Uchuu Kyoudai – 25

「マッハの弟 筋トレ兄」 (Mahha no Otouto Kintore Ani)
“Sonic Little Brother Training Big Brother”

All the talk about being one step behind or ahead during this episode makes me wonder – does Azuma feel something similar to what Mutta did when he realised he’d fallen behind someone who was supposed to look up to him? The big difference would be that Azuma isn’t actually Hibito’s elder brother, but that wouldn’t necessarily stop him from feeling a sort of ‘duty’ to be ahead of his junior in much the same way Mutta does. It must be especially frustrating for Azuma, forced to wait for three days orbiting the moon while his fellow crewmembers went down to the surface. To be so close yet so far from being the first Japanese person to step on the moon. How much more unfair must that make it seem when Hibito gets to blaze past him now?

From the flashbacks, it seems Hibito really did idolise Azuma. While he’s seemingly a man of few words, those rare utterances appear to have a tendency towards the profound. ‘The moon is still in the neighbourhood.’ It’s all about relativity and with that in mind, this is certainly true. When you consider just how vast outer space is, the moon is comparatively close. The moon is just that first step on our journey out into the universe, much like these exams are the first step towards the moon for Mutta.

Hibito has less than seven days remaining to renew his friendship with Azuma (we moved much quicker through those twenty days than I expected), something it seems likely he wants to do after Mutta’s not-so-subtle hints that he should. As I suspected, Hibito confirmed that Azuma is not the type of person to let petty grievances get in the way of making rational decisions, but mending those bridges certainly wouldn’t hurt. Although, at this point I’m not entirely convinced that Azuma actually has a grudge against Hibito – I keep wondering what he meant when he told Hibito to stay away from him. Perhaps that was because he held a grudge, or perhaps there was more to it. This is something I feel merits speculation.

No matter how long this series has run on for, I still find it touching how much the two brothers help each other out. While his motivations were not exactly pure, Mutta managed to convince Hibito to try and renew an important friendship and in return, Hibito blew away all his worries by being awesome and flying a jet over his house. There’s also something extremely heart-warming about the fact Mutta counts his own brother on the list of astronauts he admires alongside such legends as Yuri Gagarin and Buzz Aldrin.

tl;dr: @MoombaDS – Time passes rapidly as Hibito’s launch approaches and Mutta prepares for his final test. #SpaceBros

Random thoughts:

• Hibito continues to impress with the sheer number of skills he has in his arsenal!
• Well that was an unexpectedly humorous twist.
• I’m almost positive I’ve had nightmares about being chased by a guy on a mower at some point in the past.
• I guess Mutta must go on quite a lot about Serika when he’s at home.
• There goes the fourth wall! If anyone was going to do it, it would be Nasuda.

Full-length images: 30.

 

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