Space Brothers Episode 92
What They Say:
Hibito has passed his test to return to active duty. With that over, Mutta can focus on starting his backup crew training for a lunar mission.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Hibito’s test took up about the time one would expect when you get down to it. While there’s the appeal of just rushing through it and getting on with things, there’s also the way the show tries to be as realistic as it can within context and that means showing the effort of the test itself. Especially after spending so much time with Hibito as he worked through the issues mentally and with the help of friends and others around the world. To not give his test enough weight would cut down on the importance of it all. So having a good number of supporters, his brother included, make it at the end to give him the support he needed just made it all the more worthwhile. And opened things back up again for the two brothers to fully move forward in their own paths towards the same goal.
Shifting back to Mutta, he gets to meet up with a lot of the people that he’s going to be working with going forward in the team. That has him coming across people he knows, like Andy (who, amusingly enough, knocks someone down just by turning around) and new people like the Philippe Louis. The bringing together of the backup team is almost comical as the man that’s handling the training has a whole lot of people in a group that he intends to pick out from so that he can feel like he knows who they are by sight. Naturally, Mutta is the last one actually found out, which is made worse by the instructor picking seemingly everyone else before finally getting to him. Mutta’s group, made up of four other astronauts, definitely has an interesting feel about them especially as Mutta realizes that if things go in a certain way, this is the team that he’ll be going to the moon with. Of course, that means Vince’s group has to have something go quite wrong for that to happen.
With the training getting underway, we get a good start here by seeing one of the lunar vehicles that will be used, a Beetle thing that’s just a massive rover that’s designed to handle that surface in a good way. It’s a pretty slick vehicle overall though with how it can handle the job of getting around and protecting the astronauts, while also giving them good access to getting out onto the surface. The show gives us some decent bits with what’s to come in terms of how it’ll work with the instructor, but it also gives us small nods towards the new characters. We know Andy and now we have the well endowed Betty Rain, which gets Mutta a bit excited. Carlo Greco gives us a bit of European flair with his suave style that makes him less than accessible. And a bit more diversity with the addition of Philippe Louis, an outgoing man with dreadlocks that’s quite excited by the whole venture. Someone you can see Mutta gravitating towards. As Chief Butler says, it’s a diverse group of odd types that can’t seem to work with other people. Putting them together makes no sense, but Butler intends to use Mutta as a catalyst to change them, something he’s seen him do in other ways.
In Summary:
While we get the bit of reminder closure about Hibito at the beginning, the bulk of the episode is all about Mutta and the Backup Team that he now gets to be a part of. It’s all part of a gamble of a master plan by Chief Butler and it’ll be interesting to see how it pans out. But it’s going to be more interesting just to see how this group reveals itself as time goes on with who they are. Knowing two of the five helps to ease us into it since we can expect a few things, but the rest are wildcards. Which is how most of the trials and tests have gone throughout the series, so it’s technically not anything new. But it looks like it’ll be fun and we can feel ourselves getting a step closer to seeing Mutta in space, which will be worth every moment and effort.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.