Japanese animation (anime) - ΠΛΑΝΗΤΕΣ (プラネテス)

Name: PlanetES
Episodes: 26 eps
Vintage: 2003-2004
Style: Ficção

ΠΛΑΝΗΤΕΣ (プラネテス) - Preview

Setting

At 2075, mankind has finally conquered the space - or at least earth's orbit, moon and mars. However, all this advance generated a serious problem: the orbital trash is now a menace, since a small nail can destroy a whole starship. Tanabe Ai is the new rookie at the garbage collection section of the space station 7. Although it's an important and dangerous task with constant EVA (Extra-vehicular activity), the garbage collection section is poorly financed and made fun of by the whole space agency, and is often called the 'half-section' - after all, it's just garbage collecting.

Pacing

Aside from all the space debris background, the main focus is actually the daily life of the 'half-section' (as they hate to be called): the development, social implications and character interactions of the space exploration and even the human adventure.

The first part of the title focuses on small quite episodic 'adventures' and their daily life at the 'half-section', however, always keeping a touch at the main point of this series: How much spending millions at the space advance is worth while there is still war, poverty and hunger down on earth? What is the real impact of the developed nations to create an 'elite club' with space-travel capacity while some countries live with sub-technology and poverty?

PlanetES is a social title, but also is a romance - a subtle but ever present romance with amazing character development, with a climax at not only important social questions, but also questions about human nature itself, and the most important, everything is nicely fit into the plot, so you actually never fell like being lectured nor need to stop and think too much. We also have an eventual side episode as the crew gets some time off to visit the moon or earth, but we never really leave the feeling that something is wrong with this high-tech, yet cold world.

Conclusion

For those who like something more deep and plot-driven, PlanetES is a full dish. For the romantic type, PlanetES also focuses on personal dreams and goals, and also have a nice romance, and truth be told, it's at PlanetES that you will find one of the cutest 'first kiss' in anime. If you want something pleasant, sometimes funny, or not action-driven, planetES will probably still be a nice call.

Strong and solid characters, with a well developed plot and an important social theme, PlanetES is an exquisite title, and although it's not the top of sci-fi genre, it will certainly made its way into fame. Regardless if you are into sci-fi or not, PlanetES has what it takes to please every fan out there.

23 visits at this specific page (click for 30 days graphic)