It makes deep space feel like a day job, and that's exactly why it sticks. Toppy, Rana and Giraffe aren't chosen ones, they're staff at a multi-purpose space agency, and the show gives itself 77 episodes of 1986 television to let that sink in until the ship feels less like a vessel and more like an office you've clocked into. The danger is real and the saves do land in the nick of time, but the actual engine here is three friends who keep showing up for each other because nobody else is coming. What modern sci-fi skips, this thing lives in: the waiting, the small talk between crises, the slow accumulation of trust that only a run this long can earn. Giraffe the scientist tagging along with two working stiffs shouldn't be this moving, and yet. Watch it if you believe a crew beats a destiny.

Toppy and Rana work for a space agency that takes on all kinds of jobs, and along the way they befriend Giraffe, a scientist. Together the three set off on a string of adventures across space, some funny and some thrilling. Danger finds them now and then, but the bond between them always pulls them through at the last possible moment. Adapted from the Italian comic Altri Mondi by Andrea Romoli, the 77 episode science fiction adventure series won the Atom Prize at the Japan Animation Festival.