Realistic astronaut training anime that could air on Lifetime channel.  The training part is just like Twin Spica, and the Space exploration part is similar to Planetes.  Overall, it’s well done all around for astronaut-in-training anime.  Not always entertaining or exciting, but feel like a life long journey to your goal.

– 99 episode total. You get a lot of flashbacks for most characters to develop.  This one of those anime where the author manage to give every char a meaning.  You will be surprised when some side chars turns into a major plot turning point.  The brothers relationship is on the realistic side, actually the whole anime is very realistic and relatable.  And despite being in 2025, there was almost no new technology on display.  And it’s the same when it comes to space, they still use the rockets and huge spacesuits.  The inventions made through out anime are already exist today, and they simply apply them to space immigration.

– Story is basic at first.  Astronaut selection process has been done before in Twin Spica so I wasn’t too impressed.  What I like is the cast, they seem to have a knack to find good fun unique characters to work with.  These character are never typical stereo types, and they always have their own personal story to tell.  I think Planetes might have better dramatic casts, but I don’t remember much about that series so I’m not sure.  However I do remember that Planetes is more conventional and more entertaining.  Although it’s hard to compare since it has 26 eps vs. 99 eps here.  Let’s just say Uchuu Kyoudai is passive on most of their plots, and spend most of their time on Earth not on the space/moon.

– They only did one space arc so far and boy, they sure make it counts.  Moon’s rescue arc is really epic.  This is the climax,  and you’ll be sitting at the edge of your seat.  Just like other arcs, this story has slow cooked to perfection.  It keeps building up character’s story and event that precede the accident. That way you will know the chars when they show up.  The premise is simple.  Astronauts fell into the moon’s crater.  One is hurt, and one is running out of oxygen.  The race begin for the crews to search and rescue them.  Time is crucial, and the climax really take astronauts to the brink of death.  The end is really touching, I cry like hell.  To me this arc is a perfect 10 while the rest is floating around 7.

– Pacing is slow just like any space and astronomy anime.  There is no filler or fan service eps and the story keep moving seamlessly.  I think when they get to emotional scenes, they tend to lag a little which is ok since this anime is focusing on human’s feeling.  Also the manga is still ongoing after 7 yrs.

– Comedy is here to get you through boring scenes.  Mutta keep telling puns, phases, and quotes.  Not always funny but it’s stuff that get you through the work day.

– Very little romance here.  Mutta’s aggressive pursuit to woo Serika is a romcom, but the romance never progress beyond the friend phase.  Serika is pretty much glutton Nodame.  Every other lady are also good-looking, nice eye candy.

– Just when I thought I might get to see an actual real ending for space anime, it fails yet again.  99 eps and they still can’t get it done.  They left a huge chunk of remaining plot – Sharon’s ending, Mutta on the moon and Hibito’s disappearance.

– Has a lot of OP/ED songs.  They’re ok, not good.  I like the last ED.  All acting voices are very professional.  Kids sound like kid, men sound like men and Apo, the dog, sounds very real.  The soundtrack has a sad feeling into it.