If you were to sum up this manga in two words, you’d be hard pressed to find a better title than Space Brothers. Yet after reading through the large majority of the manga, I feel as though it’s just a title is just a tad off. Yes, while this manga is about ‘space’, it would be more accurate to say that it focuses more on the process of getting to and working in space more than anything else: namely, the journey of being an astronaut. And while this manga really does deal with two brothers, it spends 90% of its time focusing on one of them. And so, I petition to change the title of this series from Space Brothers to Astronaut Brother. But with all jokes aside, I bring all this naming stuff up because this manga both delivered on what I expected it to yet still felt strangely unique. The mix of story structure, genre, character moments and themes give this series an air of familiarity even as I read it for the first time, and I mean that in the best way possible. So let’s take a quick look at all those features and see what makes Space Brothers so interesting.

If you had to give this manga a genre label, it would likely fall under character drama, but I don’t think that necessarily is the best description for it. The premise of the story is simple: our MC Mutta decides, after being fired, to follow his brother’s footsteps and become an astronaut like they had promised when they were children. And the simplicity of the premise seems to permeate throughout the manga from its story structure to its drama. One of the reasons why I hesitate to read a lot of the more popular seinen manga is the fact that some of them tend to get very detailed and confusing as the mangaka adds on layer after layer of plotlines and themes. While they can be very interesting to read, they tend to take a lot of brain power to read and thus leave me feeling tired after. Space Brothers almost has the opposite effect: there is a lightness to it that makes it very easy to read at the cost of perhaps not the best pulling power in its earlier chapters. The drama doesn’t really feel that dramatic for reason that we will go into a little bit later. And while it is mainly up to preference as to whether or not this is a plus or a minus, all I can say is that it stands in stark contrast with the heavy, psychological manga that often populates the seinen sphere.

Given that this manga is a character drama, you would assume that the characters play an important role in the series as a whole, and you’d be right. They are the ones that are driving the story, and character interactions make up a bulk of the emotional and thematic weight in each arc. I want to start off by saying that this manga is one of the manga with the least number of dislikable characters that I’ve ever read (whether or not I like them all is a different story), and it has a lot to do with the setting. Essentially all the characters are either trying to be astronauts, are astronauts, or work behind the scenes to support astronauts. As such, all the characters are intelligent in their own rights, which is great to see. It helps that there is essentially an all-adult cast as well.

Now, there are two major points that need to be said about the way that characters are written and used within Space Brothers. The first is how each character is fleshed out. If I had to give an example of what it’s like learning about character backstories in this series, I’d have to compare it to Assassination Classroom, for better or for worse. The manga will dedicate one or two chapters to every single member of the supporting cast just so you know why they are here and what they are working for. In many cases it works fairly well as the stories are touching and believable, however there are some that don’t go nearly as well. Sometimes it can feel like a character backstory is introduce simply because it has to be introduced which necessitates some wonky logic and unrealistic circumstances, and sometimes I genuinely could care less about certain characters. The ‘no character left behind’ mindset for backstories is a noble one, but it can lead to the manga feeling bloated at times. The second important point I wanted to make may sound slightly contradictory to the previous sentence, but the ‘no character left behind’ mindset for characters within the story is actually amazing. I’m not gonna go into much more since it might go into spoiler territory, but just know it’s a good time.

And lastly I just want to talk a little bit about the themes here, as they initially threw me for a loop. Based on the previous space manga I’ve read, I’ve come to associate space with themes of danger/wonder of the unknown and loneliness/bleakness, and Space Brothers goes in a completely different direction. The major themes you find in this manga instead are about chasing dreams, optimism and the idea of community. In some senses, it feels a little bit childish when you think about it, but at the end of the day, that is what fits the story the best. The impetus for Mutta wanting to be an astronaut is because of a childhood dream. Every character you meet that wants to become an astronaut has had that dream since they were a child as well. Think about how many kids around you wanted to be astronauts when you were young. Perhaps you might have wanted to be one yourself. Yet as we grow older we lose the dream and search for ones that are more realistic. In a sense, we lose that child-like optimism that says that we can in fact become astronauts and go into space. Space travel as an idea has always been a lofty one, and only those with the biggest dreams and the biggest optimism can help to reach that goal. That is essentially the crux of this manga. And if dreams and optimism are the goal and the path to reach that goal, then community is the means by which you travel along that path. One of the biggest lessons that Mutta learns in this manga is how much trust and support is really needed to send even just one person to the moon. There is cooperation amongst the astronaut team, between the astronauts and mission control, from the leadership up top to the workers below, from the team going into space and the people making the rockets and even from one country’s space program with another country’s. All of these links must come together to jointly fulfill the goal of going into space, and none of them can be lacking. To fulfill one person’s dream, dozens if not hundreds must come around to help and it is beautiful to see it all coming into fruition.

Space Brothers at the end of the day is a feel good type of story. You see people face struggles and overcome, and it makes you want to strive for more as well. Is it the best story I’ve ever read? No, definitely not. There are times where the story can feel bloated with character backstories and there are times when the story simply isn’t very engaging. But what it sets out to do, it does very well, and for that I have to say that I have to give it a lot of props.