Space Brothers Episode 71
As the brothers get ready to separate again for a time, new cracks surface.
What They Say:
Mutta and Hibito are selected for a magazine cover. Mutta is excited, but he notices that Hibito is acting strangely.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Mutta’s decision to pass on the backup opportunity has landed him in a different position for awhile, one that has him working with an interesting crew doing engineering work where results are definitely key for him to get closer to his dream. He’s getting some grief from above over his choices, but the choices he made are the right ones since it helped Serika come closer to her own dream and keeps him firmly on his. It also brings him back to a familiar area, one that we’ve really only seen in passing and from the background, where he gets to do some engineering work for a bit. Considering it’s a big part of his background and life prior to becoming an astronaut, it’s good to see this resurface once more in a helpful and engaging way.
Since Mutta is working on the buggy design that Hibito and Damian were driving when they had their accident, Mutta is at least able to question Hibito about a bit before Hibito heads off on his next trip, this time Russia. He’s a bit subdued about it though and deflects a lot of Mutta’s questions, instead suggesting that Damian is the right one to talk to. But the brothers do continue to get along well as they’re off on a new mission together, one for the publicity department, where they’re getting their picture taken together for a photo shoot for a mgazine to help raise awareness since they’re beocming a fairly popular group of brothers. Amusingly, with the outfits that are used, we get a great bit from one of the ending sequences realized where we see Hibito in his full spacesuit while Mutta is in half a one with his tie around the outside. It fits the backgrounds well and has been one of my favorite images, so seeing it brought into the show itself is welcome.
With Mutta going on with his work to fix things that should help Hibito and others on the moon, we get the edge introduction to it and some nice little bits with the characters that we’ll likely eventually spend more time with. But the show also takes a curious turn as we see several instances here where Hibito is coming across as out of sorts and not himself in very small ways, ones that only Mutta is really starting to notice before his trip to Russia. There’s also a number of flashback sequences to various things that Hibito has been dealing with since the mission and you can see that the time in the canyon there and his near death experience really has done a number on him and has made a lasting impact. It’s not likely to be a huge part in the short term, as the focus is more on Mutta, but you can see the foundations for something else being set here nicely.
In Summary:
Space Brothers continues to be a series where it really doesn’t have to have a big event or issue crop up in each episode to tell a tale. Rather, we get a show that does build its arcs and moves along at its own pace while revealing smaller character elements along the way that leads to various levels of note as it progresses. We’re getting into Mutta’s arc with redesigning the buggy slowly here and it’s rather good to do it this way rather than to be thrown in hard and move forward there. But we also get the first inklings that something may not be well with Hibito, which makes you want to revisit earlier episodes to see what may have been missed there for signs as well. Though not a big episode, it’s a welcome one with the character use and what we learn and especially for the cover photo session.
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.