Category: Uchuu Kyoudai

Yeah, the only two series that made me cry this year: Natsuyuki Rendezvous and Uchuu Kyoudai. I just completely broke down at the big moment of this episode.

At first sight it seemed that the creators were going to make this one the episode for the losers: the ones who didn’t make it while Mutta was still going on and on about his luck of the day. The episode indeed started out that way: Mizoguchi didn’t get the job. And in a way, this was to be expected: he is talented, but in the end he is too much focused on himself. It’s a bit of a shame that we didn’t get to see much of him in the third exam, but I believe that the decision was already made after the second.

Mutta in the meantime was hilarious. Just seeing him waiting and waiting for the right moment was awesome. And then this episode put details like head-bumps in the mix to make things even better. And then he suddenly got invited to come outside, and hear that he passed, even though there still are enough people left of which we don’t know what happened.

His reaction in any case was beautiful. The danger with these things of course is making them too cheesy: playing up the emotional value too much and making the reactions too simple and shallow. The comedy did so much to avoid this, the symbolism helped so much, en then Mutta’s facial expressions were really well done. This series doesn’t have the best animation at all, but it is a A-1 production nonetheless: they really bring in some good people for the scenes that really matter, and this episode really showed that in bringing out the emotions right.
Rating: 7/8 (Fantastic)

Oh space brothers… what the hell are you doing to me? We’re waiting for the big moment to hear whether Mutta is going to become an astronaut, and yet again you’re going to stretch it with this bittersweet episode dedicated to Serika. After Kenji I guess it was obvious that they’d do this, but this episode made one heck of an impact.

First the creators showed Serika’s family (great way to flesh out a cast by the way), and then the creators finally tell the whole story of why her father died, and how she felt with it. The diary returns many times, but instead the central focus of this episode is how even though he knew so much about the subject, he couldn’t find a cure for himself, even though outer space could possibly find the answer.

How Serika’s father’s disease progressed was also beautifully done, and another example of what you can really do if you take your time, and actually use it by deteriorating his situation bit by bit, to the point where he eventually ends up in the hospital and his wife instead has to start working again. Three thumbs up for Space Brothers.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)

This episode was recommended to me in order to cheer up from being sick, so I’m putting it ahead a bit of the other shows this week. And yeah: this episode is as we feared: the creators managed to dedicate an entire episode to Kenji’s results from the third exam. At the end of this episode, we still don’t know what happened to Mutta.

Having said that though, this episode was completely and utterly adorable. Kenji already was an awesome character, and here this episode comes and gives him even more character. We finally learn exactly why he chose to become an astronaut, and what he did before he met Mutta, while this episode was entirely occupied with building up to that one moment, where he heard whether he passed the exam or not.

And that moment actually brought some tears to my eyes. The creators here were evil and just kept dragging it out, using Kenji’s daughter also really well in it, and how the bald guy just kept going on and on with his story. Also don’t tell me that the rest of the characters will also get their own episode dedicated to their results. It’s gonna take ages before we know how Mutta did.
Rating: 6.5/8 (Amazing)

DAMN YOU SPACE BROTHERS AND YOUR CLIFF-HANGERS!#$#$!%&

You just had to do it, waste this episode’s time with damned toilet paper. You just had to build up and drag on this episode long enough with mundane stuff for there to be no time left for the actual phone calls of JAXA. You just had to time it right at when Kenji got his answer. You just had to tease us like that. AaAaargh!!

Seriously, not since Giant Killing have I gotten so worked up over a simple cliff-hanger. I mean this episode was just so good. It was wonderful to see the astronauts relax on the moon and chit-chat, Mutta’s adventure in the supermarket had me in stitches (and besides, how often do you see characters just do groceries in anime? It’s such a good way to flesh them out). I already was in an incredibly good mood with this series when suddenly out of nowhere it skipped five days to the JAXA phone calls. I Yelled at my screen when I realized how the creators were in that evil mood again to stop right at the worst possible time.

With this, I also realized that this episode had some quiet moments that were quite peculiar. Moments in which nobody just said anything for a few seconds, but their expressions said so much about what they felt.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)

First of all, I’d like to share this xkcd comic, just because it just fits this show so well: realistic depictions of spacecraft with tons of dry humour.

Now, this episode was about the moon landing: Hibito finally reaching his dream of setting a foot on the moon, and this was even better than what I could have hoped. This is where everything came together, all of the build-up on Hibito came together, and finally we get to see the moon, but the way in which the creators depicted it was also just amazing: they just showed everyone living towards that moment. All the characters, from the NASA staff, to the JAXA staff, to the major and minor characters, including a brilliant opening of the episode done by Mutta and Hibito’s father.

What also was awesome was that we got to see the creators poke fun at the moon landing of Neil Armstrong. I loved the scene where Mutta found out about the sentence that Hibito uttered as he first stepped on the moon, and how he could have seen it coming from miles away. On top of that, his video message using Apo also had me in stitches.

After this we’ll probably start focusing on Mutta again, but with the pacing of this series you’ll never know. There are just so many great characters that this show can do something with, but on top of all I love how Hibito’s launch has basically been one giant awesome red herring for Mutta’s final exam. These are all tropes that spice up this series even more, and it already was incredibly good.
Rating: 6.5/8 (Amazing)

Yes! Finally after such a long wait, we get to look into the mind of Azuma, and boy was it worth the wait. This was a wonderful episode, and I love how Azuma turned out to be completely different from expected, even taking into consideration that the creators were hinting a lot that there’s more to this guy than just the exterior he shows.

What really did it for me was that the creators portrayed him as a real character, just like a lot of other characters in this series. His love for his family was SO down to earth, and they really succeeded in showing how important they are to him without any sort of cheese. His disgust for the media also is very believable, and it does put the interview they showed a number of episodes ago in a very different light.

Meanwhile, the details around Hibito’s mission continue. I loved his media attention, how he described various details about space flight (the watch was a very nice touch, considering how time has been such a challenge for Mutta and the others in the second exam arc). They are really making him out to be some kind of supernatural hero, which I guess is pretty normal considering how today, Neil Armstrong and the other astronauts are regarded. Speaking of heroes: Brian Jay is also more and more turning into one. When we first saw his death, he was just a random astronaut, but as the show goes on, it just becomes clearer and clearer what an important guy this was.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)

So, this is the episode: they actually got an astronaut to voice a version of himself, as he was in space. You really could hear that he wasn’t a professional voice actor, and instead someone who was more used to giving press conferences.

I kept wondering in what kind of context the creators would put it, but they actually did it in a flashback to when Mutta and Hibito were still kids and got to talk to him along with a number of other kids. That’s quite neat. I also like how they could have shown this segment at any episode the creators would have liked, yet they chose Hibito’s big moment: the moment where he finally achieved his dreams and arrived into space.

The launch itself also was just perfect: there was just as much detail here as last episode, and it’s amazing to actually see so much time spent on just a single launch of a rocket.

This really was an episode that said “You’re next, Mutta”. With all the build-up I kept thinking that they were leading up to this huge death scene, but instead the creators just really wanted to show in full detail what the launch of a rocket would be like, and what it all entails. It’s completely different from the second exam arc in that the number of characters was much smaller, and this wasn’t aimed to get to know them better at all. Still, it worked really well, just because it was so unique. Slow paced series like this are really rare, especially when done right (dragging on is a really big pitfall for them), so I’m really glad with this series.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Agh! That build-up!

This was probably one of the slowest episodes of the entire series. Holy crap, it took its time. They showed everything, from gearing up Hibito in his seat, locking the cabin, the wait for everything to get ready, the procedures in the control room. And Mutta getting kidnapped by this old NASA instructor.

But that’s also what made this episode so incredibly good. I can only imagine that one major part of the experience of such a launch is the wait and the tension that builds up. If the creators immediately cut to the launch here and didn’t use that damned dog as a red herring, the end of the episode would never have had the same impact as it did now, and I also wouldn’t be yelling at my screen at that cliff-hanger.

Space Brothers has really nailed the slow pacing. It’s really dangerous to use, because you still need to be continuously interesting to avoid dragging on and taking way too long. Space Brothers for me has never had a dull moment, and this episode in particular had me on the edge of my seat, hoping that everything would go right.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)

This series’ cliff-hangers reached a new level of frustration. Before, they already had me wanting more and more, and ended right at the exact moment I was the most into the series. This week’s episode was like that as well, but on top of that, it had something extra: WHAT ON EARTH was the meaning behind that cliff-hanger?

I mean, this was a wonderful episode. The build-up was just perfect, and I love how this show took its time to show everything leading up to Hibito’s launch. It’s all so detailed, and despite the slow pacing the characters all made it so enjoyable to watch. The humour was better than ever, and as an added bonus Mutta’s mother showed a completely different side of her this episode when she was so worried about Hibito’s fate. Oh, and we finally had a punk kid who behaved normal. I once met a guy who had mohawk hair, and he behaved totally normal, completely unlike the over the top punks you usually see. Of course this effect was mitigated by his father and little brother, but it’s at least something!

But here is the thing: this series also looked like the build-up of a big death scene. With this series taking so much time leading up to that, toying with the weather, showing everyone worried and putting so much focus on Hibito. I wouldn’t be surprised if something indeed did go wrong. And it will very likely be completely amazing if that does happen.

And then Apo disappeared. What? You’re going to kill the dog? What? Why did he get lost at such an important moment!? WHY!?
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Damn you, Space Brothers! It’s finally time for Hibito to go up to space, and you stretch for time again using a flashback episode. Remember when last week Mutta gave Hibito a tape to deliver to the lunar base? Well, this episode tells the story about that.

I think that this was an episode in which the major flaw of this series stood out a lot: the way in which it takes ages to go somewhere. Usually I don’t mind this because it’s being completely awesome in the process, but this is an episode that I feel like it could have been done in half an episode for the stuff it had to add. We’ve already seen plenty about Mutta and Hibito as kids, and compared to the other flashbacks, this one didn’t deserve an entire episode dedicated to it.

The delightful character interactions that this show usually has suffered a bit from it. It’s great to see a bit more of Hibito’s flawed side, but their chemistry just wasn’t as enjoyable because it focused too much on the bullying.

So yes, as an episode, this left some things to be desired. As build-up though, I can definitely see where the creators are coming from. From the outside this was about explaining what that video was about, but when you go deeper, then this episode was there to relate the past and present together, using some of the themes early on in the series, like the birthdays of the two brothers. The ufo in particular has been absent for quite a bit in the first half of the series, so it’s definitely weird to see so much focus on it now.
Rating: 4.5/8 (Good)