Couple of days ago I saw a post here in Anikoto's community, A post made by the one and only MafiaOfLarpingFederations suggesting this anime in his segment 100 Days 100 Hidden gems (yall should follow his segments). So I went to give it a shot after I discovered that it's about Space, and since I'm a nerd to anything related to space and astronomy, I began my journey with this anime.


The story is about a group of astronauts working for a space-debris collection team. The main characters are Hachimaki , an ambitious and passionate astronaut who dreams of owning his own spaceship.
Tanabe , a kind and idealistic rookie who strongly believes in the value of human connection.
Fee , the experienced and strong-willed team leader, and Yuri , a quiet and mysterious astronaut who carries a painful past. As they carry out their dangerous work, the anime explores deeper themes such as ambition, love, class inequality, politics, war, and the human cost of progress.


Planetes is one of those anime that uses sci-fi to talk about humanity more than technology. In its world, humans have made great scientific progress and reached outer space, but the problems they had on Earth followed them: class inequality, exploitation, politics, war, and loneliness.

One of the things that stood out to me the most is class inequality. Space has become a field dominated by investments and major corporations, while the people doing dangerous and less prestigious jobs, such as collecting space debris, do not benefit nearly as much. This creates an interesting contradiction: humanity managed to conquer space, but failed to escape the social system that keeps some people above others.

The anime also handles politics and war in a very mature way. It doesn't simply divide the world into good and evil. Instead, it shows how political and economic interests, as well as social circumstances, can create conflicts and extremism. Space is no longer just a place for exploration, it becomes an extension of the conflicts that already existed on Earth.

As for Hachimaki , I see him as the emotional and philosophical core of the anime. His ambition to own a spaceship and accomplish something great gradually turns into a much bigger question: What is the point of achieving your goals if you lose yourself and the people around you in the process? Through him, the anime explores the difference between ambition and obsession, and between what we want and what we actually need to be happy.

On the other hand, Tanabe represents a more humanistic perspective. Her belief in love, empathy, and cooperation constantly clashes with the complicated reality around her. Her relationship with Hachimaki is not simply a romance, it is a clash between two different ways of seeing life, and it forces both of them to question their own beliefs.

Even space debris carries an interesting symbolic meaning. These are things humanity left behind and stopped caring about, yet they can still cause serious damage. In a way, the debris resembles the problems people leave behind thinking they have disappeared, while they continue to affect the future.

And this leads to one of the main messages of Planetes:
Technological progress does not necessarily mean human progress.

Humanity may reach the Moon and Mars and build colonies in space, but the real question is whether we will learn to understand each other, reduce inequality, and coexist.
That is why, to me, Planetes is not really an anime about space. It is an anime about humanity, and the problems we carry with us wherever we go.

My rating to this anime is 9/10