It’s time! The third exam comes to an end.  

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Right off the bat I have to say that his is my favourite and the best episode of the series so far, easily topping the episode focusing in on Fukuda and Furuya. Episode twenty brings about the end of the third examination within the sealed environment and provides the team with one final challenge; one that they’ve been putting off since the beginning of the exam. That is the selection of their two members most fitting to be astronauts for JAXA. Unlike the other teams, Team A hasn’t come up with a tangible way of selecting their top two candidates, and with them being the oddest and unorthodox team it’s understandable why. 

Unlike the other Teams, Team A actually developed into a team with equal roles and responsibilities despite no clear cut chain of command. They became friends and compatriots in their love for space and it was clearly shown throughout their two weeks in the confined space. Because of that we see that they are all fully qualified to be nominated as one of the team’s two named candidates, and that is what provides the biggest dilemma for the team as they see it themselves as well. This test provides them the highest difficulty because of the friendship they’ve developed. It’s even tougher for the audience because you want to root for all of them to stay as a team and make it into space. 

Character-wise, the one to have shown the biggest development in this episode was Furuya. In his most humble act to date in the series, he himself puts forward his own objective ranking system to determine the candidacy of the top two spots and he realizes where he ranks among the team, which is last. For him to be given an equal opportunity to be named as a candidate seems unthinkable to him as he feels completely unworthy of it compared to the others, who he feels are more qualified. This is the moment where the team truly shines as they all agree that Furuya, despite his own ranking system, is equally qualified among them to be named as a representative of Team A. It’s a great moment for the episode and the solution they come up with is by far the most fitting for this team.

Though the episode cuts off before seeing who the two winners are, it really didn’t matter to me. The episode was great without it and it leaves me excited for the following episode when we do get to find out who the two are. Also, knowing that JAXA isn’t just simply eliminating the rest also gives me hope that this team can still stay together.

GO Rating: 4.5/5

A fitting solution for Team A.