Space Brothers - Episode 72

Hibito continues to take some of the focus in this week's Space Brothers, as his struggle with a panic disorder after his major lunar mishap remains in the spotlight.

After flashing back to just how badly this problem affects him via a testing session while suited up in a NASA pool, we learn that Hibito has also decided to keep his panic disorder a secret from everybody around him while he tries to overcome it himself.  One person he seemingly can't hide his concerns from however is Aunt Sharon, who sees immediately that he has something on his mind, pressing him into spilling the beans.

Meanwhile, Mutta continues to work on improving NASA's lunar buggy, pondering some pretty extreme ideas to work around the current design's issues.  Such is Mutta's train of thought that he's even considering ideas for flying cars, while he also makes good use of former contacts in the automotive industry to aid whatever it is he's planning.  Ultimately, Mutta is ready to make a presentation to the top brass in the hope of securing a lunar mission spot as a result - little does he know that his brother's condition might actually be the major barrier towards achieving this goal.

This week's episode of Space Brothers is the kind of instalment that it's hard to say anything too much about - it's a pretty good episode, but it's really concerned with building things up for future episodes rather than doing anything outstanding in its own right, making it simple but effective rather than spectacular.  Still, I'm very much interested to see how both Hibito and Mutta's current concerns and focus ultimately manifest themselves over the next week or two, which continues to keep me well and truly hooked to this show as a result.