If you’re going to go to space, you have to learn to fly first.
What They Say:
The astronaut candidates now prepare for training on T-38 jets. Sharon happens to be in the US to present her proposal for a radio telescope on the moon. She now heads to Houston to see Mutta and Hibito.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The training side of the series is still dominant here, though there is still a lot going on with some of the subplots, but the real fun is watching what Mutta and the others are going through. The latest part of their training, having done well overall with their previous segments, is to get ready to learn to fly within a fighter plane. The problem that the group has, and its focus on Mutta is priceless, is that they have three days to learn what air force pilots get three weeks to learn. They get a crash course in learning the technical side of flying one of the planes by going through all the manuals and understanding what’s at hand, something that the instructors take a bit of glee over. It is like they say though in that there’s so much information it’s like drinking from a fire hydrant in how little of it will actually sink in. But it’s seeing what sinks in and how it can give them the survival skills they need and build on from there.
On the more personal side, the show delves well into what Sharon is up to here, giving us a background reason to panic as she may be the one that Amanti fears will fall ill. Sharon’s coming to Houston as part of her work project which is definitely a good one where she’s trying to gain funding and support for building a radio telescope on the lunar surface in order to see further than before, and to have a solid place to do it from. Her journey has her gaining more backing along the way, including from Dr. Morrison, and it definitely shows some good progress on her part. Even if it is a bit marred by the problems of age where she’s finding herself having a harder time with her hands. But as interesting as it all is, it pales to the simplicity of her meeting Hibito again after all this time and just the bond she shares with the two brothers. One that even Hibito can see through with the simple handshake he has with her.
The show spends a lot of time with Sharon and expands on it well as we see what kind of state she’s actually in, and that includes giving us a touch more background on her as well. You have to feel for her as she struggles with the problems she’s having and the brave face she puts on for a lot of it, as well as a bit of denial as well. The mix of the two is pretty nicely done and you really have to like the flashbacks. And we even get one with Mutta’s dream girl as she has a similar path in a way to Sharon that’s pretty nice. What’s also really nice about the show is that we get some Japanese time in Houston as everyone wants to meet Hibito becauses of what he represents. It’s got that strong “nice” quality to it that’s just engaging. But it also tinges it a bit as well as Serika realizes things about Sharon because of her own past that answers some of the questions about what’s going on with her.
In Summary:
While there is the main storyline working in the background in this episode and the training that’s going on, it focuses largely on what’s going on with Sharon as she arrives in Houston. Her storyline has been interesting to watch as it goes on here with what she’s trying to get organized for the moon and her lunar telescope project, but it takes a much more personal approach overall with the medical issues that Sharon is coping with. I’ve really liked the Sharon character from the start when we saw the influence and impact she had on the boys when they were young, so coming back to her in the present is wonderful, even if it has an edge of sadness and potential problems with it depending on how it pans out. That’s what the show delves into though, the good, the bad and the realistic in many ways, and coming on to it again is both exciting and scary to see what they’re going to do.
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.