The success and failure of Planetes

Written by Richard Durrance on 27 Feb 2025

Being unable to recall whether or not I'd already seen Planetes, I took a punt on a Blu-ray of Sunrise’s 2003-4 series. The concept intrigued me and what was the worst that could happen? (The Blu-ray could turn into a wolf and eat me whole but I thought that unlikely.)

Ai Tanabe arrives enthusiastically on space station ISPV-7 only to find she’s assigned to the Debris Section, a ragtag misfit laden team consigned to the bowels of the station. Taken under the wing of EVA specialist debris collector Hachimaki (nicknamed after his headband, a symbol of his determination) and Fee Carmichael, the pilot of their rust-bucket ship named Toy Box, Tanabe is drawn into the team and drawn to Hachimaki. Only Hachimaki starts to dream of joining the Von Braun, the ship scheduled to take the seven-year round trip to Jupiter.

I enjoyed Planetes (or, Wanderers) right from the off. The mixture of serious drama and humour, the lack of overburdening exposition and the simplicity of the premise. The underdog debris collectors (or half section, as they are none too affectionately known) may be operated by a tropey bunch of misfits, but there was something pitched just right about the series as a whole. The series takes a serious sci-fi approach as it subtly develops it’s characters and themes, touches on politics and makes wider societal commentaries.

Then it all went a little bit wrong. I felt it made exactly the same mistake as Violent Evergarden. Both series work best when focusing deeply on the characters and themes using subtlety and human drama, but both series takes a turn away from those elements to go elsewhere, and they lose something in the transition. 

Getting to know Planetes

As the series opens I thought that Tanabe would be the protagonist. With her wide-eyed enthusiasm and unadulterated optimism – even making the mistake of introducing herself to the command team and falling over, only to be sent to absolute pits of the station – it felt like here was the character we’d likely follow through because we’d see her grow, or not, in this new environment. Tanabe does grow, though the series focuses far more heavily, especially in the latter half, on Hachimaki. Hachimaki is not a kindly teacher as a debris collector but he is not an unkind one either, instead recognising that in space there are enormous inherent risks and there is no room for error or inexperience. This is definitely an aspect very much in Planetes favour because its hard sci-fi premise is taken seriously and grounded in reality. I liked how every time Toy Box would exit the station all sound would abruptly end except a puff of air you can imagine escaping as the airlock closes. In that sense Planetes is like 2001: A Space Odyssey, it is aiming for enough realism to make you recognise space is a genuinely dangerous place – yes it can be exciting but it can also very likely kill you, especially if you are unprepared and do not treat it with the respect it is due.

Later we’ll meet characters who are frail because of their love of space, radiation causing cancers and untimely death. Yet for all the harder sci-fi elements, Planetes is not afraid to leaven the story with humour. On a trip to the moon Hachimaki is attacked by a load of ninja, who are in fact out of work spacers who become friends with him and Tanabe (this association is later tragically paid off), and the chief of the debris section and the assistant manager are very much incompetent managerial tropes, more there for comic relief. Yet it balances this with the physical and mental damage space causes, Hachimaki becoming almost unable to bear the idea of going back into space after being stranded, and Tanabe injuring her body close to the point of permanent disability, each at various points at the story.

The everyday dangers of space

The first half of the series really gets under the skin of the characters, while delving into elements of politics and economics. Hachimaki’s old flame, Claire, comes from a nation that humanity's advent into space has not helped but has plunged into murderous civil war where the everyday population pay the price. In fact Planetes goes out of its way to show how the exploitation of space only financially helps a small number of companies and first world nations. In doing so it is of course making very pointed observations about our own world, but it does so without becoming too heavy handed (yet).

We learn of the Space Defence Front, a terrorist organisation in opposition to going into space when they believe the focus should be equality first on Earth; the Space Defence Front are willing to fight, die and kill to stop humans going into space (observing that the cost of the Von Braun mission could feed 40% of the world’s poor). Then Planetes gets into corporate politics, Toy Box’s pilot, Fee’s old comrade, Dolf, runs a section of their company, Technora, yet maintains his principles even if those around him play corporate politics and are subsumed by greed: Dolf is a lone wolf. Mainly though it’s Tanabe’s growing attraction to Hachimaki that dominates a lot of the earlier episodes, as is Hachimaki’s inability to see it (though we see him softening), and his friend Cheng-Shin who fancies Tanabe, that drives much of the narrative. Yet it’s done more as a gentle domestic throughline, a simmering of emotion rather than a wild explosion. Nevertheless, there is plenty going on to round out our other protagonists, Fee, as well as other Toy Box operative and animal keeper, Yuri. Even the temporary office worker Edel, who could easily be a faceless extra gets a surprising backstory, which is sensitively handled. It’s such a strength of the first half of the series that it manages to really take a body of characters (many not mentioned) and create a tapestry of relationships that feel real, move the story forward with a gentle energy, while allowing a series of themes to emerge that feel genuinely meaningful.

So where did Planetes start to go awry?

Like the first stab at Fullmetal Alchemist, Planetes was based on an unfinished manga and you can see in the latter stages how the story becomes contrived in an attempt to create a more complete tale. How much of this follows the manga I cannot say but just checking the list of characters it makes clear Hachimaki’s old flame Claire and his friend, the pilot Cheng-Shin are both inventions of the anime. Both of these characters start off well but as the story gets into the latter third, involving more overt and extended terrorist violence, their characters both seem to go off the rails with the flimsiest of motivations. A little of Claire’s shift in characterisation is (you can argue though I think very tenuously) presaged by an early encounter with a fellow countryman, desperate to get his ludicrous EVA suit approved. But Cheng-Shin has a bizarre outburst of aggression that seems more an attempt to add drama, unlike the understated drama that previously suffused Planetes that were inserted subtly; so these overtly dramatic beats are unnecessary, just as unnecessary as the two real weaknesses for me: firstly, Hachimaki’s sudden descent into borderline psychopathy when deciding to apply to join the Von Braun trip to Jupiter (bearing in mind the 1000-1 chance of getting in), where his character becomes, if anything, deeply unsympathetic as he cuts out everyone except a fellow wannabe, who is equally as near murderously desirous of joining the Jupiter mission; and secondly the final protracted terrorist action.


A mis-step into the final act

It was frustrating because Hachimaki is a character who is likeable but prickly and suddenly he goes into full-obsessive overdrive. It doesn’t help that his decision seems a bit sudden and inexplicable. Previously Hachimaki is mocked because he wants his own ship, and his lottery ticket habit is an excess by which he hopes to win enough to do so. Suddenly this is all forgotten and his change of ambition is attempted to be explained away by Claire, who describes Hachimaki as a thoroughbred since his father was a hero of early space missions. Claire, too, starts off as competent but again becomes inexplicably less competent, which is explained by her having no such lineage. It all just feels lazy and patronising towards Claire, the late learner refugee who had to push herself to the top. Now if it was suggested she had somehow burned out that might work, but no, she just suddenly makes mistakes. Then the near final act (before the epilogue) goes full terrorist action as the Space Defence Front are suddenly able to hack secure communications and all that near-omniscient trope-ish nonsense. Early on, the Space Defence Front are more like the IRA I remember growing up with, planting bombs in bins and buildings (yes, I still remember turning on the TV to find them having blown up a local pub and someone I knew had driven past minutes before it went off) so imagine then a similar organisation going from that to hacking their way to the centre of government and launching all out attacks. Yes, there is a very definite political point to it: the spoils of the future must be shared and it is a good and fair point, but it was one that Planetes had already handled earlier in the series and at least as effectively, if not more so because it doesn’t need the terrorist action and gunfights that undermine all the hard work setting up the story and characters that this sudden attack betrays.

One of the problems I find reviewing, well anything, is that it’s easier to describe all that is bad than good. Learning to write screenplays the guiding advice was always that if you want to know how to write them, don’t watch good films, watch bad films, because great films hide their construction and bad films wear their failures on their sleeves. And Planetes is both of those things. I feel I’ve hit more on the bad because what it does so well is hidden under its excellent construction. Tanabe is extremely likeable, Hachimaki (for a while) walks that difficult tightrope of being a difficult person, but you can see his values and strength of character. The rest of the cast are well fleshed out and the opening half, with their character driven stories and subtle drama, mixed with the seriousness of space in how it can get under your skin, delight and also kill you, is beautifully done. There’s no need for the latter heavy-handed dramatic beats because Planetes is so strong at allowing its characters to speak to you and get under your skin, so that when you meet the out of work ninjas or the underdog EVA suit developer it’s a real joy. The series also nails the lasting attachments between people, so that when Fee speaks with the more successful Dolf, you immediately recognise their friendship. The series does this time and again, subtly suggesting shared pasts, including hints of families back home and missed loved ones. It so very, very strongly and it feels like a missed opportunity that this status quo wasn't maintained throughout the full run. If Planetes had dialled back it’s latter third act terrorist arc and instead made more effort to have Hachimaki’s Jupiter obsession feel more organic I think Planetes could have hit stone cold classic status. Instead it stands as a series with a strong, sometimes magnificent start and a muddled, unnecessary and ill-fitting ending. 

Celebrating the good

Nevertheless, for its age the animation still holds up well. True it’s not as fluid as more modern series but I don’t see that as an issue, especially as the design was excellent. The characters feel distinct and real (excepting the overweight chief, and over the top assistant manager, both characters I felt mainly seemed redundant except to provide the odd dramatic beat or comic interlude). I think their "realness" matters because of how - in the main - Planetes really digs into the science and dangers of space as well as its awe inspiring nature.

The ship designs, the station ISPV-7, again all feel like a great deal of thought has gone into them to make them feel like they could and should exist. True, ISPV-7 has more than a little of the space station in 2001 about it, but so what, the spin is to create artificial gravity so it all makes sense. Toy Box is a clunker and sometimes bits fall off, but it feels like an old warhorse of a ship, one that could just keep going like any well designed piece of kit. Down at the personal level, the design of the EVA suits the debris team wear, including the closing face masks to create protection and access to functionality, added to the sense of verisimilitude throughout.

The music, though never intrusive, is intriguing. At times it uses traditional shakuhachi flutes but it also introduces elements that seem mathematical and highly structured, similar to 1980s King Crimson, or Philip Glass or Steve Reich compositions at their most precise (I mean, Glass wrote a mathematical opera about Einstein so it all makes sense).

I do wonder what would happen if, as happened with Fullmetal Alchemist, it would be worth going back to the finished manga and making a proper adaptation not a half-manga, half-invented series because the wonderfully understated storytelling and character development of the first half of the series, and the more mature approach to space exploration, were a delight to watch. Really I was able to binge the series until my frustrations at Hachimaki’s about-face and the unnecessary bang-bang action conclusion, but even then I was mainly able to get through the ending episodes in a couple of days, even if honestly I did have to turn it off a couple of times to take a breather and grind the irritation from my teeth. It’s just such a shame to see such promise being compromised.

Should you watch Planetes?

That all said there is something about anime of the mid-2000s where shows were willing to be ambitious and take risks - Serial Experiments Lain, Haibane Renmei and others stand out. I'm sure there are many still out there but if so we seem to see precious few in our part of the world and for all my issues I'd rather a dozen ambitious attempts that really look to do something different, something new or deeper then yet another long-titled isekai. And for that I'm glad Planetes exists and would certainly recommend it; also I suspect many people out there will be fine with how the latter stages of the story play out. Just the subtle pacing and understated drama were so well done, I felt it could just have kept on going and going… if only.

Post-script - having finished the review, it struck me how elements in the scenario in Planetes is not too dissimilar to where we are with Musk and Bezos obsessed with going into space; as someone commented recently, when the billionaires go into space they should not be allowed back in, because the world doesn't need billionaires, it needs a fairer distribution of wealth. Who behind Planetes had the crystal ball?

Tanabe, like the series, reaching for the stars and not quite reaching them.