What are we watching: Planetes
What’s it about: In 2075, space travel is no longer just a dream, but an everyday reality for mankind. Advancements in science and technology have led to the colonization of the moon, the commercialization of outer space, and the formation of large space corporations. Ai Tanabe, an upbeat woman whose interests lie in the cosmos, joins Technora Corporation as a member of their Debris Section, a department dedicated to the removal of dangerous space junk between the orbits of the Earth and Moon.
However, Ai soon discovers how unappreciated her job is. As the laughingstock of Technora, the Debris Section is severely understaffed, poorly funded, and is forced to use a dilapidated spaceship nicknamed the “Toy Box” for debris retrieval. Undeterred, Ai perseveres and gradually becomes acquainted with the strange personalities that make up the Debris Section’s staff, such as the bumbling but good-natured chief clerk Philippe Myers; the mysterious and tight-lipped temp worker Edelgard Rivera; and the hotheaded and passionate Hachirouta Hoshino, who longs for a spaceship to call his own.
Planetes is an unconventional sci-fi series that portrays the vastness of space as a backdrop for the personal lives of ordinary people—people who may have been born on Earth, but whose hopes and dreams lie amongst the stars.
Studio: Sunrise
Director: Taniguchi, Gorou
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DakRYsUIiIE
Where can I watch it: https://twist.moe/a/planetes/1 , https://thepiratebay.org/description.php?id=10060322
Spoilers beyond the current episode are :haram: . Please use the spoiler tag if you would like to discuss past the current episode. Everything in this episode and before are fair game.
So this episode Hachi’s dad Goro decides to take the ultimate tanshin funin to Jupiter. It seems the show makes a big point of contrasting personal ambition vs. social obligation. You can have a personal goal, or a social life. You can have a job, or you can have a family. It seems you can’t have both though. Is this always going to be an either/or proposition or is it just an issue in capitalist society?
I know this is just the C or D plot, but Claire really is a tragic character. Immigrant with almost no skills in childhood nearly becomes a big shot, before sticking her neck out and getting the axe because of it. You can tell she’s internalized some of the hardship and even mentioned the system being a lie, where you can’t actually become more than the sum of your parts. It sounded like she was intending to help people when she got to a higher position. (although it’s implied that she believes that might or will change at higher levels of power).
On a side note: The voice of the Puppet Master from GitS is also the voice of Goro.
Yeah, Claire is one of my favorite characters. Unlike others, her background really shapes her worldview and it’s at this point in the story where she cannot just ignore the inequalities and maintain the ambition needed to emotionlessly climb the latter especially when it is at the expense of the less fortunate (quote “No matter how delicious the food was, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy it if the peasants who made it were starving”). I really empathize with that because it similar to a lot how I felt when I became disillusioned with my own work. Like as soon as you kind of recognize the system for what it is, you see the problems everywhere you look and you really start to feel powerless.
I think it could be in contrast with Tachi who has just began to unquestioningly attach himself to a new goal where he has internalized the messaging of space development being a boon to all of humanity as opposed to just a few individuals.
