A Galaxy Next Door is a nice, slow-paced, and relaxing romantic comedy anime for all ages starring an overworked manga artist, his much younger siblings, and his mysterious new assistant. Who turns out to be hiding some very fantastical secrets of her own. If you’re a fan of slice of life stories, this is definitely the anime for you.

A Galaxy Next Door: Details

A Galaxy Next Door Japanese key visual.
This is the anime for you if the drama and angst of life is getting to you.

A Galaxy Next Door is a science fantasy slice of life romantic comedy anime series. In fact, it’s the anime adaptation of the manga of the same name by Gido Amagakure (Sweetness and Lightning). Asahi Production (Blue Drop, Heaven’s Design Team, Girls’ Frontline) is the animation studio behind this anime.

Ryuichi Kimura is the director of A Galaxy Next Door, with Gigaemon Ichikawa as the writer. Takatsugu Wakabayashi composed the music for this anime.

Speaking of music: “Tonari Awase” (となりあわせ) by Chinatsu Matsumoto is the opening theme music for A Galaxy Next Door. Meanwhile, the ending theme music for the same is “Near Stella” by Yū Wakui, who also voices the female lead Shiori Goshiki.

This is the kind of music that you can vibe to for writing.

Voice Cast

A Galaxy Next Door stars the voices of Taku Yashiro (Nazeeh Tarsha in English dub) as Ichiro Kuga, the aforementioned Yū Wakui (Katelyn Barr in English dub) as Shiori Goshiki, Rina Endō (Kelsey Maher in English dub) as Machi Kuga, and Maria Naganawa (Emily Fajardo in English dub) as Fumio Kuga. Other notable voices include Rie Takahashi (Meg McClain in English dub) as Chihiro Ibusuki, Tomokazu Sugita (Jack Reeder in English dub) as Masahiro Morikuni, Yoko Hikasa (Kristen McGuire in English dub) as Momoka Morikuni, Hiroko Kiso (Natalie Van Sistine in English dub) as Miyako Goshiki, Shinji Nagano (English dub actor unknown) as Ken Goshiki, and Satomi Kobayashi (English dub actress unknown) as Fumi Goshiki.

Where to Watch

A Galaxy Next Door premiered on April 9, 2023 and ran until June 25, 2023 for a total of 12 episodes. You can watch it only on Crunchyroll for now.

A Galaxy Next Door: Synopsis

You have to admit: the animation even just in the thumbnail is gorgeous.

Normally, this would be the part where I give a spoilery review of A Galaxy Next Door. However, this is the spoiler-free version of the review. Thus, you all get the official synopsis of this anime. You can check that out below:

After his father’s death, Ichiro is left to care for his siblings alone. They’re barely scraping by with only a small inheritance and his job as a manga artist, which isn’t going so great. That is until a talented and beautiful assistant is hired! Her name is Shiori, and she’s a gift from above—literally. While working late one night, her true identity is revealed and they’re instantly engaged!?

A Galaxy Next Door: The Good

A Galaxy Next Door Japanese x Yanaka Ginza collab visual.
You can tell just from these key visuals that it’s the wholesome-mest of wholesome romcom series.

If you’re a fan of calm, relaxing slice-of-life stories, then this is the romantic comedy anime for you. That’s basically what A Galaxy Next Door is. It’s basically a slice-of-life romcom story, with a fairly deep dive into mangaka culture. All simply due to Ichiro being a mangaka and Shiori being a manga assistant. Combined with the relaxing family comedy involving Ichiro’s elementary school-age younger sister and even younger brother, and this is practically an iyashikei anime for a family to enjoy. Especially if the darkness of the world due to its current state of events starts to get to you.

Even aside from the calm, relaxing story though, the animation quality of A Galaxy Next Door is through the roof. You can tell that Asahi Production put much of the anime’s budget into the animation, as you can see above and in the trailer. On top of that, the ending animation is gorgeous as well, but in a different direction. There’s a nice, stylized quality to the ending animation sequence that’s aesthetically quite pleasing. Almost like embroidery that has come to life, really.

One last bit of nice detail here though: the food in A Galaxy Next Door looks amazing. Food animation quality seems to have gone up dramatically across anime series in general in recent times, but this anime seems to blow it out of the water compared to the others. This makes sense if you look at Gido Amagakure’s previous work: Sweetness and Lightning. Once you know the joy of a good cooking manga/anime, it seems you can’t stop. Admittedly, that good food doesn’t appear as often here as it did in Sweetness and Lightning, but it’s still a nice touch.

A Galaxy Next Door: The Bad

A Galaxy Next Door anime screesnshot depicting Shiori gently wiping away Ichiro's tear.
Don’t cry, Ichiro. Not everyone enjoys slice of life.

I admit: I realize that not everyone enjoys this style of anime. Slice of life stories may not be for everyone. If you’re a fan of drama, action, and general dark storylines, then A Galaxy Next Door is probably going to bore you to tears. Watch this anime only if you’re tired of the darkness of the world, not if you want to see more of it.

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