Sara Talks Anime

The episode begins with Umika watching a special program on TV celebrating 3 years since the first fully private satellite rocket launch, with this growing Umika’s interest in heading to space with her friends…even if it involves her heading off into her own world, like commented on by her younger sister. Later, Umika, Yu, and Haruno launch off a bottle rocket, with this bottle rocket being the fifth one they’re launching. They’ve also been keeping logs of how far these rockets have gone. And with the exception of two outliers, the rockets they’ve launched have been going farther, with Yu convinced that they can make it to space with bottle rockets alone.

Umika herself begins to think. While all the bottle rockets they make will never reach space, her self-study alone isn’t enough. While she’s familiar with someone who’d know the skills needed to fulfill their goal, like the socially anxious person she is, Umika doesn’t have the courage to simply walk up to them and ask them for help. However, after Yu uses her foreheadpathy to read Umika’s mind, Yu and Haruno decide to head to the person’s house to talk to them. This is where we get introduced to Matataki, a mechanic. After heading into her garage, Haruno opens the garage door, much to the anger of Matataki. Yu then decides to introduce herself to Matataki, with Umika stuttering a lot. Haruno tries to give Matataki notes, which doesn’t seem to work. Matataki then talks to Umika, who is struggling to come up with the words. Yu speaks up for Umika, but Matataki said that she wanted to hear the words from Umika.

Umika ends up walking home with tears in her eyes, while Yu heads back to talk to Matataki long enough to say that she’s easy to read. After Umika arrives home, we see a flashback to Umika’s second year of middle school and an attempt to connect with Matataki back then. It turns out this flashback is a dream that Umika had, and when she woke up, she saw Yu in the room, with the latter wanting to check up on Umika. We later find out that Umika has been heading to Matataki’s house after homeroom, and during one visit, decided to provide a letter of challenge to Matataki. It was for building bottle rockets, and if Umika won, then Matataki had to listen to Umika. And if Matataki refused, it would count as a win for Umika. Umika runs off, thinking that she probably messed up. But the lighthouse activates, leading her to Yu and Haruno. The two help to support her and even deciding to help, with Haruno presenting a key as a present.

This was a fun little episode. All four girls of the group have been introduced, though it’ll likely be next episode when Matataki joins the group. And while this likely wouldn’t be an engaging enough hook for people to return, coming up with ideas for what the key could be for might give people enough to come back if they don’t decide to drop the series. I’ll be continuing to follow the series, as just based on the first three episodes, I’ve grown attached to the story.

Additional posts about Stardust Telepath:

• Stardust Telepath Episode 2 – “Sunset Rocket”
• Stardust Telepath Episode 4 – “Clashing Seaside”