Hello everyone, it’s Kernook here. This is a segment called “Kern’s Collections”, a series dedicated to brief glimpses of media and why you might enjoy them. This is not a review, but merely a simple glance at an anime that could be worth your time.

Today I’ll be talking about Space Brothers.

The Script

The anime came out in the spring of 2012. Although it never saw a true completion, the story we got was well worth your time. You’ll have to read the written media if you want the full story though.

To be honest, this is one of my favorite anime of its decade. Furthermore to me this is the perfect gateway anime for someone that isn’t particularly invested in anime as a medium. When it comes to great gateway anime for older viewers, I try to stick to anime titles that are fairly down to earth.

It looks nice, it isn’t incredibly stupid or bombastic, and although it has some mature content, you could still watch it around youths comfortably. So, small children need not be disturbed.

There is nothing completely grotesque in this anime. Though there are some medical scenes, fragments of adult humor, and other things tied directly to the main plot, nothing is gratuitous.

There are no impossible fight scenes, and the adventure rests largely within the realm of possibility. The direct premise is the idea of space travel itself. The core ideas hinge on realistic dreams. They linger in the ideology that space travel is possible. That one day we may one day colonize on the moon, and perhaps visit mars.

The plot is simple. Two brothers aspire to be astronauts. One brother achieves his dream. The other decides to follow in his footsteps. This shows a life of an aspiring astronaut and the trials and tribulations he goes through to reach his goals.

In some ways, I’d call this series closer to a slice-of-life than a true science fiction series. It’s certainly not a space opera, either. The themes aren’t too heavy, but there’s a lot of heart and soul embedded in each episode, giving the characters a very genuine feel to them.

On the topic of that, the characters span wide range of interests and skills that are fundamental to working within the space programs. Very little comes easy to even these bright minds. You get to see these mostly successful adults living their lives, with plenty of flashbacks into their childhood and upbringing. Each character is very well written because of that.

To be honest, Space Brothers stands as a “catch-all” anime for me. If I don’t know what anime to pick out for a new viewer, I always go with Space Brothers. It is especially accessible for an american viewer because the idea of going to outer space is part of our mass media to begin with. It’s a concept and idea that we understand, and flock towards in mass.

The idea isn’t that far fetched, and even once characters are shown going into space, they don’t throw away basic logic. Things make sense more times than not, and you have no need to understand what anime is to like this series.

That it isn’t an animated space opera is a huge bonus here, because tropes that could be confusing don’t exist in this anime. What is important is the heart of the matter, and Space Brothers understands that.

These are the reasons you really should give it a try, particularly if you have dislike of anime as a medium, or simply don’t understand it. The content isn’t too dissimilar than what you’d find in down to earth live action shows.

So, this is where I leave Space Brothers, and now the choice falls onto you. There is a real gem nestled buried beneath time, and as of this video you can watch it over on Crunchy Roll.