dbaranyi

“Comet-san”, aka “Cosmic Baton Girl Comet-san” is an anime remake of a classic mahou shoujo live action series from the 1960s. Twelve year old Comet is a star princess who is supposed to be a candidate to become engaged to a prince from another star. But Comet would rather play in the stars than to think about growing up and getting engaged. So when the prince runs off to the Earth instead of choosing a future bride Comet is more than happy at her escape from fate. The disappearance of the prince is unacceptable to the star worlds and someone must go to find him.Comet could care less until she finds out that the prince is hiding on Earth, where Comet’s mother spent time when she was a girl. Comet was always enthralled at her mother’s stories of Earth and so she volunteers to go to Earth, with no intention of actually bothering to look for the prince. Another space princess, Meteor, is also sent to Earth by her ambitious mother because the princess who eventually finds the prince will become his bride. Things don’t work out well for Comet when she first arrives on Earth. But thanks to some intercession from her mother, Comet gets to stay with a young family and take responsibility for the two young children of the family. At the same time Meteor uses her magical powers to convince an old couple that she is their granddaughter so that she can stay with them while she looks for the prince. Both girls start to learn something about growing up and about love as they learn about Earth and the people on it. Comet-san is a sweet and funny children’s anime that can enchant kids and grownups alike. The animation is bright, the music is brisk, the voice acting is enthusiastic, and the story moves along at a steady pace. The characters learn about themselves and grow as the story progresses and there is an appropriately satisfying ending. The series was released as a pair of R2 DVD box sets soon after its broadcast in 2001 to 2002.

davidman001

What’s fascinating about the beginning of Cosmic Baton Girl Comet-san is how it initially establishes the sort of magical ideas you’d come to expect in a Mahou Shoujo. Amidst a luxurious ball in the hopes to establish a connection between royal families, the princess of the Harmonica Star-World stumbles into a mysterious prince in a hallway who continues rushing past her. With his face shrouded in the darkness of the hallway, all she knows about the mysterious prince is the gem he dropped during their encounter. The Harmonica Star-World is a magical planet found far from earth and inhabits little creatures known as “star-worlds” whichin themselves contain unique worlds and personalities. The people living in the Harmonica Star-World harvest “star-power” from these creatures to use as magic. This world is full of magic, wonder, extravagance, and endless possibilities. Yet it’s revealed that during this royal ball, the prince of the Tambourine Star-World has gone missing. Upon learning his whereabouts are headed towards earth, the princess Comet-san, who was initially ecstatic that the ball was cancelled and showed a disinterest in searching for the prince because “I can’t fall in love with someone I’ve never even met”, jumps at the opportunity to go search for the prince by herself. However it’s quickly made clear the reason why she went is to explore earth. That’s right, despite establishing the kind of fun magical ideas you’d come to expect in a Mahou Shoujo; a magical space girl from a planet full of extravagant royal parties, tiny floating planets that supply magical powers, and gorgeous colourful space landscapes, the series instead decides to explore boring old earth. Well, of course, she’s still required to search for the prince, with the only clue of his appearance being that “he has a twinkle in his eyes”. But upon arriving on earth, Comet-san shows little to no interest at all in finding the prince, nor her responsibilities as a princess. This sentiment is maintained throughout the majority of the first half of the series as Comet-san explores earth, meets new people, and tries new things. What was initially established as a way to search for the prince, Comet-san quickly learns that anyone can have a “twinkle” in their eyes, which the series uses non-explicitly when referring to individuals who have passion, creativity, and love (as well as a list of other positive emotions). This was the aspect I fell in love with when starting Comet-san, as it’s used to explore the many different facets of human life and human emotions. The series is surprisingly slow-paced in its first initial episodes as Comet-san explores and adjusts to her new life on earth with Tsuyoshi and Nene, two adorable toddlers from a family that offered Comet-san to stay with them on her visit. The way each episode operates is more akin to an Iyashikei series than Mahou Shoujo because the series emphasises Comet-san exploring and appreciating the little aspects of life, the type we’d usually take for granted as humans. The many sentimental messages and lessons learnt Comet-san experiences on her journey is also emblematic of this, with of course a touch of fantastical magic and silly comedy representing its Mahou Shoujo side. And when I say silly, I mean that Comet-san can be *very* silly at times. It’s in the stories such as episode 5 where we see this idea developed. Comet-san, alongside Tsuyoshi, Nene, and their father, start a garden patch to grow fruits and vegetables. In Comet-san’s eyes, using magic to speed up the growth of the garden over the night would be nothing but beneficial, as she can surprise everyone with fresh produce in the morning. When the father wakes up and see all the fruits and vegetables on the table (who is of course unaware of her magical abilities, only Tsuyoshi and Nene know) he tells Comet-san that the fun of growing these crops isn’t the end product but rather putting in the hard work to plant, grow, and maintain the crops over time. The crops will be tastier after all that hard work, as in the satisfaction of seeing your hard work pay off significantly outweighs any immediate but short gratification. Comet-san takes this lesson to heart as seen at the end of the episode where she decides to stop using her star tunnel for the day, a magic ability that lets her travel long distances, because in her words “Maybe it’s not a good idea to get there in a flash” implying there is value in taking life at a slower pace. The episode ends framing this lesson as an understanding of what makes life beautiful, with Comet-san taking in the surrounding views of the town. We see more of Comet-san taking in her surroundings when she takes a trip up to a rural home that Tsuyoshi and Nene’s father had designed. Up in the nearby mountains, Comet-san and the kids take in the luscious green hills, the bright blue skies, and even remark about the taste of the air, all scenery unfamiliar to them coming from their humble little town. However during the same scene Rababou alerts Comet-san that there is a twinkle nearby, which if you remember refers to anyone filled with creativity, passion, or even simply love. To Comet-san’s surprise, the wife of the man living in this rural home is nonother than her aunty Spica, who left the Harmonica Star-world for a life on earth after falling in love with not only this world but a human man too. Much like Comet-san’s adventure on earth, Spica was a princess in-line to become the next queen and also visited earth. However, despite returning to the star-world, Spica had so much fun on earth that she ended up going back and staying there after marrying her husband. In a moment of self reflection, Comet-san tells her aunt how much fun she has had on earth, how much she appreciates the family she’s staying with treating her well, how every day is so fun and full of new experiences, how she has fallen in love with this planet called earth. Aunt Spica reminds Comet-san that when things get hard that she’ll be there for her, and encourages Comet-san to indulge in life a little more. This scene puts into perspective everything that has happened in Comet-san’s journey up until this point. But of course, Comet-san’s journey isn’t just limited to appreciating earth. Many of the character encounters Comet-san has throughout her journey are from those who have a twinkle in their eye. She develops friendships with them as a result of their passion, which often motivates Comet-san to support them in any way she can. Comet-san has a very interesting relationship with Tsuyoshi and Nene, because despite being pre-school children, she learns a lot about relationships alongside them. Such as the time Tsuyoshi and Nene got into a fight, with Nene later transforming into a giant robot with the help of Comet-san’s magic, leading into a chaotic episode finale with a mecha and kaiju fight, with the message of the episode portraying how petty arguments can turn into something much larger. We see this again when Tsuyoshi and Nene’s parents get into a fight. This time the children are hurt seeing their parents act this way, with them both making a wish on their tanabata papers for their parents to make up. Only after the parents see this wish of theirs do they realise how their actions have hurt those they care about. Comet-san learns a lot about relationships throughout these various encounters on earth, however they’re never conflicts aimed directly at Comet-san herself. So, what happens when she’s suddenly thrusted into conflict? That’s where Comet-san’s relationship with Keisuke comes into play. Keisuke is a character “with a twinkle in their eyes”, in-fact one of the first characters with such a description, with his passion being protecting lives by doing beach lifeguarding. However despite this, he’s one of the only characters Comet-san cannot understand and feels a strange discomfort around him. This misunderstanding of Keisuke and his feelings reaches a breaking point when the two get into a fight. Suddenly, Comet-san has to experience feelings she has never felt before - heartbreak. Not every aspect of life on earth is beautiful and being confronted with hard feelings can be difficult to navigate. Comet-san naively makes mistakes, and while it’s hard to watch, these are lessons both Comet-san and Keisuke can learn from. They eventually break off their fight after they both realise the reason they got into this mess in the first place was due to a misunderstanding. However on Comet-san’s end it’s much more than that. Those feelings she didn’t understand when around Keisuke were feelings of love, and it’s not until Keisuke leaves Japan to participate in lifeguard training in Australia does she fully understand these feelings for Keisuke. Unfortunately the romance between Keisuke and Comet-san is halted half way through the anime, which to me felt like a shame as their relationship was only getting started, however it became clear what the series was trying to achieve with its second half leading into the finale. There is one important aspect that not only Comet-san has forgotten about but the audience has too. She’s supposed to be finding the prince! Comet-san had fallen in love with earth and her many unique experiences and encounters that finding the prince became a non-issue to her. She values her love and appreciation of earth and her friends more than her obligations as a princess. Despite this, she is still required to find the prince and return to her home planet. This should come as no surprise that the finale finds Comet-san finally encountering the prince, however it plays out in a unique way you’d never imagine. I’m going to save most of the specifics for spoiler reasons, but the prince echoes similar struggles as Comet-san’s obligations as a princess, expressing a disdain towards the labels and obligations forced onto him simply because he was born into royalty. Fortunately for the prince, his encounter with Comet-san ignites a fuse, and in a very extravagant manner both Comet-san and Meteo return to their star worlds to proclaim a disinterest in being in-line to be the next queen. Meanwhile the prince acknowledges that he isn’t prepared to take up the role as the prince and wishes to explore more facets of life (which in this series means going to earth) to find his “twinkle”, just like Comet-san had. And so, the series ends with all three characters returning to earth, with Comet-san changing direction and heading towards Australia where Keisuke is, continuing to develop their relationship beyond the series’ end. While this ending may seem abrupt, leaving some plotlines open-ended, especially with regards to Keisuke and Comet-san’s relationship, I was completely satisfied with this ending. This ending ties together everything beautiful about Comet-san’s journey up until this point. All the experiences made and lessons learnt, all the peaceful moments and chaotic emotions. I’m satisfied with this ending because I don’t need to see more of her relationship with Keisuke to understand where it’s headed. Everything in Comet-san is portrayed in such a heartfelt and genuine way that makes for a unique Mahou Shoujo with a vibe and atmosphere unlike any other. There is a lot more that happens in this show that I haven't talked about in my review, so if you’re interested I cannot recommend this anime enough.