The Scientific Boys Club is a wonderful, "modern" sci-fi fairytale about a woman and three old men achieving their pipe dreams... and a drunk guy.
Long version:
Imagine grandpa tells you about the time he flew to Mars on a ship he built with two of his old buddies and a drunkard, based on some completely bogus theory. That's total nonsense, right? But what if it /were/ true?
That's the point of Spirit of Wonder: Scientific Boys Club.
It's a very feel-good story, not just because of the slow pacing and realistic characters, but also because it grants the unrealistic wishes of these characters. Windy's scientific theories were mocked and proven wrong, and now she's a stay-at-home wife. The three old dudes of the scientific boys club have believed for 50 years in a totally nonsensical claim that aliens live on Mars. But luckily for them, this is a story where pigs fly and the sky falls down, and all their unbelievably fantastic dreams are fulfilled.
This ova is the total opposite of "hard" science fiction, where all the science-y stuff has to be scientifically accurate. Instead, Tsuruta has gone out of his way to emphasize how non-scientific everything is. It's a sci-fi that's not supposed to be sci -- not supposed to be believable. And it feels so good.
P.S.: for more reading, I wrote a bit more with spoilers here: http://flomu.net/blog/2018/12/spirit-of-wonder-scientific-boys-club
