Uchuu Kyoudai – 26

「痛みを伴う面接」 (Itami o Tomonau Mensetsu)
“Painful Interview”

It would suck to catch a virus and be unable to see Hibito off at this late stage. I wonder whether this will actually happen to Mutta given that it’s been mentioned at least twice. But perhaps I’m looking too deeply since Uchuu Kyoudai has been pretty thorough in providing information on every stage of the process so far. Rather than some sort of Chekhov’s gun, this could merely be some additional detail as to how the lead-up to launch works.

After the build towards the interview and Azuma’s supposed grudge against Hibito over the past few episodes, the day finally arrives. The panel this time consists of Murasaki Sansei (Katsu Anri), Miyata Atsushi (Ohba Takeshi), Kizaki Sanae (Kohinata Miwa), our old friend Azuma, and last, but certainly not least, Noguchi Soichi, voiced by himself. It’s pretty damn cool to see them bring him back for another episode and I continually wonder just how much negotiation must’ve been involved.

No Uchuu Kyoudai interview would be complete without screwing with chairs, but even I could tell that was probably not the best screw to loosen. There was no physical way Mutta would be unable to notice that one, certainly not when it dumped him so unceremoniously on the floor. I totally saw this coming (not because it was in the preview last week or anything, honest!). Even if Mutta failed to realise the reasons behind the prank, I would still consider his recovery from it in his favour if not for the fact that the interview is nothing more than a device to lull the candidates into a false sense of security. It’s still pretty funny to consider that Mutta’s greatest worry was not the interview itself, but how to manage standing up at the end. Uchuu Kyoudai certainly never disappoints in how it portrays Mutta and his unfortunate tendencies towards comedy.

Of course, the real test comes in the form of relaxed discussions with the astronauts during the ‘celebratory’ drinking session. Each astronaut will test the candidates in their own ways to see if they’d be able to trust them – to rely on them in space. Most of them seem to do this in the form of asking what each candidate thinks of their peers. Murasaki, however, also adds pranks to this, seemingly trying to test people’s ‘luck’ – something which is certainly valid in a way. We all remember how much Uchuu Kyoudai has talked about luck in the past and it’s certainly fair for Murasaki to base some of his thoughts upon it (though I think the sample size is rather small). In typical fashion, Mutta has funny stories about each candidate – things that the interviewers were probably not really looking for – but his observation skills are bound to have left an impression. I feel like things aren’t looking quite so good for Mizoguchi – to me it seemed he barely repressed an urge to slander Nitta in order to increase his own chances. Whether or not that registered with Atsushi is another matter though.

As was inevitable, Mutta – despite frequent warnings to stay away – approaches Azuma. Everyone still seems to think that Azuma is holding a grudge and any unnecessary contact with him will lessen Mutta’s chances of success. But personally, I’m still sure that we’ll see otherwise in the next episode.

tl;dr: @MoombaDS – Interviews, less formal interviews, and more Noguchi Soichi! #SpaceBros

Random thoughts:

• There’s nothing like Uchuu Kyoudai to lift your spirits with its clever (and actually funny) humour!
• Nitta’s wallpaper is a cat! D’awww!
• Mutta did his hair up all nice for the interview… not quite as Murasaki expected though…

Full-length images: 11, 13.

 

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