu attempts to comfort Umika, telling her that she has the light inside her and that they have the same spark, after Umika said she thinks she is useless. She is concerned about getting better so she can live up to everyone’s expectations or what she thinks are everyone’s expectations are. There’s even a dream where Matataki acts as a villain and demands things from Umika and Yu. This is somewhat reflective of reality. Bit by bit, the series begins to somewhat resemble the break-up of the music group in Bang Dream! It’s My Go!!!!! before they got back together. The anime implied that the students would lose the competition to learn a lesson.

This abundantly clear in the eighth episode, which was painful to watch. Launch tests aren’t going well. Matataki was being hostile to the club’s advisor and other club members. She even called Umika and Yu a “bunch of useless jerks” and although Haruno and her got closer while baking. Haruno teased her, and she replied that she can’t afford to lose. In her view, if she loses, then the group’s “idiotic hopes and dreams” won’t come true.

As such, she believes that no one in the group is capable and that she is the only capable one. Haruno counters that everything in the world is special, regardless of the process or outcome and says there isn’t a single thing she hates. If that wasn’t enough, Matataki says that all of them are on “errand duty” until the tournament, dislikes Umika, Yu, and Haruno cuddling, and demands they stay on schedule, no matter the cost.

Such harsh treatment is even worse than Marjory or even Bad Magz in Supa Team 4. It has negative results on self-esteem of the other members. Umika cries after Matataki tells her to go outside and look for rocks. She pushes Yu away after Yu tries to comfort her and flees. Absurdly, Matataki claims that everyone around her is dragging her down. Umika unnecessarily apologizes to her. Matataki demands that none of them get “in her way” during the tournament. On the day of the competition, she remains harsh, not liking the name they gave the rocket, and thinks about adjustments. Significantly, Kei believes that Matataki heads their group. Yu has to correct her and tell her that Umika is the leader!

The ninth episode is heartbreaking. Kei’s team easily outdoes them, causing Umika to feel she has to be perfect, and that the mountain she has to climb to keep up is insurmountable. Her speech goes badly. Their team doesn’t even make it past the qualifying round. Matataki over-dramatically believes it is “all over,” implying that she might have learned a lesson, but is clearly angry. She tells Haruno that it must be nice to not care whether we won or lost, calling this the only place she belonged. She demands that Haruno never talk to her again. The cracks between the club members widen beyond that.

Umika distances herself from Yu, who tries to remain upbeat, believing that she can’t be a charismatic leader like Kei. She says she was nothing but a “useless burden” until the end. She runs off crying. Yu senses that she can’t see sparkles from Umika anymore. This is because she thinks she ruined everything and would have been better doing everything on her own.

Over a week later, her condition isn’t any better, but Kei helps her get out of her funk. She tells Kei she is helpless, weak, and will never make it anywhere. Kei rightly reminds Umika that Raimon, Yu, and Haruno didn’t laugh at her idea but joined her because they believed in her dream and chose her as the leader. In an additional note, she tells Umika that there’s a place she belongs, and that if she really did ruin everything, then she needs to find firm footing again, so she can fly further and higher.

Basically, Kei tells her to not be too hard on herself, to understand the place she belongs, to stand tall even if she can make a fool for herself. She opens the door so they can talk if anything can weigh on her mind. These messages may be helpful for those going through similar struggles, especially those who are coming out as queer, trying to find their community. The episode ends with Umika looking forward to the competition in the next year, and resolves to apologize to Yu.

In a heartfelt moment, she can’t find Yu anywhere, with the implication she is like a ghost/inspiration similar to Shizuka (for Kokona Ōtori) in World Dai Star, and she apologize to her, and they embrace one another. As a result, Umika realizes she belongs on Earth and wants to protect it with Yu and everyone. Yu says the sparks are inside of her, sparkling brightly, and won’t go away. Yu recalls a memory of her home planet, singing an unfamiliar song which has a nostalgic ring to it. The episode was tough, and emotionally heavy. It showed they had a failure to learn from, especially when it came to Matataki.

The tenth episode of Stardust Telepath begins with a start, even without the series opening! Yu happily does foreheadpathy with Umika. Haruno is glad to see that Umika is doing better. The class president is impressed with the rocket that Umika’s club created. She encourages others to watch the video Haruno took of its launch. Umika is surprised considering their “failure” at the competition. She commits to learn from their hard and painful loss. Unsurprisingly, Matataki has walled herself off from everyone. Umika learns that she won’t be attending school and that she isn’t responding to anyone’s messages. It is heavily implied, although not outright stated, that Matataki is experiencing some level of depression.

Considering the teacher’s words, Umika and her friends attempt to get Matataki out of her bad state. Haruno is more reserved, not lifting the garage door as in the past, even saying she isn’t sure if Matataki will come to school again. This response is not surprising. After all, Matataki said she never wanted to see Haruno ever again! Yu uses her foreheadpathy on Haruno for the first time, learning that she is good at hiding her feelings. Haruno calls herself pathetic. She reveals that getting top place scared her after her friend stopped coming to piano lessons many years ago. In response, she began to believe that all results have “equally precious value” and that everyone’s dream could come true without causing sadness.

Haruno’s mindset and Umika’s new perspective are revealed in the episode. Yu tells Haruno that seeing people hurt, when their dreams are shattered, is the true cause of her doubts. Umika clarifies that their dream remains intact. She says losing and failing hurts but that she will find firm footing again. This means that there isn’t a reason to give up. Yu encourages Haruno to discover her feelings, resulting in all three rubbing foreheads. Haruno commits herself to change.

The same episode involves Haruno telling her grandfather, in a flashback, that you don’t need to have your own dreams, but you can be someone who cheers on another person’s dreams. He says that this means you need to be the strongest, kindest, nicest person. She commits to becoming that person. However, she wants this to change. She confronts Matataki, calling her a “big dummy,” tells her to apologize, and says she is uncool for becoming grumpy after losing one time. She challenges Matataki, saying that she’s giving up after losing one time and declares they will make the rocket without her. If that isn’t enough, she takes the extra step, arguing that she will be as accomplished at Matataki, calls her a “big loser,” and says she should be ready to lose. She tops this off by snatching her goggles.

Matataki has lost her edge, in a sense. She lets Haruno take her goggles and says she hasn’t accomplished anything. Privately, she claims that she is less competent than Haruno and everyone else believes. This emotion-filled episode features crying and possible trauma and/or depression from Matataki. Even Haruno calls Matataki out on her BS! Understandably, some people dislike Matataki. I’m not sure if I dislike her more or less than some character in BanG Dream! It’s MyGo!!!!!, considering everything she has been through at this point, and what comes in the next two episodes of Stardust Telepath.

The eleventh episode hits hard. Yu, Haruno, and Umika meet with Kei, and her fellow team members (Neon Teruya and Michiru Yugumo). They get tips on making model rockets. There are some funny dynamics between Neon, Michiru, and Kei. They use virtual software (i.e. a rocket simulator). Perhaps a second season would give them a more prominent role. Two weeks after Umika gives Matataki a letter of challenge, they have a model rocket competition. They use her rules and she even uses a less powerful engine as a “handicap.”

Haruno denounces Matataki for losing. Umika hugs her while bawling her eyes out. She says she didn’t understand what she was going through. She believes that she was the only one who felt weak, miserable, and in pain. Then there’s the kicker: Umika wanted to be like her, to be strong, and to find a place to belong.

Almost immediately, she tells Umika to shut up. She doesn’t want them to take pity on her or hear their “empty words.” Yu calls her out as a liar, saying that her heart is an “open book.” Umika tells her that she wants their group to become a place where she can belong. She wants to help her aim for the sky again and thanks her for previous self-confidence boosts.

Understandably, Matataki is worried. She reveals that in the past, she lashed out with harsh words over the smallest things. That ended her relationships, with no one giving her a second chance. As a result, she lost hope in relationships and stopped caring about anything. More powerfully, she recognizes that she said and did hurtful things to them. As Yu puts it well, Matataki’s own words hurt her internally the most, more than anyone else. Later, Matataki admits she was selfish, ignoring all of them in an attempt to win the competition.

The episode ends with Umika committing to her friendship scheme. Matataki admits she had fun making rockets with them and apologizes again. They all end up hugging her, apologizing, and crying. Haruno puts back the goggles on her head, Yu pulls back her goggles, and they all rub her head. Annoyed, she says she’ll get them back for it, and they have a good laugh. In a post-credits scene, Raimon ends up saying she will treat everyone and Yu calls her a “tsundere alien.” After all of this, it appears that Umika collapses from all the excitement, but something more serious is going on.

In the Stardust Telepath series finale, Umika is bedridden with a fever. Her sister Honami Konohoshi (voiced by Hina Yōmiya) is surprised to see Umika’s friends. She closes the door at first, then lets them inside. Yu jumps toward Umika, wanting her to be better. Umika is glad they all came to see her. Even Matataki gets embarrassed while Yu butts heads with her. Umika ends up burning up from the thought that other people are getting Yu’s foreheadpathy instead of her. In her fevered state, she tells Yu that she only wants Yu to do foreheadpathy with her, and no one else. This expression of true feelings catches Yu off-guard, who becomes flushed.

The next day, everyone’s glad for her recovery, while Yu feels out of sorts. Umika leads the charge. She wants their club recognized. Matataki tells her that her personal goal does not have to be the group goal. This is an attempt to ensure that she doesn’t guide the group like in the past. Yu pushes her to be more social. Everything seems to be going back to normal, except for how Yu is acting toward her. The episode ends with Yu learning that Umika is worried about her. Umika’s new dream is for them to go in a rocket to outer space together. The lighthouse lights up, possibly a result of their mutual expression of shared feelings. They happily touch their foreheads one more time together, with stars going out into space.

By the end of Stardust Telepath, the yuri subtext is more than obvious. This a yuri sci-fi on the face. However, romantic feelings between Umika and Yu, or between Matataki and Haruno are never directly stated. Instead, the series has one message: these characters are in romantic friendships. Perhaps, a second season could make these friendships into romantic relationships. Hopefully, Studio Gokumi decides to continue the series.

The show’s character designer and chief animation director, Takahiro Sakai, is known for work on various series, whether Ace Attorney, B Gata H Kei, Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere, Nodama Cantabile, Ms. Vampire Who Lives in My Neighborhood, Spice and Wolf, or Toradora! The show’s director, Kaori, previously did storyboard and animation work on Encouragement of Climb: Next Summit, Is the Order a Rabbit?, Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, Revue Starlight, and Yurikuma Arashi. These series all have direct or indirect yuri themes. This is reinforced by her similar work on How to keep a mummy, Engage Kiss, and Shirobako.

Natsuko Takahashi worked with Kaori as co-director. She’s a former series writer of a dramatic yuri sci-fi (Blue Drop) and of a series with some yurish themes (Cutie Honey Universe). Furthermore, she wrote for two series with yaoi themes: Antique Bakery (implied) and Gakuen Heaven (directly shown). That undoubtedly impacted themes and storyline of this series.

The studio animating this series, Studio Gokumi, is over 13 years old. It produced yurish series like Kin-iro Mosaic and Ms. Vampire Who Lives in My Neighborhood, and problematic ones. (Seton Academy: Join the Pack!). The latter features Iena Madaraba. Iena is a hyena said to be “born female.” She believes she is male, meaning she’s implied to be genderfluid, and intersex. One anime writer even described her as a “gender-ambiguous hyena person.”

Stardust Telepath is not my favorite 2023 series by a long shot. I’m in Love with the Villainess, Birdie Wing, MagiRevo, Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, and Yuri is My Job! are among those I chose as my top anime for last year. While yuri themes could be stronger, it remained enjoyable. I liked the autistic-coded, autistic, and otherwise neurodivergent, protagonists. The manifestation of such awkwardness is not a turn-off. It is relatable to those with such neurodevelopmental disorders, likely numbering in the millions.

Stardust Telepath is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.