Planetes Episode 1

Planetes

"Outside the Atmosphere"

After watching so many fanciful science fiction anime series, it felt pretty unreal to watch Planetes, which takes place in a very traditional SF universe (with Japanese business life thrown on top). It's something like a more technologically realized version of 2001.

The quality of the animation is not top notch, but it gets by well. The character designs (so far) have all been pretty off the wall, with only the two main characters looking more like your standard issue person.

The plot revolves around a group of people whose job is to collect space debris (junk from dead satellites, used parts from space shuttles, etc.), to keep the space around earth safe for space travel. So far, no aliens, civil wars or mechs, so it remains to be seen if this is a show about normal people who live in space, or if some larger story arc will emerge in the future.

All in all, it was quite enjoyable, and refreshing, to have this sort of science fiction setting for an anime. Though most of the characters barely featured into the first episode, it seems like they have a wide and varied cast to explore in the coming installments.

Rating: B

Posted by Kei at 01:39 PM | Comments (1)