Space Brothers - Episode 28

Although the countdown to Hibito's launch is well and truly underway, this week's Space Brothers instead concerns itself largely to a flashback into the Nanba brother's past.

More specifically, this instalment largely takes us back to the aftermath of Mutta and Hibito having seen the UFO which was to set them out with their future thirst for space exploration, where it seems that Mutta's claims have attracted him some unwanted attention in the form of a group of kids who set out to bully him on account of his unsubstantiated claims.  Although Mutta tries to keep this bullying hidden from his younger brother, Hibito figures it all out soon enough, although his siblings insistence on not resorting to violence seemingly leaves him powerless to help out Mutta.

Or does it?  In his own inimitable style, Hibito decides that the only way to help out Mutta is to record some proof of the existence of this UFO himself, and in lieu of the real thing he works hard to create an elaborate (but obvious) fake - the contents of the DVD-R which Hibito has been asked to take to the moon base with him.  This makes for rather a touching story as a lead-in to Hibito's launch as it now looms large over the series.

Although this week's episode could really have been skipped entirely without the series missing a beat, I have to confess that this was still a pretty good effort as "filler" goes - although I'm impatient to get to the real thrust (with every pun intended) of the show's story as it currently stands, I can't help but appreciate the side-story shown here as a pre-cursor of things to come and a further explanation, and demonstration of, the tight bonds between our two "space brothers".  I do hope that we reach Hibito's launch sooner rather than later however, as it's been built up more than enough now for me to be keen to see exactly where this series is headed next without too many further distractions.