CANSAT – the quicker picker-upper. Now that I’ve dated myself with that reference, on to Space Brothers #59 – “Rocket Boys Under an October Sky”. As expected, this was the continuation – and seemingly the conclusion – of the show’s homage to Homer Hickham (who tweeted about it this week) […] Read more
It’s certainly obvious that Kouyama-sensei is one serious space geek. We’ve seen lots of pretty direct references to well-known space movies in Spacee Brothers, most prominently Apollo 13 and The Right Stuff (especially during the first exam arc). This time around it’s October Sky, the movie and the book it […] Read more
If there was any doubt, this episode proves Uchuu Kyoudai is back on-form. This was definitely my favorite episode of Space Brothers since the schedule change, and quite possibly since Mutta received the news that he’d passed the JAXA exam from Hoshika-sensei and shared the aftermath with his teammates (those […] Read more
Clearly, being alive is not a prerequisite for being a main character in this series. It’s hard to believe that – not counting the flashbacks to boyhood days – Brain Jay has been dead for the entire timeframe of Space Brothers. The man – and especially the events surrounding his […] Read more
Meanwhile, somewhere South of Amarillo… Our long international nightmare is over – over three endless weeks of recaps, Space Brothers finally comes back with a new episode. I only hope they didn’t piss off a lot of fans so much that they lost interest in the series – bringing new […] Read more
It’s not too fruitful trying to find things to say about a recap episode. OP5: “Kienai E (消えない絵)” by Magokoro Brothers The best thing about this episode of Space Brothers is that there are a few minutes of new footage at the beginning. The worst is that it looks as […] Read more
Space Brothers says farewell to Winter – and its morning time-slot – with a satisfying conclusion to the Nitta arc. I think the groundwork of this episode had been laid out to the point where there were never likely to be many surprises. We’re in very familiar territory here – […] Read more
Sooner or later, Space Brothers always seems to return to the themes that are closest to its heart. We’ve been waiting a long time for the impassive wall of nonchalance that is Reiji Nitta to cast off the armor and finally join the human race – or at least the […] Read more
Uchuu Kyoudai continues to make this annoying cliffhanger weekend. I still suspect that how viewers enjoyed the JAXA exam arc – especially the isolation pod sequence – is a pretty good barometer of how they’re likely the current one. I know that exam phase wasn’t a hit with everyone – […] Read more
Training arc #2, start! I’m occasionally struck by how much Space Brothers and Hunter X Hunter – two seemingly wildly different shows and my Sunday companions for the last year – are similar to each other. Above and beyond the obvious fact that both are superb anime that seamlessly combine […] Read more