The Seinfeld of Sci-Fi Animes

Written by bankaiboy89 on February 26, 2011 at 12:26 AM

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.