What They Say:
Mutta and Kenji have overcome their initial shock after hearing that only one of them will be chosen to go to the moon. Now that they’re working together again, everything seems to be going right with their construction of the Moonbase.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Mutta and Kenji’s underwater adventure has been familiar to a certain degree, going back to when they were all ASCAN’s, but it’s had its unique flavor as well since it’s largely about the two of them and focused on actual mission kinds of material rather than the testing that they went through before. With the lunar mission exploring different ways of setting up what’s to come, both Mutta and Kenji have come up with a way to achieve all of their goals. And a lot of that has come from the simple fact that while they’re both up for the same slot, they can’t work independently or against each other. They have to work together and doing so has pushed them to some new levels here that even has their monitors impressed with what they’re seeing.
The opening half of the episode gives us a lot of the breakdown of what they’re planning and the execution thereof in the underwater building of it. There are some good seeds laid here with how they can deal with the building of the moonbase and what they want to do with it, but there’s also some solid growth moments as we see Mutta and Kenji working together. All of that is brought together at the halfway point where we do see Kenji reaching out to help Mutta up, and that handshake of sorts gets a brief montage of past moments where they did just that, showing the length and depth of their relationship in a fantastic if simple and effective way. You have to like both men and seeing them get past the problems of their position makes it all worthwhile.
The second half shows more of how well they do work together and all that entails as they work more on the project, all while getting some decent narration from Sharon through a letter. A lot of the takeaway from this arc is just in how the men have to work together while competing, but there’s also something to be said for the simple beauty of the environment they’re in and the enjoyment they get from actually working on all of this. There’s competition, but also some real satisfaction from the work that so many people never get themselves. The whole NEEMO adventure is one that definitely creates a lot of things about it with what the teams do, but it’s amusing to see that once again Mutta is the one that raises the bar in his own off kilter kind of way.
In Summary:
Though this underwater arc has moved in a very specific way and has largely been about the relationship between Mutta and Kenji, it’s also been about the whole project training exercise itself. And that is something that is made very clear in this episode as we see how Mutta has managed to leap ahead of everyone else in the simplest of ways because of how he thinks about situations. So much of the underwater training is also in preparation for being on the moon with how it works that it becomes a given. But you also forget about the real aspects of being on the moon and forget to design in that way. Seeing how Mutta has managed things here is something that makes a huge impression in a great way, which he’s managed to do nearly every step of the way. It’s good to see that it’s kept consistent and present.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
