Planetes Volume 2

Living the hectic life of a space debris collector can be a stressful business and so to get away from Half Section for a few weeks; Tanabe, Hachimaki and Fee take a well earned vacation to the moon.
The idea of visiting Earth’s oldest relative may sound exciting but in Planetes, the big cheese has long since lost its appeal. Humanity has colonised parts of it but these places are noticeably dark, dirty and overly crowded, further more, the unemployment rate is alarmingly high, meaning there are many people just slumming it in streets and houses.

Tanabe has hardly picked the nicest hotel to lodge in too; her neighbours turn out to be attention seeking Ninja cosplayers and to coin a phrase, they are a bit too enthusiastic for their good, the strange gravity of the moon only fuels their sky scraping fun and games.

Having injured himself during one such ninja adventure, Hachimaki ends up in hospital (a nice place to spend your holiday!) and meets a few interesting characters; not least of all a girl of 12 years old who physically looks at least 10 years older than that. It turns out that she is a Lunarian, a human who has lived her whole life in the strange gravity of the moon. She dreams of one day being able to swim in the beautiful blue seas of Earth but her medical condition means that her body would buckle under the added gravity of Earth’s atmosphere.

Planetes #2 continues strongly with the theme mankind realistically adapting to the new pressures of prolonged space travel and habitation, it is a series not so much in love with technology, rather the human spirit. Their living conditions may have changed, but the likes of Tanabe will forever be grounded by their undeniably human qualities; thick headed, admirable idealism being her trait of choice.

Looking around other reviews of these four episodes, the space dwelling ninja escapades of the first episode have not gone down well with fans and I can understand why; unless you enjoy particularly slapstick humour, I expect you will find these goofy moments air on the more repellent side of science fiction.

The other three episodes are however excellent examples of why I so enjoy Planetes. It is the character interactions, how we slowly come to understand their drives, ambitions and morals. It is a subtle process, built through well layered moments of dialogue and the kind of strange situations that only debris collectors could get themselves into.
We sit within the personal lives of these characters, but the narrative seamlessly retains an admirable sense of dignity rather than a trashy soap opera edge, whether dealing with Hachimaki’s dreams of eventually flying his own spaceship or dealing with a man suffering from terminal cancer who is unwilling to compromise his love of space flight with medical treatment; this is an intelligent and interesting series aimed at fans of thoughtful, romantic science fiction, it may not look flashy or sound particularly exciting, but Planetes aims high and on this evidence, is safely soaring amongst the stars.

In Summary

Despite getting off to a stuttering, strangely slapstick start, Planetes #2 slowly but surely again finds it’s niche as a uniquely compelling slice of inter-personal science fiction. It may not set the world alight with its subdued visceral power, but here we are following realistic characters on life affirming journeys. Get ready to revel in the majesty of space and fall in love with the fragile dreams and ambitions of a bunch of every day schmoes.