Planetes Volume 2 (DVD) - Anime Reviews


	Number of Episodes 5 Language Options English/Japanese/English Subtitles Released by Bandai Entertainment Extras: - Commentary Track - Audio Drama - Interview w/NASA’s orbital debris section analysts - Interview w/English cast - Orbital debris CG model
Newsletter
Be notified of site updates. Sign-up for the Newsletter sent out twice weekly. Enter E-Mail Address Below: Subscribe \| Unsubscribe

Planetes Volume 2 (DVD)

The crew of the orbital debris collection ship, DS-12, continue to search for their place in the vast emptiness of space. While recuperating from a broken leg sustained while playing ninja on the moon, Hachimaki encounters an old-timer astronaut that makes him question whether man is really meant to travel into space until a unique girl changes his perspective of what home is. Rumors start floating around that Fee may be promoted to Control Section but can the Debris Section manage without her expertise and experience? The Debris Section sets off to prove they can so that they can send off Fee with confidence. Hachimaki’s sensei is back, not to knock more sense into him, but as an Orbital Security officer on a safety inspection at ISPV-7. Revelations are made about Yuri and the tragic Alnair-8 flight and Yuri finally finds the thing he has been searching for while working at the Debris Section.

I’m sort of moody about my artistic anime – I appreciate gorgeous and thought provoking anime, but can’t watch it all the time.

Episode 06: The Lunar Flying Squirrel

Hachimaki, Tanabe, and Fee are walking around the station – Fee is going to head off on her own business, Hachimaki has a meeting later, but for the time being, he’s going to walk Tanabe to her new apartment (in the “scenic” part of town). Besides her new neighborhood looking like a DMZ, she enters the building only to find caltrops on the ground and is greeted by the self-proclaimed ninja Kogenta of the Mist. Deciding to escape from the weirdness, they come across one after another martial arts-otaku (my personal favorite is the guy wearing the “Enter the Dragon” yellow jumpsuit 4 sizes too small). After a strange low-g fight sequence, which includes a series of ninpo (ninja techniques), a draw is called once the property damage hits high enough. The group was preparing for the appearance of an actual Japanese person, and was all geared up to show what they could do.

Hachimaki is now REALLY late for his meeting, and he delivers Fee’s parcel to Citta Sullivan. The parcel turns out to be a nice ring and the meetings has all the earmarks of a marriage meeting. The Sullivan parents sneak away and the young lady is prettying herself up for Hachimaki. Back at the apartment, Tanabe is settling in with the otaku and she learns that this group of men came to the moon to work – but were swindled by a corrupt businessman. They all are living there on tourist visas – unable to work, but unable to make enough money to do anything but survive; their leader laments the loss of his wife from his inability to make enough

Advertisement

money to do more than just survive. A fire has broken out at the Hotel where the meeting is taking place, and the sirens draws not only a crowd of people but the otaku from the apartment. We learn that the leader’s ex-wife is actually Citta and that she’s still inside – so the Otaku are going to rush in to save her. Citta is trapped in the women’s bathroom – her kimono was caught in an automatic door when the power failed, so Hachimaki found a knife and cut the robe so they can escape.

Advertisement

As the “ninjas” make their way up into the building, Hachimaki and Citta are trying to make their way out. Citta and Hachi end up having to create an oxygen tank out of a pair of giant cast-iron pots, calcium peroxide, and some fertilizer from the plants in the station (freakin’ McGuyver). But with the buildup of smoke inside the building, they aren’t going to be able to escape the way they came in – so they are going to have to do something drastic. The entire group is going to jump from their current height using sheets into a makeshift parachute – this multi-person jump is named the “Flying Squirrel Technique”. The sheets and the lower gravity certainly make the jump less fatal… but you don’t necessarily die of a broken leg. So Hachi and the ninjas are now hospitalized, and Citta is still looking for a suitable husband.

Episode 07: Extraterrestrial Girl

Hachi is still recovering from his broken leg in the hospital, but isn’t taking well to being cooped up. His new roommate is quite the legend – Harry Roland, a career astronaut. Roland is the stereotypical astronaut, intense, intelligent, and an obvious product of military training. Roland seems content to be in space, and seems adjusted to the usual difficulties associated with being in artificial environments for extended periods of time; but he’s an angry man, and seems unhappy in general. Hachi also is talking to a young girl he meets – a 12 year old girl named Nono, who looks much older than she actually is. Nono keeps looking longingly at Earth, so Hachi goes out of his way to talk to her and answer all of her questions about home. She’s been hospitalized on the moon for most of her life, so it doesn’t look as though she’s going to get the chance to see home anytime soon.

Roland has disappeared from the hospital, and most of the medical staff is looking for him – but they are reluctant to call for security assistance in finding him. Hachi is finally discharged from the hospital, so he bids Nono a farewell and heads out with Fee. While driving along the Sea of Tranquility, Fee believes that she sees someone in an evac suit. They head out and find that Roland is in the suit – he’s suffering from the aftereffects of a premature spacewalk, and the symptoms are similar to links (dissolved nitrogen in the blood). The pair are working on saving him, but he does not want to be saved – he’s developed leukemia from the continual solar radiation that he’s received in his extended tours away from Earth. He prevents any chance to save him by breaching his suit.

Fee and Hachi are going to have to wait for another shuttle to meet up with everyone else, so they wait out their time at the hospital. So Hachi gets to meet up with Nono who is plotting to go out in an evac suit of her own and spend some time on the surface – she admits to Hachi that she’s a Lunarian (a person born on the Moon) and that she has to remain on the Moon because her body has developed in much lower gravity than most people. As a result, doctors are learning much about body development in lower gravity and are working on making her stronger. Hachi asks her if she wants to return home to Earth, but she responds that the Moon is her home. Earth is merely a place that she’d like to visit once.

Episode 08: A Place To Cling To

Lavie is nearby when he sees Fee sit down in the commissary to talk with the Section Leader (they are friends from their previous venture company, and she’s bringing news of a common acquaintance). So he brings the news back to Debris Section, and the guesses and rumors are floating around in every which direction. The Leader wants to promote Fee out of Debris and into Command Section as a manager; but she doesn’t know what to think of the new position, especially because it would take her out of the field. She hasn’t told anyone about the potential promotion, as she would like to think about it for the time being; unfortunately, she may not get the chance to. Lavie has been working over his contacts in the company to try and find out more information about the situation, and he has learned about the promotion. The information doesn’t surprise everyone, because they all think so highly of their leader, but they are surprised that she hasn’t spoken to them about it. With all of the talk about dreams and long term goals, Hachi comes up with a plan – he wants to sortie on their mission now, and see if the team can accomplish the mission without Fee. He re-organizes the crew and believes that they have the right skills… just diffused across every member of the team.

The team sits in on Fee’s tactical briefing and learns the particulars about the mission, then stages a ruse… they fake a phone call that pushes the mission window back 6 hours. Everyone suggests that they nap during the interim, then return ready, except the team intends to complete the mission during that time period. Despite the command structure of the mission being like a committee, they manage to find their target material easily enough and are preparing to try and collect this dangerous material (expands under sunlight and is invisible to radar – therefore, it has to be identified visually). Tanabe and Hatchi head out in Fishbone to attach a beacon to the mass; once applied, this will allow it to be captured by the manipulator arm on the Toy Box. However, with the orbit approaching the light side of the planet, they are going to have to move quickly and efficiently to capture it before it starts to expand under solar radiation.

The first pass is unsuccessful – Lavie hits the debris hard with the arm and knocks some of it away; but the bulk is still intact. He is upset at his failure, but Hatchi is insistent that he tries again. They use the Fishbone to push it closer to the ship and try again; and Lavie is successful this time… however, they took too long and have approached the bright side of the orbit. The mass is now expanding, and traps both Hatchi and Tanabe. Yuri is about to go EVA himself to help, but Fee has finally caught on and has made it to Mission Control to talk to her team. She orders Yuri to move the Toy Box into position to block the sun from the mass; as the ship moves into position, the mass contracts and they are able to push it into the cargo bay. The team is now heading back to base; and Fee officially turns down the transfer, she wishes to remain in the field.

Episode 09: Regrets

The team at Debris Section gets an inspection from a member of the OSA – except they have an in with this inspector. He’s a former leader at Debris Section and pretty much taught Hachi everything he knows. The old man Gigalt, is a wonder of space flight – he knows much and is not only teaching the crew new tricks but improving their talents. He has a habit of being terrible with names, so he resorts to using nicknames for everyone… hence the name Hachimaki (for the headband that he wears while he works). Tanabe is impressed with the old man, especially with his astute observations on the people around him. His last day with the team is going to be on a retrieval mission, and wouldn’t you know it, things aren’t going to go clockwork this time – they discover a group illegally dumping nuclear waste at their site, so Gigalt orders them to intercept and catch the dumpers.

They quickly use their arm to hold the dumpers’ shuttle, but their crew is trying to cut the arm and escape. Gigalt and Hachimaki are going EVA to prevent that; despite being outnumbered, the pair are doing a good job in the fight until Hachi gets his foot covered in the adhesive that they were using. He’s now trapped and the dumpers rush him, Gigalt moves in for the save, but his suit has been struck and his arm port will not stop firing. He’s forced to break his own port so he’ll stop accelerating away, but he now cannot move and is far away from the action. Tanabe has launched with the Fishbone and caught up to Gigalt, and is bringing him back. The dumpers finally manage to break the arm, and are escaping. Hachimaki is now alone, glued to the surface of that ship and surrounded by enemies – thankfully the OSA finally arrive and take control of the situation. While Hachi gives his report, Tanabe and Gigalt return to the Toy Box – she helps him remove his damaged suit, and he gives her an appropriate nickname “Angel”. She argues with the nickname, but is stopped as he starts a coughing fit which brings up blood. He explains that he has cancer and is terminal, but he doesn’t want Hachi to know or worry, so he asks her to remain quiet about it.

Episode 10: A Sky of Stardust

Tanabe’s still worried about Gigalt’s condition, and it’s starting to affect her work – she’s losing focus during missions and not even listening when other people are talking to her. On a recent mission, she overcorrected the Fishbone and nearly maimed Hachi went it sent debris scattering. As you could imagine, he was furious and wanted to yell at her over the mistake but Yuri prevented the argument from getting too heated. Yuri has been a bit of an enigma for everyone – extremely dedicated to his work, he takes no days off and has been examining the debris that other teams have been collecting. Tanabe has been keeping to herself lately and working on the training that Gigalt suggested in the Toy Box, and that’s where Yuri finds her. He talks to her about her personality change as of late, and she vaguely tells him the secret that she’s been keeping about Gigalt. He admits that it’s difficult to keep a secret but helps her keep her emotions in context; as he sees her out they come across Hatchi. He’s learned that Yuri’s been looking for something at records, but hasn’t told anyone what it is; and he’s mad that Yuri’s never asked for help.

We get a flashback to Yuri’s past with a newlywed wife and him traveling via shuttle. It completes the scene from the series opening, where the shuttle is hit with a screw and damages the shuttle – well this hit the window next to her seat while Yuri was getting a cup of coffee. She died as well as most in that section of the cabin, but he continues to look for the compass that she wore around her neck as a good luck charm. They are EVA on a mission and are going to head back inside to avoid a micro-debris storm, but Yuri spots something… the compass. He pulls his module towards it but is going to be right in the path of the storm; just as he nears it, the field hits. His module and suit are damaged and he’s been knocked unconscious. Even worse, he been knocked into a path that will take him into the planet. Hatchi and Tanabe head in pursuit as fast as they can, and manage to catch up to him – and even unconscious, he still managed to keep hold of the compass. The pair grab him and muscle back to a higher orbit.

Planetes has been an absolutely gorgeous anime with some really amazing visual angles to tell the story. The story is a tad on the weak side, but as eye candy it can’t be beat. Worth a rental at least.

- Tazman

(November 17, 2005)

“I'm gonna write you a song that'll win, and that's not just the beer talking, your dad is in here too.”

- Homer (The Simpsons)