Planetes Recommended

Publisher
Bandai
Director
Goro Taniguchi
Production
Bandai, NHK, Sunrise
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
26 episodes
Year
2003

Planetes - Volume 4

By Joseph (Joe) Wood
21st Dec 05

With space full of debris from Earth, and abandoned or broken down satellites flying through space threatening humankind’s advancement into the stars the removal of this cosmic junk is of the utmost importance. Yet with this monologue at the start of most of Planetes episodes, you could be easily forgiven for thinking it’s nothing special but Planetes is possibly one of the best hidden gems of anime.

With another four episodes volume four starts to lead us in to a main plot. Episode fourteen “Turning Point” sees Hachi and Tanabe start to express their feelings for one another however, a ban is placed on office romances, and the two argue over wither it should be obeyed or not. Meanwhile the Debris section receives their new ship. Hachi and Tanabe go on their first date in “In Her Case” yet they can’t stop running into people they know, they book themselves into a hotel for a few hours but before anything can happen, they find that they are not alone. Having been almost lost in space during an accident Hachi develops “Spatial Loss Disorder” a psychological illness. If Hachi can’t now over come his fear, he will have, his astronaut licence revoked and he must return to Earth. Hachi enters a frantic battle with himself. In “Why He Is The Way He Is” Hachi’s father pays him a visit, it seems he’s wanted to be chief engineer for the “Wernher von Braun” during its seven year mission to Jupiter, but all he wants to do is to return to Earth, Hachi thinks that his father should go on the mission.

The “Wernher von Braun” seems to becoming the focus of the series. Hachi first hears of it through Cheng-Shin who wants to help pilot it, and he keeps running into the project or people connected to it. Yet initially it seems to take a backseat to his relationship with Tanabe but during the later episodes of the series, it begins to take up more and more of his thoughts. Meanwhile their also seems to be a bit of controversy over Dolf (the second division’s chief) recommendation for promotion as the other division chief’s seem to be conspiring against him.

It’s still not clear where Planetes may take us in its remaining volumes; things seem to be building up to a confrontation between Hachi’s desire to go to Jupiter and his feelings for Tanabe but with so many side plots and other relationships going on in the background it feels as if Planetes may struggle to tie everything together. The characterization, emotion and comedy are or still present and accounted for in this volume we also delve deeper in to Edel’s (debris section’s temp) past who so far had remained one of the least developed character in the series.

Planetes can seemingly do no wrong, as the fourth volume takes moves towards a plot which will likely take up the remaining episodes of the series yet still manages to keep the heart that made the earlier episodes so enjoyable.

R2 DVD Notes

Features: English and Japanese 5.1, English and Japanese 2.0, English German French Dutch Subtitles, Trailers,Character Bios, Clean Opening and Closing Animation, Audio Dramas and Audio Commentary.

Release information: Publisher: Beez Released: December 12th 2005 Classification: PG Running Time: 100mins

Notes: Some more of the great audio Dramas and another audio commentary Planetes is pretty genourus when it comes to extras.

-- Joseph (Joe) Wood 21st Dec 05

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