Uchuu Kyoudai – 42

As is the Uchuu Kyoudai norm, this arc continues to be drawn out but without feeling too slow. In truth, not a lot has happened over the past few episodes, but they’ve still been handled in an effective way. The complete contrast to how relatively light-hearted the rest of the series has been is definitely a huge mark in its favour too – it feels like we’re getting something new and exciting. Until now, everything has gone well, perhaps, as I actually mentioned prior to the launch, too well. It’s kind of hard to believe that nothing would ever go wrong in outer space, especially when this is a work of fiction designed for the purpose of entertainment.

I still fully expect Hibito to survive – for the oxygen generator to reach him just in the nick of time. But at the same time, what if that was a red herring? This entire arc feels a little like karma, especially when you take into account how much the series has talked about luck and balance, frequently referring to luck as a finite source. This is the dark patch to balance all the wonders that have happened so far – the reveal that space isn’t always sunshine and rainbows, that maybe luck really does run out. Before this point, nothing truly bad happened to the characters in the series’ run – questions of whether Mutta would pass were frequently raised, but he always overcame the odds, frequently on sheer luck alone, always worrying that it would run out and this would be the end of his journey. What if Hibito’s luck really has run out? What if this is the end of his journey? It seems almost as though everything that could go wrong at this point has gone wrong. If we stuck with the balance theme, we already have one pair of brothers that were tragically separated by death. It seemed like Damian would die, but in attempting to save him (and seemingly succeeding), using up the last flare in the process, Hibito might have traded his own life in return. Balance.

It’s kind of interesting to see how opinions on how to react to the situation differ from person to person and based upon varying factors that cannot be predicted. The personnel at NASA believe Hibito will follow standard protocol and wait to be rescued. If not for Damian’s urgent need for warmth, perhaps he would have. Realistically, it would be the sensible thing to do, yet Mutta seemed to think Hibito would try to leave the ravine anyway, despite having no information on the situation within. I’m honestly not really sure what to think about that, but then I guess Hibito may not be the most sensible of people and Mutta might be reacting to that. He’s caused a lot of worry for the family over the years and always come back relatively unscathed after all. The whole thing has been quite a mess with so many assumptions on what should happen by NASA, none of which came to pass as predicted.

There’s something really powerful about Hibito’s final lonely walk on the moon. He casts away his only remaining method of communication, choosing to spend his final moments in true solitude. I had never expected for the light to suddenly come back into play at this point – it came as a bit of a surprise to me. There’s something really profound about Brian Jay appearing in Hibito’s greatest moment of need, even if it is in the form of the counterpart to Eddie Jay’s doll – one similar to those used in the discussions on leaving behind an injured comrade so long ago. This is the guy that Hibito looked up to as a mentor, someone who also had a brother as an astronaut, and someone who faced death, just as Hibito is now doing. It’s quite impressive how Uchuu Kyoudai always manages to tie these things together and I can only look forward to seeing where it’s going to go next. Will Hibito follow the same path as his mentor and predecessor? Or will he manage to live on where Brian Jay could not? I suspect we’re in for quite the tense ride next week!

The last scene where hibito went for a walk in the moon in face of death is really powerful.When he about to give up and jump into the hole to view the star , it really scare me . It’s amazing how this show manage to portray the feeling of character.

Thanks for the kind words! I’m really glad you found my post meaningful in some way. This is definitely one of my favourite series that has aired in the past year and everything about it is handled so wonderfully!

The whole time during this episode, I kept wondering about Azuma’s earlier request. We know that all the probes were being sent to the crater but I lost track of the time for ETA. I’m going to hope that either that doll or something else provides Hibito with a solution.

Frustrated that we’ll have to wait another episode or two to see this resolve, but I’m thinking taht when I watch these all in a row again that I’ll really enjoy it as a more layered experience.

I assume Azuma asked them to move it to the point where Mutta specified since we don’t see it once the buggy arrives. I agree the ETA and position didn’t make any sense. They should have shown a map with an overview of the situation.

I would say it would be highly unfeasible to do with Hibito did with the flare. Also it would have made more sense to keep going to reach the sun faster and keep the flare. Although it isn’t certain how good Hibito’s judgement is.

In the short span of the flare, it probably can’t heat many rocks very high temperature. A few small rocks will not have that much heat capacity relative to that of the spacesuit and astronaut. Take into account the time Hibito wasted…it doesn’t make sense.

If Hibito stayed there and waited for help they would have already been found. Hibito’s movements should also consume more oxygen. If he stayed put they would have been rescued. Also it isn’t clear if there is a method to transfer oxygen, but I would have assumed some mention about Damian’s emergency oxygen tank. If they could have hooked that up to Hibito, both of them would have had enough oxygen. All in all it seems like a lot of questionable judgement especially if you keep in mind that moving would subject them to unknown terrain of unknown distance and if there was a further accident no rescuers would have any clue where they were.

There is no way to hook up between suits. That was mentioned earlier and would certainly have been done if it was possible. Damian would have died for certain if Hibito had done nothing and if had followed the rules he should have allowed him to die and not risk himself. He made a judgement that he could save him and if not for his fall he would have not been in too much risk. Once he fell and lost his oxygen he had no choice but to go on with his plan.

Actually Hibito should have reevaluated after he lost his main oxygen. Moving away from the crash site would mean longer time for rescuers with oxygen to reach you as well as increasing your oxygen intake by a very large factor. They don’t seem to realistically factor this increased intake into their calculations.

You are probably right in that there is no way to hook up between suits. However, I feel like this is a techinical feature that would have likely been incorporated into spacesuits for an extended lunar mission.

According to this last episode the buggy reached the location approximately the same time Hibito and Damian made it out of the pit. Thus it is not clear Damian would have died if they rescued him promptly.

For example, Hibito could have gotten close to Damian and exchanged heat through his space suit to Damain through contact (wrapping the insulation around them). Hey its not exactly what I would want to see two guys doing, but I think realism should trump heroism in this series.

This would seem like a far more prudent course of action among possibly others.

They cant exchange bodyheat through their spacesuits. If Hibito stayed put, Damian would have died. Hibito wanted to save Damian, so his son wouldnt grow up without his dad. It’s shown multiple times whenever Hibito thinks about saving Damian.

It showed the buggy reaching the end of the tracks before Hibito made it out of the crater. Freddie/Buddy indicated they could pull them up right away with the powerful winch on the buggy. Thus given that Damian is alive after that long its highly possible Freddie/Buddy could have saved them even if they stayed put. Thus Hibito’s assumption Damian would die unless he did something seems questionable.

The main issue is the assumption that moving inside the crater is safe. There is no evidence to support this claim and seems to be based on questionable logic. The fact that the Gibson buggy made it there is no indication that the path is safe for human travel in the reverse direction. For example if you had a steep cliff, its possible that a drone could roll down but not make it back up again.

I can see how they are trying to present Hibito’s actions emotionally, but logically the math and science doesn’t work out.

The reason Damian made it to the top was due to the heated up rocks from the flare (I guess that very idea of doing that might certainly be questionable). Hibito could have done that even if they stayed put, but he didn’t think of it at the time, and given the pressure he really needed to just do the first fairly reasonable thing he could think of, even if it wasn’t the best possible plan. Given that he found Gibson first and deduced that it probably got there through a less inclined path, it makes sense that this was what he went with first.

As far as that assumption that the path was safe, I once read something about planetary rovers being programmed to constantly use their sensors to check for any major changes in the ground in front of them (same as with most current self driving robots). If Gibson got to a steep cliff, it would know not to go off it. If it were a gentle path downwards, however, it might do so. This wouldn’t be much of an issue if NASA were doing a full manual guiding of Gibson, but since they lost track of it, it means they were letting the internal system do a substantial amount of the maneuvering.

Of course, there could still have been something that went wrong with Gibson’s system that made it get there by rolling down a steep cliff. But given the perfect condition Gibson was in, and the even tracks, it makes sense to consider it a good possibility that it entered the crater through a gently sloping path. At least, it made fairly good sense to try following the tracks given that Hibito needed to act fast to save Damian.

Flares work the way they are meant to (not really feasible the way Hibito used it). Agree or disagree there are tons of issues with this scenario that seem questionable or contrived.

For example if the drone was realistic, they would have had far more information. The fact that the drone was at the exact location Hibito fell to implies that it was in constant communication with NASA (prior to getting cut off or battery dying), which makes it questionable that they didn’t have any data to explain its predicament. It is unbelievable that the NASA team would not investigate how/why/where and send the team off on a mission without any planning or preparation.

When Hibito got dragged by Gibson before the OP, my heart jumped like crazy. Even more so when he decided at first to end it all. I was saying to myself, noooo, don’t do it! I’ve got to say, the characters of this show really grow on you.

I guessing is that Azuma convinced the NASA guy to send at least “Brian”(the one that extracts oxygen) to the point where Mutta points where Hibito would likely to show up and while Hibito is looking at the doll the “Brian” will show up in the horizon.

I’m assuming that this is what happened. If you look at the order of the scenes, first the command center announces that Brian probe arrived at the crash site. After trying to see into the ravine with it, Azuma speaks to the director, Claude. Then when Freddie and Buddy arrive on the buggy, the Brian probe is no longer there.

Of course, Hibito seems to have lost hope a little too early. If he had quickly walked in the direction of original crash site, he might have run into the Brian probe or the buggy within time (I sure damn hope at least the probe makes it to him on time).