The main characters of Space Brothers are Mutta Nanba and Hibito Nanba. As the title suggests, they are brothers. Mutta is the older brother, and his philosophy has been that an older brother should always be ahead of the younger brother, since the older is born first.
In the summer of 2006, when Mutta was 12 and Hibito was nine, they were out one night during one their regular explorations. During their explorations, they took tape recorders with them and recorded what happened. On that particular evening, they both witnessed a UFO that flew to the moon. At that moment, both brothers decided that they wanted to become astronauts.
The series then moves ahead to the year 2025. Hibito has realized his dream to become an astronaut, and is about to go on a mission to the moon. Mutta, however, ended up working for a car company and designing a car that won a prestigious award. Unfortunately, when Mutta's boss made fun of Hibito after reading an article about him in the newspaper, Mutta responded by headbutting him. This act caused Mutta to be fired. Mutta's former boss made sure to let their competitors know about what Mutta had done, and has caused him to become blacklisted in the auto industry. Mutta tries to work other jobs, but he has difficulties staying at anything of them,
After Hibito learns about Mutta's misfortunes, he decides he wants to help. He sends Mutta a text message, telling him to find the tape from the summer of 2006 when they saw the UFO. Mutta listens to it, and his interest in space is reignited. Mutta's mother sends the Japanese space agency Mutta's resume, and Mutta is invited to join an astronaut training program. Mutta accepts the invitation, and the series follows what he goes through as he tries to achieve his childhood dream.
Admittedly, the first episode was a little slow to get going, since there was a bit of explaining that had to be done in order to establish the concept of the series. However, after watching the first episode, I believe that this series could have a lot of potential going forward. It's a series I wouldn't mind watching more of in the future.
Visually, there was nothing objectionable for younger viewers in the first episode of Space Brothers. However, I have to say that in some respects, the character designs are a little on the rough side; but, this is due to trying to replicate the designs from the manga series that serves as the source material for this anime.
Personally, I think that this series would probably be best enjoyed by anime viewers who are 12 or 13 years of age and older.
| Space Brothers | 54+ | 2012-ongoing | Ayumu Watanabe | A-1 Pictures | Sentai Filmworks |
