Planetes

Well, when I first looked at Planetes, I imagined what kind sci-fi story could be made in just 4 volumes. The slice of life style surprised me when I noted it by the second volume. That's original, huh? I think there's nothing better than a sci-fi background to explore the human nuances. Sci-fi is the most human thing ever. It's man being God, it's a Second Creation, it's an extension of the humankind.

In this case, space. The true focus of Planetes are people. However, the information and how the technology works in space looked very accurate to me, showing the understanding of the author about them. After all, it's a sci-fi-based background, isn't it? It's important to build the atmosphere, since a lot of thoughts are based on ideas of loneliness, infinity and dreams.

All the manga's characters, supporters or main, had a reason to be there. They represented, they meant something. An emotion. A thought. A dream. A pain. While reading, I suddenly would stop and think "What was the author wanting to mean with this? How does this match my reality? And if it doesn't, how can I understand the feelings of this char?" These questions often come to me when I read something able to absorb me. It has to be a good reading. And Planetes is really and deeply good.

Planetes' characters are charismatic in a different way. They aren't cool or flashy. They are... Human. I read their stories and their minds, and a smile always escaped, unconsciously. Those guys looked so nice. The kind of person that I really would love to talk with for hours. I felt so close to them, and we're not even in the same reality. My favorite was probably the calm and light Yuri, with his wandering and melancholic existence, but everyone grew on me someway. They look unique among the characters that I usually like. I think that's incredible. The four main characters had their own ways of seeing the world, and the development and question about them were inspiring and beautiful. You could think with them on your own way. "What would I do?". Fee and Hachi were the most special cases. In the end, even the bratty Tanabe had my cherishing. Each one grew as people, mainly Hachi, because of his great change of his point of view about life.

And even the matters outside of the human psychology have their shine in Planetes. Man and nature, war, terrorism, social unorthodoxy. Simply and powerfully, the manga relates these themes with the characters, bringing out the best of both. The realism is superb in Planetes. The outstanding art did a lot. The character design had me, and the backgrounds were nothing less than amazing. That's where Yukimura's style really shines.

For me, this manga's message is: humankind has an essence. A lot of things are in it. Hatred, ignorance, greed. But, two assured things are love and willpower. We only evolve because of all qualities and flaws of ourselves, that's our true form. What we really and naturally are. And, despite the humankind's eternal wish to achieve bigger and bigger horizons in outer space, we should never forget that we are also a part of the Universe. So, besides the outer universe, we should never forget about the inner universe of each one of us.

Planetes is a seinen, science-fiction manga series that is written and illustrated by Makoto Yukimura (Vinland Saga). It follows a small group of astronauts who are tasked with keeping near-Earth’s orbit clean of debris. In the four volumes of the series, or two omnibus editions, we get familiarised with the individuals who are doing the disgusting jobs no one else wants to do. We see them as professionals in their trade, and as regular human beings with everyday, normal problems in their personal lives as well.

The chapters within Planetes tend to be very episodic in nature, with a few of these “episodes” spanning multiple chapters depending on the arc that is currently being examined. This works superbly because it allows the reader to get to know each of the characters individually. We do see all five to six of these folks working together, but the ultimate focus of each arc falls on a specific person at a time.

Even though it’s categorised in such a means, the writing is extraordinary. As someone who understands complex and difficult sciences rather well, I understand that being an astronaut and doing this mundane occupation of “trash gathering” is actually extremely dangerous and intricate. You have to be absolutely brilliant with many, many subjects in order to be able to complete the tasks assigned to them safely and successfully. While we learn about each person, it’s done in a highly intimate manner. The reasons that everyone has for wanting to have a career out in the void of space is uniquely personal to them. Some of those reasons as terribly emotional, while others are as simple as mere curiosity. This creates a dynamic for diverse personalities and unpredictable storytelling. Each crew member’s plight in various forms, no matter how subtle or forthright, helps to create a much bigger picture: the family they have all become. Every aspect is tied together by one piece of thread or another. So yeah, the chapters are episodic, but the narrative is quite cohesive in the grand scheme of things.

In addition to being highly character-rich, the examination of space-life is fantastically realistic. Some motifs include political strife; emotional, physiological, and psychological stresses; and the families of the astronauts who are being affected by their prolonged absences from Earthly lives. This in turn evokes an array of emotions. There were at least three times while reading this manga serial where I had to take a break because I began to cry. The focus on family is so heart-wrenchingly relatable. Everyone has a dysfunctional home-life. But it’s still a home, a place they’ve left behind that is filled with warmth and love. It was beautiful. As well as crying, there were many moments where I was completely awed by the physics, astronomy, and engineering that went into creating the bulk of the what the astronauts are charged with doing.

The manga is sensationally smart and profoundly intelligent, not to mention meticulously technical, in regards to living in space. This includes dealing with gravity within a space station, the affects of cigarette smoke within space communes, settling on a planet for mining, etc. My brain felt so wonderfully invigorated and completely immersed; it was a very interactive type of reading experience for me. All of it is further amplified by the masterful illustrations.

To say that Planetes is one of the most breathtaking manga series’ that I have ever read would be, quite frankly, one hell of an understatement. I’ve read a lot of gorgeous manga, and comics, but nothing on a scale that can truly compare to this seinen story. One of the most terrifying parts of being in space, whether you reside there or are exploring its depths, is how overwhelmingly vast and empty it is. It’s a black void filled with trillions of stars and other gaseous creations. There’s no oxygen, no light, no sound, etc. It is fucking frightening how lonely space truly and utterly is. The mangaka does an exceptional job of bringing this horrifying concept to life with his drawings. When I look at a page that is nothing but a single man standing on a planet, looking out at the blackness before him, I get chills. I can feel the anxiety and panic of it all seeping into my bones. It’s an all-encompassing sort of mastery that creates a strong foundation for the series. Without the art, Planetes would have been lost to its potential. But it wasn’t and I’m so damn grateful for it.

Speaking of being grateful, while there are a myriad number of motifs that are exhibited in Planetes, my favourites are the ones that have to do with life being what you make of it and the people that you share it with. No matter who you are, or what your trade consists of, a life without these two distinct qualities isn’t really a life worth living. It’s a notion that I know I have taken for granted and have forgotten on my journey thus far, and it feels marvellous and comforting to be reminded of it every now and again.

In conclusion, if you like hard science-fiction, and you are a fan of technically, complex narratives that concentrate on being in space, then I recommend this manga series to you. It’s positively brilliant.

10 pocket watches outta 10!

Overall: 9.5

Planetes by Makoto Yukimura is one of the more underrated manga I've read. It is by the same creator as Vinland Saga, so it is often overshadowed by the more popular work. However, Planetes displays Yukimura's talents just as well as Vinland Saga. The art is incredible, the characters are very vivid and believable, and it is obvious that a lot of thought and research went into creating the setting. When it comes to Sci-Fi and Fantasy, world building is very important. Planetes has some of the best world-building I've ever seen in a Sci-Fi series. It feels like this really could be what life is like in the near future.

Story

The story is very unimportant. This is the case with most slice-of-life series. The driving force of this manga is the character growth. The main character we follow is Hachimaki, but we follow the other crewmates as well. There are life lessons to be learned from each character's story, and they all come together to create a beautiful tale.

Characters

Creating brilliant and believable characters is one of Makoto Yukimura's strong suits. Planetes is no exception. All of the characters are dynamic, unique, and wonderfully human. The different personalities come together to create an interesting group dynamic. Everyone that reads this is sure to find at least one character they can connect with.

P.S. Hachimaki's character growth strongly parallels Thorfinn's in Vinland Saga. I assume that fundamental story is something very personal for Yukimura.

Art

The art is nothing short of amazing. Yukimura excels at drawing people and fluid action sequences. But since this is a sci-fi set in space, it wouldn't work if the technology was drawn poorly. It is drawn very well. He even goes into detail on some of the technology to show that it is scientifically accurate. Very impressive as always from Yukimura.

Story-The mangaka make it a very good sci-fri manga.He building it so good until us readers easily through into the world.The space ship,the ppl,the concept ,he took time to search the real shit out of it,so it can be logic ,but and the same time it is like very frictional.He just like bring us to the space, and it's incredible.Who never thought about travel to space?!LITERALLY EVERYONE had thought about it at least once when childhood.He just help us complete our little wish. 8.5/10

Art- The art is very good and can see the mangaka took effort to learn a lot of space things order to draw the amazing manga.I meant the back ground,the spaceships, the characters ,all of them is very good!8.5/10

Characters-The characters is the most things I like in this manga.It don't focus on one characters, every one have it own problems ,own story & their own development.And it turns up every time ,we can learns about some lessons from them.9/10

Enjoyment-Literally EVERYONE will enjoy it coz WHO NEVER WANNA TRAVEL SPACE or CURIOUS ABOUT SPACE?The mainly reason I like it so much coz each characters of it like REALLY ALIVE,their will tell us what kind of problems they in,and mostly the problems is the most common one & the most difficult to slove one.Like
What is our purpose?Why we do that?Should I concentrate on work and let others things go?How Can I let go the past?Is it unnormal and strange it someone art like a child,and coz he/she just don't art like a "adult"that society what? 9/10

If U wanna find about this these things or have interesting bout it,then just read this piece of masterpiece.

tl;dr: A manga with some pretty interesting concepts and that looks at some pretty interesting issues, but doesn’t really do much with them in the end. 

I found this manga pretty unfocused and while I think it did a lot of things decently, I didn’t think it did anything particularly well. I believe one of the key aspects of this manga was diving into space exploration, and looking at some of the less looked at aspects of such, mainly debris collecting and groups that oppose such on principle. I think that if it focused on that entirely and went more in depth into that, it could have been a better story because the aspects related to that were interesting, but just as important was the flight to Jupiter, which was a much more standard story and not executed that well.  The story threads that popped up never felt like they had proper endings, but rather the plot just moved from one to the next in a pretty disjointed way.  I suppose that isn’t too much of an issue, as in general, especially when it got to the second half, this didn’t feel like a heavily plot oriented manga, and there weren’t a lot of moments with a suspense or that made you really wonder what would happen next. Rather, the focus seemed to be more on the characters and their psychological state. It explored a lot of different things, humanity feeling small compared to the rest of existence, why astronauts feel compelled to give their lives for something so far away, the feelings of people willing to give up anything in order to complete their grand goals, and ultimately what it is that drives people in general. All of these were somewhat interesting, but all in all I don’t think any of these were explored in that much depth, certainly not enough to hold up the manga, and to a pretty large degree it didn’t feel that most of these had a point. There were a lot of moments where topics like these would be brought up, and as a result Hachimaki would change mindsets, but it wasn’t entirely clear to me how this was occurring, and so it felt pretty random to me and the character development not really justified. Especially the ending, with the line on love just feeling kind of generic and cheesy. 

In the later half of the 21st century, humans have colonized the moon and Mars, and are on the cusp of colonizing Jupiter. The mission is met with controversy, from shady government officials, terrorist groups, to our main characters who just want to do their job.

Planetes is a beautiful slice-of-life that uses outer space as a backdrop in order to examine humanity. The series covers a wide range of life questions, from love, to what it means to “grow up.” It asks if humans have a right to explore outer space, or if the colonization of other planets is trespassing.

Planetes is episodic, often jumping across several months or years each chapter. In the first half of the series, most of the chapters are short, self-contained stories. It feels like Yakimura is still trying to figure out what he wants to do with the series, and is overall weaker. When the story finds focus in the Jupiter mission, the series starts to get really good, to the point where the reader doesn’t want it to end. Although the series ends at a good point, I wish it didn’t end so soon.

We follow the cast over several years, and it shows. Each character comes to term with their insecurities and lack of maturity, and gain a strong sense of who they are. Our species is just a spec in the universe, and separation from the trivial problems on Earth allows for some real introspection on what really matters.

I loved these volumes so much I wrote a review especially to put on one of the manga shelves at work. It went something like this:

Planetes is a riveting, beautifully depicted piece of sci-fi realism that is, at its heart, a love letter to humanity in space.

Focusing on the crew of spaceship 'Toy Box,' a debris-collecting vehicle roaming the dark and cluttered space skies, we are introduced to a vast world filled with all sorts of mysteries and conspiracies, terrorists and dreamers in a world where space is a part of everyday life. We follow Commander Fee, Yuri, Ai and Hachirota as they deal with the qualms of being in such an environment, along with their own personal issues.

Planetes is an undeniable treasure and classic which had me in awe at the loveability of the characters and the relatability of each of their personalities. It's a significant thing when a series focused on the loneliness of space is filled with enough warmth and radiance to leave you with nothing but hope for the future. Each character has their share of doubts and tragedy--Yuri, for example, has dedicated his life to cleaning debris after the cluster of which impacted a spaceship and killed his wife--yet unity and love once again triumphs, even over the most hopeless and determined dreamers. I especially enjoyed the philosophical debates Yukimura raises throughout, particularly the difficulty of accepting ones dreams even if such a thing means leaving family behind.

Overall the most pertinent question I had while reading Planetes was whether or not I would finish it believing humanity could truly find a place in space. While I still haven't come to a complete conclusion, I think Planetes above all gives us hope, which I think is the most important lesson to be learnt here. I loved this series a lot and my thoughts are everywhere.

Planetes is probably one of the most impressive debut works in the manga world thus far. Yukimura nailed it with the art and intriguing cast of characters, creating compelling drama out of a somewhat vague premise about debris collecting in space. Vague it may be but since I’ve always been highly interested in space exploration and space physics, Planetes caught my attention faster than hysterical feminists offering me a free blowjob.

The story is fairly basic and straight forward – we follow a crew of space debris collectors amounting to 4 main characters and many well characterised secondary characters. Planetes is very much a character driven manga. The struggles these characters go through, their philosophies and motivations are the staple sources of drama. Yukimura specialises in expressing human emotions like no other, whether it’d be through the art or dialogue. The obstacles Hachimaki in particular faces throughout his attempt to achieve his goal are compelling. He started off as a very unlikeable, stubborn fellow but he along with the rest of the crew grew into more revised personalities by the end. Fee in particular is my favourite character. Her flashback was touching (I cried) and her past experiences greatly affected her way of thinking. Outside of the realistically accurate technicalities depicted in the story regarding space travel, manning spaceships and what not, the personal lives of the characters add a more grounded feel to a manga which revolves around lifting your filthy ass off the ground into orbit. While all this may seem to paint Planetes in a very serious tone, it’s far from that. Character interactions tend to be very light hearted with very good comedy thrown in every now and then. They all seem to bounce off one another effortlessly. While most of the characters are fairly likeable for the readers, one individual in particular is portrayed as an asshole. Those who read the manga probably know who I’m talking about (he wears a suit usually). His actions may seem selfish but even someone like him has his own ideals and reasons for doing what he does. This goes to show how well thought out and developed the characters are.

The most impressive aspect for me aren’t the characters however, but the number of themes this manga touches on in such a short run-time of 27 chapters. The cast being multiracial, holding different beliefs and ideologies, one would think racism would be the last thing that’s explored in the story. Well, it is looked upon and it’s done very nicely. A lot of socio-political commentary is present, which helps add another layer of tension and importance to on-going plot events; uncommon for a slice of life type of narrative. The science and space related scraps forming the setting and premise tend to be more background noise with characters being at the forefront. Yukimura also seems to fancy writing about questioning the existence of god quite promptly, a theme he explores in his other work Vinland Saga too. These are just a few examples of the vast array of thematic narration found in Planetes.

The art is another notable part of the manga that improves with each chapter. The first couple of chapters are average and the art comes off as sketchy but after a while the artwork becomes one of the strong points of Planetes. Some wonderful 2-page spreads are to be found. Unlike other sci-fi works of similar nature, Planetes isn’t very descriptive with the technology the story is centred on as the art and illustrations do most of the explaining. Fear not, you won’t be burdened with 4 pages of text informing you on how astronauts piss or shit in space, just one or two panels showing Tanabe making a few stupid noises in the bathroom is enough.

The best way to describe Planetes as a whole is that it’s short and succinct. No chapter is wasted, every page is used to add some sort of characterisation with engaging dialogue and good art.

Set in an alternate future where the government spends more on space exploration instead of military hardware, Planetes explores a different genre of the manga community where the slice-of –life invaders have not yet reached. Categorised as hard sci-fi, Planetes which offers a bulk of information, presents it in an enjoyable format and leaves you hungry for more.


The story revolves around the crew of Toy Box, a ship which collects debris revolving around the earth. (Take a minute to appreciate how imaginative this concept is.) It tackles the life of the crew (Garbage men) and their struggles with space and themselves. Presented with a scholar’s panache, this sci-fi is based on realism of the space industry and gives us a peek into the expertise of these explorers. Not everything though is about the vast universe, the manga talks of finding yourself, being true to your feelings, overcoming your own limitations. It brushes with racism, environmentalism and politics. Planetes balances between individual conflict and larger than life questions with the grace of a figure skater. Although the story is not as juicy as Makato Yukimura’s recent, Vinland Saga, I found the scientific backup of Planetes more appealing than the mythological inventions of the Vinland Saga.


The strongest suit of the manga is the characters. It’s important to acknowledge how the characters are NOT divided and labelled into their generic roles, i.e. the potential love interest, the goofy protagonist or the tsundere. This manga depicts the best female characters I’ve ever seen. For example Fee Carmichael, who might appear to be just a hot tomboy at first but these misgivings are decimated with swift development. Fee is debris collector and a mother, while she works in space her husband takes care of their child back on earth. Fee struggles with her world view and steps up to what she believes. The manga brilliantly touches her struggle with racism. In short Fee is a BAMF who rides a hog, provides for her child and fights the system.

Although the bane of hard sci-fi is its rigorousness, the comic relief provided by Planetes balances it out. The artwork is commendable. Skilful depiction of movements is awe-inspiring. The details in artwork along with detailed story make the manga enjoyable and easy to digest. Planetes manga makes you sonder. You forget about your worries in comparison to this incomprehensible universe.

Introduction:
I’ve always been into Space. I’m a big fan of Star Wars, I’ve done a work about Space for school and when I was younger I wanted to by an Astronaut. But later I’ve seen the Movie Apollo 13, and realized that Space isn’t as friendly as it seems. It’s quite scary. And the Human being wasn’t meant to go to Space. But the Human being wasn’t meant to fly either, and we’ve defied Nature and today Flying is as normal for some people as taking a walk. And so again we’ve defied Nature and send Yuri Gagarin on the 12th of April 1961 to Space. After that day Space was at the reach of Mankind. And until today, evolution has brought Mankind and Space even closer. As of Today, you can already book a flight to Space in Virgin Galatics.

Planetes sets in 2075, in a World where Space flights are ordinary, people live in the Moon and Work in Space. So for me Planetes was quite appealing, but before I’d just heard of the Anime. So when I found out that the Anime was an adaptation of a Sci-fi Manga written by Makoto Yukimura I was delighted (especially because I know Makoto Yukimura from his more recent work Vinland Saga). So I picked it up and read it in one week-end. And at the end, I couldn’t believe how good it was. For me, it was too good to be true. It was the first Manga I’d read, that I really felt that it was a Masterpiece, perfect in every aspect, and which should be read by everyone who is into Space and ,more importantly, psychology.


Story: 9/10
Planetes Story is quite straightforward. In the Universe of Planetes, Space Debris has been a serious issue. So to prevent the accumulation of Debris in Orbits around the Earth and the Moon, there are the so-called “Garbage Men” who clean up Space. Planetes follow a 3-men (later 4, with Ai Tanabe) Crew, who clean up Space. Simultaneously engineer Werner Locksmith is working on a Space ship called Von Braun, which will have a 7-year mission of taking the first Humans to Jupiter, a Gold mine of Helium-3, the Fuel of 2075. Hachirota Hoshino, the most ambitious of the Crew members decide that he will do anything to take part in the greatest Mission in Space History, and to board the Van Braun.


Characters: 10/10
The Characters in Makoto’s Manga are, in my opinion, the Strongest Element of Planetes. Each Character has an amazing depth, and Makoto explores this depth by putting them through the extreme experiences that Space has to offer. Makoto uses the Space to expose the feelings of the Characters, and for doing so he shows the reader how dark Space can be. In Planetes there are four Main Characters, among which you could depict Hachirota for the most important character, and all these Characters are amazingly built. Each Character has a background story linked to him, which connects the reader to each Character. And so the reader begins to understand the actions and feelings of each single Character. What is amazing about all this is that none of the Characters is perfect. Each one of them has flaws, and their actions are dubious most of the times. This can annoy some readers, but it only shows that they all are human. And with all the complexity that the reader is given about the each one of the Characters on Planetes, he starts to find the reason behind those actions, and this is the major reason why Planetes is a Masterpiece.


Art: 10/10
Already with Vinland Saga, I’m amazed with Makoto’s art. I must say that I love the characters drawn by Makoto. But what shocks me the most is the detail of the Backgrounds. They are nothing less than paintings. And Planetes Art is everything and even more that I was expecting. The Characters don’t change from Planetes to Vinland Saga, and the Backgrounds are just stunning. Each Spaceship is drawn with full detail, and looks perfect. What is also very interesting is that this Work is considered to be Hard Sci-fi, so realism is most important, and the Art totally matches up.
Makoto also uses extremely well his Art, to show the darkness and void of the Space. Large Panels, filled up by Darkness really give the reader the feeling of loneliness. And so again Makoto manages to input the characters feelings to the reader, showing how talented he is in both storytelling and Art.


Enjoyment: 10/10
Me, as a reader, felt everything as the Characters in Planetes. There were lots of Negative feelings but when I ended the Manga I couldn’t feel anything less then just pure joy. I can’t describe why I enjoy this Manga so much, so I really recommend for you to read it, and sense all the feelings that Planetes has to offer.


Last Comment:
When I discovered that the Manga existed, I was surprised that it had only 4 Volumes. So I didn’t expect much from it. And now I must say that this Manga has more than some Mangas have in 10, 20 Volumes. For me a Manga like this just comes out every 10 years. But I understand that some people may not like the Manga or just prefer the Anime (which in my opinion is a total distortion of Planetes). This is a Seinen Manga, which for me personally is about Space, but above all it’s about the "Human being", and it couldn’t deliver this theme any better.