Planetes

Reading the synopsis and reviews, I really wanted to like "Planetes". Even given how slow the first ten episodes were, I kept hope alive and watched to the end, waiting for the magic which seemed to have charmed so many viewers. There is a lot to be said for the series: its vision for the future is exceptional, for one. Yet in spite of it all, I did not particularly enjoy Planetes and consider it a middling series. Overall, I would recommend giving it a try!

There were several major issues with Planetes which dulled its overall efficacy. First, like much anime, the show attempts too ... many different genres. At first, it displays the everyday trappings of life as a space janitor much like a slice-of-life, and then it delves into drama with action/survival elements, and finally plays with political and philosophical themes. All this while trying to work a romantic subplot. By tossing so many things in the air, they inevitably fall flat.

Story [7/10]: Described in general terms, the plot of Planetes covers quite a bit of ground. The story follows a new space janitor Tanabe and her mentor Hachimaki during an time when space exploration and settlement is monopolized by a few world superpowers. During all this, a romance blossoms between the two lead characters, one which is infuriatingly riddled with anime clichés - love triangles, lack of communication, etc.

Pacing [4/10]: Considering the vast scope of the story, precious little is meted out in each episode - especially early on, where the episodes are spent exploring the characters with only minor hints toward grander themes. I personally had a hard time with how dialogue-heavy the show is, especially with its abrupt scene changes.

Art [9/10]: The artwork was movie quality. It takes a realistic approach to the animation - none of the pointed faces, overlarge eyes, or exaggerated body shapes - and doesn't skimp on the environment either. The details in movement allow the show to communicate subtly.

Sound [7/10]: The music in Planetes was rare and forgettable (I don't remember a single scene with accompanying music), but otherwise the sound work was very well done.

Character [5/10]: A large portion of the show is spent on the characters, from both the Debris Department (that is, the space janitors) and assorted friend groups. However, with this large cast, only a few are given more than a defining trait. More detrimental to the show, however, was that I could not stand the male lead Hachimaki. It was infuriating to spend so much time watching his stubbornness lead to one problem after another, when he has no redeeming qualities. This is exacerbated by the weak attempt at romance. How can we to understand the main character Tanabe's attraction to this loathsome creature?

By the end of the series, I no longer really cared if the characters died.

Enjoyment [5/10]: I found Planetes ambitious and impressive, but ultimately unfulfilling. This in large part has to do with the characters (read: Hachimaki) and their lack of redeeming qualities. That being said, I would still say that the series deserves a try; annoyances aside, the show has a lot to offer.

Overall: [6/10]

I've only watched the anime so far and haven't touched upon the manga. That being said I had no expectations for Planetes. So, to put 5 as an overall score is honestly displeasing and baffling. All I really look for is storyline progression and character development in animes and this was just meh.

Storyline & Character score: 4, 6
- Had great potential, but it eventually got rushed and unnecessary side stories that was added into the mix. They could've went in more depth with the mcs and showed their struggle with the obstacles put infront of them, but nah the writers didn't bother. Show left me ... with an unsatisfied feeling. There was some scenes they could've ended the anime earlier, but gave an half-assed and unrealistic one in my opinion.

Art Score: 6
- Art is reasonable didn't expect much from an old anime back in early 2000's

Sound Score: 4
- Opening and ending songs weren't that great. Didn't capture my attention. However, the melodies between scenes were a nice fit.

*May contain spoilers*

"Planetes", "ΠΛΑΝΗΤΕΣ", or "Why i came into space to become a garbage man, and more interesting tales" Is an anime about.. Well, space obviously. Describing it beyond that is rather hard, as even the show itself doesn't seem to know what direction it wants to take. Comedy, yet drama, childish (and sometimes idiotic things), yet mature (tho in most cases the execution is still very childish), action, politics, family and relationships, romance, philosophy.. All those themes come into play, but most of them on a rather shallow level.

Planetes has it all, yet almost nothing in the same time. It would be unjust to ... say the anime doesn't have its moments, but with the mood swings it has every episode (Drama>comedy>romance>action , rinse and repeat), story inconsistency (switching between personal stories, background character stories, and the main story without giving none of the mentioned enough time to get interesting) and the extreme number of cast that sometimes comes and goes for very long periods, its very hard (if not impossible) to connect to it properly throughout most of the show. Let's go through the key elements first shall we?

Story. It is there, and even has a few layers to it, but its nothing special, and its pretty undefined - it goes all over the place without actually focusing and telling one thing or the other properly, and without diving, developing, or solving most of the problems it presents. The messages it goes for are pretty cliche for the most part as well: capitalists are mean and don't value morals or even human lives (what is pretty dumb really, any successful business cares for worker safety as losing experienced workers is extremely unprofitable because training new people to do the job, and doing it well takes a lot of time, effort, and resources. There's also the issue of of fines and monetarily compensation for the lost worker (or their family), as well as loss of public image), the world doesn't care about poor countries (another pretty old, tired, and well known socialist message that doesn't hold much truth in reality. this message also sounds pretty comedic coming from japan, one of the most xenophobic nations) etc...

Art - mediocre. While the art style fits the show, the quality is pretty bad for the most part, with things often looking too bland and oversimplified. I understand the reasoning for that, for the most part that is - the show uses more frames per second than usual while doing space scenes to add fluidity. That still however doesn't help the visuals at all. Sound - bad. The best thing as far as sound goes is the opening. Otherwise, the audio variety and quality is very low in this series, and the ending theme simply does not fit half of the episodes at all. The characters are pretty good, but they don't get much development and interaction for the most part (at least in the anime, not sure about he manga), so they are nothing special in the end of the day as well.. Enjoyment - bad. Mostly this is due to the emotional, and story inconsistency throughout the show, as well as its slow pace - watching bland interior backgrounds with someone slowly floating through them and listening to small talk isn't very interesting.

One actually interesting aspect in the show is the question it raises "is it okay to leave your loved ones, or even family behind for very long periods of time (as in years or even tens of years), sometimes even risking to not return, and are your dreams, or simply income important enough to do so?". Disappointingly though, after a bit of criticism on that take, the anime seems to still suggest the answer to that is a "yes", without raising the subject of loneliness, needing help, cheating (the show mentioned this only once, and only as a joke from a wife to husband, in a tone that would suggest she'd never do it), and family dysfunction. The show also raises some discussion about morality, but ends up backpedaling hard, not only not to answer it, but seemingly not wanting to ever raise it again.

I often regret there's no rating for "accuracy" and or "suspension of disbelief", this factor comes into play a lot of times when it comes to criticism. Planetes has this factor on very low, especially in the technical aspect. Remember Jules Verne and his prediction of the submarine? Yeah, the writer of this show/manga was nothing like him. The story takes place in 2075, yet the technology described in Planetes is, for the most part, the same one that was around in the 2000's (when the manga was written). CRT monitors and extremely slow computers are still all over, pen and paper is in wide use, space suits are for the most part still extremely bulky and unpractical, yet their protection levels against radiation are still insufficient as a few characters where shown to get cancer. And worst of all - the space debris removal: It is mostly done BY HAND! No, not by electric magnets from the ship or from handheld devices when its close enough, or heck, even by magnetic emitters from earth (as Japan was suggesting for a while now), but by HAND! Wonder how they even got to build moon bases with such low tech?

The writer also seems to have very limited knowledge about space maneuvers and orbits - for example at some point a man gets hit by debris falling to earth and survives. Now then, their speed was so high, that an actual impact would kill him, even by this anime's rules. So instead of a huge transfer of force (or more realistically speaking, being shot through by it all), he pretty much just got a harsh slap from it. Now, to a non knowing person, this may seem right, as in enough to send him flying down to earth... But since they are in orbit, and orbital velocity is a ridiculous number, any survivable hit would not be nearly enough to alter your orbit enough to shove you down into the upper, let alone lower atmosphere, even at lower orbit (where they shouldn't even be operating in the first place), and even a small encounter with the upper atmosphere would not be enough to burn, or slow down an object or person enough to fall down to earth, certainly not in one go - it would take a few passes (circles around earth) through there at least, as well as quite a few HOURS, or even DAYS for all that to happen, while this event supposedly happens in mere minutes. And if they WHERE in a REALLY low orbit for that to be remotely possible, the question turns to WHY they'd need to be there in the first place? Because in such a low orbit, debris would fall and burn by themselves in a couple of days anyway.

So, as a final note - i wouldn't recommend this anime to to most people, especially those who know a thing or two about space and/or expect something extraordinary - this show will only disappoint you.

Planetes starts off on a bunch of high-notes. We have decent music and great art, an engrossing world with some pretty believable and detailed world-building, and a cast of characters that seem interesting enough to make for an entertaining slice-of-life-in-space show. If the entire series played out like the first 10 or so episodes a lot of the mistakes that befall the show could have been avoided.

As the series progresses characters relationships begin to move in a strange direction, with a contrived romance that comes in and out of focus at various times. The two main characters, who seemed strong, become caricatures of themselves ... in order to seem more like foils and thus bring about the moralising/trust telling aspect of the show. The Chief and Assistant Manager characters were already unbelievably annoying, so it's a shame that in the end our main doesn't stand out as much as she could have. Hachimaki is the only one of the crew that retains something interesting about him in the end and is really the only main who develops in any meaningful away, even though it doesn't seem like that drastic of a development. (Yuri and Fee aren;t that bad I guess, at least I enjoyed Yuri's little side-story, it was properly emotional).

The most interesting characters in the anime may be two side characters (Dolf and the Von Braun guy) because, given the backdrop of human progress and pioneering that we see throughout, they are the only ones who seem to be at home in space. What Planetes does well, is that it makes you really hate some of these characters, to the point of frustration. You can judge whether that's a good or bad thing.

Another complaint that I have is that the show makes the mistake found in a lot of anime; of introducing characters we'll never see again, give us a dramatic back story for them, and introduce a problem involving them which is resolved in a very unrealistic and emotional way, all in one episode. Yeah, I know it's supposed to develop the mains, but it hardly ever works.

Sadly, politicization becomes a problem pretty early on. In the beginning it's kind of cheesy but as we get past episode 16 or so, we're hit with some pretty cringe worthy moralising which becomes the main plot for the rest of the series. Although I must admit that depending on who you sympathise with (the space reactionaries or the earth commies)and how you look at it the final 'lesson' may not be as formulaic as you might think. Even so, a lot of the rhetoric is the typical 'monopolization/capitalism is bad think about the poor' which seems counter-intuitive for a show about space, especially one in which the desire to reach new frontiers and evolve humanity plays such a strong part.

The show gives us a minute long or so discussion about loneliness using space as a metaphor coupled with some interesting imagery. Even though it only appears on screen for a short time it is vastly more interesting than all of the political and moral lessons that are thrown at us throughout, even if it's not all that original. The parts that go into Hachimaki's psyche are equally as good. If the show focused more on these types of things: isolation, relationships, and lofty dreams combined with the backdrop of space and the desire to move humanity in a new direction, it would have been incredible. All those themes are there, certainly, however they are pushed aside to make room for the politically and morally focused plot that I've been complaining about. It's a shame that Planetes really sucks you in only to betray you to something that really isn't all that interesting. Although the plot is, for what it's worth, decently constructed.

I think this anime is definitely above average and I would recommend it, however there are enough weak-points that I feel that this show won't be sticking around in my mind for very long. A tinge of disappointment, that's what it makes you feel.

left me with a sad feeling. the characters and the story work together to create a unique universe however, the main character becomes obsessive and sort of empty. this seems like a very personnal, japanese world view anime. the author tried to get a sort of rushed happy end, but it is unconvincing. i feel like he never took position between his contradictory feelings towards technology rush and earth preservation, just like his characters never actually get engaged with each other. alienation and resignation.

the concept for the series and the world or space building are great, its an unexplored side of space exploring and does a good job of looking into the dangers of space and and how living up there would be. Then goes and wastes it all. Towards the middle it gets painfully slow and wanders in filler side stories, the space stuff that got you to watch the show is replaced by office politics and when it gets rolling again it just cant make up its mind as to who they are rooting for and the characters seem irrelevant to the plot. Several characters fall ... into stereotipes and will never grow out of them and the few cool characters stay on the sidelines all along. In the end i'd just call the show frustrating and a wasted idea.

the rest will spoil stuff:

the conclusions are too frutrating, the terrorits get their way and never face concecuences, if anything the show seems to be rooting for them, the goldiger gets the rich idiot that is as shallow as her, main guy is an inconciderate asshole that never accepts is flaws and main girl keeps pinning after him and is fine with being second and wait for him when he goes away, while she is exageratelly naive and goodnatured no matter ow bad people treat her. The only character developement is for main guy to get traumatised from time to time, half the time over nothing, only to recover from one scene to the next like its a light switch. Villains are given a half assed ideology thats really just resentment and the show never has the courage to give them any consequences.

Plantes is a really hard series to review due to how far apart its highs and lows are. The first 14 episodes or so are fantastic. However, ep 15 and onwards has a dramatic crash in the quality of characters and episode structure. That being said, even with the very disappointing ending it's still a show that I keep thinking about for positive reasons.

What makes the first half of the show so great? The biggest strength of the first half was its character interactions. Each episode was stuffed full of fast-paced banter and discussion from a wide variety of characters, and it all worked ... extremely well. It led to episodes that could both be funny while still keeping the viewer emotionally invested in the serious problems each episode presented. Its very rare to find a show that does this better than Planates did.

Each episode also had a lot going on but never felt overwhelming. Instead many episodes had multiple, all equally interesting and engaging sub-plots that all softly intersected at some point. Each episode had at least some minor humor which worked well, but every episode was also fairly grounded and presented serious problems for either individuals or the entire crew.

The episodes also tied in nicely with the overarching story. At least for the first half, there was no clear end goal for the story, but rather it just followed the people in the debris sector doing their job as time moved on. This worked really well in my opinion.

The shows good character interactions were in large part due to the quality of characters. Each character was very memorable, both in design, personality, and goals. Each key character got at least some spotlight and it was consistently well done. The romance (in the first half) also worked pretty well. It is much better than most other similar dramas. They actually put a decent amount of focus on it in each episode. Because the show is a drama and not a romance I was very happy with how they handled the romance in the first half.

If the first half was so great, what went wrong in the second half? Well, pretty much everything.

Remember the banter that I said was so great? Well in the second half it's pretty much all gone. This is due to changes in the crew staff and in changes due to character development.

The biggest weakness of the second half was its character development. There were two types. The first were characters that had literally 0 development (or a very tiny amount). This was mostly secondary characters or characters who didn't really have much of a reason to change. This was fine. The 2nd type was characters who got significantly worse. The 3 in particular were Hoshino, Tanabe and Claire. All 3 of these characters went from enjoyable to borderline unbearable after episode 15.

Hoshino went from a good friend and co-worker to a self-obsessed egomaniac who cut off all contact with all his friends/family/girlfriend and told multiple people to their face to go fuck themselves basically when they tried to be friendly. He deluded himself for literally 0 good reason that everyone was a negative influence and became a massive dick because of it. This character development was pretty bad and unenjoyable, but the thing that made it really bad was that nobody cared. Even while being a dick to everyone, anytime anyone saw him they acted super happy and friendly with him. Nobody cared that he didn't talk to them for months. Nobody cared that he told everyone that he didn't need them and that they didn't mean anything to him. Very normal. Of course, he does a complete 180 at the end and changes completely because why not.

The biggest culprit of the blind Hoshino forgiveness train was definitely Tanabe. In the first 14 episodes, she was a normal character who was quite enjoyable and acted like a normal human. Then in episode 15 she becomes super cold and mean to Hoshino for basically no reason. After this episode, she becomes love-obsessed with Hoshino and basically doesn't care how poorly he treats her over a very long period of time because LOVE. He ditches multiple dates to run on his treadmill. He ignores the problems of the debris crew and starts to ignore Tanabe in their little time together. Then he ignores her for multiple months during his training, and once she finally does get in contact with him, he is a complete asshole to her? No problem. All of this and her respect and love for Hoshino doesn't drop one bit. Once he does his random little 180 they finally reunite and can be in love together. What a great ending to a great saga. Definitely felt very genuine and deserved...

Finally, there is Claire. They decided to push her to a bigger role in the 2nd half. I enjoyed her character in the first half so I was looking forward to it, but it was really bad. All she does is whine and complain. Anytime any character decides to try and be positive they get shut down by her and she makes them feel bad. I won't spoil what happens next, but if you follow the drop in writing quality and character development while watching the show then you could probably guess (I sure could even though I really hoped they wouldn't do it).

All 3 of these characters went from enjoyable to very unenjoyable.

The story overall was still pretty good. It had a nice realistic goal for some characters and progressed at a good pace. There were also some really good episodes still (the training/tryout episodes especially) but on average they were more boring and annoying.

Yet despite all this I still am thinking fondly about the show. I decided to write a review after all. Honestly, I'm not sure exactly how I should feel about this show overall.

Also worth noting the animation and music were both pretty good. The music was pretty solid and I enjoyed the animation a fair amount.

Overall I'd give the scores of:

ep 1-14:
9/10 characters
7/10 story
7/10 animation
6/10 music
10/10 enjoyment
9/10 overall

ep 15-26:
2/10 characters
8/10 story
7/10 animation
6/10 music
3/10 enjoyment
4/10 overall

Total:
6.5/10 overall (rounding down because its slightly closer to 6 than 7)

-Disclaimer-
First of all, as a non-native English speaker, I don’t guarantee my writing accuracy in this review, and I early apologize for the mistakes you might find in it. This review won’t contain any spoiler!

I discovered Planetes navigating in the top anime list on MAL, and the name as well as the image have intrigued me. I clicked to read about it, and I was surprised! 8.32/10 in average, some 10/10 in the reviews… This is how I decided to watch this anime, but at the end, I was quite disappointed. I saw the 10 first episodes very quickly, but I made a huge break ... to see the 16 others, and this shows that I was a bit bored during the first part of the anime… So let me review Planetes step by step.


STORY: 6/10
The plot promised a lot of things, and I’ll be honest. I didn’t like the first 16 episodes of this anime for a simple reason: I didn’t care. Although there were good ideas, I felt really unconcerned about the story. Each episode seemed disconnected from the last one… However, from episodes 17 to 26, the plot was way more interesting. The characters had a real goal, they were finally doing concrete things other than just doing their job (even though their job is interesting for two or three episodes, but after this I understood all its stakes). The final narrative arc was great! I was finally motivated by the story. Nevertheless, the main romance was mediocre. I’m not into romance at all, and I wasn’t involved in the two protagonist’s relationship issues. So I have the feeling that I waited sixteen episodes to finally watch something relevant, which saves the story grade. I must still confess that the plot raised some very compelling ethical questions about space travel. 6/10 is a fair score.

ART: 6/10
Not incredible at all. It’s a matter of taste, but I do not enjoy the character design and the general drawing style. For 2003, I don’t think it’s revolutionary, but it’s not horrible either. I did like the little transition in the middle of the episodes though (I don’t know what you call it). The level of detail was very low, and lightning was quite bad too, but the part in space was enjoyable. The graphic chart of the planets is an example of things that I appreciated.

SOUND: 5/10
In the beginning, I would have given to sound a fair 6, because the soundtrack was acceptable, without being incredible. BUT there was one song that spoiled the whole thing. I don’t remember exactly when it occurred, but there was a sort of flute, which was completely out of tune. I found that too bad, and this is why I decided to give the sound only a 5. Not horrible, not incredible, just average. Regarding the opening and ending songs, I found them fine. Sometimes the transition between the end of the episode and the ending song was rough, because it was a totally different mood, but I don’t think I can blame the anime for that, it’s just a bit disturbing.

CHARACTER: 7/10
Characters are one of the strengths of this anime. The stories of the different protagonists are often well presented. Some are sad, some explain their dreams… Many of the characters were developed in a good way. Lavie was funny, Yuri was touching... However, as I said, the romance part of the plot was pretty annoying to me.


OVERALL: 6/10
This anime was fine. Although I found its first part annoying, I enjoyed the other. The art and the sound are not amazing, the story has interesting aspects, but I found that the romance was ruining it. I personally don’t understand why there’s such hype around this anime, which even received an award, but if you enjoy Sci-Fi a lot, this might be for you (and many people found Planetes outstanding!).