Astra Lost in Space

A manga about a group of teens on an interplanetary camping trip who get transported into distant space and must work together to travel back home.

I found the manga after I watched the first episode of the current anime and was really shocked at how good this was. The story wasn’t unique at the beginning but the characters were lively and there were a lot of funny jokes that broke up the more dramatic parts of the story. Of course it made total sense to me when I learned this was done by Kenta Shinohara who’s worked on Sket Dance. I really should have realized it from Shinohara’s character designs but his perfect blend of comedy and drama made this shorter sci-fi series a great read that had some really original twists towards the end.

I will note that there is a character revealed to have dual sexuality and this series skirts with some potential misrepresentation but I thought it wasn’t explored enough to offend or be positive. But that’s just my take though.

I definitely recommend it and it’s available in English from VIZ.

~dakazu