I understand the need to acquaint the new audience with the
Space Brothers story. I just hope the three-recap model doesn't alienate the existing viewers. I don't think the negative reactions from foreign viewers like us here are very telling when it comes to the Japanese audience. Devoted viewers like us would be a small fraction of the audience there, too. That original 5.3% for the first episode in the Saturday timeslot has to be good news, though. Looking back at the
2012 ratings for
Space Brothers, it ran largely in the high twos. I don't see any rating as high as 3.9 in the last half of 2012, though admittedly those are from 7am on Sundays. From the performance of
Magi (5p, Sun) at 4-5%,
Space Brothers might expect to see a small bump in its average ratings from changing timeslots, maybe even a whole point. Whether the show can start routinely breaking 3.9% and making Atarashi's charts seems a bit much to expect. Still, coming on right before
Conan has to be a boost.