(L+CR) Uchuu Kyoudai (Space Brothers)

[Kanon]

This week's episode was amazingly kind of fast paced. Over a year has passed and the training is over. Mutta is finally an astronaut! He gets to have his picture hanging next to his brother's. It will apparently take him at least another 18 months to go to space though.

[FlareKnight]

Mutta really is someone that on paper shows a lot of inconsistencies, but those who really know him have a lot of faith in. Seems like all those recommendations saved him from really ending up near the bottom of this group of new astronauts.

Also pretty cool that he's finally made it to that point. It's still a distance away from space, but he's taken one more big step forward. Kind of wish though his picture had been a bit nicer. Reflects that childlike joy of making it, but certainly clashes a bit when looking at the ones he'll be right next to.

[Guardian Enzo]

The part of the ep that really leaves a bad taste in my mouth is the final "Mister Hibbit" clip, which features a shockingly racist caricature of Buddy as a gorilla. Uchuu Kyoudai is a little too fond of stereotypes to begin with and Buddy was always a bit over-the-top, but this really stunned me. Perhaps because of cultural differences the mangaka and director might not be aware of just how offensive this is, but I don't think ignorance can be a real excuse when common sense is so clearly saying "For the love of God, stop!" - especially with a history of less egregious missteps like this already. I'll give the benefit of the doubt that no harm was meant, but it sure as hell wasn't funny - and I fervently hope this is the last we see of this ghastly spectacle.

[Dop]

I agree 100% with Enzo here, I did think "WTF?" the first time that appeared, but then the bit at the end just made it worse.

[ragez2010]

i don't think it a stereotype thing, maybe not intentionally or maybe Buddy have large build. you all to sensitive, i don't see any sensitivity in manga forum when this scene show up.

[Jimmy C]

No one noted the true significance of being on the backup crew?
It's not that you get to sub if the guy on the prime crew can't go for whatever reason.
The really significant part is, the backup crew will become the prime crew within the next 2 missions!
If Mutta gets on that backup crew and sticks it out, he'll be on prime in 3 years!

[cyth]

I mean, it's like it's impossible not to think about it possibly being a racist scene. Japanese people are known for their ignorance on issues like these, it comes as no surprise they'd pull something like that. However, in times like these it's simply hard to write it off as silly ignorance.

As for the episode, anyone else think Mutta gets screwed if he accepts the backup offer?

[ookamigirl]

Hibito mascot Hibbit is totally adorable ^^
Things are moving forward again.
Guess Mutta's is done with flying and is one step closer to his goal.
At least Murasaki was having fun ^^"
I was surprised by the fast forward feeling this episode gave off.
After the ultra slow pace this felt like warp 9.

[Gooral]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

The part of the ep that really leaves a bad taste in my mouth is the final "Mister Hibbit" clip, which features a shockingly racist caricature of Buddy as a gorilla. (...)

lol
It's not racist. The thing that leaves a bad taste is political correctness.

[ars89]

That was really fast paced. Did they skip a lot or was the manga like that as well? It's great that Mutta finally did it. His picture was great. Lol Murasaki funny as always.

[Dop]

Originally Posted by Gooral

lol
It's not racist. The thing that leaves a bad taste is political correctness.

Oh for feck's sake. Representing a black person as an ape is one of the most incredibly horribly racist things you can do, and one of the things that disgusting racist scum always do.

If you don't realise that then you are at best extremely naive.

What some people call being politically correct, some of us call "not being an arse".
People who bang on about political correctness always tend to fall on the "being an arse" side of the equation.

Don't be an arse.

[Haak]

I guess I'm not the only one who did a double take on the gorilla bit then. Man and that was just totally out of nowhere as well. I think I'll assume they aren't aware of the connotations it has. Correct me if i'm wrong but i'm pretty sure racism against black people won't come up as a topic much in Japanese society, so they'll be less aware of the common ways that have been used to deride black people. I don't think any harm was intended.

[Dop]

On the bright side, I did love the Porco Rosso reference with the glasses Mutta bought Deneil for a birthday present, and the last flight soaking thing was I guess some kind of aviator tradition thing.

Mutta's Terminator reference (even if it was, as Kenji pointed out, incorrect) was funny too.

[Haak]

Originally Posted by Dop

Mutta's Terminator reference (even if it was, as Kenji pointed out, incorrect) was funny too.

I'm contemplating getting that as my avatar.

[Gravitas Free Zone]

I was surprised that the series actually timeskipped through most of training, but the ending would suggest that it simply serves to move the plot to the next bit of character-building. Wouldn't mind seeing a bit more of the other characters besides the tiny bits with Serika and Kenji.

The Terminator 2 reference was good, remembering that Mutta licked the wall was good. Buddy the Gorilla... facepalm. I can't really give the show a pass on it when "black person = monkey (or ape) personification" is extremely old. Maybe the domestic market doesn't care so much, but from here, "What the hell, Japan."

Actually, I think I'm more terrified by the prospect of having the Hibbit segments taking up 90 seconds of the show each week. I'm getting too old for something that reminds me of GI Joe's Knowing Is Half the Battle.

[ChainLegacy]

I think if it was some other anime the airhead level of racial stereotyping and almost childlike naivete regarding unfamiliar ethnicities would be easier to shake off... it's just that this show seems so damn brilliant in other capacities, it makes its flaws in this regard extremely jarring by comparison. They're harder to overlook and they kind of deflate the other awesomeness going on around them a bit.

[leongsh]

Just out of curiosity, instead of an ape, what animal would you guys have chosen to represent Buddy?

[Gravitas Free Zone]

A horse, of course.

(I'm sorry, so very, very sorry.)

...just anything that isn't simian... (and I know that gorillas are black, but that color choice just added to the jaw-droppingness of it).

Actually, regarding monkeys, before Hibito did the whole jumping YAY thing, I seem to recall people here and elsewhere who thought that his character design in the face/hair was somewhat monkeyish.

The Hibbit segment itself seems a little weird. I can't quite tell if it's a show-within-a-show capitalizing on Hibito's newfound fame in Japan, or something put into the series to pad out the show and to amuse younger viewers in the show's new timeslot in a longer fashion than This Week's Space Photo.

Edited to add one other thing: I wonder what happened to Amanti, since she served her limited narrative usage a few episodes ago and the timeskip only showed the five Japanese members of their team and not her.

[hamazura]

this episode very fast paced...
and whats that hibitt? dat gorilla so racist man, its insult to black people...

[Upscaled]

I have some random thoughts about the gorilla issue.

For that 90-second Mr. Hibbit sequence at the end, the voices were done by KENN and Hiroaki Hirata, the voice actors behind Hibito and Mutta. That might, just might be an indication that this will be a recurring featurette. Plus that ominous warning at the end (or is it a threat?) with the words, "To Be Continued." We'll know next week.

Is it racist? Yeah, probably. But that question can be best answered by a black person. In a case like this, if most black people feel that it demeans them, it obviously then follows that it is demeaning. Sensitivity by definition means being sensitive of the feelings of others. So I would defer to their opinions.

Was there malicious intent? Probably not, but malicious intent is not required for something to be racist, or for something to be insulting, for that matter. Are the Japanese people (in general) clueless about the optics here? Well, there's been at least some discussion on 2ch about whether this is OK, so they're not completely unaware. But they're definitely less aware than someone in a country with a sizeable black population, like the United States. Yet in all fairness, Space Brothers has been depicting numerous other black people working in the space program, of various shapes, sizes and temperament. That's better than most other anime shows that have depicted most Americans as being blonde and blue-eyed (like even Genshiken's Sue and Angela.)

Buddy is a muscle character. That's his schtick, like Armstrong in Fullmetal Alchemist. And because he just happened to be one of the two most prominent black characters in the show, (Jennifer being the other,) we were already skirting with racial stereotypes right off the bat, even before this gorilla came along.

And which animal would he be in a cartoon? He could have been a bear or an ox, I suppose. Or a black panther. Or a gorilla... The main reason that a depiction of a black person as an ape is so racist is that this implies below-human levels of intelligence and culture. And this image was used throughout western history to argue that blacks were less advanced than whites. So it's the history that makes this worse than using something like a bear or an ox (or a black panther,) when a gorilla is actually more intelligent and closer to human than those other animals.

Then specifically, in the Mr. Hibbit sequence, is Buddy depicted as less intelligent than Hibbit? Which one's the boke and which one's the tsukkomi? I mean, Hibbit does over-jump the tree, and promptly forgets all about getting the banana for Buddy. It feels like Buddy is the tsukkomi here.

Yet there's the issue of Hibbit running like a human on hind legs, while Buddy lopes like an ape on all fours... So all-in-all, not a good idea.