Namba Hibito is cool, carefree and about to become the first Japanese person on the moon while his older brother Mutta is down on his luck, having been fired from his job designing automobiles. He gave up on his dreams years ago but a little nudge from his little brother starts him on the journey to realise his childhood dream of joining his brother in space.
So first off this is not a show about adventures in space. There is of course some space travel but it is more of a character driven comedy that showcases a lot of training as well as the grueling selection process on the road to becoming an astronaut. But even though that may sound boring it does manage to keep interesting plots happening most of the time, and its a pretty funny show so I think that makes up for it. It has a bit of a lull around the 25 episode mark but if you keep going it ramps up again, it is a very fun series and will make you (in the words of the opening song) feel so good.
So as I mentioned this is a character driven show. There are a lot of great characters. I particularly enjoyed the cringeingly awesome parents, and Lowry the American Weeaboo astronaut who is always misusing Japanese phrases but the whole cast is pretty colourful. Our hero Mutta is a loserish 30 something year old with hidden talents. He is the perfect hero for people in their thirties (or late twenties like me) who want to start dreaming again. It is a bit more mature that a lot of the anime out there but still has those awesome Japanese elements I love like a celebration of lofty dreams and the determination and resolve to realise them.
As for the art I felt like this wasn't a focus for the creators. The individual pictures are a bit more on the realistic side and while they mostly look ok on their own the animation itself is often stilted and awkward. After a while I stopped noticing it most of the time but every now and then there would be some really awkward movement, for example there is a particular dance scene that looks borderline creepy. But for the most part you are just watching simple animation and it does the job.
One negative thing I will say for this show is that although the ending is good it kind of ends in an unsatisfying place. The last episode was exciting and resolved stuff and didn't feel rushed, but you will see when you get there (if you watch it) that it doesn't end where you want it to end. I do sort of hope they start the anime again because even though I liked the ending there were some things I wanted to see happen.
This show is incredibly feel good. It has some more real moments but overall its the kind of show that is always a bit warm and fuzzy. They are basically a bunch of lovable space nerds fulfilling their dreams, and triumphing thanks to determination and hard work. So yeah if you are turned off by things that are too happy, or where things work out too well for the cast you might find that annoying. Personally I found it suspended disbelief really well. However it did have the unfortunate side effect of making me wish I was an astronaut. So be warned.
