![]() ![]() Planets also has the benefit of being paced extremely well. But it gets offset by the gruff Hoshino, and it all evens out as the story progresses and the two opposites start to rub off on each other. ![]() Though I could understand if Tanabe’s over the top optimism at the start of the show could be a little saccharine for some tastes. The character designs are something I enjoy a lot as well, with each character being distinct and fitting very well with the overall characteristics and motivations of their personality. There were also no characters that grated on me during the show either, which is a feat in and of itself. The general animation is already excellent for an anime, but they then go the extra mile of going with even more frames of animation per second on the scenes involving zero‑g so they have the right feel of people flowing in that environment. Planetes can easily be placed as a contender for one of the best produced animes I’ve had the pleasure of watching. Those who can find this show are in for a fantastic ride. Kessler, with the effect having the apt name of the Kessler Effect. It’s interesting trivia to note that the idea of space trash causing issues with future ventures in space was proposed by NASA scientist Donald J. In fact, in the commentary on the DVD, NASA employees really only fault the feasibility of efficiently spending that much energy on collecting smaller space debris. This anime spends an equal amount of focus on developing the characters and working on making its science entertaining and realistic. The themes running in the show go from light to deadly heavy in the course of its run, and touch on things ranging from the divisions among upper and lower classes to specific characters existential dread. That summary is doing a disservice to the character and plot threads that interweave in this tale, but that gets you the door without spoiling anything. Tanabe’s idealistic expectations of employment in space come to terms with the reality of life working in “Half-Section,” while the team learns and grows during the course of the shows events. Planetes follows the diverse employees of the trash division (derisively called “Half-Section” due to having half the budget, half the employees, and half the space of other divisions) of Technora Corporation, and their new recruit Ai Tanabe. The shows focus is in the near future where space travel is much more a commercial affair, and the normal traffic of humans over the decades has caused a problem with space garbage. So just what is Planetes ? Planetes is what happens when a well researched (the shows production was advised by the Japanese space agency JAXA) hard science anime meets a deep character drama. Charismatic characters, suburb voice acting and music, absolutely artistic framing, polished pacing, and animation that bordered on Disney quality during zero‑g segments combined to make a consistently high rated production since it’s release for those who can find it. Direction was left in the very capable hands of Gorō Taniguchi of s‑CRY-ed fame. The 26 episode anime adaptation aired in 2003 and was produced by none other than Sunrise. It, like a lot of anime, was based on a manga of the same name that started it’s run in 1999 (it is equally well reviewed, though I still need to read it). I honestly cannot blame people for having not heard about Planetes, with it being out of print on DVD and the Blu-ray collection being a Japanese only release. ![]() Well this review is here to tell you why you should hunt down this show despite it not being very common on the market. Which is why I always wondered why such an amazing work hasn’t been seen by more people. And not to spoil things too much for this review, but Planetes is a fantastic anime. ![]() That’s how I first came to know of Planetes, after watching Cowboy Bebop for the first time (Sunrise produced both titles, go figure) and being on the hunt for other great space anime. My tastes in anime pretty much align much with my tastes in books and film, so basically anything that is even remotely entertaining with a sci-fi or space theme will get my attention. I’ve been more a fan of anime in the past than I have been more recently, but normally the best of what I watch of anime ends up being some of my favorites of media in general. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |