Story: 10
Art: 9
Sound: 8
Character: 10
Enjoyment: 10
Overall: 10
-Details-
Story: 10
Genres: Drama, Seinen, Slice of Life, Sci-fi, Space
As far as slice of life anime go, the pacing of Space Brothers is slightly slower than average. It has a continuous narrative, mostly told from the point of view of one of the two main characters/brothers. The story is slightly non-linear in that there are many juxtapositions of the main characters' past and present experiences. You get to see the main characters when they are about 12 or so and see how those experiences shaped who they are at the present, in their late 20's-early 30's. One of the only things that stuck out to me as negative was that almost every episode opens with one or two minutes of recap, even when it didn't seem necessary. There were also a couple of recap episodes along the way.
The story itself is mostly about the process of becoming an astronaut and the setting is earth/NASA for most of the story. A major appeal of this story is seeing the "behind the scenes" aspects of becoming an astronaut, which is something you don't always see in stories about NASA and space. The story seems very realistic and is very character driven. There are moments of comedy and drama sprinkled throughout the story; both the comedy and drama elements are well done and work well. Overall the story is simple and straightforward, and you can easily sit back and enjoy watching the main character work towards becoming an astronaut.
Another aspect of this show is that it is set slightly in the future--the main part of the story takes place in the 2020's. Thus there is a bit of a sci-fi element involved in predicting what kind of technology we will have at the time. Overall I think the predictions seem very reasonable and it's actually very cool seeing stuff that we might actually have in the near future.
The anime was catching up to the manga at the time it ended. Rather than coming up with some alternate ending, the anime basically just stopped at a point that seemed reasonable to stop. So the ending doesn't really wrap things up like a true ending; it seems like another season could potentially be tagged right onto the end of it in the future. The ending doesn't seem like a negative aspect per se but it will leave you wanting more and hoping for more adaptation of the manga in the future.
Art: 9
Studio: A-1 Pictures
The art is good and clean, and the style of rendering the characters is realistic. Every character looks unique and is easily identifiable (even by their hair, which the series itself pokes fun at). The quality is fairly consistent throughout the whole series; there are one or two arcs where it gets a little better during more dramatic parts of the series. Overall I would say the art does what it needs to do in order to tell the story effectively. It's not super amazing but it's not bad either. It gets the job done. The openings and endings look good as well.
There are times when CGI is used for things like airplanes and rockets. The CGI is done quite well and I think it works well when used and doesn't hinder the effectiveness of any specific scenes.
I've never been to NASA but many fans say the backgrounds are rendered very well and very realistically. If you've been to NASA then you might feel like you're there again while watching this show. Things like the rockets and space-suits also look really good. Overall there really isn't anything bad about the animation.
Sound: 8
The openings and endings are pretty good--for many fans the first opening theme stands out as a favorite. They capture the mood of the series pretty well.
The voice acting was well done and posed no problems. The voices all work well for the realistic setting. There are moments of comedy and when those occur the voice actors do a good job of making it funny as well. There were no stand out negative performances. I think the voice actor of the main character did a particularly good job, which is important for this show since he gets a ton of screen time. I can still remember what he sounds like in my head, and I personally really like his voice.
Sounds effects are good. Nothing ever stuck out to me as out of place. They are good enough to aid in the immersion factor.
The mood of the OST fits with the show well. There is some good slice of life music. The show itself is also quite inspirational at times and the music usually reinforces that feeling quite well.
The OST didn't really have any stand out tracks that I would feel compelled to go listen to for fun. But it's not like there was any terrible music either. One thing which is pretty noticeable is that many of the tracks repeat quite a bit--I think there's even one piece which appears in nearly every episode. This is something you will very likely notice especially if you tend to binge watch shows. It's not a bad track so this isn't necessarily a negative, but I would have liked more variety.
Character: 10
This show is meant to be very realistic and the characters end up feeling like real people so that is a big plus. There is no narrator except for recap moments/episodes. Characters in this show are all in their mid 20's or older. No high schools students.
Given the name of the series it's not surprising that the two main brothers get the most screen time, and of those two the main character, Mutta, gets by far the most screen time. This story is really all about Mutta trying to grow and become an astronaut while he chases his brother Hibito who is already an astronaut. Mutta is a very likable guy. He starts out a little depressed because he was recently fired from his job, but things start to turn around for him as he begins the process of becoming an astronaut. You gradually learn more about him--why he's qualified to become an astronaut, what his personality is like--and you see him grow in confidence quite a bit. His character development is realistic and you get to see him in all sorts of life situations, like at parties, at home, etc, so you get to learn a lot about him, and personally I got really attached to him and he is one of my favorites characters from anime. I cheered for him every step of the way because he is a genuinely likable and good guy.
Hibito is energetic but he also seems a little more reserved, so you don't get to know him as well as Mutta. He is still a likable character though and, at least to me, he felt like a genuine little brother even though career-wise he would be Mutta's "senpai" so I think they got this balance down quite well. Hibito gets two arcs in the spotlight and they are two of my favorite arcs for spoiler-y reasons, so I'll leave it at that.
Another important character is the brothers' "aunt" Sharon, who isn't technically their aunt but is like a mother-figure to the boys. She's a well-known astronomer and helped cultivate the boys' enthusiasm for space while they grew up. It's very cool to see scenes from their past and present juxtaposed and how Sharon helped them grow into who they are. Later on Sharon becomes more important to the actual plot of the story as well.
The supporting cast includes the brothers' parents and mostly other astronauts. There are many different personalities and they are all quite unique and stand out in my mind. I remember most of them really well and fondly. The diversity of the cast and the skill with which their personalities are crafted and developed are comparable to works of Naoki Urasawa if you happen to be familiar with those works.
There isn't really a main antagonist either. Sometimes there are higher-ups in NASA who potentially pose a threat to some astronauts' career advancement but there is no character that everyone is working against or anything. Basically like real life.
Enjoyment: 10 / Overall: 10
A big factor in enjoyment is whether or not you tend to like slice-of-life, highly character driven stories. I do so I was all over this, especially since I really like space and science. I think that anyone who can enjoy slice-of-life and has an interest in space or science would definitely like this show, since you get to see a lot of cool "behind the scenes" type things at NASA, as well as some cool space travel. The cast of characters is pretty amazing and I enjoyed spending time with them. This anime can also be inspirational and awe-inspiring, which I really appreciated and enjoyed for myself.
I think that this series would be something a non-anime fan could enjoy, but only if they would be okay with something slice-of-life and slower paced. I say this mostly because of how realistic the series is and that there is no anime weirdness and no fanservice, so it is quite accessible.
I'm not sure this show has the best re-watch value since it's so long and kind of slow paced. I'm not sure if that will be my final verdict though since I haven't re-watched it yet.
I would definitely like to own this show at some point if I am ever able to do so, and overall it's a very memorable show. Details of this show definitely stand out in my mind and left a positive impression on me. Overall I highly recommend it to anyone who thinks this show sounds like something they've enjoyed before.
