A Galaxy Next Door

Episode 10

After weeks of feeling like Shiori and Ichiro didn't face enough tension in their relationship (which, to be perfectly honest, wouldn't have been an issue in almost any other season with fewer strong romances), this week they finally face their nemesis: Mom. Fueled by her own preconceived notions and prejudices, she's come to Tokyo with the full intention of dragging her adult daughter home to their remote island, by force if necessary, and if that sounds a little Victorian…it is.

Mrs. Goshiki feels like a throwback to a time when parents fully controlled their daughters and guarded their “purity,” and that's almost certainly intentional. To listen to her talk about Ichiro pricking his finger on her stinger, you'd think that he had breached her maidenhead in the town square while crowing like a rooster at top volume, a villain of Gothic proportions. While there's never a good reason for someone you don't know to touch you and make you uncomfortable or feel violated, it's also important to note that there are plenty of times when someone might want to be touched and it wouldn't be a violation of their bodily autonomy, particularly in a post-sexual revolution world. But in the rarified, and clearly stagnant, world that is the Goshikis' island, that message hasn't taken hold yet. Or at least, the almighty queen doesn't want to think that it has when it comes to her daughter.

Most of the objections she has seem to be borne out of her not understanding, or wanting to understand, that Shiori is no longer under her control. Of course, she can still worry about her daughter; that's part of being a family. But she doesn't get to dictate her every move, something Granny was concerned about. Grandma's dying wish, that Shiori be free, speaks to the fact that she recognized that her daughter couldn't see Shiori as a person in her own right, with her own free will, and perhaps that she also put too much stock in antiquated customs. Maybe Mrs. Goshiki never wanted to be “free,” or maybe she's stuck in the mindset that what happened to her must also happen to her daughter. Either way, she's not seeing Shiori. All she sees is a fragile little girl who doesn't know what she really wants.

It's frustrating, but this story needed a bit of that. While it's been nice to see Ichiro and Shiori eschewing most of the standard anime timelines for their relationship, fiction with no obstacles can be kind of boring. Seeing Shiori and her mother go at each other, talking without listening, gives the story that needed obstacles to help us invest in the happy ending. (Or at least the hopeful one; if I'm remembering the manga right, I think this will adapt the first three volumes.) And Shiori needs to be the one who gets through to her mother because this part of the story belongs to her: yes, it will affect Ichiro's life, but no one is holding him back, telling him what he can and cannot do. Shiori needs to show her mother (and, to a lesser degree, her father) the same gumption she demonstrated when she left the island in the first place. It's her life. She gets to decide how to live it. And if her mother, who gets a one-year reprieve (but thinks she's giving her daughter the break) can't understand that? She might just lose the person she's trying too hard to hold on to.

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A Galaxy Next Door is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.