Hibito’s trip to the moon is about to get underway but his mother is more interested in Disneyland? Naaah.
What They Say:
The final NASA interview was a decoy to trick the candidates into relaxing so the astronauts could evaluate them. However, the candidates have yet to realize this.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the show getting the next season underway, we get a new opening at the start here that’s definitely not as fun as what we had before but certainly has it’s own charms. The show also changes things up as it gets underway a bit by focusing on a mission from the past with Azuma in space that does something that’s very hard to do; it makes a view of Earth from space in an anime series seem wondrous. Anime works the space side of things quite often over its history and that magic of being in space when it happens is pretty rare since it’s treated as just a job of being there. So getting a tender moment like this, especially with a younger Azuma who really does let it impact him, is very well done.
That does provide the lead-in to what’s going on in the present though, as a question asked of him then is the question he asks Mutta now in the bar while everyone listens on. There’s a lot of meaning to the question of “Are you prepared to die?”, but it’s one that Mutta handles in a rather good way when you get down to it. The truth of it is what comes out and it moves around a fair bit, from Azuma’s past to that of Hibito and Mutta themselves as it goes back to when they were kids and there was an incident going on at the time when they had seen the UFO. It brings back the past in a really nice way that continues to further show the bonds of the brothers.
Unfortunately, we don’t get any real further progress on the final exam evaluation itself, though there are some good bits before it shifts gears. The shift is one that does work nicely though as Hibito and his crew are getting ready for their mission to the moon, so there’s some real NASA junkie material here with them flying in and meeting family along the roped line before they go through their final preparations. There’s some really good family material here that deals with the situation and what’s involved but also just how families deals with these things. There’s some good, tender moments with the other astronaut families that contrasts the somewhat more formal meeting Hibito has with his family. His father is stiff to the point of comedy while his mother is all over the map. Apo’s the best, but there’s a lot going for the talk Mutta and Hibito have as well that sets up events for the next episode.
In Summary:
While I really, really wanted to see things start to move forward again for Mutta so we have an understanding of where things stand, there’s a whole lot to like here. The time spent within the bar for the real final exam, the conversation with Azuma and getting the related parts of the past between them all with the question asked is really nicely done. The show does shift gears a few times to dealing with the past but it also spends more than enough time in the present as well where we get ready for Hibito’s very important mission, one that I hope gets plenty of screen time in parallel to what Mutta will hopefully be doing. The show only seems to get better and better, whether it’s doing testing or just having the cast talking and moving through their lives.
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.
