Year: 2010
Runtime: 136 mins
Language: Japanese
Director: Koji Masunari
Five children at a self‑run summer camp rescue a dog‑like alien. Grateful, the alien takes them to a Moon colony, but after a violent attack injures him, his report bans travel between Moon and Earth, leaving the kids stranded in space. They must evade the poachers who wounded their friend, find a way home before camp ends, and avoid alarming their parents.
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Read the complete plot breakdown of Welcome to the Space Show (2010), including all key story events, major twists, and the ending explained in detail. Discover what really happened—and what it all means.
Welcome to the Space Show, a sprawling space adventure that the producers claim rivals the scale of Star Wars. The film follows the summer exploits of five elementary school students as they embark on a peculiar kind of school trip. Their mission begins with a search for their missing class pet, a rabbit named Pyon-Kichi, and soon they rescue an injured dog from a corn field. The dog is revealed to be an alien named Pochi Rickman, who invites the group to from Earth to the Moon as a reward for helping him.
What starts as a friendly voyage quickly spirals into a test of endurance. The children find themselves stranded far from home and must navigate a winding path across the galaxy to reach Pochi Rickman’s homeworld, Wan, so they can return to Earth. Throughout their journey they are relentlessly pursued by the aliens responsible for injuring the dog, a danger that ups the stakes at every turn. These pursuers serve the mysterious host of the universe’s most popular entertainment, Neppo, an enigmatic figure who operates from the moving spaceship known as the Pet Star and seems determined to seize a crucial power source.
That power source is Zughan, a substance closely related to the wasabi root and described as a recreational drug in the story’s world. Natsuki carries some of this root in her bag, turning the group into a target for Neppo. When Neppo’s henchmen fail to retrieve it, he takes matters into his own hands and arrives just as the children and Pochi Rickman reach Wan. The Pet Star’s tractor beams steal the bag—and, with it, Amane Suzuki as well—laying the groundwork for a dramatic confrontation.
The chase leads to an interstellar festival that becomes a battleground for the fate of the universe. With the help of friends they meet along the way, the children mount a determined resistance, manage to defeat Neppo, and rescue Amane in the process. Their teamwork helps avert a larger disaster, turning a perilous mission into a victory that preserves the cosmos itself. In the end, the group reunites with their families, returning home (accompanied by Pyon-Kichi, who had been kidnapped along the way) and stepping back into their ordinary lives just as their parents arrive to pick them up, marking a triumphant homecoming that sits beside the extraordinary memories of their space-faring summer.
Last Updated: October 14, 2025 at 04:07
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