11th November 2010, 2:01 AM
(Not from the current season, but something I just watched)
Planetes 01-05 -- Huh, interesting show. First though, I have to mention it -- why is 2075 so much like '90s Japan? I mean, the office full of piles of paper, okay, the cultural attitudes of '90s Japan, okay (unlikely but things generally reflect their time), but stuff like finding who that guy (the company president or whatever's son) was in episode 5 by... looking through a big binder to find that guy's profile in it? Really? Maybe, but I'd think these days there'd be other ways... that's just a minor example, though. Really the issue is that the show doesn't exactly have much that's futuristic about it aside from the size and number of the space stations and colonies. Other than that it's essentially a present-day setting. This isn't exactly Ghost in the Shell... maybe they should have set it closer to today (than 2075), I don't know. They wanted something far enough away that big space stations might be credible, but left the culture unchanged anyway. It's just silly. Oh well, it's a minor point on a great show, and apart from that the show does a lot right. The only other possible complaint I have would probably be the slow pace -- it took me a couple of episodes to get used to the show. I didn't like this series after just watching one episode, it took a couple before I warmed to it. Once I did though, I realized how good it is. It gets a lot right.
It's definitely an interesting series. I do like some episodes better than others, but it is pretty good overall. The characters are reasonably interesting, and the setting somewhat unique. The series is more about thoughts and the characters than action, though. It is consistent in having the actual "action" of the episode generally matter less than the characters' arguing about whatever that episode's issue of debate is, with the episode's action scenes being something for that argument to center around. For instance, to not spoil much, the episode about the wills where they also find that body and argue about appropriate ways to be remembered, or arguing about peace versus war when told to send down into the atmosphere a peace monument of sorts. This is a character drama about ideas first, clearly -- that's what I'd heard about it (I haven't heard a huge amount, but that I had heard), and it's true. That's not to say there isn't action, though, because there is, it's just that even during the action the theory always ends up taking precedence. Like in episode 5, when the kidnapper and the main characters, the main girl character particularly (is the guy the main main character? I guess he's supposed to be, but it's kind of tough to tell between the two of them... but anyway.) start arguing about their dreams and goals. In the middle of a tense hostage situation, they start arguing about whether people should try to, or can, accomplish their dreams? Kind of hard to believe... still though, they manage to pull it off fairly well, and it was a good episode. I think I want to watch more of this series, it's pretty interesting -- you do not often see "sci-fi" anime so much based on reality and the real space experience of modern day! I mean, space junk is already a problem, we're going to have to do something about it at some point... and how many animes are there about centrally about astronauts in zero gravity?
So yeah, interesting show, and it brings up some good issues. It doesn't feel much like 2075, but oh well, it's original and does what it does pretty well. I'll watch more of this soon I think.
Planetes 01-05 -- Huh, interesting show. First though, I have to mention it -- why is 2075 so much like '90s Japan? I mean, the office full of piles of paper, okay, the cultural attitudes of '90s Japan, okay (unlikely but things generally reflect their time), but stuff like finding who that guy (the company president or whatever's son) was in episode 5 by... looking through a big binder to find that guy's profile in it? Really? Maybe, but I'd think these days there'd be other ways... that's just a minor example, though. Really the issue is that the show doesn't exactly have much that's futuristic about it aside from the size and number of the space stations and colonies. Other than that it's essentially a present-day setting. This isn't exactly Ghost in the Shell... maybe they should have set it closer to today (than 2075), I don't know. They wanted something far enough away that big space stations might be credible, but left the culture unchanged anyway. It's just silly. Oh well, it's a minor point on a great show, and apart from that the show does a lot right. The only other possible complaint I have would probably be the slow pace -- it took me a couple of episodes to get used to the show. I didn't like this series after just watching one episode, it took a couple before I warmed to it. Once I did though, I realized how good it is. It gets a lot right.
It's definitely an interesting series. I do like some episodes better than others, but it is pretty good overall. The characters are reasonably interesting, and the setting somewhat unique. The series is more about thoughts and the characters than action, though. It is consistent in having the actual "action" of the episode generally matter less than the characters' arguing about whatever that episode's issue of debate is, with the episode's action scenes being something for that argument to center around. For instance, to not spoil much, the episode about the wills where they also find that body and argue about appropriate ways to be remembered, or arguing about peace versus war when told to send down into the atmosphere a peace monument of sorts. This is a character drama about ideas first, clearly -- that's what I'd heard about it (I haven't heard a huge amount, but that I had heard), and it's true. That's not to say there isn't action, though, because there is, it's just that even during the action the theory always ends up taking precedence. Like in episode 5, when the kidnapper and the main characters, the main girl character particularly (is the guy the main main character? I guess he's supposed to be, but it's kind of tough to tell between the two of them... but anyway.) start arguing about their dreams and goals. In the middle of a tense hostage situation, they start arguing about whether people should try to, or can, accomplish their dreams? Kind of hard to believe... still though, they manage to pull it off fairly well, and it was a good episode. I think I want to watch more of this series, it's pretty interesting -- you do not often see "sci-fi" anime so much based on reality and the real space experience of modern day! I mean, space junk is already a problem, we're going to have to do something about it at some point... and how many animes are there about centrally about astronauts in zero gravity?
So yeah, interesting show, and it brings up some good issues. It doesn't feel much like 2075, but oh well, it's original and does what it does pretty well. I'll watch more of this soon I think.
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