Chuya Koyama’s Space Brothers manga is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year. However, along with the commemoration of a long serialization, the staff also hinted about the manga’s impending end.

Koyama had stated in the past that manga will soon be in it’s final spurt and earlier this year he mentioned that the manga would start its final arc in 2022 itself.

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And according to Space Brothers‘ latest newsletter, the manga’s ending is slated to happen soon, as it has entered it’s final stages.

Space Brothers manga started serializing in Kodansha’s Morning magazine from December 2007. Its chapters have been collected into 41 volumes as of May 2022. The 42nd volume of the manga will release on Dec 22, 2022.

A 99-episode anime television series adaptation by A-1 Pictures aired from April 2012 to March 2014. The manga was also adapted into a live-action film that premiered in May 2012. An anime film, Space Brothers #0, premiered in August 2014.

In 2011, the manga won the general category at both, the 56th Shogakukan Manga Award and the 35th Kodansha Manga Award. As of March 2022, Space Brothers had 28 million copies in circulation, making it one of the best-selling manga series.

MAL describes the plot of the manga as follows:

On a fateful summer night in 2006, Mutta Nanba and his younger brother Hibito witness what they believe to be a UFO flying toward the Moon. This impressing and unusual phenomenon leads both siblings vowing to become astronauts, with Hibito aiming for the Moon and Mutta, convinced that the eldest brother has to be one step ahead, for Mars.

Now an adult, life hasn’t turned out how Mutta had pictured it: he is diligently working in an automotive company, whereas Hibito is on his way to be the very first Japanese man to step on the Moon. However, after losing his job, Mutta is presented with an unexpected opportunity to catch up to his younger brother when the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, commonly known as JAXA, accepts his application to participate in the next astronaut selection. Despite self-doubts about his prospects, Mutta is unwilling to waste this chance of a lifetime, and thus embarks on an ambitious journey to fulfill the promise made 19 years ago.

Source: ANN