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)
I started reading the manga, and the scanlation is just a little bit ahead of the anime. Highly recommended.
I was worried that reading stuff that’s not been animated yet would kind of make me less enthusiastic about the anime, but instead the latest chapter just made me think “Holy shit, this was phenomenal. I can’t wait to see this animated.”