In the not too distant future of 2075, space travel has become commonplace - shuttles frequently orbit the Earth, and the moon is a colony unto itself.
The Technora Corporation is one of many helping to chart and profit from these brave new frontiers. Their most forgotten department, chronically understaffed and underfunded however, is The Space Debris Section, tasked with the vitally important role of recovering debris so it does not cause any damage, as it did when a single screw caused the destruction of an entire shuttle craft.
"Planetes" follows the life of Ai Tanabe from her first day in the Debris Section of Technora (nicknamed "Half Section" due to its staff and funding shortage and the stigma surrounding postings there), and the department's frustrating, ignored, unrewarding, poorly paid, but ultimately essential job.
The staff consist of her, Hachirota Hoshino (a slovenly grouch obsessed with space who dreams of owning his own spaceship, he is also voiced by the criminally underrated Kirk Thornton in one of the few leading roles he has); Fee Carmichael (the brash, spunky, chain smoking ship's captain and main pilot); Yuri Mikhairokov (the competent, compassionate and softly-spoken voice of reason in the office); Philippe Meyers (the jolly, but ageing and bumbling bureaucrat constantly concerned with his job and rising up the corporate ladder); Arvind Lavi (the joker and assistant manager, constantly looking out for chances to rise through the ladder and kissing the ass of superiors, but also looking out for his employees and trying to provide for seven children); and Edelgard Rivera (the office temp, an unreadable yet competent and secretive woman who terrifies even the managers); as well as others from outside of the office, in other departments and from outside.
Along the way, as they tackle bureaucracy, inter-departmental conflict, the lonesome and thankless nature of their job, illegal salvage operations, their own pasts and personal issues, Technora's ambitions, the construction of the first ever shuttle craft to Jupiter ("The Von Braun") and eventually a terrorist organisation who believe that mankind is greedily sweeping forth into space colonisation at the expense of class divisions and vast wealth gaps on Earth.
Among other things.
This series is wonderful.
It's about class divisions, and people. It contrasts optimism and idealism with practicality and the inherent greed and selfishness of the society we have build. It's a nuanced take: the corporate culture is present and something which the characters are forced to live in and work under if they ever want to see the majesty of space. The "villains" of the series are destroying objects and infrastructure and putting life at risk, but they are absolutely in the right here: mankind is spending billions on The Von Braun and its trip to Jupiter whilst billions starve and suffer in the third world nations which are excluded from these programmes.
There's a moment when a scientist from the (fictional) third world nation of El Tanika comes aboard the station, hoping that somebody at Technora (the most advanced space exploration agency/company in the world) can spare the time to test his revolutionary spacesuit. Nobody gives him the time of day until he meets Half Section, who run the tests with him and prove that it works; only for security to arrive to take the man into protective custody since El Tanika has erupted into civil war and his life may be in danger. The man comes along willingly, despite the protests of Half Section, since he's achieved his dream: even the poorest men like he can go into space, and up here there are no borders, no wars, no boundary lines, nothing dividing mankind - and it cuts back to Earth to show the destruction and devastation in his home country, complete with lines of tanks facing off against each other... It's a poignant moment, but one of many.
Hachirota ends up in hospital on the moon, the reasons are not important, and an entire episode is devoted to simply him and the two patients he meets in hospital: Nono, a girl born on the moon but unable to ever leave since she will never survive outside of the moon's reduced gravity; and Harry Roland, an elderly living legend of space exploration who has developed cancer from the radiation in space. Whilst Harry is bitter, despondent and suicidal as a result of the one goal/dream he has followed turning upon him, and despises how space has turned upon him despite it being all he loved and lived for; Nono is upbeat and positive - she has always dreamed of visiting Earth, but is at peace with her situation here, she knows that the tests being run on her will some day help others, and she sees no point in dwelling on what you don't have. The two views are contrasted nicely, but never really judged.
We don't have starship battles or melodrama: we have the perils of office romance and the conundrum of how the characters write their wills and who they name as beneficiaries in their life insurance policies.
They don't encounter monsters or wormholes, but the perils of PTSD and ageing equipment, and the dilemma of what to do with the body of an astronaut who died in space but did not wish to be sent back home to his family, despite his now elderly relatives grateful for closure and expecting his body to be sent home.
It's a lovely character piece, a snapshot of humanity, and one of the sweetest series you'll follow. The characters are deep, engaging and nuanced, and the hard sci-fi elements never distract from its themes, messages or ideas:
People are wonderful, at their core.
Please watch "Planetes".
(Editor's Note: I am likely to return to this series, I may do it episode by episode, I love it so much)
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