Planetes
Encyclopedia
is a Japan
ese hard science fiction
manga
by Makoto Yukimura
. It was adapted as a 26-episode television anime
by Sunrise
, which was broadcast on NHK
from October 2003 through April 2004. The story revolves around a team of space debris
collectors based in the debris ship Toy Box in the year 2075.
The manga is published in English
in North America
by Tokyopop
, and the anime is distributed in North America by Bandai Entertainment
. Both the manga and anime received the Seiun Award
for best science fiction series.
s, space station
s and spacecraft
from collision with debris in Earth
's and the Moon
's orbits. They use a number of methods to dispose of the debris (mainly by burning it via atmospheric reentry or through salvage), accomplished through the use of EVA
suits.
The episodes sometimes revolve around debris collection itself, but more often the concept of collecting "trash" in space is merely a storytelling method for building character development. The members of the Debris Section are looked down upon as the lowest members of the company and they must work hard to prove their worth to others and accomplish their dreams.
Ongoing plot elements include an upcoming exploratory mission to Jupiter
on the new fusion power
ed ship, Von Braun, and the lead character's decision to join the mission, no matter the cost. Many other plot threads are also developed throughout the series that help to explain each character's motivations and personalities. The Space Defense Front is a terrorist
organization that believes mankind is exploiting space without first curing global problems such as mass famine and the widened socio-economic divide on Earth.
productions, special care was given in Planetes for a very realistic depiction of space and space travel. For instance, when in a weightless environment, the cel
count dramatically increases in order to make weightless motion more fluid and realistic. Also, spaceships make no noise in the vacuum of space and astronaut
s routinely suffer from known space illnesses such as radiation poisoning
, decompression sickness
, cancer
, brittle bone
s and mental illnesses spawned from isolation in the vacuum of space. One character, born on the Moon, grew to be abnormally tall due to the lesser lunar gravity, looking like a full grown adult at the mere age of 12.
Concepts like momentum in weightlessness are early plot points and are always illustrated naturally. Director Goro Taniguchi stated in the DVD commentary that he learned much about orbital mechanics in the course of making the series. This can be shown in showing specific orbital energy
, through changing orbits
by applying thrust throughout the series. Even the necessity for the retrieval of space debris that is central to the plot is rooted in the serious and growing problem with space debris today.
The show also works to connect itself to the history of rocket
ry and space flight. The opening sequence is similar to the television
series Star Trek: Enterprise
, featuring a montage of the history of space flight from Greek mythology
to the "modern" setting outlined in the series. Along the way, animated images of important milestones in space travel like Robert Goddard's early rocket tests, the V-2 rocket
, Sputnik 1
, Laika
the dog, the Vostok spacecraft
, Apollo 11
, Skylab
, Mir
, the International Space Station
and the Space Shuttle Endeavour
and other milestones are displayed. References to early pioneers in rocketry like Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
, Robert H. Goddard
, Wernher von Braun
and Hermann Oberth
are also made regularly.
The Japanese space agency JAXA served as a technical consultant to the series. The US version of the DVDs featured interviews with two scientists from NASA
's Orbital Debris Section. However, both scientists stated that the premise of having to rendezvous with debris in orbit is highly unlikely as it would take an extravagant amount of energy for a relatively small amount of salvageable material. One of the scientists stated that the previous director of the NASA Orbital Debris Section was in fact Donald J. Kessler, the scientist who proposed the eponymous Kessler Syndrome
, which is cited and used several times in both the anime and manga.
resources in space and the poorer ones falling into civil war
and being invaded or needing the assistance of those richer countries, telling a story of dependency theory
and the negative side of environmentalism
. The conflicting views of the terrorist group, the Space Defense Front, who wish to shut human beings off from space, the main characters who believe in the importance of space exploration
and development, and the International Treaty Organization (INTO) which wants space development primarily to serve the economic and military needs of developed nations also play major roles. The anime refrains from oversimplification of the various factions, portraying both true believers and those with ulterior motives on all sides. The final settlement of the conflict is also unique in that it is not resolved by any of the main protagonists or antagonists, but by a compromise struck between powers above their heads.
Both the anime and manga set a precedent of portraying a highly multicultural
cast of characters. Usually, characters who refer to anime stereotypes are immediately berated by other characters.
, sociological
, and political
in nature.
The presentation of technology in the anime adaptation broke from the manga in several areas, such as with the inclusion of touch-controlled HUD
s, retractable debris face shields with a video screen, and peripheral cameras to the EVA suits the main characters use. Also, the anime introduces refinements in the weightless living and working spaces, with foot and hand bars for people to stabilize their movement in a weightless environment. The base of operations of Toy Box is moved from the Moon to a space station called the ISPV 7 in Low Earth Orbit
. The United States of America
is explicitly named in the manga, as opposed to in the anime where it is seldom mentioned in favor of "INTO" or the International Treaty Organization (a possible reference to NATO and SEATO), which seems to be a federation of individual countries including the United States and Japan
.
Planetes shared part of its production staff with another anime series that ran at the same time on NHK
, Twin Spica
. From this, the production staff slipped several easter egg cross overs into Planetes. Some of these include:
There are several times where the anime and the manga would allude to each other. The following are some examples of this:
, the manga has a "solid, engrossing storyline and well-developed characters". Anime News Network also proclaimed Planetes to be the best science fiction anime series of 2005. Both the manga and anime received the Seiun Award
for best science fiction series, the manga in 2002 and the anime in 2005.
Sales-wise, the manga was only a modest success in North America
, with volume 3 reaching 81st place on the Diamond US sales top 100, selling about 1100 copies through the distributor. Volume 4 reached 93rd place, selling about 1400 copies.
in the manga magazine Weekly Morning
from January 1999 to January 2004 and collected in four tankōbon
volumes. It is licensed in English
in North America
by Tokyopop
, where it was published in five volumes by splitting the last volume in two parts.
, it was directed by Gorō Taniguchi
and scripted by Ichirō Ōkouchi
(both of whom would later reunite in 2006 to work on the Sunrise original production Code Geass). The anime began development and production before the end of the manga serialization. In the beginning and middle of the series, the writing and production staff only had the first three volumes of the manga as source. In order to fill the entire 26 episode run of the anime, new characters, new settings and new relationships between characters were made in order to increase dramatic tension, reinforce themes introduced in the manga, and introduce new themes that were compatible with the manga. While the manga deals more with existential
themes, and humanity's relationship with space, the anime further expands the political elements of the story.
The music of Planetes is a mixture of traditional orchestra
l music, supplemented by chorals, several uses of a theremin
, and traditional Japanese woodwinds (e.g. Shakuhachi
). The music score was composed by Kōtarō Nakagawa
and produced by Victor Entertainment
. The opening theme is "Dive in the Sky" by Mikio Sakai
, and the ending themes are "Wonderful Life" by Mikio Sakai for episodes 1-25 and "Planetes" by Hitomi Kuroishi
for episode 26, a theme very influenced by the sound of Enya
. There are two insert songs, "A Secret of the Moon" by Hitomi Kuroishi
, used in various episodes, and "Thanks My Friend" by Mikio Sakai
used in episode 13.
Ending Themes "Wonderful Life" by Mikio Sakai and "PLANETES" by Hitomi only in episode 26.
Disk 1
Disk 2
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese hard science fiction
Hard science fiction
Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by an emphasis on scientific or technical detail, or on scientific accuracy, or on both. The term was first used in print in 1957 by P. Schuyler Miller in a review of John W. Campbell, Jr.'s Islands of Space in Astounding Science...
manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
by Makoto Yukimura
Makoto Yukimura
is a Japanese manga artist. Yukimura made his debut in 2000 with the praised Planetes, serialized in Kodansha Weekly Morning mangazine and adapted into a 26 episodes anime series by the studio Sunrise...
. It was adapted as a 26-episode television anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
by Sunrise
Sunrise (company)
is a Japanese animation studio and production enterprise. It is a subsidiary of Namco Bandai Holdings. Its former name was Nippon Sunrise, and prior to that, Sunrise Studios...
, which was broadcast on NHK
NHK
NHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....
from October 2003 through April 2004. The story revolves around a team of space debris
Space debris
Space debris, also known as orbital debris, space junk, and space waste, is the collection of objects in orbit around Earth that were created by humans but no longer serve any useful purpose. These objects consist of everything from spent rocket stages and defunct satellites to erosion, explosion...
collectors based in the debris ship Toy Box in the year 2075.
The manga is published in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
by Tokyopop
Tokyopop
Tokyopop, styled TOKYOPOP, and formerly known as Mixx, is a distributor, licensor, and publisher of anime, manga, manhwa, and Western manga-style works. The existing German publishing division produces German translations of licensed Japanese properties and original English-language manga, as well...
, and the anime is distributed in North America by Bandai Entertainment
Bandai
is a Japanese toy making and video game company, as well as the producer of a large number of plastic model kits. It is the world's third-largest producer of toys . Some ex-Bandai group companies produce anime and tokusatsu programs...
. Both the manga and anime received the Seiun Award
Seiun Award
The is a Japanese science fiction award for the best science fiction published in Japan during the preceding year, as voted by attendees of the Japan Science Fiction Convention. "Seiun" is the Japanese word for "nebula", but the award is not related to the American Nebula Award. It was named after...
for best science fiction series.
Plot
The story of Planetes follows the crew of the DS-12 "Toy Box" of the Space Debris Section, a unit of Technora Corporation. Debris Section's purpose is to prevent the damage or destruction of satelliteSatellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
s, space station
Space station
A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a crew which is designed to remain in space for an extended period of time, and to which other spacecraft can dock. A space station is distinguished from other spacecraft used for human spaceflight by its lack of major propulsion or landing...
s and spacecraft
Spacecraft
A spacecraft or spaceship is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration and transportation of humans and cargo....
from collision with debris in Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
's and the Moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
's orbits. They use a number of methods to dispose of the debris (mainly by burning it via atmospheric reentry or through salvage), accomplished through the use of EVA
Extra-vehicular activity
Extra-vehicular activity is work done by an astronaut away from the Earth, and outside of a spacecraft. The term most commonly applies to an EVA made outside a craft orbiting Earth , but also applies to an EVA made on the surface of the Moon...
suits.
The episodes sometimes revolve around debris collection itself, but more often the concept of collecting "trash" in space is merely a storytelling method for building character development. The members of the Debris Section are looked down upon as the lowest members of the company and they must work hard to prove their worth to others and accomplish their dreams.
Ongoing plot elements include an upcoming exploratory mission to Jupiter
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
on the new fusion power
Fusion power
Fusion power is the power generated by nuclear fusion processes. In fusion reactions two light atomic nuclei fuse together to form a heavier nucleus . In doing so they release a comparatively large amount of energy arising from the binding energy due to the strong nuclear force which is manifested...
ed ship, Von Braun, and the lead character's decision to join the mission, no matter the cost. Many other plot threads are also developed throughout the series that help to explain each character's motivations and personalities. The Space Defense Front is a terrorist
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
organization that believes mankind is exploiting space without first curing global problems such as mass famine and the widened socio-economic divide on Earth.
Characters
- Hachirota Hoshino is the protagonist of the series. Everyone simply calls him "Hachi" (JapaneseJapanese languageis a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
for "eight" or "eighth") or , "headband", because he wears one during his EVAsExtra-vehicular activityExtra-vehicular activity is work done by an astronaut away from the Earth, and outside of a spacecraft. The term most commonly applies to an EVA made outside a craft orbiting Earth , but also applies to an EVA made on the surface of the Moon...
. His dream has always been to own his own spaceship, but between the cost of purchasing one and his low-paying, seemingly dead-end job, Hachi struggles with even deciding whether or not to pursue his dream. Hachi's father is a renowned engineerEngineerAn engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
, a source of much ambivalenceAmbivalenceAmbivalence is a state of having simultaneous, conflicting feelings toward a person or thing. Stated another way, ambivalence is the experience of having thoughts and/or emotions of both positive and negative valence toward someone or something. A common example of ambivalence is the feeling of...
to Hachimaki. Much of Hachi's drive is summed up in "bigger, faster, and further". However, this drive makes him conflicted about his own relationship with space. Loud and brash, Hachi has difficulty expressing himself adequately, especially in romantic matters.
- Ai Tanabe is the newest member of the Debris Section. She is the adopted daughter of a death metalDeath metalDeath metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....
band leader turned engineerEngineerAn engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
and an elementary schoolElementary schoolAn elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...
teacher. Tanabe did not speak until she was three years old. She is bright and earnest, but mostly unsure of herself. As a newcomer to space, the Debris Section and to extra-vehicular activity all at the same time, she has to slowly learn the ropes from everyone else. She believes that love, or "ai" (possibly a pun intended on her name being the Japanese word for love) is the solution to every problem. Kind and sweet, she is willing to do almost anything to help others. However, her kind spirit also masks a drive to become better than she is.
- Fee Carmichael is the AmericanUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
pilot of the "Toy Box", the debris-collecting ship used by the main characters. She was born in Richmond, VirginiaRichmond, VirginiaRichmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
, and the daughter of a prominent lawyer. Even more loud and brash than Hachi, Fee often becomes violent at others' actions and inaction, but she always means well. Being a heavy (and slightly ashamed) smokerTobacco smokingTobacco smoking is the practice where tobacco is burned and the resulting smoke is inhaled. The practice may have begun as early as 5000–3000 BCE. Tobacco was introduced to Eurasia in the late 16th century where it followed common trade routes...
, she has difficulty finding places to indulge her habit in space, as smoking is a strain on life support systemLife support systemIn human spaceflight, a life support system is a group of devices that allow a human being to survive in space.US government space agency NASA,and private spaceflight companies...
s and is thereby restricted to designated smoking rooms. This often makes her quite irritable, especially after all smoking rooms are shut down as the SDF began planting bombs in them. In the anime, she is able to get around this with an enclosed personal "smoker's seat" (which is prone to inadvertent sabotage). Married with a young son, Fee lives in FloridaFloridaFlorida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
when not in space, which is not very often.
- Yuri Mihairokov is the RussiaRussiaRussia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n member of the Debris team. Calm, stoic, kind and compassionate, Yuri often acts as the level head of the group. Several years before the events of the story, he and his wife were in a low-orbit craft traveling to EnglandEnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
when a small bolt slammed into one of the ship's windows at high velocityVelocityIn physics, velocity is speed in a given direction. Speed describes only how fast an object is moving, whereas velocity gives both the speed and direction of the object's motion. To have a constant velocity, an object must have a constant speed and motion in a constant direction. Constant ...
, causing the plane to depressurize and make an emergency landing. Many died in the highly publicized incident, including Yuri's wife, who was never found. The incident and Yuri's desire to recover his wife's lost keepsake, a compassCompassA compass is a navigational instrument that shows directions in a frame of reference that is stationary relative to the surface of the earth. The frame of reference defines the four cardinal directions – north, south, east, and west. Intermediate directions are also defined...
she wore around her neck, drives him to collect more debris. In the anime, Yuri and the Debris Section Office Staff are responsible for looking after the ISPV 7's resident animals.
Technical
The story of Planetes takes place in the near future. Unlike many other anime and science fictionScience fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
productions, special care was given in Planetes for a very realistic depiction of space and space travel. For instance, when in a weightless environment, the cel
Cel
A cel, short for celluloid, is a transparent sheet on which objects are drawn or painted for traditional, hand-drawn animation. Actual celluloid was used during the first half of the 20th century, but since it was flammable and dimensionally unstable it was largely replaced by cellulose acetate...
count dramatically increases in order to make weightless motion more fluid and realistic. Also, spaceships make no noise in the vacuum of space and astronaut
Astronaut
An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
s routinely suffer from known space illnesses such as radiation poisoning
Radiation poisoning
Acute radiation syndrome also known as radiation poisoning, radiation sickness or radiation toxicity, is a constellation of health effects which occur within several months of exposure to high amounts of ionizing radiation...
, decompression sickness
Decompression sickness
Decompression sickness describes a condition arising from dissolved gases coming out of solution into bubbles inside the body on depressurization...
, cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
, brittle bone
Osteoporosis
Osteoporosis is a disease of bones that leads to an increased risk of fracture. In osteoporosis the bone mineral density is reduced, bone microarchitecture is deteriorating, and the amount and variety of proteins in bone is altered...
s and mental illnesses spawned from isolation in the vacuum of space. One character, born on the Moon, grew to be abnormally tall due to the lesser lunar gravity, looking like a full grown adult at the mere age of 12.
Concepts like momentum in weightlessness are early plot points and are always illustrated naturally. Director Goro Taniguchi stated in the DVD commentary that he learned much about orbital mechanics in the course of making the series. This can be shown in showing specific orbital energy
Specific orbital energy
In the gravitational two-body problem, the specific orbital energy \epsilon\,\! of two orbiting bodies is the constant sum of their mutual potential energy and their total kinetic energy , divided by the reduced mass...
, through changing orbits
Planetary orbit
In physics, an orbit is the gravitationally curved path of an object around a point in space, for example the orbit of a planet around the center of a star system, such as the Solar System...
by applying thrust throughout the series. Even the necessity for the retrieval of space debris that is central to the plot is rooted in the serious and growing problem with space debris today.
The show also works to connect itself to the history of rocket
Rocket
A rocket is a missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust from a rocket engine. In all rockets, the exhaust is formed entirely from propellants carried within the rocket before use. Rocket engines work by action and reaction...
ry and space flight. The opening sequence is similar to the television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
series Star Trek: Enterprise
Star Trek: Enterprise
Star Trek: Enterprise is a science fiction television series. It follows the adventures of humanity's first warp 5 starship, the Enterprise, ten years before the United Federation of Planets shown in previous Star Trek series was formed.Enterprise premiered on September 26, 2001...
, featuring a montage of the history of space flight from Greek mythology
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
to the "modern" setting outlined in the series. Along the way, animated images of important milestones in space travel like Robert Goddard's early rocket tests, the V-2 rocket
V-2 rocket
The V-2 rocket , technical name Aggregat-4 , was a ballistic missile that was developed at the beginning of the Second World War in Germany, specifically targeted at London and later Antwerp. The liquid-propellant rocket was the world's first long-range combat-ballistic missile and first known...
, Sputnik 1
Sputnik 1
Sputnik 1 ) was the first artificial satellite to be put into Earth's orbit. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957. The unanticipated announcement of Sputnik 1s success precipitated the Sputnik crisis in the United States and ignited the Space...
, Laika
Laika
Laika was a Soviet space dog that became the first animal to orbit the Earth – as well as the first animal to die in orbit.As little was known about the impact of spaceflight on living creatures at the time of Laika's mission, and the technology to de-orbit had not yet been developed, there...
the dog, the Vostok spacecraft
Vostok spacecraft
The Vostok was a type of spacecraft built by the Soviet Union. The first human spaceflight in history was accomplished on this spacecraft on April 12, 1961, by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin....
, Apollo 11
Apollo 11
In early 1969, Bill Anders accepted a job with the National Space Council effective in August 1969 and announced his retirement as an astronaut. At that point Ken Mattingly was moved from the support crew into parallel training with Anders as backup Command Module Pilot in case Apollo 11 was...
, Skylab
Skylab
Skylab was a space station launched and operated by NASA, the space agency of the United States. Skylab orbited the Earth from 1973 to 1979, and included a workshop, a solar observatory, and other systems. It was launched unmanned by a modified Saturn V rocket, with a mass of...
, Mir
Mir
Mir was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, at first by the Soviet Union and then by Russia. Assembled in orbit from 1986 to 1996, Mir was the first modular space station and had a greater mass than that of any previous spacecraft, holding the record for the...
, the International Space Station
International Space Station
The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...
and the Space Shuttle Endeavour
Space Shuttle Endeavour
Space Shuttle Endeavour is one of the retired orbiters of the Space Shuttle program of NASA, the space agency of the United States. Endeavour was the fifth and final spaceworthy NASA space shuttle to be built, constructed as a replacement for Challenger...
and other milestones are displayed. References to early pioneers in rocketry like Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky was an Imperial Russian and Soviet rocket scientist and pioneer of the astronautic theory. Along with his followers the German Hermann Oberth and the American Robert H. Goddard, he is considered to be one of the founding fathers of rocketry and astronautics...
, Robert H. Goddard
Robert H. Goddard
Robert Hutchings Goddard was an American professor, physicist and inventor who is credited with creating and building the world's first liquid-fueled rocket, which he successfully launched on March 16, 1926...
, Wernher von Braun
Wernher von Braun
Wernher Magnus Maximilian, Freiherr von Braun was a German rocket scientist, aerospace engineer, space architect, and one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Nazi Germany during World War II and in the United States after that.A former member of the Nazi party,...
and Hermann Oberth
Hermann Oberth
Hermann Julius Oberth was an Austro-Hungarian-born German physicist and engineer. He is considered one of the founding fathers of rocketry and astronautics.- Early life :...
are also made regularly.
The Japanese space agency JAXA served as a technical consultant to the series. The US version of the DVDs featured interviews with two scientists from NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
's Orbital Debris Section. However, both scientists stated that the premise of having to rendezvous with debris in orbit is highly unlikely as it would take an extravagant amount of energy for a relatively small amount of salvageable material. One of the scientists stated that the previous director of the NASA Orbital Debris Section was in fact Donald J. Kessler, the scientist who proposed the eponymous Kessler Syndrome
Kessler Syndrome
The Kessler syndrome , proposed by NASA scientist Donald J...
, which is cited and used several times in both the anime and manga.
Human elements
The story also depicts the richer countries monopolizingMonopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
resources in space and the poorer ones falling into civil war
Civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
and being invaded or needing the assistance of those richer countries, telling a story of dependency theory
Dependency theory
Dependency theory or dependencia theory is a body of social science theories predicated on the notion that resources flow from a "periphery" of poor and underdeveloped states to a "core" of wealthy states, enriching the latter at the expense of the former...
and the negative side of environmentalism
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
. The conflicting views of the terrorist group, the Space Defense Front, who wish to shut human beings off from space, the main characters who believe in the importance of space exploration
Space exploration
Space exploration is the use of space technology to explore outer space. Physical exploration of space is conducted both by human spaceflights and by robotic spacecraft....
and development, and the International Treaty Organization (INTO) which wants space development primarily to serve the economic and military needs of developed nations also play major roles. The anime refrains from oversimplification of the various factions, portraying both true believers and those with ulterior motives on all sides. The final settlement of the conflict is also unique in that it is not resolved by any of the main protagonists or antagonists, but by a compromise struck between powers above their heads.
Both the anime and manga set a precedent of portraying a highly multicultural
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
cast of characters. Usually, characters who refer to anime stereotypes are immediately berated by other characters.
Themes
The themes in Planetes are philosophicalPhilosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, sociological
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
, and political
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
in nature.
- The theme most prevalent within the plot is the relationship between space, humanity, and the individual. Hachimaki struggles throughout the story with his own relationship with space and consequently, other people. Meanwhile, the terrorist group, the Space Defence Front's view of humanity's relationship with space is the driving force through much of the story.
- Existential dread (or angst) and the characters' response to it is an important part to their characterization. The characters' response to angst, particularly the protagonist Hachimaki, becomes a source of both internal and external conflict throughout the story.
- Both the manga and the anime criticize artificial divisions, including political divisions within humanity, as well as divisions between nations, individuals, and class divisions.
- In the anime, several characters were introduced in order to add its criticism of salarymanSalarymanrefers to someone whose income is salary based; particularly those working for corporations. Its frequent use by Japanese corporations, and its prevalence in Japanese manga and anime has gradually led to its acceptance in English-speaking countries as a noun for a Japanese white-collar...
culture. Some of these characters are portrayed only to seek to climb the corporate ladder, however unlikely it may be. This fact makes several characters lose sight of the importance of their job, however lowly others might see it. At the same time, several characters are introduced who seek to work within the system in order to make a difference.
- More generally, the series examines the difference between greed and ambition. The purpose and consequences of space exploration are seen both as they relate to humanity as a whole, and how they relate to the Hoshino family in particular. For humanity, space exploration holds the promise of increased wealth and prosperity. However, as the most wealthy nations are the only ones that can develop space, they are the only ones who end up reaping the benefits. Similarly, the protagonist, Hachirota Hoshino, initially wants to go faster and farther than he ever has before, yet as a result he nearly destroys both himself, and his relationships with others. Hachi's father, Goro Hoshino, is also caught between the two, having spent many years away from his wife and children so that he could explore space. Lastly, Hachi's younger brother, Kyutaro Hoshino, is obsessed with building rockets, either to make a name for himself, to upstage his brother, or to gain more attention and respect from his family, even if this occasionally results in putting their lives in danger when one of his rockets flies out of control.
Production
Though author/illustrator Makoto Yukimura does not have a background in the sciences, the idea of Planetes came to him while reading a book called A Garbage Problem in Space: Space Debris, and found the Japanese phoenetics for the word debris amusing. Yukimura intentionally did not research space technology for fears that it would compromise his artistic freedom.The presentation of technology in the anime adaptation broke from the manga in several areas, such as with the inclusion of touch-controlled HUD
Head-Up Display
A head-up display or heads-up display is any transparent display that presents data without requiring users to look away from their usual viewpoints...
s, retractable debris face shields with a video screen, and peripheral cameras to the EVA suits the main characters use. Also, the anime introduces refinements in the weightless living and working spaces, with foot and hand bars for people to stabilize their movement in a weightless environment. The base of operations of Toy Box is moved from the Moon to a space station called the ISPV 7 in Low Earth Orbit
Low Earth orbit
A low Earth orbit is generally defined as an orbit within the locus extending from the Earth’s surface up to an altitude of 2,000 km...
. The United States of America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
is explicitly named in the manga, as opposed to in the anime where it is seldom mentioned in favor of "INTO" or the International Treaty Organization (a possible reference to NATO and SEATO), which seems to be a federation of individual countries including the United States and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.
Planetes shared part of its production staff with another anime series that ran at the same time on NHK
NHK
NHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....
, Twin Spica
Twin Spica
is a Japanese seinen manga series written and illustrated by Kou Yaginuma. The "realistic, slice-of-life science fiction series" tells the story of a group of Japanese high school students training to become astronauts in the early 21st century after the country's first human spaceflight launch...
. From this, the production staff slipped several easter egg cross overs into Planetes. Some of these include:
- The hotel on the ISPV 7 Space Station is called the Hotel SpicaSpicaSpica is the brightest star in the constellation Virgo, and the 15th brightest star in the nighttime sky. It is 260 light years distant from Earth...
. - Episode 20 of the Planetes anime featured an isolation test which mirrored the isolation test which was part of the National Space Academy entrance test in Twin Spica.
- Inflated spherical escape pods, or "rescue balls" are featured in both series at some point.
There are several times where the anime and the manga would allude to each other. The following are some examples of this:
- "Nora", Technora Corporation's mascot in the anime is originally Hachimaki's alien friend who appeared in a dream.
- The white cat the SDF used as an avatar in the anime to talk to the Union conference delegates in episode 23 is Hachimaki's vision of God during his vision questVision questA vision quest is a rite of passage in some Native American cultures.In many Native American groups, the vision quest is a turning point in life taken before puberty to find oneself and the intended spiritual and life direction. When an older child is ready, he or she will go on a personal,...
on the Lunar surface. - In episode 22, the Debris Section Office Staff visit the Moon Debris Section office and find that the office staff there is very similar to them. This is a reference to the fact that the Toy Box and its crew were based on the Moon in the manga.
- In a non-canonCanon (fiction)In the context of a work of fiction, the term canon denotes the material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction, which are not considered canonical...
yonkomaYonkomathumb|right|150px|Traditional Yonkoma layout, a comic-strip format, generally consists of gag comic strips within four panels of equal size ordered from top to bottom...
gag strip in the manga, Tanabe is defeated in volleyballVolleyballVolleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...
by Claire (who only appears in the anime). However, Claire's face is not seen, as she states that the cartoonist "Isn't confident enough to draw me".
Reception
Both the manga and the anime were critically lauded. According to Anime News NetworkAnime News Network
Anime News Network is an anime industry news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, Japanese popular music and other otaku-related culture within North America, Australia and Japan. Additionally, it sometimes features similar happenings throughout the Anglosphere and elsewhere in the...
, the manga has a "solid, engrossing storyline and well-developed characters". Anime News Network also proclaimed Planetes to be the best science fiction anime series of 2005. Both the manga and anime received the Seiun Award
Seiun Award
The is a Japanese science fiction award for the best science fiction published in Japan during the preceding year, as voted by attendees of the Japan Science Fiction Convention. "Seiun" is the Japanese word for "nebula", but the award is not related to the American Nebula Award. It was named after...
for best science fiction series, the manga in 2002 and the anime in 2005.
Sales-wise, the manga was only a modest success in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, with volume 3 reaching 81st place on the Diamond US sales top 100, selling about 1100 copies through the distributor. Volume 4 reached 93rd place, selling about 1400 copies.
Manga
The series was originally published by KodanshaKodansha
, the largest Japanese publisher, produces the manga magazines Nakayoshi, Afternoon, Evening, and Weekly Shonen Magazine, as well as more literary magazines such as Gunzō, Shūkan Gendai, and the Japanese dictionary Nihongo Daijiten. The company has its headquarters in Bunkyō, Tokyo...
in the manga magazine Weekly Morning
Weekly Morning
is a weekly Japanese seinen manga magazine published by Kodansha, aimed at adult men. It debuted in 1982 as and is also known as simply .- Series running every week :- Series running every other week :...
from January 1999 to January 2004 and collected in four tankōbon
Tankobon
, with a literal meaning close to "independently appearing book", is the Japanese term for a book that is complete in itself and is not part of a series , though the manga industry uses it for volumes which may be in a series...
volumes. It is licensed in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
by Tokyopop
Tokyopop
Tokyopop, styled TOKYOPOP, and formerly known as Mixx, is a distributor, licensor, and publisher of anime, manga, manhwa, and Western manga-style works. The existing German publishing division produces German translations of licensed Japanese properties and original English-language manga, as well...
, where it was published in five volumes by splitting the last volume in two parts.
Anime
The Planetes anime began airing its 26 episode run on NHK BS-2 on October 4, 2003 and ended on February 23, 2004. Produced and animated by SunriseSunrise (company)
is a Japanese animation studio and production enterprise. It is a subsidiary of Namco Bandai Holdings. Its former name was Nippon Sunrise, and prior to that, Sunrise Studios...
, it was directed by Gorō Taniguchi
Goro Taniguchi
is a Japanese anime director, writer, producer and storyboard artist, who is among Sunrise's noted new directors.-TV anime:*Zettai Muteki Raijin-Oh...
and scripted by Ichirō Ōkouchi
Ichiro Okouchi
is a Japanese screenwriter and novelist. He is a graduate of Waseda University, School of Human Sciences.In 2006, Ōkouchi collaborated with director Gorō Taniguchi for composing the story and script of the Sunrise original production, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion and its sequel Code Geass:...
(both of whom would later reunite in 2006 to work on the Sunrise original production Code Geass). The anime began development and production before the end of the manga serialization. In the beginning and middle of the series, the writing and production staff only had the first three volumes of the manga as source. In order to fill the entire 26 episode run of the anime, new characters, new settings and new relationships between characters were made in order to increase dramatic tension, reinforce themes introduced in the manga, and introduce new themes that were compatible with the manga. While the manga deals more with existential
Existentialism
Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...
themes, and humanity's relationship with space, the anime further expands the political elements of the story.
The music of Planetes is a mixture of traditional orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
l music, supplemented by chorals, several uses of a theremin
Theremin
The theremin , originally known as the aetherphone/etherophone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox is an early electronic musical instrument controlled without discernible physical contact from the player. It is named after its Russian inventor, Professor Léon Theremin, who patented the device...
, and traditional Japanese woodwinds (e.g. Shakuhachi
Shakuhachi
The is a Japanese end-blown flute. It is traditionally made of bamboo, but versions now exist in ABS and hardwoods. It was used by the monks of the Fuke school of Zen Buddhism in the practice of...
). The music score was composed by Kōtarō Nakagawa
Kotaro Nakagawa
is a Japanese composer and arranger. He is a graduate of the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music's school of music.He is the son of trumpet player Yoshihiro Nakagawa, the elder brother of trombone player Eijirō Nakagawa and the nephew of clarinet player Takeshi Nakagawa and trombone...
and produced by Victor Entertainment
Victor Entertainment
is a subsidiary of Japan Victor Company that produces and distributes music, movies and other entertainment products such as anime and television shows in Japan. It was formerly known as...
. The opening theme is "Dive in the Sky" by Mikio Sakai
Mikio Sakai
is a Japanese singer-songwriter. His real name is . He made his debut with the single .He has composed, written and performed numerous songs for several anime, including Fantastic Children, Tsubasa Chronicle, the Gorō Taniguchi-directed Sunrise productions, Planetes, s-CRY-ed, Code Geass, as well...
, and the ending themes are "Wonderful Life" by Mikio Sakai for episodes 1-25 and "Planetes" by Hitomi Kuroishi
Hitomi Kuroishi
is a Japanese female singer-songwriter and composer, born in Kanazawa, Ishikawa. She is credited simply as Hitomi for her vocals, not to be confused with J-pop singer Hitomi....
for episode 26, a theme very influenced by the sound of Enya
Enya
Enya is an Irish singer, instrumentalist and songwriter. Enya is an approximate transliteration of how Eithne is pronounced in the Donegal dialect of the Irish language, her native tongue.She began her musical career in 1980, when she briefly joined her family band Clannad before leaving to...
. There are two insert songs, "A Secret of the Moon" by Hitomi Kuroishi
Hitomi Kuroishi
is a Japanese female singer-songwriter and composer, born in Kanazawa, Ishikawa. She is credited simply as Hitomi for her vocals, not to be confused with J-pop singer Hitomi....
, used in various episodes, and "Thanks My Friend" by Mikio Sakai
Mikio Sakai
is a Japanese singer-songwriter. His real name is . He made his debut with the single .He has composed, written and performed numerous songs for several anime, including Fantastic Children, Tsubasa Chronicle, the Gorō Taniguchi-directed Sunrise productions, Planetes, s-CRY-ed, Code Geass, as well...
used in episode 13.
Soundtracks
Opening Theme "Dive in the Sky" by Mikio Sakai.Ending Themes "Wonderful Life" by Mikio Sakai and "PLANETES" by Hitomi only in episode 26.
Disk 1
| # | Title | Artist | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Outside atmosphere | Kōtarō Nakagawa | 2:22 |
| 2 | Dive in the Sky | Mikio Sakai | 4:27 |
| 3 | Jupiter highway | Kōtarō Nakagawa | 2:26 |
| 4 | Urgent mission | Kōtarō Nakagawa | 2:33 |
| 5 | Floating ruin | Kōtarō Nakagawa | 1:53 |
| 6 | Music for universe | Kōtarō Nakagawa | 1:52 |
| 7 | A secret of the moon | Hitomi | 5:03 |
| 8 | My address | Kōtarō Nakagawa | 2:24 |
| 9 | Work with dance | Kōtarō Nakagawa | 1:32 |
| 10 | Circular style | Kōtarō Nakagawa | 2:38 |
| 11 | True stories | Kōtarō Nakagawa | 2:57 |
| 12 | My first experience | Kōtarō Nakagawa | 1:54 |
| 13 | Paradise and cola | Kōtarō Nakagawa | 1:25 |
| 14 | Terrible workplace | Kōtarō Nakagawa | 2:22 |
| 15 | FB | Kōtarō Nakagawa | 1:45 |
| 16 | The enterprise | Kōtarō Nakagawa | 2:07 |
| 17 | Fate of man | Kōtarō Nakagawa | 1:52 |
| 18 | Turn into space | Kōtarō Nakagawa | 1:36 |
| 19 | There is no | Kōtarō Nakagawa | 1:44 |
| 20 | Our world | Kōtarō Nakagawa | 2:10 |
| 21 | Wonderful Life | Mikio Sakai | 4:36 |
Disk 2
| # | Title | Artist | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Remember Me? | Kōtarō Nakagawa | 1:56 |
| 2 | Thanks my friend | Mikio Sakai | 5:14 |
| 3 | Bingo | Kōtarō Nakagawa | 1:37 |
| 4 | Hoshino's Family | Kōtarō Nakagawa | 2:30 |
| 5 | Wishes | Kōtarō Nakagawa | 2:57 |
| 6 | Make Your Canvas | Kōtarō Nakagawa | 2:04 |
| 7 | Perfect Answer | Kōtarō Nakagawa | 1:49 |
| 8 | Target Loss | Kōtarō Nakagawa | 1:43 |
| 9 | Great Father | Kōtarō Nakagawa | 2:18 |
| 10 | PLANETES [affettuoso] | Hitomi | 3:10 |
| 11 | Flying Anonymous | Kōtarō Nakagawa | 1:32 |
| 12 | United Nations | Kōtarō Nakagawa | 2:35 |
| 13 | Avoid Object | Kōtarō Nakagawa | 1:43 |
| 14 | The Confession | Kōtarō Nakagawa | 1:59 |
| 15 | Turning Sequence | Kōtarō Nakagawa | 1:44 |
| 16 | Our Debris Section | Kōtarō Nakagawa | 2:25 |
| 17 | Dream Space | Kōtarō Nakagawa | 2:10 |
| 18 | Enemy Inside | Kōtarō Nakagawa | 1:53 |
| 19 | God Only Knows | Kōtarō Nakagawa | 2:25 |
| 20 | Be a New Man | Kōtarō Nakagawa | 2:19 |
| 21 | PLANETES | Hitomi | 8:13 |
| 22 | Previous Notice | Kōtarō Nakagawa, Mikio Sakai | 0:29 |