The interview is here but Mutta’s challenges are truly just beginning.
What They Say:
Seven days remain before Hibito takes off on a journey to become the first Japanese person to walk on the moon. Meanwhile, Mutta prepares for the final astronaut selection exam at Johnson Space Center.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With things getting closer for the next and final test to becoming an astronaut, Mutta has to contend with something a little different and probably more difficult before that. The arrival of his parents in Houston brings a different kind of humor to things since they’re all about his brother and settle into the house really easily. They’re not bad parents, but they have this kind of lack of thought when it comes to the elder brother and what he’s done. And Mutta is obviously pretty aware of it as we see the way he reacts to them. It’s not the best family relationship, but it is fun to watch it play out.
With the interviews themselves getting underway, it’s actually a welcome change that Mutta gets to go first rather than suffering through watching him watch everyone else go through the process. Naturally, because of a little game played before he shows up, his initial impression goes from good to bad, combined with the problem with his legs after doing too many squats the day before. In front of so many of his fellow Japanese and all these astronauts, having the chair broken unintentionally before he sits in it and crashing down is just filled with hilarious moments, internal monologue and reactions by everyone else. It’s a great moment of levity at a difficult time, but we do get that somber reality to it as well as the interview concludes, something that leaves you really feeling for Mutta.
The post-exam is really interesting in what they do by having all the candidates together with what seems to be all the examiners as they go to a Texas restaurant, drink copious amounts of beer and eat all kinds of food. There’s a lot of humor mixed into it thanks to Murasaki as he continues to play gags on people, or more specifically on Mutta, but the characters all get a bit of time in some way. Amusingly, even though Mutta takes on Murasaki’s gags, the two really hit it off and Murasaki learns some really neat things about everyone else from him of all people. It hits a good variety of things here, including having Mutta assess everyone for who is best suited to be an astronaut, which he handles well since he has had a bit to drink.
In Summary:
With the interview exam done and the real test underway by having the applicants hang out with the real astronauts for an evening where they’re getting assessed, we get a much better look at who they are as people. Convincing them that the test is done lets them loosen up and the idea, which is pretty obvious early on, is to get these experienced astronauts to get the feel for who would work well within the group, the job and to entrust them with their lives. There’s some great bits throughout it as some of them catch on, others just enjoy the apparent down time and the will they or won’t they talk with each other bit between Mutta and Azuma plays out. The episode made me smile a great deal and really like Murasaki, even against my better judgment, and has me on edge to see what they’re going to do next.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
