The beauty of a space launch never loses its power, no matter the form in which it’s presented.
What They Say:
Mutta, Apo and the strange old man watch as Hibito launches off into space. Afterward, Mutta reminisces about the road take by Hibito to reach this point.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Having been into the world of space travel for much of my own life, growing up during the tail end of the space race and its accomplishments and the start of the space shuttle era, the whole aspect of launches and the power of it never ceases to amaze me. With the start of the episode here, it’s given proper respect as Hibito and his team make their launch in the rocket and we see it from mostly Mutta’s perspective further out where the sheer force and power of it is impressive. The emotions of everyone else is well covered too and you can truly feel the range of emotions there from family and friends as they move further and further up into the sky. For Mutta, there’s also that sense that he knows he’s going to be able to do that himself someday.
The majesty of space travel itself isn’t lost either as we get some time with Hibito up there as he soaks it up, as others talk about the five years of training he went through to get there. But Hibito knows it’s far more than that, that it’s been twenty years of getting ready for that moment because of what happened in his childhood. The show does a really nice job of also making sure the others understand it as well, as we see the range of thoughts and views in brief from a few others, such as his parents who are shell shocked in their own way to the professor that dealt wit them as children. There’s definitely proper reverence given to the launch here, particularly with Mutta, but it also wants to show some of the path that lead the men here.
That means flashbacks, but not the kind that just present repeated scenes from earlier in the series thankfully. There’s some good material here, from an early conversation at JAXA with an astronaut in space to seeing the dedication and effort that Hibito really made in his teenage years to educate himself and try and achieve his goals. But thankfully, it doesn’t dominate with these as we get a good bit of material not just of Hibito in space, annoying his crewmates a bit with how easily he’s adjusting there, but also a little more with Mutta as he hangs out with the old guy a bit more on his way back to the facility itself. The time with him seeds things for the future in just the right way, showing Mutta exactly where he’s going next and that it’s going to be a wild ride. Almost literally.
In Summary:
Space Brothers is in an interesting place with this episode as it deals with the two brothers. Hibito’s thrilled to be where he is and is soaking it all up and enjoying every aspect of what his life has been focused on for years now. For Mutta, there’s mixed emotions about it, but you can see that he’s still very much on the right trajectory for achieving his goal and is making the connections he needs in his own way. With the episode spending time on a lot of different things, it’s not exactly quite as focused as some past episodes, but it does so many things right and brings in so many interesting aspects that it works very well and lays the foundation for what’s to come.
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.
