My thoughts about Hoshiai no Sora

The sky has always been infinite, really.

Every person living in this world doesn't really know their own purpose, and that is just an undeniable truth. Especially when we are children, or teenagers about to become adults, it feels so much more vulnerable. It is a risky time to discover things that are just starting to happen.

I watched Hoshiai no Sora during that transition time between middle school and high school. It was a point in my life where I was slowly starting to realize things about the purpose of living. I don't want to make this a complete analysis of the entire series because I don't feel like I am capable enough for that. Instead, I want to focus on an aspect people always seek an answer for: purposes.

As students, especially around middle school age, we develop a sense of living and slowly try to find our own individuality. We start to find things that are not completely black or white. We find the gray areas, the things that never have a definite answer. Sometimes a person can be wrong in their actions, but in their emotions or their motivations, there is nothing that can be clearly answered. If we cannot find a purpose, we might have to frame it with an underlying answer that fits our own narrative. People do that all the time. Sometimes we just need a reason, even if it is not right at all, because having something is always better than having nothing. We are all scared of being empty, right? If we can't find a reason, the only way left is to escape or run away.

Each character in this story is looking for that too. This "framing" is the boiling point of the entire show. All the members of the soft tennis club are like that. They need a place to escape from reality because there is no other way to handle it. Neglect, violence, and heavy situations hit them one by one until they are completely shattered. Even if you are rich or look happy on the surface, the underlying problems still exist.

This search for identity is even more intense for characters like Yuta. In a world that constantly demands you be one thing or another, realizing you exist in the space between, like being non-binary or X-gender, is a heavy weight to carry. It adds another layer to the struggle of finding a purpose. No child gets to decide their appearance, their gender, or their sexuality before they are born. They don't have any fault in being who they are, yet they are the ones who have to navigate the confusion.

The fragmented pieces of the families in this story remind me of so much. If one member has a problem, it means everyone involved with them, in the past or the present, has a problem too. It isn't a simple story about building a perfect, harmony-filled family. Those are rare. The real goal of a family should be making it a safe place to return to, not a place where you are worried or traumatized every single second.

People always say that parents are the strongest foundation for children to survive, but when they aren't, those children have to depend on themselves. They find their own way to make life feel a little less pressured. I remember hearing about the harmony between children and parents in my literature classes, but the reality in this show is much more bitter.

The sky and the stars are limitless because there is always potential for them to change and shift into different worlds. That requires a lot of determination and support from within themselves. It has to be their own, because nobody else can really direct them. The sky is still blue and infinite because it has no limitations on where it can go. But humans are restricted in their own places. To seek that kind of infinite freedom, we often have to sacrifice or give up on something.

Some of the characters in the story did change. Those changes were slowly building up, and they didn't come from the parents. They came from within. The sky still goes on its own way, and so do the stars. They align in their own time.