Mutta, just keep rollin’ rollin’ rollin’… along.

——

The tension is starting to pick up for Uchuu Kyoudai as we head into the second half of the series. Whereas I felt confident of the revelation behind the motivation of Mutta’s assault to Hoshika, Tanuma still stands defiant in Mutta’s selection. From there we’re left wondering just how Hoshika can persuade Tanuma to change his mind and what Mutta himself can do to look more redeemable in the eyes of his critics of the JAXA examiners. It’s a point that’s left unattended to until nearly the end, and even then it’s left up to speculation. But more on that later. 

In the meantime, Mutta is still dealing with the news that his assault of his supervisor has pretty much guaranteed his failure and it’s affecting his mood and demeanor. This is a phase that Hibito notes as Mutta’s “Rollin’” mood, where he tries to distract himself from whatever is negatively affecting him by taking in as many distractions as possible. On a personal level, I can personally relate to this because this is something I do as well, so it was a great episode for me to empathize with his character. It gets to a point where even Hibito is starting to show his annoyance with his older brother and the limits of his patience are beginning to show. It’s clear to the audience how much he cares about his brother and wants to see him succeed, but Mutta is quite the difficult person, leaving Hibito to lash out in a restricted way to Mutta. 

This all builds up to quite an emotional character moment for Mutta as in his mind he is coming to the finality of accepting that he is a failure through and through. To see his very simple, but extremely pure motivation to achieve his dream just wrenches at your heart. All he wanted to do was be a good big brother to Hibito. Everything he has done up to this point was just to be the big brother he believes Hibito deserves, and to come to some realization that he will never be that brother and that he will only disappoint him was just heartbreaking to take in. 

All in all, the episode leaves us with a pretty big cliffhanger to wrap up the current story elements. But what this episode has to offer is a great moment for Mutta in his relationship with his brother. Simply put, the best episode of the series so far. 

GO Rating: 4/5

Will this seal Mutta’s fate for better or worse?