Wow, I’ve had this one on disc for ages now, and have just never got around to watching it – strange because this was one of those wildly acclaimed anime series that got flighted way back in 2003 already! Anyway, now I’ve finally made time to watch it, and man oh man, is PLANETES every bit as good as everyone always says it is.
Beautifully understated, a wonderful cast of characters, a generally feel good, slice of life kind of atmosphere and an amazing attention to detail in terms of physics, science and just space theoretics in general, all combined with some stunningly detailed animation makes for an absolutely enthralling watch.
If you aren’t familiar with the work, PLANETES tells the story of a debris collection team that is responsible for collecting all space debris from our surrounding orbit, essentially the ‘garbage men of space’ in other words. The year is 2075, space travel and exploration are in full swing and man has learnt that in order to make space safe for all mankind, they need to start cleaning up after themselves for a change, especially seeing that out here, an object the size of a bolt can literally be the downfall of the biggest star cruiser!
Of course, garbage men remain garbage men wherever they are and our interesting team needs to deal with all sorts of situations brought about by their rather lowly standing in society.
So far I’ve watched the first six episodes of this fantastic series (out of 26), and while there aren’t any big explosions are stylish battle sequences yet, I can assure you that it would be well worth your while to catch this rather understated gem of anime series if you can. Seriously, I haven’t watched a series as thought provoking, interesting and just plain entertaining as this in ages!
Although considering the fact that the last series I watched was “Ikkitousen: Great Guardians”, that isn’t really saying all that much! :P
Related link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetes