I started Planetes the way I've started most animes: hoping for a decent romance that ends well. I've been a sci-fi can for most of my life so Romance+Scifi+drama seemed like a good fit. And it started off a lot like I expected: a slowly developing romance with dashes of comedy and hints of a love triangle...Back when I was in school studying literature we learned about the Dramatic structure, how a story will have rising action leading to a huge climax. Planetes starts that climb slowly...but as the series goes on (and approaches its end) it doesn't level off, it continues to climb more and more sharply.
As the show progressed I found myself asking just what it was I had fallen into. This wasn't just a simple love story. This wasn't a dramatic tale of love triangles. It was...unique in a lot of ways. The psychological aspect of the story completely blew me away: I never expected the (main) characters to go through what they went through. To see the Hachimaki and the way his mind changes throughout the series was pretty wild; I've never quite liked a character then hated a character then loved a character before. And Tanabe was quite the shining light, making some of parts of the series that were hard to watch more bearable.
I won't lie, sometimes it was hard to watch. It was painful to watch things fall apart. But with Planetes, they weren't falling apart only falling into place. The lighthearted tone (see the ninja episode) at the start goes away the longer you watch. But by the end of the last episode, I was content.
Planetes gets a 10 from me not because it was perfect: there were a lot of flaws. But the positive aspects outshined the flaws in a brilliant way. Planetes was (mostly) realistic, had a good plot, had great characters, and dealt with drama and psychological issues. But most of all it had a romance; a romance that had flaws, that didn't always seem like it was going to work out, that sometimes felt impossible...and it still managed to end happy without me feeling dissatisfied. Best damn ending to a romance I've seen.
