Planet Ladder has a promising start. Our heroine is likable: determined and intelligent, but still feminine. The plot, while not horribly unique, is fairly interesting, and makes a point to introduce new ideas and mysteries. We learn more and more about the new world and duty Kaguya has found throughout the first two volumes. The third mostly consists of the story of a man who came to another of the earths from our earth many years ago. Here we experience a beautiful story of a tragic prince, the only one protected in a world with toxic air.

While the early volumes range from average to remarkable, I cannot say the same for the rest of the story. The last four volumes try to introduce more conflict, but only succeed in making the story incredibly jumbled. Kaguya's plight develops in ways that are unclear, characters are introduced but seem to be irrelevant, and the ending is essentially a cop-out.

Planet Ladder proves that first impressions can be deceiving, and not in a good way. What seems at first to be an above average sci-fi / fantasy manga soon becomes a muddled, unclear story that I was glad to be done with.