Category: Uchuu Kyoudai

So… after last week’s big climax… we get here an anti-climax. Mutta never really made a foolout of himself, and instead this series goes on to introduce a very important question: are the astronauts prepared to die? The annoying thing is that it’s still impossible to figure out what Azuma is thinking, and this episode then proceeded to skillfully ignore the entire third exam in favor of building up for Hibito’s take off.

So with the build-up, this wasn’t one of the standout episodes of Space Brothers, but still had plenty of great moments, most notably Mutta asking Hibito to take the disc he made as a kid with him, which contained the footage he shot of that UFO (the first time since the first episode that that thing has been mentioned by the way). Also, Apo turned out to be an interesting way to get Mutta and Serika closer together again.

Also, this episode showed the new OP and ED for this season. The first quarter of this series had an awesome OP and an unremarkable ED, the second quarter had an unremarkable OP and a wonderful ED instead. Here, they’re both really good. Not as good as the best ones, but it’s still great to watch them, and they’re based on great ideas.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

And the final exam has begun. And it is awesome. It’s a lot shorter than the second exam, but I love how it ended up: it’s just an interview by real astronauts, to see whether they would trust their lives with the new candidates. It’s so simple, yet it brings out the best of the characters.

We also got to see reaffirmed once more that Mutta is an idiot, but the creators did it in such a hilarious way that it’s impossible not to love. I mean, first of all the muscle ache hits home so much: after training really hard you only start to feel it after two days, rather than one. Furthermore, this was the first time in which I saw an anime deal with muscle ache for as far as I can remember, let alone with such detail.

And then there was this stupid part of his that started drinking, right at the wrong moment. Oh god. I was expecting him to say all sorts of embarrassing stuff, but Mutta actually turned out to be quite an interesting character when drunk. It’s his very observant side that really pops up when tipsy. And his incredibly stubborn side. That ending wsa glorious, in which he just stood right in front of Azuma. It also was another one of this series’ very annoying cliff-hangers. Waiting another week for that is going to be really hard!!
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)

Pardon me for just including two episodes in one entry in my attempt to catch up to the backlog I created on holiday, but at least these two episodes fit with each other as the intermezzo between the third and final exam. And seriously, even in an intermezzo this series is just amazing. It’s like the creators looked at the cast and went “You know, we don’t have enough awesome characters yet. Let’s create another one!”. Azuma is a wonderful addition to this series.

There was so much going on in these two episodes, but the big focus of this was Hibito’s preparation to take off into space, while Mutta waited for the exams to start. Azuma was this really famous astronaut who Hibito passed in order to be able to participate in the upcoming shuttle launch. These episodes were very vague on how he feels about the ordeal, and this episode clearly stated that a few times, but it also gave a wonderful explanation of who he was and what he accomplished. The personal bond between him and Hibito was really subtle, but a great addition.

And the comedy was as awesome as usual. The creators especially used Apo great, and this dog really breaks a lot of habits for animal mascots. For one he doesn’t force himself into every episode (he was gone in the episodes in which Hibito did not matter), plus he knows when to be cute and when to take things down. The waking up masks were hilarious, but at the same time he also was great when just watching Mutta train.

And the ending of episode 25 was just wonderful. I didn’t suspect that that would be the point where Mutta’s parents would meet Serika, and the way in which they dropped all sorts of hints on her was hilarious, only made better by that director breaking the fourth wall announcing the ED. An which I still consider to be among the best EDs of the year by the way.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)

You know what? I think that Space Brothers just got better.

I mean really: this episode was just brilliant and I was incredibly moved at the end of it. Seriously, this is how you write your characters. Every single character was enjoyable to watch, and Mutta’s acting was even better than usual. We now know him for 23 episodes already, and he’s still changing. Most notably his confidence in this episode was completely different compared when he went to Hibito for his first trip. Putting him in weird yet realistic situations only made this better, like when he dressed up for Santa Clause for a part-time job, or when he forgot to charge his train fare. Or take the rest of the cast: I loved how Serika randomly danced around at the end of the episode, or the little tantrum that Kenji’s daughter gave when Mutta visited (hiding behind the curtain was just way too adorable!). Despite the slow pacing, this episode had so many memorable scenes here.

But the real star of this episode was Yuri. I already suspected that now that he would be part of the main team, he’d get some more attention and all, but this episode completely went against my expectations. It without a doubt was one of the best executions of the “This character is put on a bus… oh wait, he is not!”-twist I have seen. With just ten minutes, this guy got a ton of depth, and I never imagined that the past episodes were all building up to that moment. I really got his fascination with aliens, and what he feels he should be doing with his life, but especially the talk he had with his father was beautifully and wonderfully down to earth.
Rating: 7/8 (Fantastic)

Okay. So perhaps it was obvious what the outcome of this episode was going to be. There wouldn’t be much of a series left if Mutta didn’t pass in some way. But the way in which the creators did it was magnificent. This is really where the slow pace of this series came fullest to its right, because this really was an episode which needed to let its twists wink in.

The first half of the episode was dedicated to show how everyone has become friends after the whole ordeal and how they immediately decided to meet again. Especially Ya-San and Fukuda were great in how their accepted their loss. The previous episode already showed this a bit, but this really sunk in today.

And I also really didn’t think that the creators would go so far… but Kenji didn’t make it. It’s an excellent twist here to show that despite his talents, he still didn’t make it and still lacked something. And in his case, it’s perhaps even for the better since he now has the time to dedicate himself to his daughter, which eh would not have had if he made it.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)

Oh Space Brothers. You are so evil. This episode finally showed the moment we’ve all been waiting for: the rock paper scissors game that everyone has been waiting for. The episode got to it very quickly… only to then hide its results. Especially since it afterwards became clear what the selection procedure meant: a ticket to the next round. It’s not concrete: JAXA will select a few more people they feel are worthy, and if you got selected and they don’t like you you probably also won’t survive that round, however it does give you an extra chance to show yourself off. Plus you get to go to Houston and meet real astronauts.

So all we know right now is that Furuya and Mutta didn’t make it. This episode didn’t say a word about the other three though. Instead, it went full background on Furuya. It’s like saying: “You thought that this was the end of the arc? Hah! We haven’t even started yet!” – That background by the way was really good and definitely puts Furuya on a different perspective.

There also is this bit of news that really intrigued me. It’s a list of the most viewed anime on TV, and if you take a look there, then you’ll see that Space Brothers is actually amongst them! This usually is a list for either kids’ shows or shounen series, and yet here this series about all adults has managed to place itself in it! This shows that there is an audience for these kinds of series, which will allow to draw in more interest from advertisers. The series airs on 7am on sunday morning, so there probably are a lot of kids who watch it, but even then this is a wonderful development, because it shows that there is interest in series that take themselves and their audiences seriously. Compared to the usual kiddie shows which just try to see who can rip each other off the most.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

So, we’ve finally arrived at the big day: where of each team two people have to be chosen, supposedly to become an astronaut, even though many people have already figured out that JAXA will make its choice, regardless of who gets selected. That will be the real climax of this arc. In the meantime, this episode was all about convincing those who didn’t figure this out yet. In particular, Yasushi.

If you’d just randomly watch this episode, then its effect will probably be completely lost on you. However, after following these people for so long and seeing them get fleshed out so brilliantly with all kinds of things they went through, this is just the episode in which everything together. It was so heart-warming when Mutta finally came with the idea to just use Rock Paper Scissors. The Udon actually was the perfect build-up for that.

It’s also awesome to see how little drama there has been: any incident has been solved so incredibly quickly in Group A. And to illustrate that even further is the sharp contrast that this has with Group B, in which the mood is completely tense. It just shows how one person can have such an impact on the overall mood. This episode showed absolutely nothing of how they ended up selecting their two people.

Of the past arc, there is one thing I do regret not having seen: Group C. They pretty much disappeared after the time assignment on the first day (of which they were the only ones who got it wrong). However, I know this series by now. They’re holding something back. They’re saving Group C for an appropriate moment, I’m sure of it.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Good lord, Sharon. Do you really mean to teach two young boys about cooking by using a large sharp cooking knife on top of a wooden table?!That poor table!

Also, this episode did what I thought was impossible: it added even more depth to Mutta by revealing even more of his past. I mean, his aunt Sharon was bound to be special with that observatory of her and all, but when this episode revealed who she really was, it put even more pieces of the puzzle together: because of her influence, Hibito was able to go into space, and the two siblings were probably invited into JAXA, able to attend all these lectures.

I love how for Mutta, she was the most normal thing in the world: he knew a famous person, but he pretty much didn’t know any better because the only space fanatic he grew up with was his own brother, Hibito. This was a really charming episode that allowed him to finally talk to people with the same passions as he had.

Revealing these things only at this stage of the series also has a very nice side-effect: the characters actually had lives before the start of this series. This show doesn’t just have an obligatory background arc, but instead is full of anecdotes of who Mutta and Hibito were when they grew up. This really gives the illusion that they had witnessed a lot of different things already, compared to most leads out there where the background just comprises of one or two key events in their past, and nothing else.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Well, it was a long wait, but it has finally happened: an episode dedicated to Makabe. And it worked wonderfully: not just he himself emerged as a better character from this episode, but the rest of Team B did as well, especially the fidgety guy and the bossy guy (whose names I can’t remember at the moment, unfortunately) got more depth as this episode finally focused a bit more on their personalities.

Makabe though, he really is aware of how direct he is. I love how he’s been trying, yet failing to keep the team together. It’s great for introducing a bunch of flaws for him: he is brilliant, definitely, but he also can be quite self-centered, also shown by how he replies to those women selling magic space stones. The end of this episode was really charming with the way the creators used his daughter to cheer him up again. This episode really brought balance into his character.

And in the meantime, this episode had a hell of a lot of fun, fleshing out the people from Team A. Mutta in particular was as hilarious as ever, but the rest of the cast also had their wonderful moments because of how analytic he can be. I especially liked how he was forced to scream out twice every day, and how Nitta responded after breaking the toilet. This show, just is brilliant.I thought that last year we got lucky with Kotetsu from Tiger & Bunny, but to be honest: the series is nowhere near over yet, but at this point Mutta has completely surpassed him.
Rating: 5.5/8

Ah, I finally got a new PC to replace my nearly broken old laptop. Finally I don’t have to worry about being unable to play files and lagging framerates (Seriously, there were times especially during flash mecha-series, in which its frame-rate just couldn’t keep up on files with normal resolution). Thankfully this is a thing of the past now.

Now, as for this episode: it finally confimed what has been clear for a while now: JAXA has sent instructions to some of the contestants to screw things up and create stress: the broken clock was meant to kill their sense of time, while the alarm at the middle of the night was meant to disturb their sleep (which WILL happen if you’re in a space shuttle). After everything was cleared up though, I was wondering how the creators would follow up with this. I mean, for Team A there is no reason for stress anymore thanks to a combination between Mutta’s luck and his observational habits (by the way, it’s interesting to have two members in the team who are bothered on the small things, yet in completely different ways).

And then the climax of this episode came, and it was glorious. I mentioned before that Space Brothers has some of the best romance of the season, and this episode only made this better. Before, the creators already nailed the way in which the two of them could be a couple: similar interestsspending time together, etc. This episode was wonderfully creative in how it used all of the build-up together.
Rating: (Awesome)