Space. As we move further and further out into the final frontier, we leave garbage, debris, and scraps orbiting the Earth. It’s become such a problem that there are now people whose job is to collect the debris and keep spacecraft and satellites safe from colliding with debris. Planetes is the story of Technora Corporation’s Space Debris Section,  its members and their daily lives.

This series is a hard sci-fi anime, and I’m not a big fan of hard sci-fi (I do love regular science fiction, though. Especially Star Trek. Not to mention the opening was great, inspiring, and also very reminiscent of the opening of Star Trek: Enterprise. ) but Planetes amazed me in ways I’ve rarely been amazed in years of watching anime. Planetes kept my attention throughout its entirety, not by having loads of robots, space battles, and other things you see when it comes to sci-fi anime. It was about the real life of these four people, how they interacted with each other, how they developed as humans throughout the series, and how realistic they were. Hachimaki, Tanabe, Fee, and Yuri felt like real people, with real feelings, and real goals to achieve. What struck me the hardest out of everything in the series, it was the realism of everything. The relationship between Hachimaki and Tanabe grew as they grew, and as Hachimaki fought with his inability to express his true feelings.

The characters and how they grew was a big part of the series. The sci-fi took a backseat for a lot of the series for character growth. Sometimes in anime, holding off on the sci-fi for character development can can end in a snorefest, (I’m looking at you, Gundam 00.) but in this instance, the character development was great. The episode where they explained Yuri’s motivation and his goal in being a debris collector moved me. I absolutely loved Ai Tanabe. She was cute, in a naive way, and that’s hard to nail as well as Planetes did. The dialogue between the characters was intriguing, and kept my attention. Planetes made me genuinely care for all of the crew at the Space Debris Section, and they all had my heart. Planetes did so much with such a small main cast. Another thing I loved about Planetes is the way they told the story. They used very good plot devices, such as when Hachimaki and Tanabe would collect debris in space, instead of the scene being completely about the characters collectiong debris, the job would be more of a place for the two characters to strengthen their bond. The entire show had me glued to the TV, but it was the end that really made me fall in love with it. Several parts towards the end had me in tears. And I loved it.

Now that I got the lovefest out of the way, let me tell you the few things wrong with Planetes. There are some parts in the series that can get rather confusing. Certain character’s professions, Technora crap that doesn’t really matter, and the whole social commentary spin they put on the show that had me a little disenchanted. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the whole thing with El Tanika and The Space Defense Front, but it seemed sort of tacked on at the end, and it left me a bit less than crazy over those parts.

Planetes was a great series because of its realism, and it didn’t end at the characters and how they acted. The sci-fi aspect of the series was super realistic, I believe we could be where they are in the show technologically in 70 years, and that gave the show an even bigger sense of realism. Realism seems to be the word of the day, but in all honesty, that’s what really sold me. Overall, Planetes is a great sci-fi anime with a lot more to love. If you’re looking for an anime with realistic EVERYTHING, a load of heart, and a nice helping of sci-fi, Planetes is perfect for you.