Planetes – プラネテス (Puranetesu)
Ancient Greek: ΠΛΑΝΗΤΕΣ (wanderers)
Well, when I first heard that this anime was about “garbage collectors in space”, I was a little hesitant to start watching Planetes. I mean, seriously, how good can an anime about space garbage collectors be? Well, Planetes did turn out to be a rather pleasant surprise, and while Planetes isn’t quite a masterpiece, it does get very close. Planetes does an excellent job with creating a realistic, and more importantly lovable and charming, cast of characters with an at times very compelling plot. The character development is great, and at times, is extremely intense yet incredibly realistic; Sunrise did an excellent job with characterizing the main cast into people that are both memorable and easy to sympathize with. There are a select few annoyances I had with this show, but if you exclude my personal bias, Planetes certainly turned out to be a rather entertaining, yet at times very serious and thought provoking, anime.
One of the things that bugged me slightly was how the first half of the series is episodic; each episode constitutes a little mini arc, with a bunch of comedic moments mixed in with a few typical corny events occurring here and there. That being said, what I did love about these episodic episodes is that while watching them, you really did get a good feeling for the main characters for this show. You really do get a feel as to how the characters grow closer together, with the dangers of space debris collection, mixed in with other stuff such as romance and a bit of drama all developing the characters bit by bit. There were some characters that did annoy me at first, such as Tanabe in the beginning with her naive yet very stubborn attitude (which bugged me a lot), but even “annoying” characters are developed extremely well, and really helps you appreciate just how great the main cast is. I’d say that this is one of the few series where every single episode gives us some level character development, sometimes subtle and other times just outright great. There are some genuinely terrible characters too, though; terrible in the sense that they’re completely selfish, unlikable characters, but that’s what makes this show all the more realistic.
The strength to having the first half of this show as all episodic in structure is giving us all a feel for the actual characters, so when the second half hits with it’s much more serious (and thought provoking) plot. The second half easily is what makes this show an excellent series; there are some incredibly intense moments throughout the second half of this show, often leaving off on cliffhangers that leave you dying to see the next episode. I am sooo glad I didn’t watching this show while it was airing, because the week long waits in between episodes would have killed me; the cliffhangers were truly intense, leaving off the story at those moments where you just want to see more. The story to the second half is very philosophical and thought provoking at times as well, with a lot of talk on the necessity of space development, and also brings us a ton of awesome character development for our main characters.
In fact, I’d have to say that the entire cast of characters were developed well, and considering the relatively large cast, I’d have to say Sunrise did an amazing job here. Even the characters that you’d think of as “side” characters get quite a bit of screentime to them, giving them an incredibly realistic characterization. Their interactions are rather dynamic, changing as they actually develop, which creates some very genuine (and sometimes heartbreaking) moments here and there. Not to mention, this show does a great job blurring the line between what is “good” and what is “evil”, with our characters often confronting each other for their own “good” reasons, even if it means they end up almost killing each other. Planetes proves that it can define characters that go beyond simple good or evil. Instead, it shows us characters with multidimensional, very complex characters, kind of similar to how Miyazaki portrays his antagonists; as being a mix of both good and bad.
Animation and art for this show is pretty solid, though I feel that the soundtrack was lacking a little. Even so, the world that people see while in space was depicted very realistically, and it becomes rather easy to imagine yourself there in space as well. The artwork and animation was crisp, and really did a great job complementing the outer space setting.
The strength to Planetes is almost without a doubt it’s very smart, compelling yet very realistic way of developing its cast of characters, all amidst a very thought provoking and well thought out setting. Planetes might not be perfect, but it delivers where it all counts, creating a genuinely enjoyable show to watch.
Animation/Art: 8.5/10
Music: 7.5/10
Characters: 9.5/10
Story/setting: 9.0/10
Overall Enjoyment: 8.6/10
Screenshots are later in the post.
Distant Paradise 