Astro Note Ep. 5 is an episode that surprised me. However, it was a most welcome surprise for me. I honestly didn’t expect the story to give me the plot twist it did, and all revolving around young Ren Wakabayashi and his suprising desires to boot.

Astro Note Ep. 5: Details

Astro Note NA key visual.
The true star of the show isn’t even on the key visual.

Astro Note Ep. 5 is the fifth episode (you can read reviews of Ep. 1, Ep. 2, Ep. 3, and Ep. 4 here) of this first and probably only(?) season of this anime series. Said anime is not the anime adaptation of any manga, funnily enough. This anime is its own original work created by Shochiku (Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll) and studio Telecom Animation Film (Gargoyles (Hunter’s Moon Part 2, credited as TAF), Tower of God, Shenmue the Animation). Crunchyroll is the company licensing this anime series in NA region.

Alas, just like in the previous episodes, whoever is behind Astro Note Ep. 5 is still a mystery as of this writing. However, we do still know that Shinji Takamatsu is the chief director of the anime as a whole, with Haruki Kasugamori as a co-director. Kimiko Ueno is the writer of the anime. Kōhei Munemoto composed the music for the same.

Speaking of which, the opening theme music for Astro Note as a whole is “Hohoemi Note” (ホホエミノオト, “Smile Note”) by Ai Furihata. Meanwhile, “Kokoro no Kagi” (ココロのカギ, “Key to the Heart”) by Maaya Uchida and Soma Saito (the Japanese voice actress and actor of Mira and Takumi respectively) is the ending theme music.

Voice Cast

Astro Note Ep. 5 features the voices of Soma Saito as Takumi Miyasaki and Maaya Uchida as Mira Gotokuji. Other notable voice roles in this episode include Rie Kugimiya as Ren Wakabayashi, Tomokazu Sugita as Tomihiro Wakabayashi, Shin-ichiro Miki as Shokichi Yamashita, Ai Furihata as Teruko Matsubara, Junichi Suwabe as Naosuke, Jun Fukuyama as Shoin Ginger, and Yui Ogura as Aoi Uemachi.

When and Where to Watch

Astro Note Ep. 5 made its airing and streaming (aka. simulcast) debut on May 3, 2024. You can watch this episode only on Crunchyroll. Actually, you can watch this anime period only on Crunchyroll, due to the anime being an exclusive there.

Astro Note Ep. 5: Synopsis

You can just about make out the star’s tiny hands holding Naosuke’s cheeks here.

Alas, Astro Note is still an ongoing anime series. Astro Note Ep. 5 literally only just premiered today as of this writing. Thus, you will all get the official synopsis of this episode from Crunchyroll. instead of a spoiler-filled plot summary. You can read that synopsis below:

Takumi can’t get over the shock of what he saw, while Tomihiro has concerns about the magazine Ren’s hiding from him.

Astro Note Ep. 5: The Good

Astro Note Ep. 5 screenshot showing Ren watching a pretty girl from his class playing on the beach.
If you think you know what’s happening, then you’d likely be wrong.

I’ll be honest, the story of Astro Note Ep. 5 surprised me in the best way possible. I can’t even talk about it in any sort of detail without giving away spoilers. The only thing I can say is related to the above image. That would be: it’s almost certainly not what you think young Ren Wakabayashi is thinking. It’s not. Really. It’s what he’s thinking that makes him the star of this show in a very LGBTQ+ friendly way. I would even go so far as to say that it’s one of the best plot twists I’ve seen in any recent anime series thus far. So much so that the story of this episode contributes greatly to why I’m giving it a 100/100.

It’s not just young Ren though. The humor still manages to get at least chuckles out of me, especially the sudden changes in facial animation. The squid puns are a nice touch there too, emphasized by just how cringy they are.

The other reason why I’m giving this episode a 100/100 is the animation. Specifically: the food. Telecom Animation Film seems to have remembered that this anime is pretty food-centric, and is putting more effort into the food animation quality. Which by the way, looks mouth-wateringly delicious. The coloration of the food looks great, and the light spots are all in the right place to make it look better. And with a weird focus on squid for this episode to boot.

Astro Note Ep. 5: The Bad

Astro Note Ep. 5 screenshot showing Ren still watching that same girl while walking to school.
It’s not bad though. Far from it.

Honestly, this is the very first episode of Astro Note that I feel has a good enough story that it overcomes the minor nitpicking I have about the animation at times. Still, I do have them. While it occurs far fewer than in the previous episode, I feel like some of the food looked more blob-ish than what I would expect from a food-centric anime series, with the rice mostly just being a big white blob with the outlines of grains only on the edges. It’s not bad, to be fair. The quality is a massive leap upwards compared to the usual blobs stereotypical of anime. It’s just…I wish for just slightly better quality for an anime that’s so focused on delicious food.