Planetes
Finished watching Planetes nearly two weeks ago. I'm prone to writing overly positive reviews when I'm still basking in the glow of a series I enjoyed, so I waited to make this write-up.
Planetes has many things going for it. I loved the plausible hard sci-fi approach to space it took, complete with many realistic touches like handlebars and footholds strategically placed, plausible orbital mechanics, vacuums are silent, and cancer is a major problem. The story follows the ragtag "half-section," a small, underfunded, and unappreciated branch of an enormous corporate space station whose task is to remove the debris floating in space. This is the year 2075 and space debris has become a major problem, one well sold by the excellent introduction to the first episode. (I can't find a good video stream for it. damn) The show has such realistic characters that I was surprised to see how often they're in life-or-death situations. Most of these scenes are well-done and quite thrilling, but some plausibility is lost by it. I guess that the appealing realism of Planetes makes me want to forget that it is anime, and thus requires some suspension of disbelief.
The conflicts are mostly episodic for the first half of the series but actions have a clear cause-and-effect between episodes. Emphasis is on character interaction and development, but not by a large margin.
At least twice I found myself groaning at the seeming predictability of the current event only to find that things unfolded almost opposite of the way I expected them to.
Planetes has a peculiar habit of ending conflicts on a cliffhanger and picking up the plot some time later, and its commonly done at the end of episodes. This is frustrating as it interrupts immersion and leaves you wondering what happened. Usually there is a brief and unsatisfying flashback to explain things, and some times the events of the cliffhanger become plot elements. I've seen this technique done well (Hideaki Anno comes to mind), but it's not done well here. But the directing isn't bad: there are scenes that worked due to good directing flair.
Overall, I consider Planetes to be "good," putting it between "above-average" and "godly" on my anime scale, and I mean that to be high praise. You should watch it.
Planetes has many things going for it. I loved the plausible hard sci-fi approach to space it took, complete with many realistic touches like handlebars and footholds strategically placed, plausible orbital mechanics, vacuums are silent, and cancer is a major problem. The story follows the ragtag "half-section," a small, underfunded, and unappreciated branch of an enormous corporate space station whose task is to remove the debris floating in space. This is the year 2075 and space debris has become a major problem, one well sold by the excellent introduction to the first episode. (I can't find a good video stream for it. damn) The show has such realistic characters that I was surprised to see how often they're in life-or-death situations. Most of these scenes are well-done and quite thrilling, but some plausibility is lost by it. I guess that the appealing realism of Planetes makes me want to forget that it is anime, and thus requires some suspension of disbelief.
The conflicts are mostly episodic for the first half of the series but actions have a clear cause-and-effect between episodes. Emphasis is on character interaction and development, but not by a large margin.
At least twice I found myself groaning at the seeming predictability of the current event only to find that things unfolded almost opposite of the way I expected them to.
Planetes has a peculiar habit of ending conflicts on a cliffhanger and picking up the plot some time later, and its commonly done at the end of episodes. This is frustrating as it interrupts immersion and leaves you wondering what happened. Usually there is a brief and unsatisfying flashback to explain things, and some times the events of the cliffhanger become plot elements. I've seen this technique done well (Hideaki Anno comes to mind), but it's not done well here. But the directing isn't bad: there are scenes that worked due to good directing flair.
Overall, I consider Planetes to be "good," putting it between "above-average" and "godly" on my anime scale, and I mean that to be high praise. You should watch it.