[Quadratic]

I agree with Guardian Enzo that he viewed every situation under "How will this impact me personally?"

I kinda have to backpedal a little on the 'Mizoguchi isn't a bad guy'. Unfortunately, his observation skills lead him to notice Makabe was a natural leader, so he started gunning for him (he did say Makabe was his biggest obstacle).
I forgot about the whole daughter thing which was quite underhanded. During the alarm issue, rather than seeking to solve issues diplomatically, he accuses Makabe (in his own mind) and sought revenge by playing mindgames.
He was aware he was under watch so he played it so he didn't come off as a bad guy. The other time was when he tried to force Teshima and Makabe to drop out of the selection process.

Originally Posted by cyth

These exams all had certain kinds of themes and I'm sure the show won't be repeating them for the sake of coherence. The first exam was physical and mental ability. The second exam was stress handling, the third exam will be trust.

Mizoguchi's view probably has the same view as the point you're saying: thinking it was a just stress handling test.
But it wasn't just a stress handling test. They maximized potential conflicts to accelerate the stress so they could watch their interaction between peers under stress, which is why they always had people watching them and listening in on their conversations.

He believed it is purely a stress handling test and the superior dataset will prove the more capable astronaut.
But does data tell the whole truth?
Under Mizoguchi's lead, the morale kept dropping. From a purely dataset point of view, maybe Mizoguchi dropped the least and was the best under pressure from their team.
This was his plan to beat Makabe, his biggest obstacle, by "falsifying" Makabe's data results by playing mindgames with him so he comes out better.
But observations will tell you he caused morale to drop in all the team members, which was his also probably his stress reliever (he did get some satisfaction out of playing the daughter story).

Originally Posted by cyth

While I agree that Mizoguchi failed the leadership test during the second exam, that's not necessarily the position he'll be applying for when on a space mission.

Well, the question then is whether Mizoguchi capable as a support member. What we haven't really seen is him stepping down from the leadership role for even a second. Hoshika believed the intelligence of their team would cause conflicts due to their pride, and he was right.

Originally Posted by cyth

Now for the final selection exam, who to trust with your life is an extremely hard question to answer.

Would you trust the nicest person from the bunch? The most capable? The one with the best observation skills? The one who adapts better? A careful person, perhaps? Or perhaps a person who can, when the time comes, make a hard decision?

Based on what we've seen, I can predict different winners for each of these questions. Mizoguchi's weakness is adaptability, but he's extremely careful and will carry out a tough order or make a hard decision. Mutta isn't careful, but extremely observant and adaptive. Kenji is probably a well all-rounder, as well as Nitta.

As FlareKnight and MeoTwister5 said, they are all competent enough to be astronauts (otherwise they've got issues with a poor pre-selection process system), so now it comes down to the existing astronauts' gut instinct (which is a good or bad system depending how you think of instinct as a test measurement).

The guy who asked Mizoguchi if he hated the food (can't remember his name) was spot on on his observation. Mizoguchi lied saying the food is good but he's watching his weight. That's the first lie.
Looking back at the scene where Mizoguchi was asked about Nitta, I feel I was wrong on him not knowing anything about Nitta.
Mizoguchi caught on to the act that this was a test, and it actually seems like he purposely pretended not to know anything so he doesn't portray Nitta in a better light or to portray himself in a bad light by saying something negative (a neutral answer). That's possibly the second lie.


I don't mean jump on the hate train and bash the guy, but these are the reasons why I don't think he's mentally a good candidate.

If Mizoguchi does get through, it's because upper management preferred superior dataset over emotions/gut instinct/behavioral observation.

Hoshika gave the best line in this show:
If you want to leave emotion out of the equation, you could let the computers decide.