What They Say:
After a buggy accident, Hibito and Damian are stuck at the bottom of a ravine. Damian’s spacesuit is damaged and he’s losing body heat quickly. The odds are against them but Hibito decides that the unmanned drone Gibson is their key out.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
When a show is playing it straight with a science fiction theme, it does have the problem in some ways of coming across as a bit slow and dull. Without all the razzle dazzle of science fiction, it’s more workaday than many would think and the dangers don’t feel quite as pronounced. With Space Brothers, it does push the workaday aspect because that’s how the astronauts have to treat it for the most part so as to avoid real mistakes and problems. When the danger does hit, it feels all the starker because of it, whether it’s the buggy fall itself we had or the way that Hibito himself has now fallen and his suit is in danger while Damian himself is already mostly out of the picture. The realism given to the situation and location manages to drive the tension all the more.
The slow motion fall was bad enough, but imagining what must be going through Damian’s mind as he watches his friend in that situation and unable to do anything just ratchets it up all the more. And the others back at the base have no clue what’s going on but have their own marks they have to hi in order to safely get out there without compromising their own lives. While they have to do that and are on the front lines of recovering the team, it’s also welcome to see how events are playing out on Earth at NASA where they’re working to figure out all the scenarios and coming up with multiple plans to deal with it. There’s a lot of layers and options available to everyone and it’s good to see how there are multiple ways to try and deal with at least part of the situation.
While a good amount of the focus is on this side of it, we do get some very good time with Hibito and Damian, especially once Hibito understands how bad his oxygen situation is. The nature of being an astronaut is well handled here with what they have to think about and Hibito really symbolizes it well. Hibito’s plan is a good one and seeing him execute it is definitely engaging and exciting since there’s a real time limit to it all. Between seeing what Hibito is doing to survive and how Mutta gets involved in it, the show does a very good thing in driving up the tension well, especially since there are a few options for what the two men could be doing in the ravine. Seeing how NASA comes up with one solution makes sense to them while the JAXA solution makes sense to them.
In Summary:
Space Brothers may feel like it’s drawing out the story here, but it’s emphasizing more that there are no quick fixes when it comes to accidents in space or on the moon. The balance of the episode is good as we get time with both NASA and the team in the ravine but it also spends some good time with the team at the base and even those at the space station who have to provide support to everyone. With JAXA coming into play and Mutta having some key input that’s being ignored, everyone has some level of participation that’s needed here so it’s not juts focused on any one particular side. I love what they’re doing and find himself hoping for the best results at the end, but worried that it may not play out that way. Which just makes it all the more fun to watch because there is some uncertainty to be had here.
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.
