「リーダー新田」 (Rīdā Nitta)
“Nitta the Leader”

It looks like there are rocky times ahead for the characters of Uchuu Kyoudai. Vince is certainly not the best instructor to be training under – his training is barely short of brutal and he seems to have no empathy whatsoever. Larry’s comparison of him to a moai statue is pretty accurate – it’s somehow even harder to imagine Vince smiling than it ever was to imagine Azuma smiling! Every part of this program is designed solely to better each of the individual ASCANs, but perhaps not in the kindest way. Fostering competition in a similar manner to the space race is quite clever – national pride is something that can almost always be counted upon to motivate people to do better than others and the desire to reach space first should be a pretty large motivator when taking rankings into account.

There’s a lot of testing going on in terms of teamwork and team dynamics too – something that’s certainly extremely important for astronauts. Not only are they being expected to work as a team to survive in the wilderness, but they’re also being tested through things such as the punishments. These punishments could potentially lead to the creation of a rift between the team members by fostering resentment towards the leader from the individuals being punished. Such resentment would certainly not be good for astronauts, so now is the ideal opportunity to keep an eye out for it through this testing and it could help the individuals to get over such feelings.

I’ve wondered about the ranking system for a while now. My first impressions were that the whole thing was merely another motivator – that all of the teams would be told they were doing poorly just to get them to try even harder. It seems like this isn’t true though, at least not given how frankly the instructors have been discussing the performance of the teams. I’m glad to see that Mutta’s team are gradually working their way up the rankings but it seems things may not go quite as well next week given that everything with Nitta appears to be coming to a head! Most of next week’s episode seems likely to be focused on Nitta’s past and the events surrounding what’s causing him so much stress at the moment!

tl;dr: @MoombaDS – Pressure, motivation, and stoicism are back at the fore! #SpaceBros

Random thoughts:

  • Serika’s sheer joy at finding the food is quite something!
  • I feel sorry for Mutta – having to stand to attention for an hour after trekking for a full day would be quite challenging.
  • There’s something wonderful about how astronauts always find time to be amazed by space regardless of their situation.
  • Nitta has cat wallpaper?

Full-length images: 15, 17.

Note: I will be away for a little under two weeks starting next Friday meaning that posts for the next two episodes will be delayed until my return. Thanks for understanding!

 

Preview

Omake

21 Comments

  1. It’s not just astronauts who enjoy the views of space from the desert. One of the biggest reasons for camping out in the deserts of the American Southwest, if not the biggest, is to see those amazing views of the night sky.

    It’s really one of those things everyone should see before they die. Maybe diehard fans of this show can even try to emulate the path in the desert taken by the ASCANs ; )

    Tre
    1. Last summer in august when watching the perseid meteor shower, I kind of got aware of how bad the “light pollution” near cities actually are. And after hearing my parents mention how they were able to see the milky way clearly in the countryside back when they were young makes me really want to have a camping trip in the desert to see it too!

      By the way if anyone is interested in an astronomy anime: http://myanimelist.net/anime/6098/Sora_no_Manimani

      Sora no Manimani was quite enjoyable!

  2. The fact that Nitta has cat wallpaper was already revealed by Mutta when Murasaki (Ninja) asked him about his views on the other astronaut candidates during their gathering some episodes ago. It just goes to show how consistent this show has been!

    And finally, a Nitta episode. The enigmatic “ikemen-sports-science-GAR” with “brother issues” (hinted with his interactions with Mutta in the space-capsule simulation way back when) will finally be revealed. Yay!

    Ddadain
  3. Well, my random thought would be:

    Cool, so in the future it’s possible to have a mobile that’s still going strong after five days and has perfect reception in the middle of nowhere, e.g. the desert. Looking forward to that.

    sillk
    1. YES. screw space colonisation or time travel or floating cities anything sci-fi. the most important advancement will have to be a revolution in portable power supply technology.

      Nitro
  4. Space Race motivator in the Future… Well, Uchuu Kyoudai is playing in future. Do they really need that? It is a relict of Cold War. Well *shourgs* If they need this for Story Progression. Go on. Play the old Cliches of Bad and Good Guys running into Space…

    Germanguy
    1. and i was thinking that Humanity will overcame this matter. But dont think so. i am little disappointed. How is keeping the ISS Today alive? The “Bad” Russian Boys? Come on. Play better script. The Script is living in the Past

      Germanguy
      1. thats why we “must” learn to understand each other. Even in Language. So there is no way around to learn this Language

        okay, i better end. This “Space Race” from the Cold War Area, hit me deeper then i think..

        Germanguy
      2. Remember, this is Vince’s idea. I don’t find it surprising that someone with such an attachment to their military background would try to foster a sense of nationalism to improve performance. What’s more, I’d hardly be surprised if he didn’t realise how it would (did) go horribly wrong …

        Unfortunately people still think like this now. All it takes is for those people to influence their own children and BAM! A new generation of idiots who are bummed that communism fell (tvtropes reference intentional).

        J Jay
      3. Well, i hope they dont go that far back, like being gratefully of WW2….
        You know, Von Braun, Oppenheimer, Jet Engine and so on…

        Just to bring my “troubled Mind” to clam here. Nothing to see here, move along

        Germanguy
  5. And thus, Chekhov’s gun makes an appearance in its most literal form. I wonder if that itself isn’t also a form of a test, because while I may not know much about gun protocols, it’s certainly against common sense to give a gun to a group that may not know how to use it?

    Man, Larry Bison used up a lot of sippy cups. Or juice cartons, but they really don’t look like disposable drinks to me.

    The Truth is in the axe
  6. Just a quick Question…

    Did the New Astronauts know how to use a Pistol? I mean the ex-Army Astronauts know it for sure. But the others? Imagine Persons never had a Weapon in their Hands, and now given them for Self defense… I smell Friendly Fire Danger…

    Well, do “Noobs” now first to “unlock” Safety? Or does this Model dont have some?

    And the Recoil.. If you not know how hard it is, he can break some Bones

    Germanguy
    1. and.. If Astronauts land far off the Point where they should land, and where many Weeks into Space. They are Helpless to Wait.

      Why? Well because they was a long time into Space their Muscles became to weak to move around. So this Training is useless for Astronauts that go for a long time into Space…

      Germanguy

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