Planetes 10/10

To celebrate my rewriting of history by changing all my old scores let's celebrate with the addition of a show to the now exclusive 10/10 club. This the first TV series I've given a 10/10 but it's well deserved.

These 26 episodes were released between 2003 and 2004. Very rarely does a TV series look as good as this one. The show's locations range from Earth, to Earth orbit, to the surface of the moon, to various spaceships and space stations and they all have an incredible level of detail and realism. This isn't some fanciful view of a future in space with giant robots and planet death rays, it's a very well thought out and designed future that's very believable. The character designs are somewhat simple and more realistic than the majority of anime but I feel this adds to the appeal of the series. The animation is extremely smooth throughout and every episode looks as good as the one previous. The characters hail from various countries around the world and this is well portrayed by the excellent VA's. The music in this series is also fantastic with the OP being a stand out and the final ED theme making me want the O.S.T.

It's 2075 and mankind has taken up permanent residence in space. There are manned bases and even a city of over 100,000 people on the moon, large space stations orbit the Earth, and man has sent manned missions to Mars. One of the growing problems with all this space activity is the proliferation of debris in the space surrounding the Earth and Planetes focuses on the lives of a crew of debris collectors that work for a private company and live and work on an orbiting space station.

The first half of Planetes introduces us to the various characters using the addition of a new crew member, Ai Tanabe. She's young and idealistic and drives the main character, Hachirota "Hachimaki" Hoshino, nuts as he teaches her the ins and outs of recovering space debris. The office contains some real characters with the 2 department managers being hilariously eccentric, the female ship captain being a rabid smoker (in space! nice career choice), the other recovery guy having a tragic past, and the stoic temp worker who is more than she appears. Along with a bevy of supporting characters we really get to know these people against the backdrop of their space missions. This show is a perfect blend of comedy, drama, excitement, and even romance as Ai and Hachimaki start to fall for one another.

As the second half of the series starts Hachimaki quits the debris section to try out as a crew member on an upcoming manned mission to Jupiter. The show takes a dramatic turn as terrorist activity against this mission starts up and Hachimaki begins to isolate himself from everyone, even Ai who he ended up going out with not long before he quit. Some new characters are introduced and the show shifts more towards Ai as a second main character so we maintain alot of scenes with the debris section along with Hachimaki's going's on. Hachimaki has to dig deep to succeed and Ai is deeply affected by his new attitude and it's great TV.

The show ends with a climactic terrorist attack against the new ship for the Jupiter mission and the largest city on the moon. As the last 3-4 episodes play out the creators do a fantastic job keeping the viewers on the edge of their seats and the cliffhangers come fast and furious. As the series ended I found myself wondering how it could be any better. It's that good.

Rarely does a space show come along that doesn't involve the word Gundam or a bunch of teenage girls. I loved this show and I really can't think of a single thing wrong with it other than it felt so short. Go watch this NOW!