Wanderers

[BlackDove]

First thing's first.

This anime is known as "PLANETES", mostly because the American production company was retarded and couldn't figure out (even though it was repeated 26 times in the anime) that the name is actually a derivative from ΠΛΑΝΗΤΕΣ (which is PLANETES if you use latin letters) which is basically Greek for Wanderers.

So you have to call it Planetes to identify it by its proper name, but since I feel retarded using that name, because I'm not typing in Greek, it's Wanderers.

Now that we're done with that, let's get on with the general thoughts.

Story's a bit flimsy at first. It's flimsy for a reason, because it's all supposed to come together in the end, but the fact it's rudderless for a reason doesn't make it any less without a certain point until episode 16-17 where the story starts revolving around a specific focal point. That means you really need to have some faith at the begining that what you're watching won't turn into complete shit, which is kind of hard, but those of us who are experienced anime watchers know when to give something the benefit of the doubt.

The merits of the story however are DAMN GOOD. The storyline was made so that it affects directly everyone who's watching it, and in the end you more or less have a choice to either agree or disagree with the final conclusion of the characters, while the series offer you a more or less realistic turnout.

Now onto the characters.

This Anime for the most part, has the best character development I've seen in any Anime to date. It is true that part of the main story are the specific motivations behind each characters actions, and therefore they have to be well defined, but damn, the writer has to be commended for laying it all out in such a neat and coherent matter.

The plot by itself is fairly basic until it all comes to a head later on - the timeline is more or less somewhat of a logical real-world timeline 70 years from now. So, it's 2075, humans are trying to get away from Earth in search of new fuel and prosperity, basically oil and all that crap depleted so they went ahead to mine for Helium 3 off the Moon and farther. The entire story in Wanderers takes place within a year before the launch of a new prototype Von Braun space rocket that's supposed to take a seven year trip to Jupiter as an expedition to secure resources to sustain us througout the 22nd century.

I wouldn't say there are any "main" and "co" characters, Wanderers faithfully follow Hoshino Hachirota as the main character, but all of the other ones get more or less the same screen time as well.

All in all, a very very good anime, glad I got around to seeing it. Most reccomended.

[Stracius]

I thought that was a rather bizarre name, even for an anime . I thought it was decent, though I was somehow expecting a bit more of an action series. It makes a bit more sense now that I know it was supposed to be entitled "Wanderers".

This is one of those that I've watched once and quite enjoyed it, but doubt I'll watch again. Recommended.