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「一番酷い仕打ち」 (Ichiban Hidoi Shiuchi)
“The Worst Possible Punishment”
At last the final day of the third round of tests has arrived! While I’ve enjoyed this arc, I can’t say I’m sad to see it finally approaching its end – we’ve spent an awful lot of time in this sealed environment and it’ll be nice to finally have a change of pace. Of course, in a fashion I’ve more or less come to expect from Uchuu Kyoudai, we’re once again left with a pretty big cliff-hanger… who will win? Which two candidates will they select? What actually comes next? More tests? Or will we finally have our astronauts selected and move on to things like training and maybe even spacetravel? At the very least, the preview for next week heavily suggests we’ll finally be getting out of the sealed boxes and back into the real world!
Even at this late stage, Uchuu Kyoudai isn’t afraid to further develop characters and delve a little more into their backstories. With the continued emphasis some of the ‘side’ characters have been receiving (it was Furuya we focused on more this week), I can’t help but wonder whether or not we’ll actually be leaving these people behind. I still don’t think that all of them will be selected and continue down the path to becoming an astronaut, but even if they don’t, I won’t be remotely surprised to see them again further down the line in some form. Perhaps some who aren’t successful will choose a similar raod to Hoshika, thus finding a way to secure themselves a continued role in the show. Or perhaps we’ll just see them callousely brushed aside as we return focus to the original trio.
Of course, Mutta remains the focal point of the story, and events have a way of revolving around him. At last he reveals his true powers, blowing everyone away and finally getting Nitta to refer to him by his name. It’s always interesting to see how Mutta’s strengths seem to come out subconsciously – when he’s focused on avoiding thinking about a certain topic rather than focusing on the task at hand. There should be no surprise that it would be him to propose their method of deciding on the two candidates either. At the end of the day, all the candidates deserve to succeed, regardless of some of the dubious liabilities they might otherwise have brought to light. Everyone is equally worthy, so why not just leave it down to luck? Luck is the only truly fair way to make a selection between equals – there is no bias, no rivalry, and there can be no attempts to cheat. It does defy the reasons JAXA set them this task though while simultaneously suggesting that none of them are actually capable of making choices when it comes to sacrifice – something that could easily come up again in future.
It also feels a little like the freedom of choice for activities on the final day is a bit of a loaded gun. They’re still being observed and I would imagine deciding to slack off for the day would be a point against you. By now, I’m not surprised that Team A would remain diligent and continue their daily training routine. The scenes we saw of Team B also heavily suggest that Kenji did the same. On the other hand, from Yamato’s actions we learn a little bit more about him. While reconstructing the point system from memory is an arguably poor course of action that reeks of desperation, his motivations don’t seem to be entirely impure. Against all odds, it’s Teshima who holds the lead place under that system and, despite the wording of that mini-cliff-hanger, I would not be surprised to find that Kenji himself is in second. Regardless, I fully expect to see Kenji being one of those chosen to become an astronaut, bottom of the leaderboard or not!
tl;dr: @MoombaDS – The final day of the candidate’s time in the sealed environment begins! That cliff-hanger was kind of annoying though… #SpaceBros
Random thoughts:
- Poor Mutta… seemingly forgotten by his parents.
- To be honest, I never actually expected to feel anything towards Furuya but irritation and dislike. It’s surprising just how much Uchuu Kyoudai has managed to get me attached to the characters!
- I see blame for Serika’s actions continues to fall on Mutta!
- As always, whenever Mutta faces a difficult decision, Sharon lends a helping hand… even when she’s not physically present.
Preview
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Omake
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I was honestly deeply surprised by Mutta’s approach to the selection but…
Show Spoiler ▼
Everyone in the program is obviously qualified up to this point for physical ability and mental capacity. What the team trials show is how people function individually and as a group.
I have a great deal of respect for Team A and Mutta’s soft skills. In the corporate world, it’s these “soft skills” (ability to think of the the group, empathy, listening) all that easily.
Kenji is similar to Mutta — trying to lessen tension, staying cool in light of conflict, and trying to “play the role” (of the devil’s advocate) because it was needed in the situation for the goal of JAXA not himself.
From a management perspective, I’d want these two. No question.
As for Team C – COuld it be we haven’t seen them because they failed immediately? Remember they mentioned that if a person “tried to leave” there would be disqualification for everyone? I wonder if that’s what happened.
No, Team C ist still there in Full Force of 5 Men
https://randomc.net/image/Uchuu%20Kyoudai/Uchuu%20Kyoudai%20-%2020%20-%20Large%2032.jpg
can’t wait for next week !!!! so exciting !!
i saw that cliffhanger coming, but my mind still went “NOOO~~~~~” when the episode ended there.
who will be the lucky two?! arghh!! suspense kills!!
Ahh! STUPID STUPID CLIFFHANGER!
For Furuya, the first time I saw him, I thought that he would be very troublesome. He made me like him after the glasses-crushing incident. I almost teared up when he was shouting baout his dreams. ;_;
Mutta is the buttmonkey, seriously. Everything goes wrong and everyone always blame Mutta! Obviously, it couldn’t be him since he was the one that suggested it but still. It’s funny!
Anyways, just for the heck of it, I’ll post what I think is the ranking on Furuya’s list. I think the ranking goes: Nitta, Serika, Mutta, Fukuda, Furuya.
As they Said. This “Chose 2 of the Team” is more to see the Team make Heavy Decision. I think Jaxa would chose them on there own. So this is more for the Team solution
Remember a Star Trek TNG Episode…
The Ship Counselor Troy, is doing her Ranking for Lt.
What decision she must do, to surpass the “Test”? I think here is nearly the same.
Sorry, i dont go further. But, i bet you know what i want to say
I wish the pacing was a bit faster. I am sure Nanba and Serika will be selected in some way.
I am guessing either Furuya or Fukuda will probably drop out. Oddly enough Nitta is the only one who doesn’t seem to have much backstory but I guess his performance is one of the top and he is kind of interesting in his own way.
I wonder what the next step will be.
I am pretty sure Nanba won’t be chosen, but I don’t think the choosing matters anyways. I think Mutta will get chosen by the special method that JAXA mentioned before.
Err Nanba and Mutta are the same person, did you forget his name was Nanba Mutta?
Not sure bout team A as much as I want to see them all pass, looks like the preview shows Furuya would be okay with not going to space after all…? Regardless can’t wait for next week.
Wow, this cliffhanger was probably the most annoying one this show has had so far. ;o;
I wish Furuya would’ve kept his score book a secret from everyone (because he’s more respectable to me now). Gah, everyone is so likable in team A! D: I’m going to cry so much when/if someone from this team will have to leave us…
yess that cliffhanger!! o(>A<)o now I seriously can't wait for the next episode…
and the preview is pretty intriguing. i wonder if Furuya was actually chosen -.- but I really do hope that someone else is…
Ahhh! This show just keeps on making me falling in love with it. I don’t understand why there isn’t any hype about this show. It’s heartwarming, its got romance, its got comedy, its got a very interesting plot, its unpredictable, its heartwarming… its got everything!
… well it doesn’t have bishounens…. but who needs them when you have Mutta!