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「夢の途中」 (Yume no Tochuu)
“Working on the Dream”
After taking a week’s break following the death of legendary astronaut Neil Armstrong, Uchuu Kyoudai finally returns with the conclusions to those extended cliff-hangers. There were actually a few moments in which I was worried that the answer to the biggest of the two – whether it would be Kenji or Mutta taking that final place in the journey to Houston – was going to be put off for yet another week, leaving us with even more frustrating cliff-hangers. Fortunately, they gave us that answer and it seems like next week will be a short break away from the astronaut exams once again.
This was an episode of partings and closure… well sort of. The majority of the closure on Furuya’s story was handled last episode with the strong implication that he’ll keep trying until he finally succeeds. This week was dedicated more to Fukuda who, despite not being selected to continue beyond the third exam (and who will likely not have another chance to take them) is still given an opportunity to realise his dream. Even though he won’t be joining Mutta for the rest of the series, we know that he’ll be working on his original goal – to launch the first Japanese manned rocket into outer space!
It’s a little disappointing that Kenji didn’t make it past the selections when the resident douchebag of Team B did. On the plus side, at least Teshima also made it through. A pity we never really saw a great deal of Kitamura and can’t properly judge the reasons why she was selected beyond her sex, but to make those assumptions without more knowledge would be unfair to her and seems pretty unlikely overall anyway. But it does still bother me that she was chosen in place of Kenji who clearly did a lot for his team in those final days. Perhaps it was too little too late. I actually have to wonder what’s going to happen now… will Kenji join them through some contrivance of plot? Or are we actually going to see him fall casualty to this current development? On the one hand I would like to see him succeed, but on the other his failure helps to disperse any worries of plot armour and suggests that regardless of what we may think, things may not turn out as expected.
tl;dr: @MoombaDS – After a week’s delay, #SpaceBros returns with an episode of farewells and more dreams!
Random thoughts:
- Given how the selection panel seemed rather concerned for Mutta’s sanity, I wonder what it was that Hoshika said to convince them that he should be the second of the chosen candidates.
- I like how Team A was the only team who managed to maintain their strong bonds through the trials of the selection, though not much can really be said about Team C, and Team B was doomed to fail the moment their members were set. I doubt even rock-paper-scissors could have fixed that mess.
- Another thing I enjoyed was seeing the reactions of all the astronauts at Houston to Mutta’s selection which they’d been waiting to hear even though they were in confined training for 48 hours.
Full-length images: 02, 11, 21, 33, 35.
Preview
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Omake
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and we finally get to know who were the winners for rock-paper-scissors. it was almost predictable, even though i was still hoping that Fukuda-san was one of them.
and while almost certain that Mutta would be shortlisted by the selection panel, it was still nerve-wreaking to wait for the results nonetheless. seeing how the Hibito’s peers cheered at hearing Mutta’s good news really ended this episode on a great note for me.
random thought: Apo is so smart! who needs your clock/mobile phone, when you can get an Apo-alarm!
BANANA and BEER doesn’t not mix well. I repeat, BANANA and BEER does not mix well.
Though Banana beer is ok.
After waiting 2 episode with raging cliffhanger for the exam result, I can’t believe that woman from team B passed the third exam but Kenji didn’t make it.
I still believe this isn’t the last time we see Kenji. With all the development we got for him, Kenji will definitely go to Houston with the others.
Wasn’t really expecting this show to take a week off in respect of Neil Armstrong, but I have to say that it pleasantly surprising that they did. RIP Neil, respect, you’ll always be remembered…
I feel like there is going to be a plot device next week that allows Kenji to return as an active candidate for the space program. I’m guess the nervous guy from Team B might drop out and Kenji is allowed to replace him.
I was hoping they won’t make it a cliffhanger on whether or not Mutta passed but I’m glad they didn’t!
I really liked Kenji ): I hope he doesn’t just disappear D;
I think we will see future cameos from kenji but this story is about mutta and hibito’s journey so I think they had to write him out. I agree it makes no sense that kitamura made it and he didn’t. maybe jaxa wanted to look like they’re being progressive by advancing all 3 female applicants.
i was also surprised to see that the weaselly old guy from team C made it. i’m sure he used his experience to twist the results in his favor using their voting method.
good episode. definitely stirred some emotion inside when the nasa crew all cheered for mutta.
The story is losing momentum fast after Mutta is admitted to the astronaut program. The emotional drive of rooting for a talent getting fired by a bad boss is gone. The season is about to end anyway. Maybe this is it.
I love this show! Whenever I hear the first few bars of the soundtrack I start tearing up because I’m always reminded of a touching scene, of which there are several. My favorite, recently, is that of Furuya finding out he came dead last in terms of the tests. LOL just writing about it has me tearing up (I’m serious!).
I hope more people watch it because I definitely want a season 2. I don’t mind reading the manga but I much prefer watching a manga get animated. Sound and motion contributes a lot to how touching or how funny a scene is. I can’t imagine tearing up without that outstanding soundtrack.
For example, I loved Skip Beat, the anime. I loved it so much that I started reading the manga. But it just wasn’t as funny without Kyoko’s voice and movements… Sadly, it has passed the 2 year mark and most likely will not be getting a season 2 (despite its immense popularity).
The show’s about Mutta & Hibito (and eventually Serika I guess). What better way to maintain focus on them than to “write out” the only other character who could get significant screen time?
Of course, should PLOT decide to make Kenji an astronaut this post will look mighty foolish, but I’ll take the chance.