「アラームアリ時計ナシ」 (Arāmu ari Tokei nashi)
“Alarm, but No Clock”

It seems evident now that the JAXA staff has been giving secret instructions to the candidates to cause mischief, presumably by way of the health checks. If the alarm’s positioning below the floor of the room and Tomii’s role in triggering it didn’t make it obvious enough, Furuya’s face after his visit to the doctor certainly did. Hoshika must have a slightly sadistic streak if this truly is his doing (which seems extremely probable). He’s definitely not pulling any punches for Mutta’s sake either – had he been less honest, he could’ve chosen not to include Team A in these stress inducing tactics. While he obviously favours Mutta, he’s still ensuring that everything is fair. I also wonder just how many people from each team will be assigned one of these tasks – so far we can see that two from both Team A and Team B most likely have been. Will they give tasks to more people, increasing the suspicion – everyone who receives such a task will realise the implications immediately and begin to suspect their teammates for everything else that has occurred so far – or would that be considered going too far?

From events in this episode, I get the feeling that things aren’t quite as rosy in Team A as they’ve appeared on the surface. Merely trying to keep Fukuda’s secret to himself managed to raise the suspicions of all the other team members, including Serika. Sure, they’re in a closed environment, but the idea Mutta presented last episode was plausible if nothing else – they had no real reason to suspect him unless there was a already an underlying current of mistrust. Even Nitta, despite his valiant attempt to keep his emotions in check, finally broke. I can only imagine his frustration is exceedingly high – proof that Hoshika’s plans are working as intended if they managed to get to even him.

Team B is still far worse off. We continue to see why their choice to use a point system was terrible – Yamato’s repeated antagonism towards Kenji shows it so perfectly. No matter what Kenji chooses to do, even if it’s finishing a puzzle that would bother him otherwise – Yamato sees it only as a way to get ahead of the others. Tensions must be running exceedingly high if even the normally calm Kenji would make a jab like that. But the guy deserves it. He deserves so much worse. And who can blame Kenji really? I’m sure he’s aware that Yamato’s little discussion on Brian Jay was meant for his ears, and it’s obviously having the desired effect – Kenji is worrying over them. He might never see his daughter grow up.

I guess we could say that Serika’s almost insatiable hunger served as something of a Chekhov’s gun. Low food supplies could potentially prove disastrous to the team if Mission Control does not interfere. It would certainly be a major problem in a real space station. In a way, I kind of admire Serika for choosing to forgo meals to mask the fact they’re running low. Just imagine how hard that must be on her. But at the same time, I really feel she should just come clean about it – it’s a definite problem and one that won’t go away by trying to hide it.

tl;dr: @MoombaDS – The stress of the tests begins to manifest in those who rarely show their emotions. Hoshika’s plan seems to be effective! #SpaceBros

Random thoughts:

  • I was surprised to see Mutta and Serika think alike. They’re so obviously meant for each other!
  • It’s also great to see that the humour remains without being intrusive even despite the serious air.
  • Team C has descended so far into irrelevance that I begin to wonder if they’ll ever even be mentioned again.
  • Even after all this time, Serika’s growling stomach is still being pinned on Mutta. I guess no-one would actually believe his denials!

Full-length images: 03, 09, 13, 18, 19, 21, 26, 31.

 

Preview

Omake

26 Comments

    1. Yeah, every episode since the third round began has used Serika almost as a secondary protagonist. Because of it, we’ve gotten to see just how similar to Mutta she is. They’re definitely meant for each other.

      Tre
    1. to artificially create a situation where the participants would begin to distrust one another, and observe how they deal with it.

      not that team B needed any of that, their scoring system sowed the seeds of distrust from the very beginning.

      Nitro
  1. So, basically ‘green’ means the disturbing alarm? Since the Group B also got their clock broken, I’d assume Group C (which we haven’t seen their condition until now) also got similiar problem. Oh, and Kenji’s quote is awesome!

    Probably out of topic, but we will be able to hear world’s first seiyuu performance from space in Uchuu Kyoudai >>> http://www.animenewsnetwork.co.uk/interest/2012-07-14/astronaut-hoshide-to-record-space-brothers-cameo-from-space

    Kevin Yamagata
  2. I was expecting them to reveal everything this episode. But the pace was slower than expected, at least we see hints at what’s really going on in the test for those commenters that are overthinking things. Show Spoiler ▼

    Kamui04
  3. What if Team C’s irrelevance is actually part of the plot. All these stress tests, what about the one when they reintroduce Team C and it turns out they’ve just been relaxing and chilling this whole time. How many of them would snap at that? Steven Spielberg did something similar to create real resentment toward Matt Damon in “Saving Private Ryan”. He had Matt not go through the mini-boot camp the other main actors had to go through so when it came time to film his part of the movie they genuinely resented him a little.

    EliteF22
    1. That would certainly be an interesting turn of events! But I’m not entirely sure what it would actually accomplish in these tests since presumably, the three teams won’t actually see each other until after the test is over at which point there won’t really be a purpose to turning them against one another.

      Moomba
  4. Look, I am as the biggest fan of this show as the next guy, but… I wish they move onto the next stage of story, say, the actual space exploration!! At this moment, the pacing is slower than sloth+turtle+snail combined!! At this rate, we will easily get another 5-7 episodes dedicated in this exam period!! Move on already!! I want to see the actual space exploration!

    passing
    1. this story is told in mutta’s point of view and an extremely important theme of the story is to see his journey whether he makes it to space or not! I’m not bothered at all at the pacing.

      hwighting
    2. You know, if you were to take into account that this anime is slated for 48 episodes… wouldn’t you think they’d take at least 47 episodes before they get to the space exploration a.k.a the final goal of the anime O.O

      Spinarakk
  5. They already said there were be no food other than whats provided.

    Still I am wondering what “green” means. Green in english symbolizes new or inexperienced. Does that fit in this context?!

    I don’t buy into the idea that jaxa is giving some people special missions because if they were found out, they will lose their chance to be picked by their peers. And I don’t think jaxa will plant employees to be spies either. We know for certain that there is no one like that in Team A. From what we know, they all have genuine motivations to succeed.

    hwighting
    1. as long we dont see a scene, where they are talking to this Person with “green Card”, We only speculate

      Perhaps this “green card” is a Bait. If they bite, they know this person is not trustful. Harm the team to get advance? Risk the team or denied the offer. But as i said, it’s speculation of me

      I dont really see, what benefit you get from “Distrust” in a Team. *shrugs* Company Secret Spys sabotage? Or has “Distrust” sunk into their society that is normal?

      Germanguy
  6. Made my day to see this as a 4 cour anime! A whole year of Uchuu Kyoudai!

    …and I have no complains about the pacing. The journey is what matters, not destination.

    Also, I really love how this anime is balanced! A perfectly tense moment and a perfectly good comedic moment!

    underMebius

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