Stardust Telepath – Season 1 Episode 3 Recap & Review

Explosive Mechanic

Episode 3 of Stardust Telepath begins with Umika washing dishes while watching a news report about a rocket heading into space. She hopes she’ll be able to build a similar one that’ll aid her, Haruno, and Yu on their space travels in the future. At school, our trio discusses flight distances with the rockets. Haruno suggests they find themselves a mechanic and Umika has someone in mind. After using her forheadapathy technique, Haruno and Yu discover Umika’s thinking of Matataki. 

Our trio knows it might be hard to reach Matataki because she barely attends classes. Nonetheless, they visit Matataki at her house. Haruno hands her some notes from class, but Matataki isn’t thrilled by their arrival at her home. Yu helps Umika tell Matataki that they want her to help them build a rocket so they can go to space. Matataki asks Umika why they want to go to space but Umika struggles to tell her, resulting in Matataki sending them away and not being interested in their affairs. 

Umika heads home and looks through her rocket notebook. She recalls her days in middle school when she first learned about Matataki and her goal to build a large-scale robot. Umika had pondered the idea of becoming friends with her and tried one time but hesitated due to fear. Umika wakes up and discovers Yu in her bedroom. Yu encourages Umika to confront Matataki about her wishes. Yu tells Haruno Umika to leave after homeroom to visit Matataki and Haruno is worried about how things will turn out this time. 

Meanwhile, Umika asks Matataki if she can assist them with the rocket again. Matataki isn’t interested, despite Umika’s heartfelt reasons for wanting her to build them a rocket. Umika slips a sheet of paper under Matataki’s garage door. She wants to challenge Matataki to a Water Bottler Rocket contest duel. If Umika wins, Matataki must listen to her plea, if she loses, she won’t bother her anymore. Umika leaves and notices Yu’s lighthouse’s light signal and checks it out. 

She spots Haruno and Yu and informs them about her duel with Matataki. They offer to assist Umika with the duel and Umika thanks them.

The episode closes with Haruno presenting Yu and Umika with a gift, which happens to be a key. 

The Episode Review

Stardust Telepath introduces another potential member to our rocket-building group in the form of Matataki. Unlike the other girls, Matataki isn’t fully for helping the girls achieve their goals. Not only is this a nice change of pace but given what we received of her background, it makes sense for her to not be fully onboard with supporting people. 

Nevertheless, it’s likely that Matataki will grow out of her isolated shell after seeing Yu, Haruno, and Umika’s efforts during the upcoming duel. Although it’s wholesome to see Yu and Haruno offer Umika a helping hand with building the rocket, it does seem a bit unfair to have all three girls combat Matataki in the context.

While she’s known for being a talented mechanic, many may prefer if the duel was on an equal playing field. Nonetheless, seeing Umika stand up for her and her friends’ dreams provided her with great character development. Hopefully, more instances like this occur throughout the series as it’d help our cast feel more relatable and unforgettable.

Overall, this chapter had enough touching segments, character-defining moments, and entertaining banter to keep fans’ invested. I’m excited to see what happens in this upcoming duel.