Space Brothers

Today I review this slice of life anime, Space Brothers.

The latest opening for the anime, my favourite until now.

This anime, as the titles suggests, is about two brothers, Nanba Hibito and Nanba Mutta. This review will start by presenting the two main characters:

 Nanba Mutta - Most of the anime follows the older brother Mutta. Mutta was born October 28th of 1993, during the Agony of Doha, when japan failed to get into the football world cup and all the country sighed, the older brother was born. Himself considers to be very unlucky because of this event. Before starting the journey to become an austronaut, Mutta worked in a car design company. Easily gets lost in his imagination, usually overthinks things over and always expects the worst coming his way. It's a very intelligent individual, usually thinking outside the box. Despite considering himself to be unlucky, he may be the most lucky one in the anime, being saved by luck a ton of times.

Nanba Hibito - The succesfull astrounaut, the younger Nanba Hibito. Nanba Hibito was born September 17th of 1996, Nomo earned a MLB no-hitter shutout, and while the nation yelled in euphory, the younger brother was born. Hard working and straightforward, Hibito quickly rose in Nasa ranks, in part by his extraordinary talent as an astronaut, to become the first japanese in the moon, and on the first team to live in the moon base. He's more serious than Mutta, and sometimes can be very airheaded, but at the same time he's a role model for a lot of people. He's very popular in the USA, receiving the nickname Samurai Boy.

The story starts July 9th of 2006,while the world was fixated int he  football world cup final in Germany, and while Zidane headbutts Matterazi, the two brothers are exploring they're neighborhood while making an audio log. During this trip, they saw an UFO on the sky sparking the dream of being astronauts. The story then jumps to 2025, Hibito is on the crew for the lunar base, a tryout for creating colonies in Mars, and also becoming the first Japanese to go to the moon. Meanwhile Mutta is...being fired from his job as a car designer, for hedbutting his boss for talking trash about Hibito.

Zidane!

Then Mutta starts job hunting, but Hibito makes their mother send his resume in secret to JAXA, the japanese space agency, and he gets selected to the astrounaut tryouts. While crying and smiling at the acceptance paper, his journey to space begins. The story is most of the time about Mutta, and the hurdles he has to pass to become an astrounaut, and when he eventually becomes one, the hurdles to get to space. It's well written and I find myself waiting for more.  During the series Mutta gains more friends that also compete for reaching space, being the 2 most important the following ones:

Makabe Kenji - Kenji meets Mutta on the first day in JAXA and quickly they become best friends. Kenji is the oposite of Mutta, self confident, quick decisions, anything you can name it he aces it. He has great talent when comes to being an astronaut. He always lends help to Mutta when he needs the most, and they have the perfect teamwork.

Itou Serika - Serika also meets Mutta on JAXA in the first day, and quickly Mutta falls for her. She was a doctor before enrolling in the astrounat tryouts, and wants to get into the ISS to develop new medicines, in hope to create a cure to the disease that killed her father. Her favourite thing is food, and frequently has his stomach growling and eats by two, despite that she's thin.

The characters are easy to like, and have always consistent background and lovable personalities. There aren't a so called villain, as the focus solely focus on rivalries, and surpassing one's shortcomings. There isn't a single one with bad intentions, and that's a fresh thing, as it's common to have someone spoiling the main character advancements, but in this case there isn't none. The anime also has a lot of pop culture references, Zidane's headbutt, Ramos shooting the penalty over the bar, the Terminator's "I'll be back" and others.

The soundtrack is the level expected for a show like this. The openings and endings are very good and catchy, and the soundtrack is average. In my mind there's only one that sticked:

Art - 4/5 - the art is different what one's used to, and that's always a good thing.

Plot 4/5 - it's well written, and the exams and space training feel real.

Soundtrack - 3/5 - for the reasons stated before.

Excitement - 4/5 - The series has a medium pace, but when you get caught in it you'll be craving for more. It isn't exciting as a shounen anime, but Mutta's character is easy to relate to, and it's hard not wanting to know what will happen to him next.

Space Brothers gets a 15/20 launch!