One man’s trash is another man’s treasure — or in the case of Planetes, a story about trash turns out to be quite the treasure.

Where many science fiction anime seem to focus on aliens, mecha and/or cool spaceships, Planetes (based on the manga by Makoto Yukimura) takes a somewhat less epic and more realistic look at the outer space of the future. From the introduction of each episode which discusses space debris and the opening sequence which features famous scenes along the timeline of space flight, I knew I was in for something a little bit different. Planetes, whose title is Greek for “wanderers,” zeros in on the lives of a motley crew of space garbage collectors, astronauts with the unglamorous but decidedly important mission of keeping space clean and therefore safe for the many ships traveling through it.

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Although the sci-fi elements are fascinating, the real highlight of Planetes are its many characters, who grow enormously over the course of the series. At the start, we meet Ai Tanabe, the newest member of the “Half section,” an earnest young woman who doesn’t realize at all what she’s gotten herself into. The Half section is looked down upon by all other levels of the Technora corporation it’s a part of, and it’s the place where the losers and misfits are stuck in the dangerous and often thankless job of removing space debris. But each of these “losers” has a back story — some perfectly normal, others rather extraordinary — and a distinct personality, as well as their own reasons for being where they are. There’s Fee, a brilliant pilot who refuses to move up in the company ranks; Yuri, a man searching for something from his past; Edel, a temp worker who only seems to run like clockwork; and Hachimaki, the true protagonist of the series, who dreams of owning his own spaceship. There are many others as well, both in the Technora company and outside of it.

The first half of Planetes introduces these characters as well as the current state of the world. These shorter stories shift between the humorous, the strange, the dramatic, and the tragic. The temptation is there to call these episodes one-shots, but the characters and themes brought up in the early episodes appear again later on, some merely making cameos and others taking on new importance. The second half of the series focuses in on Hachimaki especially and the goal he sets of becoming part of the team on the first mission to the planet Jupiter. It also brings in the Space Defense Front, a group of terrorists who oppose all human expansion into space. The characters are pushed to their limits in the trying circumstances that follow, and though the intense drama feels almost like a disconnect from the first half, the well-paced conclusion is very much worth it.

The realistic feel of the series is encouraged by the character designs, which are more lifelike than most. Each character’s look is as distinct as their personality, and the cast is refreshingly diverse in ethnicity (yes, they’re not all Japanese or blond foreigners). The animation is very fluid as well, which is extremely pleasant to see with so many series taking obvious shortcuts to save money.

As for the music, Kotaro Nakagawa provides a score that fits the mood well, whether it be stirring or calming. The insert songs and final ending piece by hitomi (Last Exile’s ending song) were especially lovely. The opening and ending themes by Mikio Sakai (S-CRY-ed) took some getting used to, but certainly deserve a few listens (particularly since the opening sequence subtly changes every few episodes).

It’s hard to condense all that Planetes is into one little review. The relationships of the characters, the politics between company members as well as countries, the small and large triumphs and failings of ordinary human beings — all of these are hugely important parts of Planetes, and all are too complex to sum up easily. Planetes is a series that just needs to be watched, and I encourage you to do so.

Credits: Images 1 & 2 can be found on the wikipedia.org entry for Planetes, while image 3 is the third DVD cover as found on amazon.com (Why are screenshots so hard to find?).

Tags: Anime Review, Makoto Yukimura, Planetes, series review

Category: Series Reviews

Senna is a college student majoring in English and minoring in Japanese. Her favorite anime and manga include Escaflowne, Please Save My Earth, Scrapped Princess, Nana, and Boogiepop Phantom.