the planetes manga is one of my favorite pieces of media of all time and i put off watching the anime for years because i was afraid that anything less than perfection would spoil the manga somehow or at the very least waste my time. i even reread it for the third time shortly before watching the anime to refresh my memory. so i want to preface this review by saying that i have held this anime to exceptionally high standards because of its source material. this review is in essence a comparison of how it measured up. as such you can expect some significant plot spoilers. i also apologize if it is somewhat disorganized as well as it was written in a rather streamofconsciousness fashion. to begin with one of the animes greatest strengths was one that might be easy to overlookthe relationship between the weight of existential awareness and the fragility of the human psyche. the line between the highly romanticized idea of existential despair and the very real life consequences of the depression and anxiety it begets is so thin as to be nonexistent and acknowledging that is what makes the difference between needless detached navelgazing contemplation and storytelling that appeals directly to the human condition. the viewer can empathize deeply with characters struggles with these deeply familiar psychological demons even though they are often triggered by what are to us mere earthdwellers extraordinary circumstances. another thing the anime nailed was its scientific accuracy. after all the planetes manga is pretty much universally agreed to be the single most scientifically accurate scifi manga ever written and the anime certainly takes that notoriety in stride. because it takes place only about half a century from now space exploration is still in its relatively early stages rooted in technologies recognizable from space travel today. as such planetes isnt the kind of story that can asspull some random gadget for plot reasonseverything must be rooted in the principles of real engineering and astrophysics. and although there are some things that are somewhat dumbed down from the manga the anime never strayed toward any fantastical embellishments and stuck to the recognizable science of nearfuture space travel. the closest it came to anything unbelievable was the animeonly combat mode transformation added to some of the ships but even this was relatively downplayed in that the majority of the conflict was fought via hacking espionage or good ol fashioned guns and bombsnothing unbelievably far off from how wars are fought in the modern day. as far as characterization goes i think the anime got hachi and yuri down really well and even expanded on their characters at a few choice opportunities yuris little speech to tanabe about how it feels to lose someone you love was absolutely chilling and a splendid animeonly addition. they captured hachis misanthropic often depressive nature and the psychological circumstances for his sudden renewal of passion after the first but not last time he hits rock bottom midway through the series. they also do well overall with managing the complex dynamic of how this interacts with tanabes optimism and hope as well as her comparative navet and the conflicts and miscommunications that can arise because of their disparatebut ultimately compatiblepersonalities. the emphasis on how hachi really needs tanabe to balance him out to keep the world in perspective is well done. something of note that might seem small but was a major issue for me was that the took out locksmiths meeting with the sister of one of the engineers killed by the von braun engine explosion. this scene happened near the end of the manga and it really drove home one of the mangas most important themes that no pursuit of scientific advancement no matter how great in magnitude is truly greater than the value of peoples lives. the idea of what it means to pursue space travel at the expense of ones own humanity and the humanity of others is something the anime does a very good job of exploring in the general sense. but locksmith is an important figure in hachis character arc the symbol of everything he aspires to be in his pursuit of jupiteryet his purpose in the anime is not fully resolved due to the absence of that pivotal scene. only when locksmith is forced to confront with the true consequences of his actions in the most literal sense possible do we fully recognize how unrealistic hachis own misguided pursuit of bermenschesque inhumanity really was. that even the sociopathic genius locksmith could not truly escape the consequences of his connections to other humans is an important point to keep in mind. i also think it did both tanabe and fee a disservice in general. there is certainly a more misogynistic undercurrent to how tanabes story plays out in particular which couldnt be further from the original manga. the problem i think starts from the very beginning they introduce her as a hapless OL whos found herself a job in the space industry practically by chance with no particular attachment to the field. shes just a young woman looking for a job somewhere. while i can understand this choice to turn her character into a vessel for the viewers introduction to space travel the everywoman if you will it does a disservice to her character to remove her very particular attachment to space. while its worth noting that she does acquire this attachment more as the series progresses the significance of her identity as an astronaut is never quite as clearcut as it is in the manga. this becomes most obvious with the animes choice to ground tanabeeven temporarilyand relegate her to the role of earthbound homemaker at the series end. i understand that given the added plot with her and claire stranded on the moon a scene which i did absolutely love by the waythe vast cosmic horror of suffocating to death while stranded in space hit real hard it makes sense for her to face physical consequences for her brush with death. but to disempower a woman who became such a driving force for this story and limit her role to the astronauts wife as implied by her comparison to hachis mother is insulting to her character. on that note tanabes backstory as well as fees were totally neglected. tanabes backstory in particular gives us some key insights into why she believes in the power of love so damn much it gives roots to the flowers of her kindness and compassion. i also have a sneaking suspicion that fee in particular was neglected in part because her backstory is steeped explicitly in antiblack racism in the american south and the anime wanted to make her ambiguously brown instead. they cut a lot of great feecentric scenes actually which disappointed me a lot because shes my favorite character and the anime kind of sidelined her and didnt do justice to her true depth. even the pivotal scene where she destroys that government mine loses a lot of depth because we never see her interactions with her son and how we reignites that spark of justice and bravery to rebel inside of her. also the whole thing of fee being literally declared a criminal for her rebellion against the u.s. military and how it relates to her lack of faith in the governments sense of justice due to the racism in her backstoryall of that was just scrapped. which is odd considering they gave claire a similar sort of character arc when it comes to her disillusionment with the powers that be...yet they robbed fee of that very important aspect of her character. speaking of claire they really wasted her potential in a lot of waysand she was honestly the best animeonly characterby having her punished and spat on by the narrative at the very end in spite of the fact that the entire story leading up to that point had only served to vindicate her in her choices. in general i can appreciate the character arc of building up a highly intelligent and skilled woman of color who is barred from the success she has earned due to the immense bigotry of those in power and earnestly depicting her struggle against it. but what ultimately becomes of her while sympathetic spoils the great character she could have been and ultimately validates many of the racist stereotypes that the narrative spent so much time condemning previously. relatedly i appreciated the expanded commentary on the evils of imperialism and capitalism which in some ways were actually highlighted even moreso than the original manga by way of greatly expanding the space defense fronts role in the story. however the fact that they removed all the explicit reference to the u.s. government in particular and made up the exploited countries made it feel a little cowardly to me. furthermore the consequence of the greater focus on imperialism was that it made crystal clear how the SDF was essentially entirely in the right in their beliefs and their anger but the narrative ultimately turned them into clich evil bad guys in the end in a manner that was really incongruous with how everything up until that point had validated their existence. basically my issue with the handling of the SDF is the same as my issue with the handling of claires character but expanded to a much larger scale. in general i was honestly pretty peeved at how they seemed to cut so many great parts of the manga when they had so much room and instead bloated it with unnecessary comic relief characters relationship drama and a list minute actionsuspense climax which was so totally incongruous with the kind of tone the manga takes. the expansion of the conflict with the space defense force into an actionpacked scifi battle in the final few episodes was somewhat tacky and decisively the weakest point in an otherwise mostly strong presentation even relative to other animeonly material. those final few episodes honestly lowered the score of this anime from what otherwise might have been a 9 or even a 9.5/10. ill note that there were many anime additions i did like such as the couple on the suicide vacation with their daughter which fit neatly into the themes at atmosphere set by the source material. i also quite enjoyed the addition of hachimakis mentor figure and how their whole relationship played out and especially how it fleshed out his relationship with hakim. it was a great opportunity to further explore his psychology which the anime took full advantage of. i appreciated the additional focus given to nono as well partly in conjunction with the focus on hachis mentor. these were areas where the anime saw the potential for adding some extra meat to the story which made it richer without detracting from its central themes. overall although this review has focused heavily on my criticism of specific plot elements and characterizations i did enjoy the anime quite a bit overall. i think ultimately most of the weakest points were animeonly plotlines but when it comes to the source material alone the anime did an excellent job portraying the the themes with deftness and accuracy. it is unfortunate that these animeonly additions somewhat muddled the tidiness of how these themes were meant to explored but it is also important to note that some of the animeonly content did an excellent job of bolstering and expanding upon those themes. IN SUMMARY: this anime was well above average but had some major flaws that shine through extra clearly in light of comparison to the source material. if you like the anime do yourself a favor and read the manga as well.
75 /100
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