PLANETES EPISODE 1
the last time i watched a space anime, it turned out to be deadly boring. but luckily that's not the case here. i liked this show so much i worked myself into a freeze where i couldn't bring myself to write anything about it because i liked it so much and i wanted to do it justice. here is my attempt at doing it justice.we open on a scene of a fancy spaceship carrying a bunch of almost bored-looking passengers, like it's some sort of boring commercial airline. humans have become so comfortable with space travel they frequently use it for their own convenience's sake.
Hey what's that thing?
It's a screw. a little teensy itty bitty tiny screw. how cute! wonder what it's doing out in spa
That's right!
humans have become so comfortable with space travel that they are now
LITTERING IN SPACE!!!!!!!!!!!!
AND THAT LITTER SOMETIMES CRASHES INTO THEIR FLIGHTS!!!!!KILLING EVERYONE ON BOARD!!!!!!!!!!!!
FUCK!!!!!!!
so now there's dedicated sectors of Space Companies dedicated to space debris cleanup. So that people don't fucking die about it. i really really really like this worldbuilding premise a lot i love space things i love thinking about realistic sci-fi i can truly see this situation being an actual problem
but enough about that. here's our main character! she's super clumsy, loud, gets turned around, and is overrall pretty naive but well-intentioned.
If you think she's sixteen, you're fucking WRONG!!
FINALLY A PROTAGONIST I CAN RELATE TO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
so ai's whole deal is really really really fun. she basically stumbled into being hired to the company that she's working for, but she's ALWAYS wanted to go to space because she thinks astronauts are incredible heroes of mankind and whatnot. when she arrives to her assignment, she's immediately disillusioned.the company's debris section is frequently called the half section, because they were initially slated to have a full staff of 14 people, but due to budget cuts they only got. seven people. and their section is located in the basement depths of the spaceship they're all on (they're in space.)
and sure that all sounds pretty bad but surely at least the people are good?
No they're all insane. sorry.
all of ai's coworkers get named but there's really only 1-2 of them that matter for this first episode. this is fee! she's nice :+)
And this is the pantsless astronaut his nickname is hachimaki (headband) (because he wears one) and he's a FUCKING ASSHOLE and ai HATES HIM so therefore WE HATE HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
after this follows a bunch of scenes of ai's "orientation" (on the job training. LOL) that all do such a delightful job of setting up the world's history and concepts and i can feel my brain short circuiting from excitement just talking about it. it's really good
all of this on the job training of course, leads to ai being shot out into space alongside hachimaki on a shitty little space ship that doesnt even have a ceiling. its like a space-equivalent golf cart.
Her job is literally debris disposal did you think they'd have like little shooterships that they'd shoot little pewpews at the debris from? NO they have to GO OUT in their SPACE SUITS and DISPOSE of the DEBRIS (by throwing it back down to earth. it burns up in the atmosphere! I'm suspicious that this is a good way to do it!)
and now it's time for ai's first Debris Debrief. what's the first thing she's gonna be scrapping today?
Well it's a message of peace carved onto a plate, leftover from a previous war, and it's on course to collide with a currently functioning military surveillance device. Used to spy on other governments to make sure they're not preparing anything for war, and if they are, then INTO (the company that owns the device, i'm not entirely sure if they're a governing body or... a private company?) will "rush in" and "put a stop to it".
Hm.
So they're going to scrap the peace plate so that it doesn't crash into the satellite and make even more debris.
ai does NOT like the idea of scrapping the peace plate and gets into a NASTYYY fucking argument with hachimaki over it. he kicks her off the ship but she's tethered so it's not really a death sentence and more of a "Fuck off".
ai doesn't believe that it's right to scrap a peace signal in favor of a literal tool for war. hachimaki argues that they're just doing a job, and being an astronaut isn't as noble as ai would like to believe.
finally, they reach the plate that ai is so desperate to preserve.
(^this is hachimaki speaking here^)
we also learn that INTO is some sort of. government organization? and that they can obtain other countries 'into' them. Hmmm.
ai apologizes for what she said, and is fine with dropping it into the atmosphere so it can burn up. but for some reason, after attaching the little rocket to the plate that'll blast it down to earth, hachimaki decides to wait for 15 extra fucking minutes instead of just shootin' that fucking thing down there.
the entire time, ai is absolutely miserable. she feels really ashamed at how vehemently she defended that plate, and like she shouldn't even be up here in space at all. all that she's proven is that she's earthbound to the core (her words not mine).
FINALLYYY hachimaki decides to launch the stupid plate, and fee chimes in over their comms to tell ai "hey you should watch it go down."
it turns out the plate was perfectly positioned so that it would fly right over mananga, free for every single person to see.
fee tells ai that regardless of who built the plate, if it could bring joy to the people that it was intended to harm, then even a worthless piece of debris like that has some value after all.
but, the weather was pretty cloudly 15 minutes ago, and they wouldn't have been able to see it unless they...
...
waited...
the episode ends with ai and hachimaki returning to the debris section's base of operations, ARGUING even fucking more.
Apparently they're only supposed to be out in space for a certain amount of time. and if they're out there for 15 minutes over their schedule, they start getting overtime pay.
What an asshole...
do i want to watch more?
YES. i really like this show's writing so far it's really accurately depicting a nightmare workplace with a fucked up questionable Government Company and i want to see how it FUCKING PLAYS OUT!!!!!!! I REALLY LIKE AI!!!! I RELATE TO HER!!!!!!!!! IM SO FUCKING HAPPY SHE'S NOT A TEENAGER YOU HAVE NO IDEA THE SOUND I MADE WHEN SHE LOUDLY INTRODUCED HER AGE. GO GIRL!!!!!!!!!favorite screenshots
i really like this artstyle it's very pleasant to see so many different character designs and expressions. and that's not even getting into the TECH DESIGN!!!!!! i truly think that modern iphones are a fucking CRIMINAL OFFENSE against the perception of future sci-fi tech. nowadays all the scifi technology is just a goddamn touchscreen. I LIKE IT WHEN IT'S GOT SHAPE! WHEN THERE'S MULTIPLE PARTS! AND IT'S ALL FUCKIN' CLOBBERED TOGETHER AND SHIT!!!!! AND IT'S HARDLY SMOOTH!!!! THAT'S AWESOME!!!!!!
i love these stupid space suits i love how bright orange and obnoxious they are. and the crazy little frog lenses they have on their heads. AUGHGHG!!!!!
