Anime Review: Planetes

Planetes (the Greek word for “planets” literally meaning drifters) combines hard science fiction with corny coming-of-age storytelling while having a high budget. There isn’t much plot, since to its core the series is the daily lives of garbage men in space. Although many episodes seem to be standalones, they usually spend time in fleshing out the characters and the world, so nothing is going to waste. It is not one of those unbearably boring school based settings, where there is nothing to explain, and it’s not a road movie type of show, where the events of one episode do not matter in the next one.

Unlike typical slice of life, there are stakes here, as it’s pretty easy to get killed if an accident happens and you don’t fix it in time. There is far more tension compared to a bunch of teenagers trying to win in a school competition, or form some school club where they play videogames all day. Not only there are no schools, but also there are almost no teenagers as well. The major characters are all adults, they have a job which can kill them, and they have the freedom to smoke, drink, and have sex. How thought-provoking is that for a medium that is not supposed to be holding back?

I even liked how the stories feel like a shounen series which subverts expectations. And yes, I know it’s not a shonen and the word subversion has lost its meaning, but it’s done almost deliberately in this case. The writers did not stop at making the main characters super idealistic underdogs who want to prove their worth to those above them, while occasionally yelling and blushing over peanuts and sexual frustration. Despite most of them behaving in a very immature way and yelling all the time, they are still adults, dealing with adult problems. Despite feeling like cranky old maids with cartoony voices at times, the show is still more mature than 99% of all anime in existence.

In the same way, most of the missions play out like a simple fairy tale with an obvious moral message at the end, yet in many cases there is a dark twist which breaks the formula. The negative consequences are never devastating since the heroes clearly have a lot more plot armor than they deserve, but the threats they are facing are engaging nonetheless. No crappy shonen full of angsty teenagers with superpowers and edgy violence can beat that.

Although it lacks brainless action, it makes up for it with aesthetics and cinematics. The shading of the sun on the ships, the motions in zero gravity, the wonderful previews, all of those pull you in and never cease being creative in presentation. The art is close to perfect and is easy to see the passion in the attention to detail, leading to a work full of heart. And yes, I am praising the pretty colors not only because they look pretty but because they are adding to what is already good about the show, instead of just hiding its problems. Space stations, workspaces, uniforms, mechanical gears, motherboards and even drifting screws in space look and feel real. Even the new turbine they build at the end, is not that relevant to the plot and doesn’t wave hands at your disbelief. It’s the plot armor you are mostly going to be struggling with.

So yeah, as a whole it is a lot more interesting that almost any other Earth-bound slice-of-life thanks to its setting, and a lot more captivating than a cheesy sci-fi adventure. Plus it offers some good life lessons and does have a satisfying conclusion for a change. How many shows have a proper ending these days? It’s worth the ride almost all the way.