Planetes Review

A story about a garbage man in space... boring? Or is it? I honestly gave this anime two tries. The first time, I lost interested several episodes in, and the second time it completely got me hooked.

Story: 9/10

Though episodic at first and linear later, the story follows a space garbage man by the name of Hachirota or "Hachimaki" by his co-workers. The setting is very realistic in spite of the fact that it's obviously a science fiction anime. Hachimaki is part of a team of people who travel in space and collect space debris in order to secure safe space traveling routes for shuttles and whatnot. The early episodes provide you with a background of each character, the middle episodes set up the big picture, and the last third of the series is just wow... The writers obviously put a lot of thought into this piece of work, making sure that everything is not too sci-fi or else it would lose grasp of its realism. The ending is completely satisfying, although it left me seriously wanting more.

Character: 10/10

Every single character has a distinct personality complete with a background story and everything. These characters act very real, not like most two-dimensional shonen hero. Emotions, relationships, and philosophy are all explored whether it has to do with family, a loved one, or an enemy. The garbage team's relationship with each other extend beyond just being mere co-workers into being more like a family. Their personalities will grow on you as you progress through the anime, which will leave you begging for the anime not to end.

Sound: 9/10

The soundtrack is phenomenal. As you've already noticed, the Planetes soundtrack lies in our category of "Best of Anime Soundtracks" for a good reason. The soundtrack is epic when it needs to be, depressed when it is required, and upbeat when it intends to do so. The voice actors also did their job well without being over dramatic. Also no annoying voices is a plus as well.

Animation: 9/10

The animation was pretty good. The animators certainly paid attention to every small detail and you will really notice this during your viewing. Again, being a space anime, they can't get too farfetched with their animation before losing their sense of realism, however they held it out well, making every single piece of those sci-fi equipment look extremely believable. The 2D animation fused quite well with the occasional CGI effects as well.

FluffyBunnyPwn gives it 9/10.