Monday, August 17, 2015

Life Lessons From Space Brothers

Space Brothers (Uchu Kyodai) is an anime and comic book (manga) series created by Chuya Koyama from Japan. The anime series is about two brothers who vowed to become astronauts when they were children. The older brother, Mutta Nanba, was fired from his engineering job. The younger brother, Hibito, became an astronaut going to the moon. Mutta was lost. Hibito applied Mutta to the astronaut training program. The series chronicled Mutta from training to becoming an astronaut starting in 2025.

The 99 episode anime series ran from April 2012 to March 2014. A live action movie premiered on May 2012.

I share life lessons watching Space Brothers. The anime series is number two in my top ten all-time favorite anime series. I retired from anime in Sep 2014.

*Episode 24 "The Worst Possible Interviewer". Hibito was training on driving a space vehicle. He was assigned a big manual to read. He flipped all of the pages in seconds. "It's faster to just do it", said Hibito. The next scene Hibito learned the space vehicle as he was driving.

*Episode 37 "Two Men In The Park". Mutta was anxious waiting for his exam results. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) employee Tadashi Hoshika informed Mutta one-on-one at a park he passed. "I believe that this should be said under the sky", said Tadashi.

*Episode 43 "Brian". Hibito reminisced the veteran astronaut Brian Jay during his mission on the moon. Brian was Hibito's mentor who said the following multiple times: "The veteran Brian Jay came all the way to see you. I'll give you some help, Hibito".

Hibito's space suit ran out of oxygen. He saw an image of Brian walking towards him. The image faded away becoming the oxygen producing drone named "Brian". Hibito connected his astronaut suit to the drone saving his life.

*Episode 46 "Number One Restless Guy". Side character and astronaut trainee Ena Kitamura conversed with her younger sister, Kei, in a flashback. The conversation was their futures.

Kei: How are you supposed to decide your future?
Ena: Are you having trouble?
Kei: Well, I don't know what I want to become.
Ena: I see. In that case, is there anything that you wish you could do? For instance, would you like to play the piano?
Kei : Oh. Sure, I would.
Ena: Do you wish you could hold conversations in English?
Kei: Yup, I sure do.
Ena: You just need to find the one thing interesting enough to make you lose track of time.

*Episode 56 "Promise to Drink". NASA engineer Pico said the following when he was lead engineer building the parachute deployment system: "When you build something, you must be ready to spend time and money on failure. If you build something by improving on failure, you'll end up with good results".

*Space Brothers Mr. Hibbit. A short segment played at the end of some episodes. Hibito was a rabbit who said, "All I can provide is courage and energy".

*Episode 82 "Space Family". Kenji Makabe, Mutta's close friend and fellow trainee, questioned the phase "do your best". Kenji said the following: "'Do you best' is a phase I always have to stop myself from saying. When bringing up a child, those words add needless pressure. After multiple failures, I realize this. But when [my child] tells me to do my best, I'm encouraged to work harder. I wonder how [my wife and child] feel about (me) becoming an astronaut. They've had to leave their native country, and live in an unfamiliar place, away from friends and relatives. They must be scared. They probably want to go back to Japan.

"To send me to space, they're sacrificing a lot. I have to do my part. And use the time and effort that would have otherwise gone to them. It isn't enough to compensate their sacrifice . . . but I need to reach the moon before I can make things right"!

*Episode 89 "Last Words". Kenji said the following after not being selected to be the next Japanese astronaut to go to the moon: "Honestly, this makes me wonder why I've been training for the moon for such a long time. What took a very long time to build up takes mere moments to destroy. So what happens next"? NASA Director Jason Butler said, "It will probably take some time. But when you are chosen to go to space, you will understand why we decided on these assignments".

Kenji said in the next scene: "As long as we don't give up on being astronauts, we'll make it into space eventually".

*Episode 91 "How to Help Hibito". Hibito underwent an underwater test to recovery for panic disorder. NASA Director Jason Butler changed the testing conditions. The conversation is below.

NASA staffer to Jason: Are you sure about letting [Hibito's] friends handle [the test], Chief? Wasn't the purpose of this test to put Hibito-kun under pressure to see if a panic attack would result?

Jason: Yes, that was my intent. . . . I changed my mind. What is the purpose of this exercise? Are we testing Hibito? Or are we helping him? I'd hoped to accomplish the latter, but it seems I had the wrong method. Isolating Hibito, forcing him to overcome pressure and fear, was incorrect. Instead, we will help Hibito remember his happiest moments. That is how Hibito's fellow crew members want to help him.

*Episode 94 "Exciting Teamwork". Mutta's trained for a lunar mission at a desert. He was assigned a team of lonely astronauts nobody wanted to work with. Team leader Eddie Jay, younger brother of Brian Jay, organized a team morning jog rehearsal the night before to promote teamwork.

A van dropped off the team and himself 2 kilometers away from camp. His instruction was everyone must jog back to camp and arrive at a predetermined time not too early and not too late. Eddie was the only astronaut wearing a watch. The jog started at 11:30pm. The jog ended at 11:50pm. The team jogged together. Eddie laughed saying, "Oh? What's wrong, guys? You're free to spread out like usual"! The astronauts jogged together at a constant pace. The team jogged alone in past episodes.

*Episode 95 "Our Future". Side character astronaut Vincent Bold flashback when he was asked a question, "What is your oldest treasure"?

*Episode 99 "Life Changes, Promises Don't". The title of the last anime episode.

*Space Brothers Live Action Movie. Buzz Aldrin as himself with Mutta watching Hibito's space launch to the moon. Buzz said, "You know we live one life. You can't play around with two. You'll just make a choice you'll never regret".

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