In the 22nd Century, Earth has become uninhabitable, but thankfully, mankind has managed to survive by migrating to space. Numerous planets have been colonized and everything’s hunky dory. However, all of that changes for Luna and six of her classmates when a malfunction causes their spaceship to crash on an (allegedly) deserted planet. With no means of escape, Luna and her classmates must work together and survive their conditions.

Obviously, this shares numerous foundational plot points with Kanata no Astra. A group of kids are stranded in space. As opposed to making a 5,000 light year journey home and making stops at suitable planets for supplies, the kids in Mujin Wakusei Survive are exclusively stuck on one planet. Other than that, they do share numerous similarities how each character is an archetype of a certain personality, and you see how they contribute to the group and clash with others. At the end of the day, teamwork wins and is the key to survival and uncovering the conspiracy that led them to their predicament.

Based on the manga by Riri Sagara and Kentarou Okamoto, four teenage young ladies crash on a deserted island and must do everything they can in order to survive! Thankfully, Homare, one of the girls in the group, has prior survival training and assumes leadership in order to make it on the island until help arrives!

OK, so this doesn’t exactly take place in outer space, but it’s similar to Kanata no Astra in the manner that it deals with how a group of teenagers are stranded and must work together to survive. Like Astra, Homare has a background in surviving out in the woods and uses it to genuinely be a leader, and she’s a very open and friendly person. Similar to the rest of the cast in Astra, the cast of Sounan Desu Ka also has a jock, a rich girl, and an academic, and they each bring something to the table and learn something from Homare in order to make it.

In the year 2225, mankind has expanded across the universe and space travel has become as common as your local Uber. With space still being the final frontier, careers as an astronaut are still viable and there are academies dedicated to training future space cadets such as Liebe Delta. 16-year-old Kouji Aiba wishes to become an astronaut and enrolls. However, all of that changes when a terrorist group attacks the base and knocks it off orbit. Thankfully, the school houses a ship in which the survivors can use to come home.

Out of all the anime on this list, this Mugen no Ryvius was Kanata no Astra BEFORE it was Kanata no Astra. You have two main leads that wish to be astronauts, and you have a ship full of teenagers who have to work together in order to make it home. Naturally, with the situation being tense and when you put teenage hormones into the mix, internal conflicts are natural so this ultimately serves as the ultimate coming of age story. As recently revealed in episode 6 of Kanata no Astra, you see that any official efforts by the government to find the missing teens have been scrapped and this is portrayed in Mugen no Ryvius as well. However, what makes this series very distinct compared to all anime on this list is its very unique soundtrack of mixing hip hop and J-pop.

In modern Japan, Senkuu (a teenage science whiz) and his friends wanted to live an ordinary high school life. His best friend Tajiu wanted to confess his feelings to Yuzuriha, another childhood friend of theirs. However, those plans are put on hold for the next 3000+ years when a mysterious light turns EVERYTHING into stone! Senkuu (allegedly) awakens first and uses his natural knowledge to figure out the situation and rebuild situation. After over half a year of tinkering, he has managed to find “the cure” to the stones and free everyone. Naturally, he frees his friends but in a moment of desperation, they free Tsukasa, a teenage MMA prospect. Unfortunately, differences of philosophies in how to proceed in the new world has made them mortal enemies as Senkuu wants to bring back civilization to what it once was, and Tsukasa wants to keep things the way they are to keep the world pure.

As to how it’s similar to Kanata no Astra, though it doesn’t take place in space, it deals a lot in the realm of survival with teenagers with special skills at the forefront. While Kanata no Astra does explore its unique philosophies, Dr. Stone has its themes to explore. In both series, whenever there’s conflict, you can understand both points of views regardless of the extreme differences. Especially with teenagers, who have very limited life experiences. Whatever experiences they have tend to shape their world view in an understandably hollow way, especially for those with negative experiences. Last, while Kanata no Astra doesn’t offer anything educational that you can apply with actual science, Dr. Stone in a way is kind of the anime equivalent to Bill Nye the Science Guy. While the formula to freeing people from their stoned state (no, we’re not talking about drugs) is fictional, apparently, how they make gunpowder in this anime is based on real life principles. It’s funny that the anime also goes out of its way to discourage viewers to not try any of this at home.

Based on the award winning manga by Yumi Tamura, 7 Seeds takes place tens of thousands of years in the future as five selected groups consisting of seven individuals throughout Japan awaken from cryogenic slumber to rebuild the world. In this new world that has long since recovered from a devastating meteor shower, they must re-acquaint with the new and evolved life that is out there.

Once again, this anime emphasizes more on the survival aspects as seen in Kanata no Astra but still takes place in the future, but on Earth. Unfortunately, the technology to go to space is not possible, but like the crew of the Astra who have to learn about the conditions of every planet they explore, the heroes of this series also have to learn about the new world in terms of which plants are deadly, edible, and how to farm and engineer. Like the members of the Astra, many of the characters featured here are skilled in survival or something in terms of culture in order to contribute to the group.

This edition to the classic Uchuu Senkan Yamato series puts the word “remake” in a much more positive light. Not only is it faithful to the original series for fans, but is very welcoming to potential newbies as well. Taking place in the year 2199, Earth has one year left to live due to continuous nuclear attacks from the Gamilas Empire. In order to save the Earth, Starsha of the planet Iscandar has sent Earth the technology to come to her planet and gain more technology to reverse the effects of the attacks! To make the one year round trip to Iscandar, Earth’s greatest engineers retrofits the Yamato, a sunken World War II warship, into a spaceship! But it’s not the spaceship that makes a spaceship, it’s the crew which is what this series is about!

While it isn’t exactly a “lost in space” type of story akin to Kanata no Astra, it’s still a space opera about a crew. Though the original series mostly centers around Koudai, the remake focuses it on its ensemble cast with some members carried from the original, and some new members who are exclusively female to diversify the cast. Like Astra, you learn about a good majority of the characters and how their backgrounds and skills contribute to this journey across space for their very survival.