You know how Seinfeld is a show about nothing? Well so is this (at first), except it's set in space and the people are debris haulers. They're cleaning up space after a highly publicized accident where debris hit a spaceship and killed 11 people. This is not a giant accident, or a common occurrence and they admit that which makes it's so realistic. I mean, other shows seem to take these giant, rare controversial events and make them seem like daily happenings. Not Planetes.

The best part is Tanabe and Hachimaki's relationship. It's not like they love each other (at first), but they're just very cute, realistic, and funny. Tanabe is always spouting nonsense about how love will save the day and Hachimaki is just confused where she's get this junk. And not everyone on the show is funny, like they don't crack jokes or do stupid things, but because of the few who are funny everyone gets caught up in the comedy.

They also deal with very real problems for space. They worked with NASA and the japanese version of NASA to understand things like radiation sickness, going stir crazy, growing up and living in low gravity, etc, but also the physics of space. It's terrifically realistic, I seriously suggest this to anyone. There's some action and some sappy parts, but it's always counterbalanced by a good laugh without anyone being too crazy (ninja episode would be on the borderline...). Some of the episodes might even make you cry. The first astronaut that dies doesn't seem that sad, but it's a necessary build-up for when the second one that you meet and he's given a terminal diagnosis; it definitely hits harder.

The voice acting is terrific too! I mean no one is annoying and they all match the characters' personalities. (show less)

This anime is realy great. I like the animation, would not mind to see more animes in this style. The characters are interesting and loveable. In the beginning it looks like there is no real story but in the end the first episodes are tied into the story in a realy nice way. Also it is a realy realistic Sci-fi, one could imagine that we can realy build every thing seen in the anime until 2073. I did not see anything "unphysical" as far as I can judge.

Even if you are not into Sci-fi I can recommend this anime. It is in a Sci-fi setting but has no tech-bubble or exotic technologie/aliens.

The end of the anime fits perfectly and let you think about humans, space and everything else. (show less)

If I was to put my finger on the aspect of Planetes, that's the best of the whole serie, I could not decide. All parts are well put together leaving no question marks. The setting of Planetes is well-thought-out, with an absolute minimum of handwavium, unlike other scifi-animes. One could say it is realistic to the detail, especially since it is a quite amusing thought, that such a lovely debris section could acutally exist sometime in the future. Rest assured, that you won't find stupid technobabble, handwaving or kryptonite in this anime.
In this well done framework the characters and their relationships to each other begin to shine. Planetes doesn't need the lone hero, it has a whole bunch of 'em! The viewer starts just as clueless to the future development as the characters and the further the series goes on, the more connections and relationships are revealed. The story doesn't seem to go on a line from A to B, but it was there right from the beginning. A lot of the story happens retrospective (and that's to say without ANY of those stupic, unnecessary flashback scenes) as previously unimportant characters were involved in the whole thing from the start. The story doesn't take us along on it's roadtrip straight to the finale, but let the viewer figure it out for themselves, yet isn't too cryptic about it.
Though the story seems a bit of slice of life at the start and nothing with long term affects seems to happen, the main part actually happens in the dialogue and the relationships between the characters. The dialogues have, like in many animes, the slight drawback, that sometimes meanings get lost in translation and foreign viewers don't always understand why who said what.
The animation is pure eyecandy. It fits the setting with open, wide shots that show more than just the characters, but don't get too distracting. Facial expressions and gestures strenghten the dialogue and always fit the scence, which is quite important, when you want to make weightlessness seem realistic. Again, the animators spent quite a bit of work on the animation of objects in the absence of gravity, which will please all scifi fans, trust me!
Overall, this anime fascinates me and drew me into it's rich world. Go ahead, watch the first episode and let the work speak for itself. (show less)