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- BirthdayAug 30, 1993
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- JoinedFeb 13, 2011
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Sep 16, 2011
I recently ran through Planetes a second time, this has made me reconsider some of previously outed statements, not necessarily in a negative way.
Planetes is labeled as a "hard science-fiction" work of fiction. For some reason inexplicable, I am extremely fond of video games, movies, series and anime which try to stay as realistic as possible.
Planetes starts as a slow story about the debris clean-up crew aboard "ISPv-7", a space station orbiting earth. For about half of the series this is the only background info you got on the universe until the shift of focus to an interstellar journey to Jupiter later on.
You get acquainted
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with the core members of debris section and more specifically: the two leading roles: Hachirota Hoshino: an extremely arrogant and apathetic astronaut; Aï Tanabe: a new employee, relatively unmarked by events in life and a tad naive, believing every conflict or dilemma can be solved with pure and dedicated love (a nod to her name 'Aï', which means "love" when translated from Japanese).
As opposed to most works of fiction I know; these characters stay quite true to their inital personalities at first, but they quickly start changing in their behaviour towards one another and towards themselves. This change is conveyed wonderfully in the anime thanks to the talented voice actors and intellectual dialogue.
Aestethically, Planetes picks a more simple approach. The character detail is quite low, and the IPS (images per second rate) is quite low. An interesting thing to note: when in space, the IPS is raised drastically to enhance the fluid motion of a weightless space. You don't notice it when you don't know about it. The characters aside, the backgrounds and locales look absolutely marvelous and are rich in detail. Especially the space stations and spaceships. Another thing which was designed in great detail was the city of Mare Tranquillanis on the moon.
Planetes is not only "hard" or "rough" on the scientific aspects of our universe, politics and the further industrialization/capitalization of space's resources is explained comprehensively. As with every political idealogy, you have opponents. They manifest themselves as a self-sufficient terrorist front in Planetes, attacking civilian targets out of revenge/discontent with how the rich only become richer and the poor, disadvantaged fractions of the populace are only exploited more by the leading parties in the global economy.
Planetes is of a relatively calm but confronting tone. The viewer is soon explained the gravity of the dangers when working in space: debris can instantly kill you, hazardous radiation threatens every EVA worker and the long-term effects from labour in space such as depression, severe mental instabilities etc. are explained and covered throughout the series. Something for which I admire Planetes greatly, it might be fiction, but the anime covers almost everything which is theoretically or even practically possible should we ever reach the stage of further exploration in space.
Also, the National Space Agency of Japan was the official advisor with the creation of both the manga and the anime, making the hard science fact genuine and believable.
To summarize: for me, Planetes never fell short. Never. It was a helluva time watching it, every episode was interesting and confronting, leaving you behind, longing for more. So far, this was the only anime which was capable of doing so.
It's a pity the extremely realistic tone of the universe scares a great part of potential viewers away since the majority of the anime viewers seek metaphysical/magical/nonsense (I assume) in an anime. It's a real and genuine shame. Planetes should be seen by everyone. Even if you don't like it, you should try and see how complete this ensemble feels.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Feb 23, 2011
Prior to Azumanga Daioh (the first Anime I saw), I was given one episode of Haruhi Suzumiya on a USB-stick, I never bother to watch it; the art style scared me. The answer to the question why I could deliberately miss out on such a great series remains unknown to me, let me tell you.
As of this moment, I haven't completed the series, so I can't fully judge about the plot and subplots. I can confirm, however, that I have been experiencing a sample of very good story writing, the past few days.
The one thing I liked about Azumanga Daioh was its older, calmer art
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style: no flashy colours or seizing animations but rather in accordance with some older Western cartoons. This is why I skipped on Haruhi originally but also why I was a bit reluctant to effectively start on it. Now that I did, I'm glad I have.
The more realistically drawn characters fit in with the more realistically drawn background. I think Haruhi Suzumiya, herself and Kyon look great. Especially Haruhi, whom I could perfectly fall in love with.
Rewinding the first episode on your first run for over 4 times to hear the introduction song "Bouken Desho, Desho?" needn't further explanation. The main track is superb as are all the ambient tunes which seem to be inspired by lots of styles, Indian 'Bollywood'-music, Europop and the typical Anime tracks. Sound effects are clear and never seem out of place, which, finally, unifies the visuals and audio to one solid whole bordering perfection.
Enjoyment is the other side of the coin, the infamous "Endless Eight" arc has already made a name for itself, and with "semi-good" reason. It is essentially eight time the same episode with subtle cinemato- or photographic differences, small changes in speech and music and some scenes. I am now half-way but from what I have seen from Haruhi's story, I expect the Endless Eight to end in a great climax (or not?)
Haruhi is not really suited for people who don't like anime, I think you need really need to be interested to be able to pick this up and understand it well. But nevertheless, it makes as a great second Anime to watch.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Feb 22, 2011
A friend introduced the idea of moving away from the mainstream Western cartoons onto the Japanese anime series. I was not convinced to even bother until I saw a fragment of Azumanga Daioh, the infamous "Oh, mai gawh!" scene.
After having finished the first episode, I felt that anime can be easily to pick up and appreciate. For this reason, I think Azumanga Daioh is an excellent entry-level anime for people 'afraid' of the differences between Western cartoons.
The intro theme song is catchy, corny and absolutely has no message or meaning whatsoever, which makes it special in its own right. The art style is simple and
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calm, no flashy colours or general hyperactivity. In films, series and video games, I like familiarity, and Azumanga Daioh often uses recurring music cues which greatly add to that familiarity. Same applies to the characters, each of them having their distinct talents or lacks thereof.
There wasn't much story to Azumanga Daioh, and most of the episodic themes were forgettable, however, the characters, and especially "Osaka" were not.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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