“If you’re feeling like there’s nowhere you belong… That you’re trapped in a small world… It’s those feelings that drive us beyond our world.”

Space Brothers/Uchuu Kyoudai is a story about two brothers and their journey of becoming astronauts. Well, except the younger of the two, Hibito is already one, and the older brother, Mutta, starts off at square one.
The series follows Mutta as he struggles through test after test; the long, arduous road to becoming a fully-fledged astronaut. This is a realistic representation of what the journey is like, and the amount of detail gone into is to be commended. And although this technically *is* a story about this journey to get into space, the focus is on the characters, and is much more of a slice-of-life than it is a sci-fi. However, I will warn you that the amount of detail can at times become a negative thing. One example is in the initial testing for astronaut selection, the sheer length of the tests and the detail that is gone into can make reading the manga become laborious and at times, boring.
But the manga excels in a few aspects that I want to highlight here. One of these is in characterization and the relationships between characters. Sure the story is "about" these two brothers, but the focus jumps between a variety of the huge cast, and many different personalities pop up throughout the story. Most of the personalities you see will be relatively realistic and will react to situations in ways you would expect a real person to. I also want to point out that relationships between two characters are also done very well; the relationship between the two brothers for one example is done beautifully. Also the relationship between groups of crew members fighting to become a selected candidate is fascinating, as the conflict of interests become a major setback in mission progress, and it leads to a very interesting read on human group psychology.
Space Brothers is also an incredibly inspiring series, but not the false-hope kind of inspiration. There’s no cheesy, hollow, “you can do it,” phrases. Instead, by reading a character realistically setting out a goal and striving for it, and ultimately achieving it; Space Brothers really makes you feel like you can achieve your own goals if you just give it an honest shot and don’t back down when things get rough.
The artwork is for the most part, average for a seinen. However the mangaka definitely puts more effort into the more important scenes in the story. Character design is great however, with each being unique enough to recognise, while still keeping a continuous art style throughout.
One gripe I had with this series that I did not like was the constant flashbacks of side-characters. The amount of chapters put into the back-stories of characters that I honestly had no care for seemed like a waste of time. Time that could have been spent further developing the main cast.
In conclusion, Space Brothers is a realistic slice-of-life story that follows the inspirational journey of Mutta to fulfill his dream of becoming an astronaut. It is not a story for everyone, but if you like the sound of what I’ve said so far, check it out, you’ll probably enjoy yourself.
The series is still ongoing, and at the posting of this review, is 242 chapters long.