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)
does anyone even still watch this?
I am, sort of. Just kinda going with the flow.
A bit of an epic and melancholic time for space exploration. One one side, you’ve got the Endeavour going into retirement, and a guy who jumped off from space and managed to land on his feet. (Oh, man. That’s real kintama right there.)
Plus apparently there’s going to be an episode later featuring a real astronaut from Japan actually voice-acting from the ISS. ^^
Noguchi Soichi already appeared on episodes 13 and 26 as himself.
It would be nice if adult Hibito still had some flaws.
I have this weird premonition that they might make him Lockon Stratos. They wouldn’t do that, would they? The story is called “Space Brothers”.
Yeah, I didn’t want to mention it, but this slow lead-up to the launch would make more sense as a death flag.
I’ve seen criticism of this episode on similar grounds in other places too (the worst of which was someone calling it filler). But personally, I disagree. I liked the attention to detail and characterisation in this episode, and I thought the content was important enough to be worth a whole episode devoted to it.
I liked this episode, it was sweet to see Hibito’s flaws and his attempt at helping his brother. You seem to think that the fact we don’t get to see the launch yet is annoying.
For me Space Brothers was never about how fast it can get to it’s destination, but rather the journey itself : for instance, the whole exam thing was pretty long, and I can understand why some people would get bored, but each individual episode has a clear theme and all of them add to the overall story.
This episode was expected to be a flashback episode for me. Next episode is called, “The night before the launch.” Then, according to my Newtype magazine, there’s “The dog, old man/granpa, and Alexander” and “Rocket Road.” Looking at the descriptions of the episodes here, there’s quite a bit to expect from the next few episodes, so I’m looking forward to it~
I don’t really find the focus on the UFO now strange, let’s not forget it was the reason everything started … the very reason they wanted to become astronauts as they decided on the night they saw the “real” UFO .. so as they near their goal it’s only natural to recall the very reason it all started .. nothing weird about that at all.
Besides, the flashback did take half the episode, the other half was dedicated to the preparations and explanation of how the space journey to the moon will progress which was done intelligently through a TV program (nice way to handle exposition) .. and the goodbye party for the astronauts team .. IMO it was a well balanced episode.
As for the state of the whole series, i’m wondering how will they continue the story after Hibito goes into space, they will to either end the series at this point (with the life-goes-on ending where we see an quick epilogue with Mutta picking the DVD years later from the moon base while Hibito is heading towards Mars .. for example) .. or they need to make a serious time-jump (few years forward) and to get to the point where Mutta is preparing for his journey into space … they just can’t keep the same pacing anymore after Hibito goes into space … opinions !!?
The manga is still going and, though I haven’t spoiled myself much, the developments seem to still be steady like they are now (though they don’t seem to get boring at all because of it). They have quite a bit left of the plans for the anime, too, so I can’t predict if that will continue to follow the manga or not for now…
Well, thanks for the reply, seeing there is a manga ongoing i suppose they will just keep following it .. i thought Uchuu Kyoudai was actually an original series not based on a manga … that clears things up.