Manga / Asteroid in Love

From left to right: Ao, Mai, Mari, Mikage and Mira

Mira Konohata: How cool! I never knew I share a name with a star! What about you, Ao? Is there a star with your name?
Ao Manaka: No way, my name is too weird for that...

Mira: I don't think it's weird, I think it's cool! Besides, you can just name one after yourself?

Ao: Name one? Nah, maybe an asteroid... if I discover an asteroid, I get to name it...

Mira: Let's find one together, then! Let's do it! Find an asteroid!

When she was camping as a child, Mira Konohata meets Ao Manaka, who points out the existence of a star in the sky named after her. However, Mira becomes saddened to learn that there are no stars named Ao. The two would promise to explore the heavens and eventually get a star named after Ao. Years later, Mira enrolls at Hoshizaki High School and decides to join the astronomy club to fulfill her promise. A dwindling member count, however, causes the astronomy club to be merged with the Earth Sciences Club. While disappointed, Mira decides to join the Earth Sciences Club anyways and finds herself reunited with Ao.

Asteroid in Love (恋する小惑星, Koisuru Asteroid) is a Yonkoma manga by Quro which began serialization in Manga Time Kirara Carat in 2017. An anime adaptation began airing in January 2020: it is produced by Dogakobo and is available on Crunchyroll for viewing as well as a dub release by Funimation.

Asteroid in Love provides examples of:

Tropes A - C

• Accidental Discovery: One of the rocks Mira collects in the second episode split to reveal a fossil, much to Mikage's excitement.
• Accidental Pun: In the sixth episode of the dub, some of Mikage's classmates help her in boring into the school playground for the Earth Sciences club's exhibit for School Festival. Mikage reflects on the fact that they seem to be more interested in geology than she expected all along:
  Mikage: Before today, I just assumed my classmates would think geology was boring—no pun intended.
• The Ace: Nishina, a common friend of Endou and Hayakawa's when they were at the Shining Star Challenge. Not only she is good at astronomy, but she is also good at a wide range of subjects, including history and literature.
• Adaptation Deviation: In the manga, Ao having to move away come spring was revealed to the reader at the same time as her, and the rest of the cast learns of it via an Internal Reveal from Ao herself. In the anime, the viewer learns of it when Ao breaks down and tells the others.
• Adaptation Expansion: A minor case: When Chapter 8 is adapted as the last part of Episode 3, a scene of Mai talking to Mikage over the phone about how to draw a Treasure Map to Mira & co. This little bit is the source of that episode's title Memories are Treasures, as Mikage suggests to Mai that "whatever you find fun is the treasure", as well as the rare scene when Mikage doesn't show a single bit of Tsun.
• Adaptational Explanation: The manga never directly explains why it took so many years for Mira and Ao to reunite; the reason was only somehow implied in Chapter 26, as Ao is troubled over her father's impending transfer, and the fact that she'll have to say goodbye to her friends, at which point she mentions "things like this happened many times before" in her Internal Monologue. The anime adds a line to Ao's Internal Monologue during the part of the second episode that adapts Chapter 5, when she notes she "had to move far away" soon after they made The Promise.
• Adaptation Inspiration: While the manga follows generally the same plot as the anime, the manga is a lively comedy with sentimental bits mixed in. However the anime dials the sentimentality way up and chops a lot of the jokes — especially ones which portray the characters in a less-than-sentimental light — completely out. In addition, the anime's sedate animation and folksy, rustic soundtrack dampen the manga's madcap vibe further. It's at a point that the latter half of the Animated Adaptation is edging on being a dramedy. Some of the content that was cut or altered to make it more sentimental includes:
  • The opening chapter, where Mira can't sleep because she keeps getting up to try her uniform on and later she earns a vicious forehead flick from her sister Misa for sleeping through Misa's commencement speech, is almost entirely removed, and by extension so is Misa's (rather-unsentimental) Establishing Character Moment as a stern authority figure.
  • The scene where Mira and Ao first met had yonkoma sight gags like Mira jumping into the air alongside a whale when she hears about the constellation Cetus, imagining Jupiter hula-hooping when she hears it has 70 moons, and getting Black Bead Eyes and a Playful Cat Smile when she talks about Jupiter being "fancy". The anime plays the whole scene completely earnestly, with no Manga Effects at all.
  • Character reactions are more subdued, making the characters seem more restrained and level-headed (and them shifting into Super-Deformed mode is practically non-existent). In chapter 2, when Mira bursts into Ao's classroom and Suzu chastises her for overreacting, an embarrassed Suzu then physically hauls Ao out of her seat and tucks her under her arm like a purse while dragging Mira so hard her limp body flies off the ground and flops in the air. The anime completely omits this and cuts straight to them eating lunch on the roof.
  • When the Earth Sciences Club are trying to get a boring sample from the school grounds in chapter 19, newspaper club president Sayuri uses her attractive clubmate Usami as a Honey Trap to lure the baseball team into helping out. In the anime, Sayuri just shows up with the baseball team eager and ready to help, and no indication is given that she tricked them into helping — they're just overcome with school spirit, apparently.
  • In chapter 20, Monroe talks about her grandmother buying land on the moon for her grave, and Mira and Ao ask if that's why she decided to become an astronaut. This leads to a misconception where Mira and Ao think her grandma is dead, and when Monroe shows them some photos taken on Obon^note , the Japanese festival of the dead, they freak out about Spooky Photographs. The anime plays the scene for sentimentality and skips straight from Monroe talking about her grandma to showing them the photos, with nothing about ghosts or Obon.
• Adaptation Explanation Extrication:
  • Chapter 4 begins with Mira skipping a stone into the river, only for Sakurai to say she wanted to study it. This leads to Mira and Ao stripping down to their bathing suits and preparing to jump into the river to get it back. Later, in chapter 5, it's revealed Munroe-senpai was snapping pictures of this event. An impassioned Suzu shouts she'll buy the swimsuit photos off of Munroe-senpai. However, the anime cut the whole swimsuit section out, leading to Suzu going wild over completely mundane photos.
  • Most of the tenth chapter is not animated, thus how Mira discovers a fossil in one of the rocks she collected is never explained in the anime.
  • When The twenty-third chapter is adapted into the latter half of the seventh episode, the reason why Ao got sick in the first place is removed. In the manga, after Shiori discusses with Ao about Ao's father's job transfer, Ao falls into a Heroic BSoD and sat in the bath for three hours, and gets sick from it. In the adaptation, Shiori discusses with Ao on an unspecified matter, and on the next day, Ao falls sick. The thing about the bath is only raised as an off-hand comment. There is a purpose to it—to increase the impact of the following episode's Wham Line.
• Age-Stereotypical Food: Discussed during the Christmas Episode. The club accidentally made a hotpot that's too spicy for Mira and Mai, but to their seniors Mikage and Mari, the hotpot has a nice kick. Mai concludes resistance to spiciness is what people mean by an adult's palate... until Endou-sensei choked on the same hotpot's spiciness.
• All There in the Manual: The cast, as well as readers/viewers, takes for granted that Ao has a considerable level of book smarts. This, however, is never shown anywhere in the manga. The only clear support for this notion is from... Kirara Fantasia's character bios, which lists her as being "studious."
• Alliterative Family: The way the Konohata siblings were named starts with the syllable "Mi."
• Alphabetical Theme Naming: This is often the case of Family Theme Naming in this series. Both cases also fall into Rhyme Theme Naming.
  • The Konohata siblings' names are both bisyllabic names that start with "Mi" and end with the vowel A.
  • The Sakurai siblings' names both end with the kanji 景 (kage).
• Alternate Character Reading: The Japanese word for asteroids, 小惑星, is usually pronounced shouwakusei through on-yomi, which is also how the term is pronounced in the series. For this series's title, however, that phrase is glossed with the transliteration for "asteroid," thus the title is pronounced Koisuru Asteroid.
• Ambiguously Gay: While everyone in the cast knows Mira and Ao are very close, they have different views on the nature of their relationship. Moe compares them to a married couple, while others tend to see their relationship as platonic.
• Anachronic Order: Somehow downplayed than most Slice of Life works, since the latter half of the Animated Adaptation involves relatively plot- and drama-heavy material that is impossible to have their order switched. However, this is frequently seen in the early episodes; for example Chapter 16 is adapted between Chapters 7 and 8 during episode 3, and Chapter 9 adapted between Chapters 5 and 6 in Episode 2, which also necessitates a retcon on why they went to the hot springs in the first place.
• And Knowing Is Half the Battle: At the end of the TV broadcast of every episode, there's a small segment titled Sparkle Special which more fully discusses certain astronomy/geology knowledge points mentioned in that episode. For example, the one for the first episode involves Mira Konohata discusses Mira, the variable star in Cetus.
• And Then What?: Mira is asked a less judgmental variant of this question while at Ishigaki Island, namely about what she plans on doing after she discovers an asteroid with Ao. She admits that she doesn't know yet, but says she'll find another goal to pursue.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • In the eighth episode, Misa asks Ao whether she's told her parents that she doesn't want to move, a possibility that neither Ao nor any of the others had brought up in the preceding discussion.
  • Mikage makes this during the tenth episode. Moe agrees to teach her chocolate making for Valentine's, and give her a list of ingredients she needs to bring for the session. Mikage then suggests buying chocolate ingredients for Moe as well, which reminds Moe of her situation with Misa.
    Mikage: You're giving some out, right? Either friendship chocolate or Chocolate of Romance? (Emphasis in the manga.)
• Art Shift: In an unanimated part of the eighth chapter, when Mai describes the first time she met Mikage (and "fall into admiration"), Mikage's face is drawn in Shoujo style, in addition to the Bishie Sparkles that is also seen in the anime.
• Bait-and-Switch Sentiment: Played straight in the manga, but averted in the anime. When the Earth Sciences Club need help with their boring sample, Ayano rounds up the baseball team. However, it quickly becomes apparent they've got the hots for Ayano herself. That was removed from the anime, however, making it appear the baseball team just has an excess of school spirit.
• Bathos: The Earth Sciences Club's emergency meeting in Chapter 27—animated as the last segment of Episode 8 — is one of the most solemn moments of the entire series at the time of writing (May 2020). However, it is written with several humourous spots interspersed with the solemn nature of it:
  • Mai convenes the meeting with cuts of Mira and Ao at different levels of Heroic BSoD, while Ayano comments on the meeting's unusual urgency. Sayuri then suggests a title for a farewell party.
  • Mikage flicks on Mira's head to stop the latter from wallowing in self-pity, and recalls what she should do to help with the situation. Then Moe barges in and attempts to take Ao away for elopement.
  • After discussing a few possible options that they found to be impractical, and Mikage explains to Ao why they're going out of their way trying to help Mira and Ao, Misa comes into the clubroom... with Groucho Marx glasses on her face and other things that look more like party supplies, before she gives her suggestion, which eventually becomes the solution.
• Be Yourself: This is what Misa tells Moe as the former leaves for college, which also serves as an indirect rejection to the latter's Love Confession.
• Beach Episode: The fourteenth chapter, animated in the fifth episode, involves Moe, Mira, Ao, and Mai visiting the beach at the end of the summer vacation.
• Beautiful Dreamer: The unanimated end of the seventh chapter sees Ao falls asleep in Mira's room, probably from her exchange with Misa. Mira then notices Ao has a "nice sleeping face," and attempts to nap next to her, only to be pulled back to study by Moe.
• Big "NO!": During the School Festival, Ao lets out this when her mother Shiori tries to take photos of her in meido outfit at the Earth Sciences Club's booth.
• Big "WHAT?!":
  • Mira lets out a loud shout of shock when she learns that the "boy" she'd been daydreaming about for years is actually a girl.
  • Mai gives out one of these when Mari and Mikage step down as president and vice-president of the club at the end of the sixth episode and naming Mai as president.
  • When Ao sees Sayuri dangling over their clubroom, her original response is more a "Little 'What!?'", but in the dub, her response falls into this by changing it to "What. The. Heck!?"
• Bishie Sparkle: In the eighth chapter, animated in the third episode, Mai sees Mikage with these when they first met.
• Bland-Name Product:
  • Georgia Max, a highly sweetened canned coffee that is iconic in the Kanto region, is known as "Goalgia Mix" here.
  • Ao, Endou, and Hayakawa eats at a fast-food restaurant that serves burgers and root beer and is called A&M, in reference to A&W, an American fast-food chain popular in Okinawa due to the American influence there. Although, many viewers take that to also mean "Ao & Mira".
• Blank White Eyes: Both Mira and Ao gets it during the tenth episode, when they found out one of them gets into the Shiny Star Challenge while the other doesn't.
• Blazing Inferno Hellfire Sauce: Downplayed during the Christmas Episode. Ao gets a bit too Literal-Minded on Mira's instructions and added a whole bag of chili powder to the hot pot broth. Mira, Mai and Endou find it unbearably spicy, but Mikage and Mari just sees it as a nice kick. Mai suggests that the trope of Age-Stereotypical Food may be in operation.
• Blue with Shock:
  • In a part of the twenty-seventh chapter not adopted into anime, Mai gets blue with shock when Sayuri gets the wrong idea about why the Earth Science Club has to convene an emergency meeting.
  • Ao gets it twice in the thirty-ninth chapter: when she found Ayano bought books about torture and weapons from the bookstore, and then the latter give Mira and Ao some of her drafts and mentions it has some rather "overstimulating" content because Sayuri likes it.
  • Ao gets it again in the forty-first chapter, when she (and the rest of the cast) overhears Moe's lustful squeeing as the latter stays alone in Ao's room.
• Blunt "No": In the third chapter, the Earth Sciences Club brainstorms for activities for the coming year, as well as the title of the proposed newsletter. Throughout the chapter, Mikage frequently cries out "REJECTED!" to Mira's suggestions, for one reason or the other.
• Book Ends:
  • Episode 1 of the anime begins with a young Mira and Ao looking up at the stars and promising to discover an asteroid together. Episode 12 ends with Mira and Ao, now second-years in high school, once again looking up at the stars and renewing that promise, having failed to discover an asteroid during the Shining Star Challenge.
  • Used in a smaller scale in Chapter 2. The author deliberately made the second and second last strip—24 hours apart in in-universe time—similar in structure. Moe enters the classroom and sees Mira playing with her phone, and the conversation surrounds Ao, the Childhood Friend Mira reunited a day before that. The difference is Mira is gloomy on the first day because she mistook Ao's very stiff response to her texts to mean Ao doesn't like her anymore. By the end of the chapter, Mira is happy, after their first Stargazing Scene-over-the-phone and resolved all the misunderstandings.
• Boy Meets Girl: Subverted. At the beginning of the story, Mira wants her story with Ao to be like this. The "Girl meets Boy" and "Girl loses Boy" phases are there... but then what comes next becomes "Girl regains Boy, only to know the "boy" is actually a girl".
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: In the seventeenth chapter, Mira makes an Aside Glance to the reader as she beings to doubt whether Mai and Sayuri really get along like Mai said.
• Call-Back: In the forty-fifth chapter, Mikage suggests Mira to get some School Festival ideas from her time at Shining Star Challenge. Mira took a whole strip recalling different spots of the trip, which eventually brought her to an idea.
• Call-Forward: Mari's flashback in Chapter 31 regarding the early days of the Earth Sciences Club's merger ends a little bit before Mira and Moe enter the clubroom in Chapter 1. Specifically, it ends by an explanation of why Ao is already there at that scene—she arrived at the clubroom minutes after school ended and immediately filed a membership application that she already filled out. Since Japanese schools usually give new students about a week to "experience" different Japanese School Clubs before committing to one, Ao's committing to their club that early surprised Mari, if not the other members Mikage and Mai.
• Celebratory Body Tossing: In the thirtieth chapter, Mira, Ao and Mai attempts to toss Mari in the air in celebration of the latter finally getting into her first-choice college, considering Mari didn't get the first time around. Mikage stops them, since Mari would eventually come down, or "drop"—and in Japanese, "drop" is the same word as "fail".
• Cerebus Syndrome: Downplayed. The first 21 chapters of manga, or the first half of the anime, despite very occasional discussion of personal goals (or the lack thereof), is not very different from most other series in Manga Time Kirara that received Animated Adaptations. Since then, however, the direction made a more realistic, Coming of Age Story turn, with emphasis on how the cast's personal problems and how they resolve it through Character Development. The seventh episode, which adapts chapters 22-24, has 3-4 examples of Heroic BSoD, depending on the version, which is seldom seen in Schoolgirl Series. Yet, true to Schoolgirl Series, the tone remains optimistic, and the dramatic elements are interspersed with humour.
• Changing Chorus: The ending theme Yozora("Night Sky," by Minori Suzuki) has a different chorus with its second verse.
  • The chorus for the first verse and coda:
    The future we pictured
    lies along a far-distant path
    There may be smiles, there may be tears
    I wish I can share them with you
    If, in the reaches of the shining sky,
    there's something you want to search for,
    Trust that you're not alone,
    and we can set out
  • The chorus for the second verse:
    I hope what I wish to do
    will shine upon this world we see
    There may be hopes, there may be doubts
    I wish we could illuminate each other
    I'm crossing the boundaries of time
    because there's something I want to make happen
    Let us burn like the stars
    and color up the night sky
• Childhood Friends:
  • While they'd only spent time together briefly as children, Mira and Ao struck up a fast friendship that left a lasting impression on both.
  • Moe and Mira have also known each other since childhood, to the point where Moe is fiercely protective of Mira.
  • Mai and Keiko had been doing urban exploration when they were in elementary school, which is the origin of Mai's interest in cartography.
• Childhood Friend Romance: Subverted. For many years Mira harbours a romantic crush on Ao, and intended to have a romantic relationship with the latter when they reunited. Cue Mira's shock when she learns that Ao is actually a girl.
• Childish Pillow Fight: In the forty-first chapter, Mira, Ao, Moe, Chikage and Yuu are trying to finish their summer homework at Mira's house. Moe suggests doing this since that is the first time she has a sleepover, but the others rejected the idea since none of them finished their homework. The Yes/No pillows Moe takes out don't help matters^note It is usually used by couples to show whether they want to have sex.
• Chocolate of Romance: During the Valentine's Day Episode, Moe gives Misa one of these in full honmei-choco mode, which is effectively a Love Confession. It is also through this that Moe comes out as a lesbian, somewhat a rarity in Kirara series, but won't be surprising in-universe.
• Christmas Episode: In chapter twenty-six, adapted in episode eight, the club enjoys a hot pot and stargazes. The girls of the newspaper club get in on this, too, dressing up in seasonal costumes.
• Chromosome Casting: The recurring cast is all female. It somehow avoided falling into Improbably Female Cast, however, by making all professional scientists male, as the area is still mostly male.
• Cicadian Rhythm: A cicada appears at the beginning of Ao's flashback in the first episode, to clarify it was summer when the events of the flashback happened, especially since the scene immediately before and after the flashback is clearly in the first days of April.
• Club Stub:
  • The Astronomy Club and Geology Clubs saw a decline in members in the previous year, so to save the clubs, they were merged. However, with few accomplishments under their belt, their initial funding for club activities remains limited.
  • Similarly, the newspaper club only has two members.
• Color-Coded Characters: The anime gives a color code to most characters. While Ao's blue and Mikage's red are the most obvious, Mira's orange and Mai's green also suit their personalities.
• Comically Missing the Point:
  • Mikage and Ao discuss Mai's entry into the Earth Sciences Olympiad in Chapter 25/ Episode 8. Mira imagines what it entails... by drawing a few earth sciences-themed sporting events on the club whiteboard. Mikage has to clarify despite the "olympiad" in its name, it has nothing to do with sports.
  • When Mai convenes an emergency meeting for the Earth Sciences Club (and tags the Newspaper Club along) to brainstorm for how to help Ao with her imminent departure from town. Sayuri then make suggestions for a farewell party, complete with a proposed title. Mai has to loudly clarify they're talking about Ao's Goal in Life.
• Comically Serious: While working at the Suzuya bakery, Suzu mentions the bakery doesn't need any more space-themed bread since the croissant represents the crescent. Mira and Ao, being astronomy enthusiasts, complain it's not a new moon, but a seventh-day moon.
• Coming of Age Story: Relatively unusual among series serialized in Manga Time Kirara^note The other series with palatable emphasis of this are Doujin Work, Hidamari Sketch, Hanayamata, and New Game!., this series gives a large emphasis on how the cast seeks personal growth and working towards different goals. More obvious are cases of Grew a Spine that Ao and Mai go through, but even Mira, who is otherwise relatively static, also sees improvement in her intellectual side.
• Coming Of Age Queer Romance: A side storyline in has 15-year-old Moe, whose obsession with "collecting the girls' info" more than implies her interest in women, finally getting over her Cannot Spit It Out over her crushing over Misa and gives the latter a Love Confession right before Misa graduates from high school. Subverted in that Misa is implied to have declined it by asking her to Be Yourself rather than admiring her. Moe seems to take it rather gracefully, though, outside of a Significant Haircut.
• Coming-Out Story: Part of the ninth episode deals with Moe's Love Confession towards Misa, and how she struggles with it. She does not openly declare her sexuality, but the fact she did that is implied to be known to some of the cast, if off-screen.
• Commuting on a Bus: After Mikage and Mari Graduate from the Story on the thirtieth chapter, they no longer take an active role in the story. However, they appear relatively often, as the kouheis of the Earth Sciences Club often call them for advice.
• Compressed Adaptation: The twenty-ninth chapter suffers from this when it is adapted as part of the ninth episode. The process of Mikage making her Platonic Valentine with Moe is compressed into a montage since the part about Moe's Love Confession is considered more important.
• Continuity Nod:
  • In the twenty-fifth chapter, Mai finds the astronomy questions of the Earth Sciences Olympiad easier than she thought. Then she recalls now she is in the same club with astronomy enthusiasts like Mira and Ao. Mai's flashbacks of what Mira and Ao said in the clubroom are indeed the preparations for the children's stargazing event, three chapters ago.
  • The anime created messaging avatars for Misa, Yuuko, and Shiori, all of which are continuity nods of some type.
    • Misa's avatar is the banded stone Mira gives her in the seventh chapter, adopted in the third episode.
    • Yuuko's avatar is the characters from Mira's manga columns in the Earth Sciences Club newsletter, first seen in the ninth chapter, adopted in the second episode.
    • Shiori's avatar is a blob-like creature, which is from her illustration for a textbook's Standard Model chart. Mira shows it to Ao in an anime-only part of the third episode.
  • Mira's manga characters appear again in the thirty-second chapter, adopted in the tenth episode. This time, Mira draws them on the Earth Science Club's recruitment signs.
• Conveniently Seated: Per the anime tradition, Mira, as the protagonist, sits at the window corner seat during her first-year, and Moe sits at the seat in front of Mira.
• Conversation Cut: Right after the A Minor Kidroduction in the first episode, Time Skips to Mira's first day at high school. As she walks to the homeroom after the speech...
  Mira: As of today, I'm a high schooler! And the one thing I'm looking for the most in high school is...
  (Cut to Mira reading the club listings after school)
  Mira: (Goes Ocular Gushers) GONE!
• Corner of Woe: In the twenty-fourth chapter of the manga, Mira, Ao and Mai all go into this when it's revealed Mari doesn't go into her preferred college by the means of recommendation. As Mikage explains why she and Mari never mentioned their college admissions (to avoid her underclassmen from getting too depressed over it), she also goes into the Corner of Woe as she realizes it was also her fault about her announcing her own acceptance the previous day.
• Cosplay Café: The Earth Sciences Club's exhibit during Mira's first year involved having a classroom turned into a cafe with exhibits related to astronomy and geology, while the members dress up as meido and serve desserts from the Suzuya Bakery. Most of the members are embarrassed by their costumes, but for a Club Stub visibility is key to their continued survival.
• Cover Innocent Eyes and Ears: In the seventeenth chapter, Mira shows pictures she took of Hoshizaki's School Festival the year before. When it comes to the Literature club, Mira mentions that club was reprimanded because some pornography got mingled in other books in their second-hand book sale. Mikage immediately covers up Mai's eyes as Mira's picture gets mosaiced.
• Cradle of Loneliness: Played for Laughs. At the beginning of the twenty-second chapter, adapted in the seventh episode, Mai is found holding onto Mikage's belongings in this position while going Ocular Gushers, still under the shock of being named as the club president.
• Cranial Eruption: In the seventeenth chapter, the Earth Science Club attempted to brainstorm some story ideas for the Newspaper Club, and some of Mira's suggestions are plainly unflattering references to Mikage. We see Mikage standing at Mira and Sayuri's backs rather pissed off, and in the next panel, Mira gets these.
• Creator Cameo: When the Earth Sciences Club is brainstorming the title for their newsletter in the third chapter (adapted in the first episode), Mikage suggests Mica Time Kirara Carat, using Alternate Character Readings for the mineral mica. This series is serialized in Manga Time Kirara Carat.
• Cross-Popping Veins: When Mira opens Ao's packing boxes without the latter's permission during the thirty-first chapter, and finds an item addressed to her, the latter character yelled, "don't open my things without my permission!" with a few cross-popping veins on the speech bubble.
• Curtains Match the Window: Mira has brown hair and eyes, Ao has blue hair and eyes, Sakura has red hair and eyes, and Moe has violet hair and eyes.
• Cute Sports Club Manager: In the nineteenth chapter (adapted as part of the sixth episode), Hoshizaki's otherwise all-male baseball team has a girl as its manager, and due to the art style, she's rather easy on the eyes.
• Cuteness Overload: Moe does this several times. The first time is in the second chapter, when she gets overloaded with Ao's rather bashful apology about "not sending cute replies" to Mira the previous night. At that point, Moe pretty much sits away like she was having a Corner of Woe moment, but she is completely ecstatic. The anime downplays it somewhat, but Moe is squeeing rather loudly.

Tropes D - F

• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: The plot in the seventh episode about Mai's problem in taking pictures boils down to this. She is familiar with taking pictures with a smartphone. When she needs to use a camera to take pictures for the club, though, she holds it in such a way it always shakes when she presses the shutter, causing a persistent shakey cam problem.
• Date Peepers: In the eighth chapter (animated in the third episode of the anime), Mira and Ao oversaw Moe and Mai walking around town acting like they were dating, although they are quickly found out as Mira has been tweeting about it all the way. It's eventually subverted, since Moe and Mai are checking out an enclave of a neighbouring city on their own. It's particularly ironic since Mira considers her outing with Ao as a date.
• Death Glare: Played for Laughs. During the tenth chapter, Ao becomes extremely furious by Mikage's statement that the latter "doesn't mind" if Mira gets interested in geology and move to the Geology Group instead. At that point, she is drawn with cross-shaped glares larger than her eyes and her Girlish Pigtails flying horizontally, such that Mikage gives out Tears of Fear.
• Debating Names: The latter half of the third chapter involves a debate on the title of the Earth Science Club's proposed newsletter. The debate comes from the fact the ESC was recently formed by the merger of the Astronomy and Geology clubs due both to them having too few members, which means all the initial suggestions were very provincial on their own side—Mira, a new member but an astronomy enthusiast, suggests "Find an Asteroid!". Mikage, the senior member of the geology section, accuses Mira of provincialism and then suggests a name after... mica. Eventually Ao suggests the use of "Sparkle," since it's a common attribute between stars and gems.
• A Degree in Useless: Towards the end of Chapter 35, which is adapted in the middle of the eleventh episode, Endou tells fellow Shiny Star Challenge alumna Hayakawa back at the time, she never thought both of them would become teachers. The translator's note of the Chinese fan translation notes interprets that line as "Implying it's hard to get a job with an earth-sciences major." There's no indication if that's what Quro means, though.
• Delicious Distraction: In chapter twenty-two / seventh episode, the Earth Sciences Club works as volunteer instructors for a children's stargazing event. Since the children are not listening to their teachings, Suzu and Megu give them cookies to quiet them down.
• Didn't Think This Through: During the second-year barbecue in the thirty-third chapter, Mira tries out a homemade Baumkuchen recipe she read. What she doesn't realize is, the nature of baumkuchen means she needs to grill dozens of layers of cake on a spit, making the process more tedious than she thought.^note The anime removed this gag by having Moe — who does not show up in the manga — do the deed.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: The opening theme, Aruite Ikou!, is sang by Nao Tōyama (Mikage).
• Don't Celebrate Just Yet: In a part of the ninth episode adapted from the twenty-ninth chapter, Mira starts putting welcoming banners around her house when she hears from her mother that Ao's mother is willing to consider the plan for Ao to live in the Konohata residence, and will discuss with her husband. Misa has to remind Mira that it's hardly a done deal.
• Double Date: Subverted in the seventh chapter, animated in the third episode. Mira thinks this is happening not long after she declares her shopping trip with Ao a date, when they notice Moe and Mai together and even buying ice creams. Turns out Moe and Mai are checking out an enclave of a neighbouring city in their own.
• Dramatic Drop: In the seventh chapter (animated in the third episode of the anime), Moe is carrying a box of cream puffs to Mira's room, and sees what looks like to be her crush Misa seducing Ao. Moe drops the box on the floor out of shock.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: The events of the second chapter (or the second segment of the first episode), is caused by Ao, freaking out as she reads the profuse stream of text messages Mira sends her, decides to consult a book on business emails to help her reply the texts. Ao's very formal response to Mira's texts makes Mira mistake Ao doesn't like her anymore.
• Dream Sequence: The first strip of the tenth chapter sees people from 10,000 years later finding fossils of the Earth Sciences Club when they attempt to find resources. Turns out it's Mira narrating her dream to the rest of the club.
• Drives Like Crazy: When Mikage mentions in the twenty-eighth chapter that she is getting a driver's licence, Mai and Mira fall silent as they are having an Imagine Spot about Mikage going this when she drives. Eventually subverted, however, since Mikage drives responsibly when she drives the club to Tsukuba in the eleventh episode.
• Dub-Induced Plot Hole: Inverted. When Misa sets up a shrine for Mira's banded stone seventh chapter, adapted as the first segment of the third episode, she says "Still, an asteroid, huh? Mira's set a big dream for herself." This indicates Misa never knew Mira takes asteroid discovery as the latter's Goal in Life. However, the same chapter also establishes that Misa knows well about the past between Mira and Ao, which is why the asteroid thing exists in the first place. Funimation's dub changes that line to "[Mira] still wants an asteroid", meaning Misa knows it all along.
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness:
  • Moe's eyes lose their gloss in the first chapter/episode, when Mikage presses her to join the geology side of the Earth Science Club, up to and including using a set of power stones as sweetener.
  • She does it again in the second volume's Print Bonus. When doing summer homework with Mira and Ao, that's her response to all the other two's talk about the club's summer camp, owing to her spending the summer vacation tending Suzuya Bakery.
• Early-Bird Cameo: In the manga, Yuu and Chikage only appears in flesh during the thirty-second chapter. In the anime, they first appeared as School Festival visitors during the sixth episode (which mostly adapts the nineteenth and twentieth chapters). Chikage appears once more in the part of the eighth episode that adapts the twenty-fifth chapter, as one of the participants of the Earth Science Olympiad.
• Edutainment: The series provides elementary astronomy and geology knowledge. This is straighter in the forty-third and forty-fourth chapters, where a large portion is about compositions of rocks and different types of clouds, respectively.
• Elopement: Played for Laughs. When the Earth Sciences Club is brainstorming on how to help Ao, who is moving away with her parents, Suzu barges in, takes Ao away on Princess Carry, and declares they are eloping. It only ends when Mira tells Suzu's missing the point; it's their Goal in Life that's at stake.
• Empty Nest: Shiori's initial objection for Ao to stay in town is partly due to this; she specifically noted that no parent would like to part with their children.
• Energetic and Soft-Spoken Duo: Mira and Ao follow this dynamic. Mira is a spontaneous, energetic person with No Indoor Voice and endless enthusiasm for just about everything, while Ao is a more intellectual and thoughtful person who is uncomfortable speaking to others, except Mira. The complementary nature of the two is lampshaded in this exchange in the fifth chapter / second episode, after Ao notes that finding an asteroid is increasingly difficult:
  Mira: She sure knows a lot about this stuff, so I'm sure her worry is more justified than mine. Ao! Don't worry! I'll do everything I can to help you! I'll study super hard to catch up to your knowledge! Let's do our best together!
  Ao: How could she think she needs to catch up? She's always the one in the lead, pulling me along behind her.
• Every Episode Ending: When every episode of the anime ends, the ending theme usually plays 10-15 seconds before the ending credits start running. In nearly every episode, Mira gives a summary and how she thinks of the episode's events, with the exception of the sixth and tenth episodes, when it's used to deliver a Wham Line and a Wham Shot, respectively.
• Everybody Calls Him "Barkeep": Defied during the fifth chapter (adapted as part of the second episode). Moe finds the entire Earth Sciences Club calling Mari and Mikage "President" and "Vice-President" a bit too formal, and asks Mira to give them nicknames.
• Expressive Hair: In the KiraKira Special Issue segment following Episode 7, Mira and Ao discusses meteor showers. Towards the end of the segments, the two goes up to the school roof. As Ao provides suggestions to observe those (without any telescopes!), Mira's sidetail starts to flap up and down, and combining that and her star-shaped hairpins:
  Ao: Mira, you're having meteor hair.
• Extra-Long Episode: The Ishigaki arc's chapters, serialized during the anime run, are 10 pages each instead of the standard of 8 pages.
• Family Business: The Suzuya bakery is owned by Moe's parents. Moe and Megu also need to help with their business, and Moe is too busy with her responsibilities to commit to any Japanese School Club.
• Family Theme Naming:
  • The several females of the Suzuya household have plant-themed names: Moe (budding), her sister Megu (bud), and their mother Hana (flower).
  • The Sakurai siblings both contains the kanji "kage", which means "scenery."
  • The names of the Konohata siblings are just one consonant apart.
• Feminine Leg Swish: At the beginning of Chapter 15 (animated as the second segment of Episode 5 of the Animated Adaptation), Mira, who is the more feminine of the main duo, is shown waving her feet in the air in a scissoring motion while reading an astronomy magazine on her bed. For the sake of comparison, her Pseudo-Romantic Friendship partner, the Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak Ao, tends to sit on the bed when reading.
• Feud Episode: Most of the thirty-first chapter (animated in the ninth episode) is about a minor argument between Mira and Ao on Ao's first day living in the Konohata household.
• Finishing Each Other's Sentences: In the third chapter, the main duo has this exchange after looking Earth Sciences Club's predecessor clubs' activity roster and noticing there're little or no overlap between those. The immediate response from the other members is wondering whether Mira was Ao's interpreter (in the manga), or the two were Mindlink Mates (in the anime).
  Ao: I think we should remedy that—
  Mira: A joint project, huh? We could just do the previous activities together, or coming up with something entirely new.
• First-Name Basis: As noted in Last-Name Basis, Mira calls nearly every member of the cast by nicknames that are mostly based on their last names, except Ao. This is one of the several things that indicate the closeness between the two.
• Food as Bribe: Moe may have accidentally invoked this during the School Festival if Mira didn't stop her in a part of the twenty-first chapter that isn't animated. Specifically, when her crush Misa the Student Council President visits the Earth Sciences Club's booth as a panelist of the booth food contest, Moe is seen making half a dozen pancakes to impress Misa. Mira reminds Moe she'd get disqualified if she bribes the panelists, and eventually, Moe serves Misa a single pancake, like any other customer.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Mira and Misa Konohata follow this dynamic. Mira is an energetic Genki Girl who is known to be not particularly intelligent, while Misa is a composed Cool Big Sis who has a Teen Genius reputation.
• Footnote Fever: The major Chinese fan translation seems to involve a team that has experience with geology and/or astronomy. They describe each star mentioned as footnotes and gives the readers pages — more than 4 pages per chapter in some chapters — of scientific introductions. On the other hand, the typesetter gives asides on their explorations.
• Forgets to Eat: Played for Laughs. During the twentieth chapter (adapted in the sixth episode), the Astronomy Group is so absorbed stargazing at Mira's room after wrapping up School Festival preparations that they do not realize they are hungry, until Moe brings her desserts in and fans at the three other girls to induce a Growling Gut.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: During the ninth episode, Ao gives Shiori a plan for living at Mira's house called "Proposal for a New Life," compiled by her friends. Its content only appeared for a second or so, and Crunchyroll only translates its heading. Some of its contents become essential to understand some of what Ao does to follow Mira to Ishigaki. To cope with the extra expenses arising from her living separately, she has to work at the Suzuya Bakery; and this is why she gets can get a salary advance from Moe.
• Friendship Song: The ending theme Yōzora is mainly about the importance of friends (or one friend) in the path to the Goal in Life.
• Friendship Trinket: Ao puts a whale charm on her bag to remind her of the childhood promise with Mira.
• Fun with Acronyms: When the Earth Sciences club arrives at Endou's grandparents' home in the eleventh chapter, animated in the fourth episode, Ao notices the grandfather wears a cap with the letters JAXA (Japan Aerospace sXploration Agency) on it. The gang first thought he is a retiree of JAXA's, but it turns out he's a farmer who is also a space nut—he added the letters "XA" on a cap provided by JA, or Japan Agricultual Cooperatives.
• Funny Background Event: When Shiho explains to Mira the operating principles of Cassegrain reflecting telescope in the thirty-fifth chapter, we see Ao startled at that in the background. In the next panel, we see the latter blocking Mira from Shiho.

Tropes G - J

• Gag Series: While being a bit more sentimental than many Kirara series, Asteroid in Love consists of 4-panel gag strips. Even in the most serious scenes the authors still put gags with every strip.
• Girl Watching: Moe's confessed hobby is "collecting the girls' info," which boils down to this trope. As shown in Suzu's Research and even in the main series, she enjoys seeing the girls' Charm Points, as well as being curious how they act in different situations (especially Mira and Ao).
• Giver of Lame Names: The bread at the Suzuya Bakery often have strange names. They call a cream bun "The Fairy's Ocarina", a red tea-flavoured melon bun "The English Maid's Awakening", and meat pies "The Secret Garden''. During the sixteenth chapter, both Mira and Ao commented they have a weird naming sense, bordering on Chuunibyou.
• Giving Up the Ghost: In this series, this trope indicates nothing worse than emotional shock.
  • In the fifth chapter, Mira does this when Ao mentions discovering an asteroid is increasingly difficult.
  • A more dramatic version occurs in the thirty-fourth chapter, when both Mira and Ao are having a Heroic BSoD when it turns out one of them is accepted to the Shining Star Challenge while the other doesn't make it. Mira goes Blank White Eyes and have this at the same time.
• Graduate from the Story: Mikage, Mari, and Misa graduate from high school in the thirtieth chapter / ninth episode. While Mikage and Mari still occasionally help with the club, the three are effectively Commuting on a Bus.
• Growling Gut:
  • Invoked during the twentieth chapter (adapted in the sixth episode). Moe brings her desserts in and fans at the Astronomy Group to induce this, as they're getting close to Forgets to Eat.
  • During the thirty-fifth chapter, while on the taxi out of the Ishigaki airport, Ao has this because she's on a shoestring budget and has to forego lunch.
• Harsh Word Impact:
  • In the eighteenth chapter, Mira and Ao gives Moe some potential designs of refreshments to use in the School Festival, and Moe rejected some of them due to being physically impossible to make. An arrow with the words "Rejected" stabs into Ao head as she does Blank White Eyes, since she designed all of the rejected ones.
  • In the twenty-second chapter, Mai recalls Moe was extremely depressed at her results at the School Festival's booth food competition. Two arrows, one with "Suzuya Production" and the other with "Second Place", is seen stabbed into Moe in Mai's recollection.
• Hearing Voices: Discussed for Laughs. During the Shiny Star Challenge, Shiho asks Ao why the latter would take the unusual action of coming all the way to Okinawa just to become an observer. After explaining the story behind it, Shiho's mood sours... since she originally expected the answer to be on the lines of "guidance by voices from the outer space."
• Heroic BSoD:
  • Four instances of characters in shock during the seventh episode:
    • Mai is in a days-long shock after she unexpectedly named the president at the sixth episode.
    • While Played for Laughs, Moe is in a shocked stupor for days owing her wares only get the second place in School Festival's best food competition, losing to the Manga Club.
    • Mari is clearly shocked because she can't enter the university she wants by recommendation. As Mai, Mira, and Ao noticed, Mari is walking wobbly and dejected the following morning.
    • Ao has one earlier that episode, after learning from her mother they may have to leave the town. She sat in the bath for so long that she gets sick.
  • The following episode, after Mira hears from Ao about her family moving away, she gets depressed about how she didn't notice, and thinks of herself as "a failure of a friend," before Mikage flicks her in the forehead and snaps her out of it, saying Mira should be contributing ideas of how to stay close to Ao.
  • In the thirty-fourth chapter / tenth episode, both Mira and Ao get it together as they found one of them is accepted in the Shining Star Challenge and the other didn't get in. Neither Mai (in the manga) or the Newspaper Club (in the anime) can help them, and, like last time, it takes Mikage to yell them out of depression.
• Hesitation Equals Dishonesty:
  • Played for Laughs in the sixteenth chapter, adapted in the sixth episode. Megu asks Ao if Moe is getting along with the girls from the club, and Ao pauses as she thinks of all the embarrassing things Moe did with them. Ao says, "I think she's fine," with an aside that Moe is "having a lot of fun," but Megu skeptically says "That pause just now..."
  • Played for Drama: During Ao's Sick Episode, Mai suspects something is wrong with Ao beyond having a cold when the latter explains, after a bit of hesitation, that she has been thinking about a book about asteroid discovery. Mai is right; Ao isn't thinking about that book at all. She's distressed about having to move again, and by extension, part ways with Mira for the second time.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: While in the beginning there's some level of enmity between Mikage and Mari, by the time they Graduate from the Story, they become very close. While in the manga they don't live in the same apartment as in anime (their buildings are across a narrow street), Chapter 46 shows Mikage sometimes cooks for Mari, while Mira expects the two to be together in the evenings in case she needs help.
• High-Pressure Emotion: During the second chapter, Ao gets this after Mira happily tells her the latter has been learning a lot about astronomy due to Ao's influence. Steam comes out from her head, followed by her collapses on the balcony.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Sayuri want to find some scoops to blackmail the Earth Science Club, because the latter's newsletter is more popular than the school newspaper they make. But then she blurted out all her intentions to everyone in the club, and Mari recorded all that to use as a bargaining chip towards the Newspaper Club.
• Homoerotic Subtext:
  • Mira and Ao's first meeting. In no more than a few hours, they not only made The Promise but continues to treasure the person they met, and the promise they made, despite having not seen each other for years before the story started. As a result, Moe declares them Old Flame.
  • In Chapter 7 (animated in Episode 3), both Moe and Misa realize Mira's self-made romance manga always have the Love Interest modelled upon Ao (whom she mistook for a boy for years). The implication of Mira having a crush on Ao, at least before knowing Ao's actually a girl, is not forgotten, since Mira at this point specifically forbids Ao from reading that manga.
  • Ao's With a Foot on the Bus situation is resolved by her living in Mira's house because Misa's room becomes vacant owing to the latter going to college out of town. When Nanami learns the two living under the same roof, her first reaction is accusing the two of being more than just friends.
• Honey Trap: Played for Laughs. In the manga, the Newspaper Club gets the Baseball Team members to help with Mikage's boring (as in drilling) exhibit by claiming they're being interviewed by Ayano, who does look reasonably beautiful, but then Generic Cuteness applies to this series.
• Hot Springs Episode: The Earth Sciences club visits a hot spring during the sixth chapter / second episode and discuss the health benefits surrounding different types of mineral water in the hot springs.
• Human Cannonball: During the forty-first chapter, the cast mentions the Dobsonian telescope. After looking at a few pictures of it, Chikage thinks they look like human cannons, and Mira falls into an Imagine Spot of her using it to launch into the space to find asteroids. Ao has to tell Mira that's not possible.
• Hyperspace Holmes Hat: In the KiraKira Special Issue segment for volume 5, Mikage, Mai and Endo-sensei discusses strata, index fossils, and facies fossils. Since the latter two can, respectively, indicate the timing and geological nature of the layer, suddenly Mikage (and eventually Mai) changes into full Sherlock Holmes costume, since they think it's like of like resolving a mystery.
• Immaturity Insult: During Chapter 39, Mira shows she is very good to children. At this point, Yuu wondered aloud whether that's because Mira, who's rather ditzy, is more similar to children. Chikage has to shut Yuu up for Innocently Insensitive.
• I Should Write a Book About This: Sayuri attempts invoking this when the incident regarding Ao's impending move out of town is resolved by Ao and Mira entering moving in together. Upon hearing the resolution, she thought the entire story "sounds like it comes straight out a soap drama" and would like to write it in the school newspaper, but Ao and Mira runs away before Sayuri has the chance to interview them deeper.
• I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: Played for Laughs in Chapter 27 / Episode 8, when Moe attempts takes Ao away in the name of "elopement".
• If You Call Before Midnight Tonight: During the first chapter/episode, Mikage did a hard sell to Moe for her side of the club, up to and including giving a "for new members only" "power stone set".
• Imagine Spot: As a Kirara yonkoma, the manga frequently uses Super-Deformed Imagine Spots like many of its contemporaries, where the characters will become chibi and create a visual aid for what they're talking about, which may or may not lean on the fourth wall. However, this is completely Averted for the anime, which doesn't have any Super-Deformed Imagine Spots (despite them being common in other Kirara anime). On the rare occasion the anime wants the same kind of visual gag, Mira will whip out her notebook and sketch it for the benefit of the other girls.
  • In chapter twenty-four, Mari "Monroe" Morino teaches Mai several things about photography, including "exposure compensation". Mai imagines Mari having a Marilyn Maneuver causing an "exposure" (as in a Panty Shot), and "compensated" by putting a Censor Box over her eyes.
  • In chapter twenty-eight, Ao reminds herself she needs to tell her mother how she feels about having to move away. She recalls Mikage's suggestion that she should throw a tantrum at her parents...and then imagine herself doing just that. She then flails her arms in the air to stop herself from imagining this. Shiori is confused.
  • The thirty-first chapter, animated as part of the ninth episode:
    • Mira and Ao have a minor quarrel because Mira unpacks Ao's moving boxes without permission. Since both of them refuses to give a reason, Misa, seeing them as astronomy enthusiasts, decides they are arguing about the origins of the moon and imagines their arguments out loud.
    • After the above, Ao starts to worry about Mira's lack of a sense of privacy, and imagines a few scenario of this: using her stationery, reading her Science Fiction (The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, no less), moving to doing laundry for her.
  • During the thirty-fifth chapter, Shiho tells Ao she finds the latter's brain interesting due to the latter's being both a Shy Blue-Haired Girl and The Determinator. The latter freaks out and imagines Shiho Mind Probing her.
  • In the forty-first chapter, the cast has a brief discussion on Dobsonian telescopes. Chikage mentions they look like human cannons in circuses. Mira promptly imagines launching herself into space a la Human Cannonball to find asteroids. Ao reminds her it's not possible.
• Imagine Spotting: In the forty-first chapter, Ao notices Mira imagines launching herself into the space a la Human Cannonball and tells her that's not possible.
• Immediate Self-Contradiction: In chapter 17 of the manga (adopted as part of the fifth episode), the Earth Sciences Club caught Sayuri peeking into their own clubroom. When asking Sayuri about her motive, she says "No! No details for you!"... followed by a very detailed Motive Rant.
• In Medias Res: In the manga, the way Mira and Ao met as children is narrated in the middle of the first chapter, as Mira explains why she wants to discover an asteroid. The anime, on the other hand, move it to the front, making it A Minor Kidroduction.
• Inconsistent Dub: The dub is inconsistent in name order. For example, Ao introduces herself to Misa as "Manaka Ao" in the third episode, while introducing herself as "Ao Manaka" while on Ishigaki island during the eleventh episode.
• Internal Reveal: In the manga, Ao, as well as the readers, already learn in Chapter 23 that Ao is going to move away from the town due to her father's job transfer, but it is 4 chapters later, or about two months in in-universe time, when she tells the rest of the cast about this. In the anime, however, this internal reveal is converted to The Reveal through Adaptation Explanation Extrication; during episode 7 the viewers know Ao was told something, but what is being told wasn't shown.
  • Mari and Mikage room together when they go to the same college.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: During the second chapter, adapted as part of the first episode, Moe encourages Mira to speak to Ao and says "You know, what I always consider to be your best quality? You take action without overthinking." But when Mira immediately runs to Ao's classroom and shouts into that class to invite Ao to have lunch with them, Moe has to correct herself:
  Moe: But then you take it too far!
• It's All My Fault: Both Mira and Mai get this in the twenty-third chapter (animated in the seventh episode), when they heard that Ao gets sick. At first, Mira gets this since she thinks Ao gets sick because of their stargazing the previous night when the weather gets unusually cold. Upon hearing this, Mai gets this as well, since, as the club president, she thinks she's responsible for one of its members falling sick from a club-related activity (despite it being more Mira and Ao's activity rather than the club's). The irony is that neither of them is at fault for this. Ao gets sick because she gets a Heroic BSoD the night before after she heard that the family's going to move again, and stayed in the bath for 3 hours.
• Japanese Ranguage: When the club is in JAXA, Mikage asks the staff about the requirements for an astronaut for Mari, and Mari thanks with a very heavily accented "Thank you very much." Since one of the stated requirements is being good in English...
  Mikage: You need to work more on your pronunciation.
• Japanese School Club: Mira reluctantly joins the Earth Sciences Club after learning that the Astronomy club is to be merged with them due to both lacking enough members to be full clubs by themselves.

Tropes L - N

• Last-Name Basis:
  • Apart from Mira and Ao, most of the cast go by their last names or nicknames derived from their surnames. The only exception is Chikage "Chika" Sakurai, but that's because her sister Mikage has already taken the nickname "Sakura".
  • Played for Drama in Chapter 40. Keiko, Mai's Childhood Friend who brought the latter to cartography, calls Mai "Inose", indicating her distaste of Mai's still into maps and urban exploration.
• Last-Second Photo Failure: In Chapter 30 / Episode 9, Earth Sciences Club takes a group photo. Mai handles the photography, and when she runs back to her position after started the countdown, she tripped backwards on a step when the countdown ends, causing the photo◊ showing her falling back.
• Layman's Terms: In Chapter 27/ Episode 8, Mira asks Misa to do this when the latter suggests Ao tell her parents she doesn't want to leave with them, "armed with a specific solution about how you want to live your life".
  Moe: I'm sorry, but what?
  Mira: Can you just talk to us like the children we are?
• "Last Day of School" Plot: The thirtieth chapter is about the activities of the Earth Sciences Club on the last day of school, when Mikage and Mari are going to Graduate from the Story. We see younger members of the club giving souvenirs to the two graduates, and they take a group photo. The main emphasis of the chapter, though, is Mari—she recalls the early days when the Astronomy (which she belonged to) and Geology clubs were merged by administrative fiat and questioned whether she enjoyed the club or not. She is surprised by the album the underclassmen give her, as it shows she did.
• Last-Second Photo Failure: In Chapter 30 / Episode 9, the Earth Sciences Club takes a group photo, among others. Mai handles the photography, and when she runs back to her position after starting the countdown, she tripped backwards on a step when the countdown ends, causing the photo◊ showing her falling back.
• Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone: A variation is Played for Laughs in the twelfth chapter, adopted in the fourth episode. When the Earth Sciences Club is at the Geological Museum, Mikage is squeeing over the exhibits, and then Mai is squeeing over Mikage behind the latter. Seeing this, Mari blocks Mira and Ao from moving forward and lets the two have a bit of me time.
• Letting the Air out of the Band: In the Beach Episode, the girls wonder if Mai deliberately selected the last round of a competition between Ao and Moe, to see who should have the honour of being counted as Mira's best friend, since the contest ended in what is essentially a tie- Moe jumped off the boat to save Mira, while Ao jumped off to save Moe- resulting in an amicable resolution to the issue. The music swells, creating a heartwarming tone, only to rapidly go out of tune when it turns out Mai is admiring some strata formations and was unlikely to have foreseen this outcome.
• Little "No": A variant. In the forty-fourth chapter, the Earth Sciences club is brainstorming ideas for the upcoming School Festival. Mira provides many plans, although all of them are rejected by Ao, by a small but firm "Denied."
• Long-Distance Relationship: To some of the cast (especially Moe), this is barely prevented for the main duo due to Ao's family's plan to move out of town in Chapter 27; it is for this reason Moe suggested taking turns to be each other's "weekend commuter wife".
• Lost in Translation:
  • In the first episode / third chapter, Mira opined KiraKira, Ao's suggested title for the club newsletter, as a "Nice Kira-kira name", in Gratuitous English. Here Mira, while giving genuine praise on Ao's suggestion, is also punning on the "Kira-kira name", the Japanese equivalent of Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?. In translations, the latter reference is unavoidably lost. At a minimum, the official Chinese manga translation put this double meaning in a Translator's Note.
  • Mari's college entrance storyline between Chapters 24 to 30 (or Episodes 7 to 9) involves Mari failing to be admitted by recommendation but succeeding in getting into the same program by examination. Many Japanese universities allow candidates to apply twice in the same cycle, once "by recommendation", or on the strength of their schools' references, and once through the traditional exam route. Few countries routinely allow applying to the same program twice during the same cycle, meaning that the storyline can be quite difficult to understand elsewhere. Taiwan is one of the few places that allows this, so their licensed translation averts this, the problem is the license also covers Hong Kong and Macau, which don't.
• Lower-Deck Episode: The forty-fourth chapter gives focuses on Yuu and Chikage, the younger members of the Earth Sciences Club, as well as Moe's sister Megu. Mira only makes an appearance in the second-last strip of the chapter, and Ao, Mai, and Moe do not show up at all.
• Luminescent Blush:
  • In the first chapter/episode, when Mira goes on with the story between her and a boy call Ao many years ago, the blue-haired girl sitting next to Mira in the Earth Sciences clubroom starts blushing. It is because of this trope Mari and Mikage suspect that other girl's involvement in Mira's story...
    Mikage: Can you tell me why you're blushing, Ao Manaka?
    Mira: EHHH!? You're him... or her?
  • In the seventh chapter, Ao also gets heavily blushed when Misa approaches her closely. When adopted as part of the third episode, she is even redder than in the previous example.
• Lyrical Cold Open: The opening theme, Aruite Ikou!, starts with the vocals.
• Mathematician's Answer: Mai gives one when Mira noticed she is holding two maps when they visit the shrine at new year's:
  Mira: Hey, Ino. Are those...?
  Mai: They're maps!
  Mira: Yeah, I know that! What I meant was... why do you have two?
• Marilyn Maneuver: In an animated part of the twenty-second chapter, Mari explains to Mai some photographic terms, including the phrase "exposure correction." Mai has an Imagine Spot over what that phrase means—that of Mari doing one of these while the latter's eyes were censored by a Censor Box. Bonus points to the fact that Mari's In-Series Nickname is "Monroe," in a direct reference to Marilyn Monroe.
• Martial Arts Headband: Discussed. In Chapter 24, when Mikage tells the rest of the Earth Sciences Club she for a principal's recommendation for her first-choice college^note A commonly used college admission pathway for many Japanese (mainly private) colleges: they will officially ask some (or all) high school principals to recommend students (with those students' consents) to their college, with an upper limit for each high school. If the college accepts the recommendation, then the student is given a binding offer., both Mira and Ao's responses look a bit flat. When Mikage asks them, Mira says the usual image of people preparing for college admission invokes an image (Imagine Spot appears) of a student usually involves them wearing this and the Opaque Nerd Glasses, and studying hard until the admission exams end in January, and so the fact that Mikage is already done is a bit of an anticlimax to them.
• Meaningful Gift: During their time at the hot springs, the Earth Sciences Club heard from the other users about Endou-sensei's burnout issues. On the next day, Mira gives Endou a gift of... bath salts, since she heard that the hot springs are actually one of Endou's biggest breathers.
• Meido: Suzuya Bakery's staff uniforms take inspiration from the English maid style. Similarly, the Earth Sciences Club's booth during the School Festival is something of a maid cafe, so the girls also wear this type of outfit.
• Memento MacGuffin: Invoked but averted. Ao buys a pair of constellation-themed mugs, intended to be this to Mira as she is expected to move out of town in a few months. Averted as eventually Ao lives in Mira's sister's room instead, as the latter is gone for college.
• Mind Probe: Played for Laughs. During the Ishigaki arc, when Shiho tells Ao she finds the latter's brain "interesting", the latter has an Imagine Spot of Shiho doing this to her.
• Mindlink Mates: Played for Laughs in the adaptation of the third chapter during the first episode. Mira and Ao look at the activity program of the newly merged Earth Sciences club, and they have such similar opinions that Ao says the first half of the sentence, and Mira finishes the rest. As a result, Mari suggests some kind of telepathy to be in play.
• A Minor Kidroduction: The anime starts with how Mira and Ao, then as children, made The Promise.
• Mistaken for Flirting: Moe mistakes Misa's holding Ao's jaw and looking into her face for Misa flirting at Ao. Since Moe has a crush on Misa, this causes her to Dramatic Drop items on her as she seethes in jealousy. Doubles as Moe's Queer Establishing Moment.
• Mistaken for Lesbian: In the thirty-fourth chapter, Ao tells Yuu and Chikage she and Mira can work on their shining Star Challenge applications because they are living together. Yuu goes Blank White Eyes and...
  Yuu: W-W-W-W-What sort of relationship are you two in!?
• Moment Killer: During the Hot Springs Episode Mira and Ao noticed there is a full moon, and started appreciating the sky (again)... until Mari starts moaning from the jacuzzi.
  Mira: Have some dignity!
• Mood Whiplash:
  • In a part of Chapter 26 that was not adapted into the anime, Ao is troubled over her father's impending transfer, and the fact that she'll have to say goodbye to her friends. While thinking about how to break the news to everyone else, she gets a message from Mira, with a picture of herself making a Scary Flashlight Face, with a message, "Celebrating our breaker tripping(light bulb)," at which point Ao cracks up.
  • In Episode 8, after a heartwarming moment in which Suzu tells Ao that they're brainstorming ideas to deal with her parents moving away because they like her, Misa shows up at the meeting with a set of Groucho Marx glasses, before offering her audacious but sincere advice.
• Moving Angst: Approximately half a year after Ao reunited with Mira, Ao was told their family is moving again, at which point she nearly immediately gets a Heroic BSoD (and got sick because of it). Ao keep it hidden for the next two-and-a-half months owing to it starts to become her Trauma Button, but is forced to come clean two months later because she's being too off. At which point Mira gets her BSoD how she didn't notice, and thinks she's a "failure of a friend." Mira's sister Misa offers to stay in her room when she's off for college, Ao, who has trouble speaking up, persuades her mother to let herself to stay in town according to Misa's offer, which is accepted. A later chapter indicates the Manakas move from a Tokyo suburb to Akita City, at a distance of 5 hours' of the Bullet Train.
• My Skull Runneth Over: Played for Laughs. After Misa hears Mira complaining her difficulties in memorizing all the formulae used in physics, Misa suggested Mira just derive those herself. Mira immediately gets Blank White Eyes with steam coming out from her skull...
  Suzu: Misa-nee! Mira's gonna explode!
• Named After Somebody Famous: An in-universe example in the eighteenth chapter, adapted as part of the fifth episode. Misa names the koi fishes at the school pond after several physicists: Feynman, (Paul) Dirac, (Enrico) Fermi, and (John) Cockcroft.
• Naughty Birdwatching: Being a series about astronomy, binoculars are usually used for their intended purpose. In the Print Bonus Suzu's Research, however, we see Moe using them to do Girl Watching, to the point of Stalker without a Crush.
• New Job Episode: The sixteenth chapter, adapted as part of the sixth episode, involves Mira and Ao working at the Suzuya Bakery for one day, mainly to earn money for club activities.
• New Year Has Come: Mira, Ao, and Mai visit a shrine per the Japanese tradition in the eighth episode. This scene is Played for Drama, however, as Mai finds Ao's off-character behaviour concerning. It is at this point Ao drops the bombshell that she has bottled up for two months: due to her father's job transfer, she may have to move away from the town by the end of March.
• No Communities Were Harmed: The town where the story happens is not named. However, the anime shows several local features that would indicate it happens in Kawagoe, Saitama.
• No Longer with Us: Played for Laughs in Chapter 20. Mari tells Mira and Ao about why she is fascinated with being an astronaut. She mentions she was significantly influenced by her grandmother who, among others, mentioned having purchased land on the moon and wanted to be buried there when she died. Mira and Ao immediately thought Mari's grandmother already died, so Mari shows them a recent photo with her and her grandmother to clarify the latter is still alive and well.
• Noodle Incident: Endou's experience in the Shining Star Challenge. It has been mentioned in a bit of detail during the Ishigaki arc, but other than the fact that Endou and co. did not discover any new astronomical object and she gets acquainted with two friends, it was never narrated in detail.
• "Not So Different" Remark: A benign variant happens in the ninth episode. After Misa gives her advice to Ao regarding the latter's dispute with Mira earlier this episode, she added that despite all her big words, she's worried about her new college life, especially because she's really bad at housework. Ao, who's also bad at housework, silently nodded.
  Ao: Suddenly, I feel much closer to her.
• Not What It Looks Like: During the thirty-fourth chapter, adopted in the tenth episode, Mira tells Yuu and Chikage that she and Ao have been polishing up their entrance essays for Shiny Star Challenge every night. Upon hearing the phrase "every night", Yuu wondered whether they are Japanese Delinquents for walking around late every night. Mira facefaults, and Chikage has to explain to Yuu what she learnt from Mikage: Ao is living away from her parents with Mira so that they can find an asteroid together, so there is never any "walking around at night" to begin with.

Tropes O - R

• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Ao has been acting strangely since her Sick Episode, mostly seen during the Christmas Episode when she bursts into tears when reading Mikage and Monroe's album of club activities. However, what breaks the camel's back is in the New Year Has Come arc: she quietly sighs as Mira loudly prays for "discover[ing] an asteroid with Ao".^note It's more dramatic in the source material—in the twenty-seventh chapter, she attempts to Running Away to Cry. It is at this point Mai presses Ao to come clean for all these, and the latter drops the bombshell: she will be moving out of town at the Spring Break due to her father's job transfer.
  • This trope partly contributes to Shiori deciding to consider Ao's plea to stay in town in Episode 9/ Chapter 28. Ao seldom tells Shiori about her own life, and much less how she feels; so when she starts literally begging Shiori about this, Shiori concludes it must be extremely important to Ao.
• Ocular Gushers:
  • Mai's Heroic BSoD for being named the club president mainly involves crying in this way.
  • This is the default way Mira cries. For example, during the fourth episode, the club watches a video while visiting JAXA Space Center at Tsukuba. While the astronomy enthusiasts of the club are moved to tears at the end of it, only Mira does this — Ao, Mari, and Endou-sensei all shown to have a Single Tear. It'd be a rather serious business if she doesn't cry like this; her immediate response to Ao's reveal that the latter is moving is crying with Single Tear.
• Odd Reaction Out: In Chapter 12/Episode 4, the Earth Sciences Club — formed by the merger of Geology and Astronomy clubs due to both being Club Stubs — visited a JAXA facility as part of their summer camp. At the beginning of the visit, they were treated to a video screening. Afterwards, Milage, one of the formerly Geology members, noticed the two new members (who are astronomy enthusiasts) crying Tears of Awe. She thought they were overreacting, but when she noticed the only other person who doesn't do that is the only other former Geology member, she realizes that are now in the minority.
• Old Flame: While Mira and Ao's dynamic is more properly Childhood Friends, it is portrayed in a way not unlike this trope. In the first episode of the Funimation dub, Moe even uses this phrase to describe the relationship between the two.
• Old Flame Fizzle: Subverted. Soon after Mira and Ao's reunion, both of them mistakenly thought the other doesn't them anymore, although with some help from Moe, the misunderstanding was cleared up within a day.
  • Ao, overwhelmed by Mira's greeting texts, answered them using an impersonal, business-like tone she took from a business letter guidebook. This "cold" reply is taken by Mira to mean Ao doesn't like her anymore.
  • Mira notes Ao looks very different from the last time they met. Ao, realizing both Used to Be a Tomboy and Used to Be More Social hits her hard in the interim, wonders if she has changed too much for Mira. A Stargazing Scene-over-the-phone shows Mira doesn't mind at all.
• Old Friend: This is the forty-first chapter's premise. Specifically, Mai reunited with her elementary-school era friend Keiko, who brought Mai into maps in the first place. At Present Day, however, Keiko sees that as an Embarrassing Hobby and has a poor opinion on Mai's continued interest in this. Sayuri tries to reconcile the two.
• Old School Building: All non-sports clubs in Hoshizaki High School, including the Earth Sciences Club is located in a neglected building at the back of the campus. When asked about the building's condition, Endou states it still has drafty spots, but leaks are repaired.
• Old Shame: In-Universe. Moe reveals to Ao that Mira has "sweet, pure, self-made romance manga" hidden in her room. Mira immediately protests like this trope, because the Love Interest in those manga is none other than Ao herself.
• Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Deconstructed. Ao developed a fear of speaking because she was teased for one of these during the sixth grade when she accidentally made an innuendo:
  Ao: So hot... Anybody feel it's super wet today?
  Classmate A: I think "humid" is the word you're looking for?
  Classmate B: (yelling to the rest of the classroom) Hey guys! Ao just said something really dirty!
  Other Classmates: Ao is dirty!
  (Ao gets Quivering Eyes)
  Ao: (at Present Day) Since then, I've had trouble speaking up.
  Suzu: That changed her whole personality?!
• Orange/Blue Contrast: Mira and Ao's Color Motifs are these two, in that order, which shows up in their personalities: Mira is an example of Vibrant Orange, while Ao is Blue Is Calm plus a bit of Shy Blue-Haired Girl.
• Origins Chapter: The eighth chapter (animated as the last segment of the third episode) is mainly about how Ino started to be fascinated by maps, and how does that lead her to geology.
• Overly-Nervous Flop Sweat: Mira breaks into this, with at least 11 drops of sweat visible, when she finds out Ao, the "boy" she made The Promise with years ago, is actually a girl.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: In the eighth episode, Misa shows up to the meeting with glasses and a mustache disguise.
• Passing the Torch: Being the only second-year of the Earth Sciences Club, Mai will eventually succeed as the club president when Mari and Mikage graduate. That said, Mai is an Extreme Doormat, so Mari and Mikage decide to retire as president and vice-president half a year early so they can look after the transition.
• Perverted Drooling: Moe does this several times:
  • In Chapter 5 (adapted in Episode 2), it's revealed that Mari has been taking candid shots during the entire Picnic Episode. Moe says she's going to buy those pictures while doing this as she takes out 3,000 yen in cash.
  • In Chapter 8 (adapted in Episode 3), Mai designed a Treasure Map game for Mira, Ao and Moe. Since it turns out Mai designed the game based on her own school life, and Moe's stated hobby is "collecting girls' data"...
    Moe: (drools) I have no idea you can actually enjoy maps this way...
• Photo Memento: In the thirtieth chapter (animated in the ninth episode), the Earth Sciences Club takes a picture outside of their clubroom, on Mikage and Mari's last day of school.
• Picnic Episode: The Earth Sciences Club has annual barbecues to welcome new members. The club also uses the chance to showcase their activities in astronomy, geology, and eventually meteorology. These are animated in the second and tenth episodes.
• Platonic Valentine: In Chapter 29, Mikage askes Moe, the local Sweet Baker, to teach her how to make Valentine's chocolates in the same way a typical Japanese woman does a Love Confession. When Mikage tells Moe she wants to make a lot of them, Moe freaks out at the prospect that Mikage is multi-timing. Mikage explains she's giving the chocolates to the members of the Earth Sciences Club.
• Playboy Bunny: Mari dressed her up as this for the previous year's School Festival exhibit, invoking it for the purpose of Sex Sells.
• Plucky Girl: Mira and Misa are polar opposites, but they share one thing in common: their insistence on self-reliance.
  • In the seventh chapter, Moe is going to tell Misa that Mira and Ao want to discover an asteroid together when Mira pulled Moe back, saying she'd rather do it by herself (i.e. without Misa's assistance).
  • Right after the previous scene, Mira gives Misa the banded stone she found during Chapter 4 as a good-luck charm for the latter's college entrance exams. While we immediately know Misa uses that for Mira's aforementioned Goal in Life, Chapter 31 revealed why Misa does that—as for college admissions, she'd rather do that herself.
• Poor Communication Kills: When Mira asks Misa to opine on the article she wrote for the Earth Sciences Club's newsletter, what Misa actually means is it is a bit boring and too fact-intensive for a general-interest piece. The way she phrases it, though, can be read as the article is bland and generic. Mira is so upset that she runs back to her room, at which point Misa slumps on the sofa, face down, because of this.
• Pop-Up Texting: While most texts appear on the characters' cell phones, in some scenes their conversations are reproduced this way. Some examples:
  • When Ao freaks out with Mira's messages in the first episode, Mira's messages are displayed through a speech bubble.
  • Mira and Suzu's conversation during the opening of the fourth episode, their messages appear in boxes that appear in the background.
• Pose of Supplication: Played for Laughs. Mira prostrates herself towards the hot springs during Chapter 6 after Mikage discusses the potential origins of them, so as to express her gratitude.
• Princess Carry: Moe does this twice to Ao, and has nothing innocent in her mind.
  • In Chapter 20 (adopted in Episode 6), Ao collapsed on Moe when Ao learns Moe started learning something about astronomy from the magazine Ao gave Moe in Chapter 15. Moe first sniffs Ao, then suddenly holds Ao up this way... as she gets an idea School Festival refreshments, based on the fragrance of Ao's shampoo.
  • In Chapter 27 (adopted in Episode 8), Moe attempts to take Ao away for Elopement in this way.
• Print Bonus:
  • Like all Kirara series, the author will add a full-colour "chapter" at the beginning of each volume. For example, the one on the first volume (also known as the "zeroth chapter") is about what Mira and Ao are thinking in the night before the first day of school.
  • Printed on the front and back, under the dust cover, is a mini-series called "Suzu's Research", involving gags of Moe scooping the girls' data.
• Product Placement:
  • The former astronomy club has a Vixen A80Mf telescope. Vixen Optics is a Japan-based company that produces a variety of lenses, telescopes, binoculars, and spotting scopes.
  • The astronomy books shown in the anime are all real books published by one of the sponsors.
• Previously on…: Manga-only. Because the twenty-seventh chapter (adopted as the last part of the eighth episode) kind-of ends at a cliffhanger, as Misa proposes an audacious solution to tackle Ao's impending departure due to her father's job transfer, the first strip of the following chapter starts with a recap of Misa suggestion... This starts off normal since the voiceover sounds like what Mira would say in this situation. In the fourth frame, however, it turns out Moe is the one holding the voiceover microphone, and she starts talking Perverted Sniffing Misa...
  Mira: Suzu-chan! Can you stop with the one-sided narration already!?
• The Promise: Mira and Ao's childhood promise to discover an asteroid forms the backbone of the story's premise.
• Pseudo-Romantic Friendship: Mira and Ao are extremely close since they reunited, something fully recognized by their schoolmates that the most dramatic moments of the series to date is Ao's impending move away from the town in Chapter 27/Episode 8. The fact that Mira mistook Ao for a boy for years and had a crush on "him", and the tendency for her to call joint outings "dates" cemented the "romantic" part.
• Pun-Based Title:
  • The title of the series, 恋する小惑星, is a reference to Chungking Express. The film uses a Completely Different Title in Japan, 恋する惑星 ("Planet in Love"), which is just one kanji away.^{Further elaboration}In Japan, the term for asteroid, 小惑星, is literally miniature planet.
  • Mira names her second School Festival exhibit "Innocent World," intentionally including president Mai "Ino" Inose's name in it. The exhibit is about maps in different contexts, and Mai is a cartography enthusiast.
• Puppy Love: Mira and Ao first met when they were elementary schoolers. The fact that Mira has a long-standing crush on Ao (after mistaking Ao for a boy) indicates this trope is in operation.
• Purely Aesthetic Glasses: Mikage uses these to invoke Smart People Wear Glasses when running the Geology club's School Festival exhibit the year before Mira enters.
• Put on a Bus: After Misa moves out of the Konohata residence in Chapter 31, she only appeared twice, both briefly, as of the time of writing (February 2021, at Chapter 47)—once in an anime-original scene of her having a video-chat with Mira, and the other in Chapter 42 when she is shown coming back to the Kinihata residence for vacation, but the focus of that chapter is Ao, who leaves for seeing her parents.
• Quaking with Fear: At the beginning of the second chapter—animated right after the opening credits in the first episode — Ao trembles in fear as she gets overwhelmed by Mira's texts.
• Queer Establishing Moment: Moe is already established to enjoy Girl Watching and making same-sex ships among her friends by the second chapter. However, her orientation is only revealed in the seventh chapter (animated in the third episode), when she is dripping with jealousy as she mistakes her crush Misa for seducing Ao. This foreshadows her Coming Out in the twenty-ninth chapter, when she makes a Love Confession to Misa after years of Cannot Spit It Out.
• Quivering Eyes: The artistic direction portrays this in a rather subtle way since only the gloss of the irises quiver. It appears in several scenes when the person is moved or shocked.
  • Several points in the first episode.
    • In the A Minor Kidroduction, when Mira suggests to Ao that they should find an asteroid together, Ao's eyes start to quiver.
    • When Mira talks about her promise with a boy called "Ao" many years ago, that Ao, sitting next to Mira, gets this in addition to Luminescent Blush. Mira gets this the next minute, since Ao turns out to be a girl.
    • During a flashback, a younger Ao gets this when other kids started teasing for her Open Mouth, Insert Foot.
  • In the New Year Has Come segment of the eighth episode, Mira has this as she is shocked to learn that Ao is moving away after the Spring Break.
• Real-Place Background:
  • Mira and Ao attend school in Kawagoe, Saitama.
  • During the fourth episode, the Earth Sciences Club spends a few days with Yuki's grandparents in Tsukuba owing to their proximity to the Geological Museum, Space Centre, and The Science Museum of Map and Survey. The concentration of research institutes here resulted from a government initiative that was created in the 1960s to relieve overcrowding at Tokyo-based institutes and encourage Japanese scientific advancement.
  • The shrine Mira, Ao and Mai visit in the Animated Adaptation of the New Year Has Come arc is Washinomiya shrine, best known by anime fans for being the shrine where the Hiiragi sisters work.
  • The Eleventh and Twelfth episodes involve a summer camp operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan at their Ishigaki base.
  • The fortieth chapter is about Mai, Sayuri, and Keiko's "memories" trip to the only place in Japan where three prefectural borders meet at an accessible location.
  • The forty-second chapter is about Ao visiting her parents in Akita city, where she visits several relevant attractions: the spot where Japan's first rocket (the pencil rocket) was launched in 1955, and the Mining Museum of the Akita University.
• Really Moves Around: The Manaka family moves around a lot due to Ao's father's unspecified job. This is why it took Mira so many years to reunite with Ao. This is also why Ao never fights back when her dad gets a job transfer, even though this time she's definitively not happy at all.
• Recap Episode: Has one after Episode 6, halfway through the 12-Episode Anime, and immediately after Mari and Sakura step down from their positions as president and vice president of the Earth Sciences club.
• Reluctant Fanservice Girl: In the plural. The Earth Sciences Club understands they need to wear Meido costumes during the School Festival exhibit to draw in visitors; the club's status as a Club Stub means it's important to its survival. Most of the members, though, find it embarrassing; Mikage wears a tracksuit over it when her classmates come to visit, while Mira and Ao are both embarrassed when their parents come by.
• Rhyme Theme Naming: This is often the case of Family Theme Naming in this series. Both cases also fall into Alphabetical Theme Naming.
  • The Konohata siblings' names are Mira and Misa, just a consonant apart.
  • The Sakurai siblings' names are Mikage and Chikage.
• Right Behind Me: When lining up with Mikage to enter the Mineral Show, Mira starts to be typing on her smartphone as Mikage is looking away... and then Mikage looks back at Mira's phone and notices Mira is searching for "power stones to calm an angry person." Mikage gives Mira a noogie as a response.
• Roommate Drama: Discussed. The first day Ao moves into her Childhood Friend Mira's house ends with the two getting into a minor argument. When Ao speaks with Mira's Cool Big Sis Misa regarding this, the latter mentions this trope is to be expected, just at different degrees:
  Ao: I'm so happy to be living in the same home, but if this how our first day goes...
  Misa: It's only natural you'd be worried. You grew up in different environments and now you're living together. I'm sure all kinds of things will come up between you.
• Rousing Speech: Mikage and Mari deliver one together to the main duo over the phone when it turns out that only one of them was selected to the Shiny Star Challenge—and are having so bad of a Heroic BSoD that no other character can handle.
  Mikage: You don't have time to waste moping. I mean, you cleared a major hurdle.
  Mari: Mm! Besides, even if only one of you can go, you can still share the knowledge you gained there with each other.
  Mikage: We're still here. If you need anything, just reach out.
• Running Away to Cry: In the manga's New Year Has Come chapter, it is implied Ao attempts to do this after Mira states her new year's wish being finding an asteroid with Ao — we don't get to see Ao's face, but she runs away from the shrine with a hand on the chest, being obviously upset from what sounds like a reiteration of their Goal in Life. It's at this point Mai finds the O.O.C. Is Serious Business too hard to ignore. In the anime, this trope is changed to a quiet sigh.

Tropes S

• Sailor Fuku: As noted by the series' profile image, Hoshizaki High School's girls' uniform is based on this design.
• Same Surname Means Related: When Mira and Ao enter their second year, one of the two new members of the Earth Sciences club introduces herself as Chikage Sakurai. The older members have suspicions, but before they can properly ask the new member for confirmation, the new member comes clean by thanking them for taking care of her older sister, the former vice president Mikage Sakurai.
• Satellite Family Member: Ao's unnamed father is only known for having job reassignments every a few years that causes the Manaka family to move rather frequently. This explains Ao's initial separation from Mira, and nearly caused their second separation.
• Scary Flashlight Face: During Chapter 26, Mira sends Ao a picture of herself doing this. While Ao had been troubled over her father being transferred and having to move in March, she cheers up for a moment.
• Scary Science Words: During the School Festival arc, Ao, who always has a problem with Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness when explaining science, explains to a toddler that parts of the solar system model the Earth Sciences Club made for the festival represent the "asteroid belt", "circumstellar habitable zone", and "Edgeworth-Kuiper belt". The toddler goes Blank White Eyes and sobs in response.
• School Club Stories: Asteroid in Love is about the Earth Sciences Club, formed through the merger of Astronomy and Geology clubs.
• School Festival: Preparations for the school festivals dominates the plot of the sixth episode, as well as part of the fifth. The Earth Sciences Club settles on a maid cafe emphasizing the club's interests, with the centrepiece being a boring core from the school playground, as well as a to-scale solar system model. Refreshments are provided by the Suzuya Bakery.
• Schoolgirl Series: This series is mainly about the school life of several schoolgirls in a Japanese School Club.
• Scientific and Technological Theme Naming: An in-universe example in Chapter 18, adapted as part of Episode 5. Misa, the local Teen Genius, names the koi fishes at the school pond after several nuclear physicists: Feynman, (Paul) Dirac, (Enrico) Fermi, and (John) Cockcroft.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: When the rest of the club learns that Mira is the sister of the Student Council President, Monroe attempts to invoke this ask asking Mira if she could lobby for more funding for their Club Stub. This is never followed through, so it's assumed to be averted.
• Senior Year Struggles:
  • Part of Mikage's storyline involves the fact that despite being a high school senior in a cast where everyone else has some kind of Goal in Life, she never had any, not even a single career goal, and finds it depressing.
  • Mari goes through a slightly more dramatic version of it: she gets a rejection from her first-choice college the first time around and suffers a Heroic BSoD. She later gets in the hard way.^note Most Japanese universities allow applicants to apply twice using different criteria: school recommendations and examination results.
• Series Goal: To fulfill Mira and Ao's The Promise of finding an asteroid together.
• Serious Business: When Mikage asked Moe to teach her chocolate making in the ninth episode, the latter gets very excited as she eagerly gives Mikage a rapid-fire lecture about how to make chocolate. Mikage initially sees it as this trope and then realizes that's how Mikage comes across to others when talking about rocks.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: Chapter 22, animated in the seventh episode. The main reason Mira suggested the Club to help with the children's stargazing event is to give Mai some confidence for being the club president. The event went on pretty smoothly, but as it turned out—in the last panel of the chapter—that Mai messed up the photos.^note See Damn You, Muscle Memory! for the reason.
• Shapes of Disappearance: In Chapter 23, Mira goes to Ao's homeroom to invite her for lunch, only to found Ao isn't there. In the manga, this is portrayed by having a shaded outline of Ao with her name on it, with blinking effects.
• Ship Tease:
  • Mira and Ao's first meeting. In no more than a few hours, they not only made The Promise but continues to treasure the person they met, and the promise they made, despite having not seen each other for years before the story started. As a result, Moe declares them Old Flame.
  • On the topic of Moe, she isn't just a Shipper on Deck. Not only she declares Mira and Ao as Old Flame in the beginning, but when the Earth Sciences Club and the Newspaper Club discuss Ao's planned departure from town, Moe's suggestion is the two "take turns being the weekend commuter wife", effectively declaring them being equivalent of a same-sex couple.
  • Ao's With a Foot on the Bus situation is resolved by her living in Mira's house because Misa's room becomes vacant owing to the latter going to college out of town. Misa, who suggested it, calls it cohabitation. When Nanami learns the two living under the same roof, her first reaction is accusing the two of being more than just friends.
• Short Teens, Tall Adults: In both the manga and anime, the mothers are taller than their daughters. Yuuko is taller than Misa, who is taller than Mira, while Shiori is taller than Ao.
• Shout-Out: Multiple:
  • As noted in Pun-Based Title, the title is a reference to Chungking Express.
  • When Mira and Moe enter the Earth Sciences Club room in the first episode or chapter, they see a sign with "heaven" (ten) on one side of the room, one with "earth" (chi) on the other side, and one with "man" (jin) in the middle. Mira wonders if they are at war, in reference to Tenchijin (Heaven, Earth and Man), a Sengoku Jidai drama aired in NHK in 2009.
  • In the dub, Sakura calls Monroe a "sweet summer child" before pointing out that every day of the year has a birthstone, not just every month.
  • Mira gives Mari the nickname "Monroe" and explains it as a reference to Marilyn Monroe.
  • One of the Imagine Spots Ao has when she finds out—after moving into Mira's house—that Mira has little sense of privacy is that Mira starts reading her own books without permission. The book in question? The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
• Shown Their Work: Several institutes, including the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, were consulted in the production process, and as such, information on astronomy, geology, cartography, and meteorology are painstakingly presented. From the techniques used in setting a telescope up to track an object of interest, the equipment and methods used to locate new asteroids, and all of the different facts surrounding the Earth Science Club's activities, everything seen in Asteroid in Love is true to their real-world equivalent.
• Sibling Yin-Yang:
  • Compared to her temperamental older sister Mikage, Chikage is more mellow and soft-spoken. Also, while Mikage is firmly focused on the study of geology as it pertains to real life, Chikage is more interested in the fantastical elements associated with geology, particularly fortune-telling.
  • Moe is an openly lesbian pervert who is into running the family bakery; her younger sister Megu is an athletic girl who shows little interest in romance or their Family Business.
• Siblings Wanted: Discussed, but averted. In the forty-first chapter, Mira, Ao, Moe, Chikage, and Yuu are studying at Mira's house. At one point, Yuu shows some of her younger siblings' pictures, at which point the entire room realized that Ao is the only one among them that doesn't have a sibling. Mira suggests she be one, although Ao's lack of response indicates that's not what she feels.
• Sick Episode: In the seventh episode, Ao comes down with a cold, and the Earth Sciences Club visits her.
• Sidetracked by the Analogy: In an unadopted part of Chapter 6, Mai mentions the most acidic hot spring in Japan has a pH as low as 1.2. Mari opines that the level of acidity exceeds that of lemons, then Mira suggested it might be less sour if she adds sugar, at which point Mira and Mari start to talk about lemonades and candied lemons.
• Significant Name Shift: In chapter 40, Mai Inose reunites with Keiko Izumi, her Childhood Friend, while studying at the local library. While Keiko starts off calling Mai the more informal "Mai-chan," within a few panels Keiko starts calling Mai "Inose-san," when Keiko learns Mai is still into maps and urban exploration, something that was their common childhood hobby, but now Keiko sees it as childish and embarrassing.
• Simple Score of Sadness:
  • A simple piano soundtrack accompanies several scenes where the sadness of at least some of the cast is evident:
  • During the part of the eighth episode from the time Ao tells Mira and Mai she is moving, and the ensuing discussions on how to minimize its impact, so as to underline the sense of sadness that news gives to everyone involved.
  • When Yuu discusses her Freudian Excuse for meteorology.
• Sitting on the Roof: In the second chapter (animated in the first episode), Moe gets Mira and Ao to have lunch together on the roof to handle the initial awkwardness between them. Moe turns out having to console Ao as the latter wonder if she has changed too much for Mira. Note that like a few anime in The New '10s, this roof is paved and has benches installed, indicating it is intended to be used by students.
• Skewed Priorities: In Chapter 27, Mikage tells Mira that Mari has been texting non-stop on how to help with Mira and Ao despite she should be preparing for her college entrance exams. Upon learning that, in a manga-only bit, Mira muses, "Uh, that's a bit... are you fine with that?", suggesting Mari gets her priorities wrong.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: Mikage invokes it during her School Festival exhibit the year before Mira and Ao enter high school. She doesn't need any correction, but she put on glasses to look more professional and academic.
• Sneeze Cut:
  • In the first episode, Ao laments her "lack of words". Moe says whatever verbal capabilities Ao has must be better than Mira's. In the next scene, Mira sneezes while cleaning her skirt in the bathroom.
  • In the eighth episode, Mai attempts to answer a question on the Earth Science Olympiad that requires choosing two options out of five. Since Japanese mark sheets usually name their options after the vowels, Mai decides to answer A-O after her underclassman Ao. In the next scene, Ao sneezes in her room.
• Spice Up the Subtitles: Downplayed. This is a seinen series, but like any Schoolgirl Series its language is usually quite tame (unless when Moe is being Moe). The dub, however, has for several times inserted intensifiers that sound like certain expletives, but it is kept at Goshdang It To Heck levels. In the following examples, the added portions are italicized.
  • In the fifth episode, when Ao noticed Sayuri dangling from above the clubroom...
    Ao: What the heck!?
  • In the eighth episode, Mira finds Mikage finds Mikage can be cute When She Smiles...
    Mira: It looks so freaking sweet right now!
• Spit Take: In the thirty-first chapter, Mira serves some coffee to Ao, and Ao does this when she tries the coffee, killing a Stargazing Scene, because the coffee is far too sweet for her. In the anime, that scene was downplayed as Ao just gave a little grunt instead.
• Spoiler Opening: Spoiler ending, specifically. The ending sequence shows the members of the Earth Science club with an object related to them, but in more than half of the cases, either the character or the object are introduced late in the series:
  • Mikage is staring at a test tube and Mari is reading a book. These are the farewell presents the rest of the club give them during the ninth episode: a test-tube replica of the boring core Mikage made for the School Festival, and an album of club activities Mari took plus pictures of Mari the rest took.
  • Chikage and her interest in geomacy, as well as Yuu and her complex with the rain and Teru-Teru Bōzu, are only introduced in the tenth episode.
• Stargazing Scene: Being a series with an astronomy theme, Asteroid in Love has no lack of this. The following is an incomplete list.
  • The flashback in the first chapter/episode, when a young Mira has her first stargazing during a chance meeting with Ao, and when they made The Promise.
  • In the fifth chapter, adapted in the second episode, the Earth Sciences Club's welcoming barbecue includes a stargazing session. For former members of the Geology Club, this serves as their introduction to astronomy, but the scene also includes Mira and Ao's reflection of their relationship.
  • The twenty-second chapter, adapted in the seventh episode, involves the Earth Sciences Club being voluntary instructors for a children's stargazing event.
  • During an anime-only part of the eleventh episode, the optical group of the Shiny Star Challenge does this on the rooftop of the Ishigaki Observatory while the staff are setting up. They are mostly talking about life.
  • Last but not least, there's an implication that Mira and Ao do that frequently together after they united. Before Chapter 31 / Episode 9, when Ao starts cohabiting with Mira, they usually so stargazing on their own balconies while chatting over stars on the phone.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: In the forty-fifth chapter, Mira tells Ao she'd like something that the entire club can do for the School Festival, without dividing into astronomy and geology like in the previous year. She suggests making a large exhibit that shows the different disciplines of the earth sciences, at which point Ao thinks Mira is still off. Later the day, the two called Mikage and Mari for ideas, and Mari's first idea... is exactly the same thing.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Mira and her mother Yuuko look very similar; the only difference is Mira is shorter than Yuuko and the fact that Yuuko likes to tie her hair up into a bun. In addition, they text in a similar style that includes a large number of (LINE) stamps. Lampshading this point, Ao comments "Like daughter, like mother" when she reads Yuko's text.
• Stunned Silence: When Mikage tells Moe she wants the latter's help in making Valentines, Moe gets stunned straight with Blank White Eyes. Mikage asked what happened with Moe's silence. Turns out Moe's response is due to Mikage's request to remind her of her own problem with Misa.
• Sudden Soundtrack Stop: An upbeat soundtrack starts in Episode 10 when Mira found that she has been selected for the Shiny Star Challenge. After a minute or so of congratulation by the Newspaper Club, the soundtrack suddenly stops when Ao announces that she doesn't make it.
• Super-Deformed:
  • In the manga, the characters will routinely pull a Hidamari Sketch and morph into chibi moe-blobs for Imagine Spots and punchlines. Averted in the anime, where the closest the characters get to Super-Deformed is Blank White Eyes; otherwise, they remain strictly on-model at all times.
  • The Sparkle Special segments mostly have the cast drawn in this style, being shorter, more rounded, and like they're drawn with brushes.
• "Super Sentai" Stance: Played for Laughs in the sixteenth chapter, adopted as the second segment of the third episode. Mira attempts to play this while changing into Suzuya Bakery's uniforms, but Ao points out this trope can't play with a single person.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: While this is indeed a Schoolgirl Series, it is rather hard on the facts due to its emphasis on the Coming of Age angle of the genre. So this trope appears rather frequently.
  • Hoshizaki High School enforces the member requirement for its clubs, meaning that any club that doesn't meet it will have to disband(or, in the case of the Geology and Astronomy clubs, merge in an awkward merger since their objectives relate to academic subjects).
  • Mira learns that asteroid discovery is not an easy task for amateur astronomers, as it requires sophisticated techniques and equipment that is not readily accessible for their club.
  • Somewhat related to the above, when Mira and Ao take part in the Shining Star Challenge, they're unable to discover a new asteroid in a few days on the island, despite having the sophisticated techniques and equipment needed for it.
  • Mai takes a preliminary test for the Earth Science Olympiad that she isn't fully prepared for^note The competition assesses the whole gamut of earth sciences, most of which Mai has no experience on, and in which she is competing against dozens of fellow earth science enthusiasts. She doesn't stand a chance, so she's not too surprised or disappointed when she fails.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: When Moe asks Mira why she's so eager to recruit new members, she says it's to prevent the club from being disbanded due to a lack of members. But when Ao mentions increased membership means increased funding, Mira denies she's hoping to buy an equatorial mount for the club telescope with the new members...

Tropes T - Z

• Talking in Your Sleep: In the thirty-first chapter, Mira discusses some of the less-known behavior of her older sister Misa. Among these, Mira mentions Misa would look like the latter's doing math when she's asleep, with an illustration of Misa seemingly writing in air while she's lying asleep.
• Tears of Awe: In Chapter 12 of (adopted as Episode 4 of the Animated Adaptation), the Earth Sciences Club's Summer Camp includes (among others) a visit to the JAXA headquarters at Tsukuba. The JAXA visit starts with an introductory video, and at the end of the video, Mikage and Mai, who belong to the geology side of the club, notice both Mira and Ao, their astronomy-enthusiast underclassmen, are in tears (Mira is even in Ocular Gushers mode).
• Tears of Fear: Played for Laughs. Mikage gives out this when Ao gives her a huge Death Glare when she raises the possibility of Mira moving to the Geology Group.
• Tears of Joy:
  • Subverted during the Christmas Episode. Ao falls into tears when she reads the album of club activities over the last year. When asked for the reason, she says it's this; but as manga readers already know at this point, and the anime would show in the next segment, the actual reason is Ao is going move away from the town in a few months.
  • Played straight during the tenth episode. When Chikage calls her sister Mikage in the clubroom to console Mira and Ao, Mai gets Ocular Gushers as she finds the voices of her senpais reassuring.
• Technician/Performer Team-Up: The main duo follows this dynamic. Mira is a Genki Girl who, despite not the most intelligent, is good at explaining science in different ways. Ao, on the other hand, is very knowledgeable in astronomy and is generally rather intelligent, but she also has the quirk of explaining science in Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness regardless of audience, not to mention she's a bit timid.
• Technicolor Eyes: The women in the Konohata family all have purple-and-gold eyes that are vaguely reminiscent of a sun in space.
• Terrible Pick-Up Lines: As Mira and Mai visits Ao, who has fallen ill, Moe deliberately gives Mira a list of pick-up lines for girls, and tricks Mira into saying it to Ao. Mira's clumsy delivery, however, neutralizes any potential effects of those lines on Ao...
  Mira: Also, uh... ([glances at her phone blushing]) You are my sun and moon... I-I really want you to get better soon. So you can light up my heart all over again!
  (Ao looks at Mira with puzzlement)
• Teru-Teru Bōzu: The series started using it as a story element when the meteorology enthusiast Yuu joins the Earth Sciences Club.
  • In Chapter 33 / Episode 10, it rained on the day the club holds its orientation barbecue. Mai suggests the members make a lot of them so that the sky will clear up earlier
  • Just one episode later, Yuu herself suggests the club tieing these in hopes that the weather around Ishigaki Island will clear up, enabling Ao and Mira to find an asteroid while they're there.
• That Came Out Wrong: Mira recalls Ao used to be more talkative. It turns out that Ao became uncomfortable speaking to others after she described being humid as being "wet", resulting in her classmates teasing her for having said something embarrassing.
• This Is My Side: Subverted. As Mari recalls the early days of the post-merger Earth Sciences Club in the thirtieth chapter, animated in the ninth episode, she originally sees Mikage's decision to divide the newly merged club into Geology and Astronomy groups as this, since she notices quite a bit of unfriendliness from Mikage. In hindsight, however, she sees it as a practical concern since the activities of the former clubs were too different, and it's hard to manage without dividing it like that—it's just Mikage is being Tsundere about it.
• Title Drop: The forty-second chapter's eyecatch shows Ao sitting on a luggage with several stickers, one of which simply says "Asteroid in Love".
• Too Much Information: As Misa is trying out Moe's pancakes during the first School Festival arc, Moe further explained that the pancakes are honey-and-milk flavoured, inspired by Ao's hair (that she sniffed the previous chapter). Ao, who is nearby, was a bit shocked.
  Ao: Suzu, you don't have to share that with her?
• Treasure Map: Mai's interest in cartography comes from the recreational use of this: treasure maps her elementary-school friend Keiko made for her as simple treasure-hunt games. She became interested in maps as she was fascinated by the experience of exploring with maps, even in places she knows a lot about.
• Trivial Tragedy: Ao explains to Moe In Chapter 2 / Episode 1 that she is more reserved than in the past because she becomes extremely reluctant to speak of others for fearing she'd "mess up" again. When Moe asks what exactly happened for Ao to develop such fears, Ao recalls it was due to one single incidence of it, leading to Moe being surprised about that on its own changed Ao's entire personality.
• Twisted-Knee Collapse: Ao collapses from overwhelming emotions on the balcony of her home in the second chapter (animated in the first episode) when Mira tells her the latter has been learning a lot about astronomy due to Ao's influence.
• Two Lines, No Waiting: In the anime, the Ishigaki arc is structured like this. On one hand, Mira and Ao participate in the Shiny Star Challenge on Ishigaki island, while the rest of the Earth Science Club plus its alumni go to the club's annual summer camp, this time also at Tsukuba.
• Two-Teacher School: Apart from Endou, the only other named faculty member is a home ec teacher named Araya.
• Undisclosed Funds: The club budget for the Earth Sciences Club isn't disclosed, but Mira and Ao are rather disappointed when they see it, implying that it is quite low.
• Unsettling Gender-Reveal: She gets over it quickly, but Mira is initially shocked to learn that the "boy" she'd been daydreaming about for years is actually the girl sitting next to her in the club she just joined.
• Valentine's Day Episode: Part of the ninth episode involves this, including Mikage asking Moe for a crash course for chocolate-making. On the day itself the club itself engages in a typical exchange of friendship chocolates, but Moe gives Misa a Chocolate of Romance.
• Verbal Backspace: In Chapter 19/ Episode 6, the Newspaper Club interviews the geology team's attempt to perform boring (as in drilling) at the school playground using a makeshift bore.
  Ayano: But it looks too shabby to call a machine.
  (Mikage gives Ayano a dirty look)
  Ayano: Wow, it combines a simple design and affordability! Fantastic!
• Visual Pun: Quite frequent in the manga (but not in the anime), usually due to Mira misunderstanding a new scientific term.
  • In the fifth chapter, Ao mentions the asteroid Vesta. Mira somewhat immediately switched to a "Western-style" school uniform with a vest (Hoshizaki uses Sailor Fuku) and asks whether Ao means a vest.
  • In the seventh chapter, Misa has to explain to Moe that she wasn't seducing Ao, and Ao's more like an experimental animal than anything. In the few panels after that, Ao is drawn as a hamster but with her bangs and face. In the anime, this is modified by Misa drawing the same Ao-hamster in a notebook, assumed to be showing to Moe.
  • In the eighteenth chapter, Mikage raises the term "boring" (as in drilling). Mira immediately pretends to be bowling. Japanese approximates "bowling" in a way that's identical to "boring".
• Wall of Blather: When the cast are looking at different mineral samples at the Geological Museum in an unanimated part of the eleventh chapter, Mira and Ao come across the heart-shaped Japan-law twin crystals. Ao wonders how it's formed, and Mira suggested it might just likematerials molded into a heart-shaped cavity. Ao falls into a dilemma about how to respond, handled through this in a thought bubble.
• Was Too Hard on Her: Doubles with Poor Communication Kills. When Mira asks Misa to opine on the article she wrote for the Earth Sciences Club's newsletter, what Misa actually means is it is a bit boring and too fact-intensive for a general-interest piece. The way she phrases it, though, can be read as the article is bland and generic. Mira is so upset that she runs back to her room, at which point Misa slumps on the sofa, face down, because of this.
• Western Zodiac: The second episode has the Earth Sciences Club explore the different zodiac constellations, and the zodiac is also featured in each episode's eye-catches.
• Wham Episode:
  • Episode 6. In the end, Mari and Mikage step down as president and vice-president of the club, leaving Mai as president, Mira as vice-president, and Ao as treasurer.
  • Episode 8. Ao reveals to Mira and Mai that she'll be moving in March, during Spring Break.
• Wham Line: Accompanies with Wham Episode.
  • Episode 6, at the end of the school festival, the club leaders have an announcement.
    Mari: As of today...
    Mari and Mikage in unison: we're both stepping down as president and vice-president.
  • In Episode 8, Ao, who'd been acting strangely since late in the previous episode, says why.
    Ao: The truth is, it's been decided that my dad's going to be transferred... and I'm supposed to move away with him.
  • In Episode 10, Mira and Ao hear back from the Shining Star Challenge. Mira is accepted, but...
    Ao: Sorry, I... didn't make it.
• Wham Shot: Towards the end of Episode 10, Mira and Endou are on their way out of the Ishigaki Airport when they heard somebody calling out for Mira. The camera then cuts to Ao appearing in front of them.
• When She Smiles: Mira often spots them.
  • In Chapter 2 / Episode 1, Mira notes Ao is not really a "cool beauty" and she's super cute when she noticed the latter's smile the morning after they Stargazing Scene-over-the-phone.
  • There are several times when the usually prickly Mikage shows her caring side, especially when she takes note of her kouhai's achievements. Mira often takes note of this, at which point Mikage turns back and goes back to her usual mode.
• Whole Episode Flashback: About half of Chapter 30 consists of Mari's flashbacks on the days right after the club merger, as well as how she thought about her position as the club president, at the time she's going to Graduate from the Story.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: In addition to Megu, Moe dresses up Ao and Yuu as boys for her second year's School Festival. In Yuu's case, Moe noticed she looks better in a masculine uniform, and in Ao's case, Moe attempts to make her Girlish Pigtails even more girlish as part of her style, at which point she says she'd rather crossdress than this.
• Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: In the first chapter of the manga, Ao gets this when the other new member says she wants to find an asteroid. Downplayed when it is adapted in the first episode of the anime when her irises only shrink a little when that other member's companion calls her "Mira".
• Wingding Eyes: Downplayed as the second chapter is adapted as part of the first episode. When Ao gets overwhelmed by Mira's messages, exclamation marks are drawn over her eyes with a layer of transparency filter.
• Wish Upon a Shooting Star: The fifth chapter happens on a night at the peak of a meteor shower. Endou eventually kept the entire gang at the picnic site so that she can do this, but there wasn't a single shooting star visible to her that night.
• With a Foot on the Bus: The third segment of Episode 8 and the first segment of episode 9. This mini-arc started with Ao declaring she will have to move away at the end of the school year because of her father's transfer. The Earth Sciences and Newspaper clubs having an emergency meeting in an attempt to minimize its impact on Mira and Ao. Mira's Cool Big Sis Misa offers to stay in her room when she's off for college, Ao, who has trouble speaking up, persuades her mother to let herself stay in town according to Misa's offer, which is accepted.
• Write Who You Know: In-Universe. Mira based the Love interests in her romantic manga on Ao, which she mistook for a boy for years and thus has a crush on "him", at least until the Unsettling Gender-Reveal when they reunited. This also shows the impression Ao has on Mira; despite having seen each other for just a few hours, the Ao in her manga looks enough similar to the current Ao that people who read those manga immediately get where Mira gets the inspiration from.
• Wrong Assumption: Since Mira acts like a complete ditz during the club's welcoming barbecue, Yuu assumes that Mira would completely follow that archetype and isn't expecting anything intellectual from her. The problem is, while Mira isn't the smartest girl around, she is uncharacteristically curious for The Ditz, and her impulsivity can turn into motivation. Cue Yuu's utter surprise in the thirty-fourth chapter when she learns that Mira is seriously into asteroid discovery...
  Yuu: Pigs don't fly!!
  Chikage: Nana-chan, you sure pull no punches.
• "YEAH!" Shot:
  • To commemorate the end of the Shining Star challenge, Mira, Ao, Mikki, and Tomorin all hold hands and launch themselves into the air while Hayakawa-sensei snaps their picture. The same event happens in the anime, but they face away from the camera instead and jumping up against the setting sun.
  • Averted for the opening credits; despite the "Kirara Jump" being a staple of Manga Time Kirara adaptation OPs, it doesn't appear there.
• Yonkoma: Like all non-Forward Kirara series, Asteroid in Love is published in 4-frame strips.

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