Space has always been a source of marvel and wonder for humans. At least it has been ever since science evolved enough for us to understand that our rock actually is but a small thing rotating around our source of life which itself is but another mediumsized star among an uncountable amount of them hurtling through the darkness of the universe. And while it can be easy to feel discouragement and despair at the sheer impossible magnitude of the sea of sidereal bodies it is also a fertile terrain for study passion imagination and love. This very love is what drove Triangle Staff to deliver Oira Uchuu no Tankoufu. Something needs to be understood before anything else when it comes to this work: it isnt finished. In fact it was originally planned as a 6episode OVA but only 2 episodes were actually made. Unfortunately this here is not a case of Top wo Nerae Gunbuster as the contents originally planned werent remade to fit into the new timeframe and therefore the anime didnt manage to deliver the entire planned story: Oira Uchuu no Tankoufu was purely and simply aborted so dont be surprised when episode 2 comes to an end while the space shenanigans have barely started. The anime tells the story of employees working for Planet Catcher Corporation to deviate asteroids and comets from their orbits capture them and strip mine them of their resources. However their attempt to capture Halleys comet turns into a disaster when a nuclear military satellite is accidentally sent on a crash course with the miners base. Abandoned by their country and their corporation the crew must find a way to prevent the base deviated from its normal orbit due to the incident from threatening the Earth and avoid getting vaporized by their fellows. Juxtaposing this catastrophe scenario we have Ushiwaka our protagonist who desperately wants to pass a certain space certification. In fact so much so that hes willing to outright ignore the lifeordeath situation and refuse any attempt at having him rescued just because it would make him fail the test. Already theres a strong contrast that is being drawn and its not a good one: while the scientists and other miners are affected by the incident and trying their best to survive and avoid various dangers linked to space the storyline of our main character feels disconnected and any atmosphere of urgency suffers as a result. Its not unlike the way Katz from Gundam Zeta ended up ignoring orders repeatedly and launching himself mindlessly into terrible situations from which he needed to be rescued and at the potential cost of getting everyone else killed because of his stupidity. The fact that Ushiwaka acknowledges the current situation and yet choses to disregard it just to be able to go back on his own to the space station taking insane risks going through situations that would kill most people and wasting his peers resources at trying to help him doesnt exactly make for a good lead or a compelling storyline. The other characters arent exactly very likeable either mostly because we dont get to learn much about them but also because some act in a rather nonhuman way. Granted I dont interact much with scientific people and I have no doubt a lot of them have strange quirks and habits but to have a man convert instantly an amount of time from hours into seconds doesnt feel very natural and does nothing to help heighten the tension. But the worst offender and something that seems to have been noticed by some people is certainly Noda the instructor for new employees and Ushiwakas uncle who in episode 1 is seen swatting away rather forcefully a floating corpse during an EVA. Now I am not religious and I dont believe in anything like a soul but I do believe in respecting the dead and such a seemingly mundane act as well as how casually people act regarding the victims of the incident seems to suggest that dying in space is a rather common occurrence and that human life has become rather cheap in that far away future which begs quite a few ethical questions. But it also irked me a bit: the poor nameless lad suddenly had his fire and probably dreams extinguished during his slaving away for some megacorp would it fucking kill you to give him at least some level of dignity in death? If there are some undeniable strong points its certainly the visuals. Because the OVA does have some lovely visuals and a strong consistent animation good shading and great machinery design with the opening being the only flaw. And while the way gravity is handled in that anime feels a bit inconsistent at times it is pretty realistic and I cant exactly complain considering how few anime handle EVA although Uchuu Kyoudai and Planetes remain the best in that category. Overall its actually rather hard for me to properly rate that anime if I can be honest. Even my review feels pretty dry now that I read it as there isnt much to talk about. What we have here is a sketch an essay started by a student who left the examination room after 1h and never came back to finish his work. I have done some surfacelevel research on the internet but it seems nobody has an idea why Triangle Staff axed the project so suddenly. Lack of funds maybe? Or perhaps the project was a bit too ambitious at that time? Anyhow it is kinda sad because what could have been a good memorable OVA about a catastrophe in space ended up being a failed project that doesnt deserve any limelight. OVA amateurs like me will find some interest in Oira Uchuu no Tankoufu but it has no chance of reaching out beyond that niche public.