Space Brothers - Episode 31

With the initial stages of Hibito's launch proving successful at the end of last week's episode, the launch isn't over until the clouds of smoke have dissipated - at least, according to the sage words of Deneil Young.

While Mutta is almost literally blown away by the sound wave which follows the launch from his location, and his parents are moved close to tears by what they've just seen, Hibito himself seems to be having a ball as his thirty second trip from Earth to space concludes (bringing with it weightlessness and all of the other elements of space travel, good and bad) and the next elements of his mission get underway as they prepare to head for the moon.

In the midst of all of this we have another flashback to contend with, as a younger Hibito and Mutta get the chance to put questions to Akihiko Hoshide as part of a group taking part in a link-up with him while he's in space - an event which sees Hibito proving to be more excitable than perhaps even we've seen him before.

This brings us to the end of another slow-going episode of Space Brothers - although I can't really blame the series for lingering on the launch and its immediate aftermath (as it does prove to be genuinely touching, particularly in the case of the reactions of the rest of the Nanba family), I'm not sure how many more times we need to jump past into the past to show how enthusiastic the two brothers were about space and becoming astronauts in their youth.  If the show could sideline some of these moments I'm sure it would be equally effective while able to move faster as a result - perhaps not the result the production team wants, but with some of its extraneous moments purged I could see Space Brothers being an even better series than it is already.