Getting on the Space Brothers bandwagon

When I got back into anime last year the long running drama Space Brothers caught my attention.  I put it on the back burner though and focused on other things.  Over the months I noticed that it showed up frequently on the weekly anime TV ratings in Japan, as reported by Anime News Network.  A while ago I did watch the first episode, liked it and filed it away to watch another time.  Last night I decided to pick it up and roll with it...I can't stop watching it now.

    Space Brothers takes place a bit in the future and follows two brothers dreams of becoming astronauts and finding proof of alien life.  Mutta and Hibito Namba tried their best to excel in their studies to guarantee a future in the space program at JAXA (Japans equivalent to NASA).  Hibito, the younger brother, was successful and became and astronaut for the agency.  Mutta on the other hand was side tracked and became a successful engineer for an auto manufacturer.  As Hibito is about to embark on a joint mission to the moon, Mutta finds himself unemployed after head butting his draconian boss.  Now, with no other direct, Mutta again focuses on his childhood dream, wanting to beat his younger brother to Mars.  As of April 2014 this series has kicked out 100 episodes, at the time of this post I have watched the first dozen or so, so obviously the story stretches far beyond this synopsis.

    I can see why this is a popular series in Japan, its just really fun to watch.  Mutta is a man with a good heart but sometimes misguided attention.  He's comical, easy going but underneath a reliable and dedicated person.  The series paints him as the underdog with a slight chance at success.  Everyone loves a good underdog story!  The series is pegged as a drama but there is a fair amount of humor in it as well, particularly with Mutta's view of the world around him.  The drama and tension is pretty easy going as well and the series has a general feel-good quality to it.  It's nice and light, fun to watch and makes you feel good in the end.  The pace of the story seems to be right, not dragging things out, but allowing time for the characters identities and the situations to fill out, along with inserting back story in appropriate locations.  So far, so good!  I'm not sure how much the saccharine air will stick around, I'm sure they will have to ratchet up the tension and perhaps throw in some tragedy at some point.  Mutta can't keep winning, even if his success is dubious at times.  But for now, I'm going to sit back and enjoy the show and catch up with the Japanese.

    If you like feel good stories that make you chuckle this is a fantastic story.