Thank god I finally managed to catch up to this series. And don’t get me wrong, Space Brothers is awesome, but it’s also so intimidating to fully watch through. I remember that a few years ago, when the average series length started to change from 26 episodes to 13, that I lauded the series that went on really long. At this point, I see that things just are not so simple: ideally, series should go on for like 26 or 39 episodes (on average, there are always exceptions): that way they aren’t cut off early, they’ve got their time to build up their story, but they are also forced to be concise. As much as I love Space Brothers, it drags. A lot.
These episodes comprise two arcs: the first one focuses on Sharon, the second focuses on flight training. Sharon’s arc was really good here. I nearly got a bit teary-eyed when Serika brought the bad news to her, that she really should see a doctor. In terms of character-develooment, these episodes added so much to Sharon’s character.
The pilot training, I get why it’s important, but I also feel like it’s reusing a lot of things from previous arcs. It was nice to see this one character who appeared months ago to reappear again, but this is the second time that Mutta ends up with an instructor that everybody finds weird but is actually secretly brilliant. It’s again some sort of astronaut training.
Don’t get me wrong, these episodes raised plenty of good points. I mean the past number of episodes showed the first real hints of why Mutta will set himself apart. First of all he now has the motivation with Sharon, plus he also has the instructor who can bring him to the top. I also like that it criticized the ranking system for astronauts due to the arbitrary assignment of teachers, and it did give some insight about flying a jet and all. Overall the episode just was not THAT interesting to watch. Build-up is awesome, but you do need to keep in your audience’s attention.
Rating: 4,5/8 (Good)
Glad you caught up. The pilot arc is amazing in my opinion. I think whenever Mutta accomplishes something, it makes the viewer feel like they accomplished something. I couldn’t stop smiling once Mutta got comfortable flying with Young.
The Sharon arc was good. I understand their relationship, but to me Sharon is not that interesting of a character. I did like how that girl whose dad died from the same time got a little bit more screen time.
OT: Dude, you really should do your Aku no Hana series review before the impressions start to fade. I can see you’re busy and hardly have time to do episode reviews, but this series definitely deserves prioritizing 😉
And…? What about the new Opening?