Planetes - Series Review
July 6th, 2007 by Soda
Yuu kopi? Ai kopi!
Plain and simple, the series “Planetes” [aka ΠΛΑΝΗΤΕΣ], is a garbage story. That is, a story about garbage. Okay okay, “space debris”, to be exact. Basically, it follows the everyday lives of a team of people who clean space debris for a living. However, the plot is neither plain nor simple, and it cannot be so easily summed into a single sentence. But if I had to come up with one word to describe it, I would use “enjoyable”.
The story starts off with Tanaka Ai joining the Debris Section, a team devoted to the collection of space debris for safety concerns. Now an anime series that is only about the collection of debris would have a rather… questionable entertainment value, but Planetes isn’t simply focused on that one aspect. Instead, it branches off and focuses on character development and the journey that each person faces. Each character is full of life and has a deep story attached to who they are. For some characters, we see them battle their past that they need to break free from. For others, they need to fight for the future, to create a place they can finally call home. We’re all along for the ride as they continue their fight through life.
We also get to see how the world would be like in the near future. As technology develops and humanity grows, the need for space development and colonization will become a primary concern. Planetes explore this by showing precisely what’ll happen in such a world. The politics of space is a recurring theme that emphasizes the difference in power between countries that have, and countries that have not. Additionally, the series also touches on life in space and what it takes to survive. It’s an environment completely different from Earth, and is one that is quite unforgiving, as many different characters find out the hard way.
After having several smaller story arcs in the beginning of the series, the ending arc begins to focus on a single story to conclude everything. Unfortunately, I felt that this was about the time when the series started going downhill. Although the series would feel incomplete without a long conclusion arc, I still felt that it neglected key aspects that needed addressing. Most notable would be the relationship between Tanaka and Hachimaki, or lack thereof [I apologize for the slight spoiler, but it’ll become fairly obvious by the first episode]. It just felt like the story focused too highly on just one issue, and threw away everything else. It was as if the ending was independent of everything else
However, I will admit that not all things were thrown away. Unlike many other anime series, Planetes went back and in one way or another, addressed the previous arcs dealt with earlier in the series. We were shown the aftermath of those arcs, even after their original conclusion. It was nice to see, as it gives closure and shows that the previous stories weren’t randomly thrown in just to waste our time.
The animation was fine, no glaring defects that would bother me, but such is the norm. It’s obvious by the animation style that it’s a more serious anime, as they cut all the cutesy stuff like chibi animations and all that. But perhaps I shouldn’t say “serious anime”, as they do have their comedic moments. Rather, it’s more of a series aimed for the older audiences. I don’t think the younger generations will be able to really appreciate some of the subject matter, as they would never have needed to give it any thought. Death, politics, and the intricacies of space aren’t really always on the minds of today’s youth, so I’d expect.
Overall, I would say Planetes started off rather well, but began to falter at the end due to the sudden change in direction. Although I voiced plenty of negative comments, I won’t deny that I felt the series was overall enjoyable and positive. My main gripe would be the ending arc’s separation and isolation from the rest of the series, and if that could be improved on, then my review of the series would no doubt go up drastically. It wasn’t a BAD ending, I just think it could’ve been improved somewhat.
Recommendation: I didn’t feel like it was a masterpiece, but it certainly wasn’t a disaster. If you’re in the mood for something a bit more serious that makes you think, Planetes can do just that.
Edit: I liked Planetes =0
Edit #2: Since my comment turned out so long, check out comment #5 for my followup on the review.
//Soda
10 Responses to “Planetes - Series Review”
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wow… i am in awe… the first negative review of planetes i have ever read. i was planning to write a whole bunch of shit but i dont want to seem like an elitist or rabid fanboy. all i can say is that u didnt get it. did not get it at all. or ur just an otaku thats really, really, realy into moe/loli and all the other otaku stuff. its way to mature for u. if anything, this is a non otaku anime and is sophisticated as hell in its message, execution and meaning. o well… this just says a whoooole lot about ur taste in anime.
@ Soda: Wow, you actually posted =O I didn’t believe you when you said you would, lol.
@ kauldron26: Not having watched the series yet, your impression of it is intriguing. If you wouldn’t mind, could you go more in depth? Don’t worry about sounding like an elitist or rabid fanboy, there are plenty of them in the anime blogging community, and the worst that’s broken out is blog dorama.
I haven’t seen any thought provoking anime lately, and depending on your argument, it may move up or down on my backlog list.
I second everything kauldron26 said, especially because I never encountered anybody who said so much negative things about Planetes either. The only point I’ve seen so far is that some episodes are a little bit cheesy and overly emotional. That’s all.
Oh, and I actually hoped for another Planetes fanboy to rave about it in the comments, luckily there was :)
LOL it is really that bad?
To all those who think I hated Planetes with a passion or something: I didn’t. Here’s some snippets from my post you may have missed:
- But if I had to come up with one word to describe it, I would use “enjoyable”.
- Although I voiced plenty of negative comments, I won’t deny that I felt the series was overall enjoyable and positive. My main gripe would be the ending arc’s separation and isolation from the rest of the series, and if that could be improved on, then my review of the series would no doubt go up drastically. It wasn’t a BAD ending, I just think it could’ve been improved somewhat.
- I didn’t feel like it was a masterpiece, but it certainly wasn’t a disaster. If you’re in the mood for something a bit more serious that makes you think, Planetes can do just that.
Those are things I said in my review. I know I “voiced plenty of negative comments”, but the keyword there is “voiced”. I simply stated most of my negative thoughts moreso than my positive ones. Which I didn’t exactly do intentionally, and it wouldn’t seem like a smart thing to do, indeed. However, that was the direction of natural flow in my post.
And if you’ll attack me for the flow of my posts, I suppose that’s fair enough. I write with my thoughts, and however my thoughts and feelings flow is how my posts flow. I really did enjoy the first half of Planetes, and it seems rather apparent I didn’t make that clear enough. However I still stand that the second half seemed like a completely other story from the first half. Alone, I think each half would’ve done fine in my eyes, but the fact that they were so differing in the same series was detracting. And since the second half was the last thing I watched [well of course, who watches the second half of an anime before the first half? =p], it was the second half’s disappointing dismissal of the first half that was mostly on my mind. Which is precisely why my thoughts flowed the way they did.
Now just as another note, it was rather difficult to write this post. When writing series review posts, I attempt to avoid spoilers as much as possible, which is also why I apologized for revealing that Tanaka and Hachimaki end up dating. Keeping that in mind, it’s much harder to state what I liked and what I disliked about the series without explicitly stating exactly what happened. Especially if my main complaint is against the isolation of the story of the ending arc as opposed to everything before it [sorry Shirukii, we’re playing with fire by talking about the end of the series and everything =p Hopefully you’ll finish the series before you’re spoiled too much…].
Now that I got that out of the way…
@kauldron26: If you were going to write a shitload of words about what WAS good about Planetes that I neglected to mention, then I invite you to do so if you still wish to, so that readers can have another outlook. It is, after all, the purpose of comments. However, if you were going to write a shitload of shit about ME simply because you disagreed with my review [despite it being positive, although I still fully acknowledge it sounded mostly negative], then I think you need to calm down. You already are coming off as an elitist bent on my destruction unless I agree that Planetes is a great anime.
But no, seriously, I liked Planetes, and I “got it”, or at least most of it. To claim I knew every little bit of its complex nature would be ludicrous. If I didnt get it at all, like you so claim, I simply would state that, and most likely not even make a series review post. If I can’t even appreciate what’s being shown, how can I possibly review it? If I was a person who hated shoujo with the fiery passion of a thousand suns [which I don’t, it’s a fine genre], why the hell would I review a shoujo series when I wouldn’t appreciate the shoujo elements? I’m not afraid to admit when I don’t “get” something. Paranoia Agent is a series i semi-recently watched, and I’ve seen it hit the top 10 list of anime series for many people. Personally, I didn’t like it at all. Reason: whatever it was trying to do, I completely missed it. And since it was that way, I never blogged about it [among other reasons, but this was one of the main 2]. The series “Monster” I enjoyed immensely, a series that is “mature”, “non otaku”, and “sophisicated as hell in its message, execution, and meaning”. Does that pass your little taste test?
I have a taste in anime, indeed. And much like most everybody else, it’ll differ from yours. To force your views into mine [despite both of us liking Planetes] is exactly where this elitist vibe from you is coming from. People are unique, face it.
And hey, leave the lolis out of it ;_; What did they ever to do you? (X ;______;)
@Shirukii: =0 You didn’t believe me when I said I’d post? Pfft, shows how much you trust me. I got TWO posts up =0 zomg new record. And yeah, you don’t have much else on your backlog if I’m not mistaken, so go for it. I liked it, to the surprise of many. But you already knew that.
@Sasa: I didn’t really have that much negative things to say about it, just about the difference of the second half [wooo I’m sounding like a broken record]. I liked it, but I’m no fanboy, unfortunately =/
@Siva: no =p
zomg that was longer than expected
i didn’t read your original post as an out-and-out pan, but I do disagree about then final arc. It took all the strengths of the previous arcs and sort of worked them into a fugue. The political difficulties, the troubled romance, and the fact that space doesn’t really care if we exist or not (which to me was the show’s greatest punch in the gut), they’re all there, working off each other. it was incredibly well done, and I believe it’s how Planetes goes from being a very good show to a great one.
the thing that dragged planetes down was some of the characters - the head-band boy —> i wanted to shoot him (how did he get so smart all at once and pass all the exams for the Jupiter mission again?)
the girl - Tanabe, was it? - needs to go to Saudi Arabia, Iraq, or Djibouti to preach to the people about love, if she’s got so much to say…
I doubt anyone will read this (only recently finished the series) but I have to agree, the ending seems to break off from the main flow of the storyline, perhaps because that was when the producers ran out off manga plot and decided they needed more drama and a bigger space-ship.
@jo: I see how you wouldn’t like it if you don’t like either of the main characters, but I don’t see why. Sure Hachimaki’s (yes, the headband boy) abilities seem to have gone up dramatically, but largely due to his unstoppable devotion to his goal (passing the exams). Tanabe Ai does seem a bit preachy (one of the few things that let me down) but her staying true to her ideals is a very nice message.
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