Lala-Ru states she hates the sunrise but enjoys the sunset. As the living embodiment of the earth/water, this makes sense. The moment the sun rises and throughout the day, the heat from it would cause any water to evaporate. At night there would be significantly less heat.
The sand monster in episode 9 poses a threat to Shu and Lala Ru only because they are alone and unequiped. Its tentacles are quite squishy and it is disposable once the kids get a hold of hand grenades. Groups that travel through the desert in larger number and with better weapons, like Hellywood troops, would not have much trouble with it.
Sara decided to stay in the future, which means she will never see her parents again; they will never know where she went or what happened to her, all so that she can stay in the future to raise children she has no familial ties to.
The director specifically says he was inspired to write this anime by the Rwandan genocide and by extension, Africa and the Third World's particularly brutal dictators and civil wars. Of course, in real life, there weren't just the infamous Idi Amin or Suharto making hell for their people; there were plenty other brutal strongmen who didn't stand out quite as much in Western media. In other words, especially considering the environmental hardships Earth is facing in NTHT, Hamdo probably isn't the only brutal, power-hungry strongman out there.
The sun is in the process of dying which means Sara is going to die anyway.
Given how slowly stars die? I'd say they're fine. Plus they have a time machine.
Except for Shu and Sara, no one should be able to swim because they all live on a planet with minimal water. After Lala-Ru releases water back to the world, lets hope someone can learn how to swim again.
While the story only involves the conflict between Hellywood and Zari Bars, it seems logical that there are countless other settlements all over the world, located at many different altitudes, depending on where the water is. One might wonder what happens at the end of the show to all of the settlements that were located below what would become sea level. Oh those poor Ewoks.
The abortion for Sara may actually have been a non option seeing as the doctor who recommended it, and the only doctor we've seen in the series, was shot dead, and no other was mentioned.
The doctor provides (presumably) safe abortion. There's a chance that the girl might resort to more dangerous measures, which she does on screen in episode 11. But again, the lack of safe abortion could only add more weight in favor of her final decision.
