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planetarian (ONA).




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nobahn
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Joined: 14 Dec 2006
Posts: 5159
PostPosted: Tue Sep 06, 2016 3:19 pm Reply with quote


planetarian (ONA)

Genres: drama, science fiction
Themes: androids, moe, post-apocalyptic, space

Plot Summary: The world has fallen into decay. Humanity is all but lost. This is a story of a junker who wonders* wanders into a city guarded by automated defense units. Join him on his life-changing journey to the stars.
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So I've seen all 5 episodes; I think it's just great because of the character development.
See Surrender Artist's review here.
See Errinundra's review here.
See also this post by Zin5ki.
*Thanks for pointing out the error, Night fox.


Last edited by nobahn on Fri Sep 23, 2016 7:41 pm; edited 5 times in total
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EmbraceMe



Joined: 17 Dec 2010
Posts: 2017
Location: Growing old and jaded.
PostPosted: Tue Sep 06, 2016 4:59 pm Reply with quote
This is probably the best show I've watched all year this year but that could just be all the mediocre harem[esque] shows blurring my view of anime.

What I really appreciate about the show is its run-time -- being only 5 episodes in length, it didn't spend any of its time on unimportant matters (i.e. beach episodes). It just told its story and did not shift elsewhere. And part of this show's beauty is the expected ending -- you know Yumemi will stop functioning but just not exactly how it went out. Her life expectancy is made clear and the focus on the Junker accompanying her in that time -- despite him feeling annoyed by her at first -- really beautifies their relationship. As he spends time with Yumemi, we bond with her as he does. It's intimate without being romance. I also found Yumemi's dedication to her "job" really endearing because of her great care towards costumers (walking them to nearby areas, etc.) -- perhaps that's a lot of projecting on my side but those scenes just worked for me. The visuals were also amazing, the bright colors of the Planetarium and Yumemi's clothes really contrasted with the post apocalyptic world's grayness. Almost every scene in the planetarium gave off an optimistic feel (plus, I'm a space geek).
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Zin5ki



Joined: 06 Jan 2008
Posts: 6680
Location: London, UK
PostPosted: Wed Sep 07, 2016 3:40 am Reply with quote
Thank you for the link, nobahn!

Planetarian might not be hailed as a masterpiece within the genres under which it falls, mainly due to the fact its premise foretells and constrains the events that can occur within it, but it is still a strong and slightly surprising show by its own merits.

Given that its plot is restrictively bleak in its plot, the main degree of freedom it has to exploit lies in how it conveys Yumemi's hope, naïve and false though it is, in a way which establishes a theme of enduring optimism. It is in this dimension in which Planetarian is at its most successful.

Our initial impression of Yumemi is that she has no place in the cold apocalypse to which she is blissfully unaware, but despite her worryingly servile personality, the show dedicates its modest resources to inviting reflection on what she signifies. Three things stand out to this end: Her unyielding, possibly hard-wired faith in humanity, her association with the enduring stars, and most novelly for a moe show, her thoughts about the role of robots in the afterlife. (Silicon Heaven, perhaps?)

Yumemi might be just an idealised observer of humans, claiming to appreciate her subservience to them by rote in lieu of being able to arrive at an autonomous conception of her own good, but then again, there is at least a hint of honesty to her manner. In order to give this show its credit, so much becomes predicated on Yumemi holding genuine sentiments for the people she serves that it would be unfitting to discredit her character as a mere folly that has outlasted her place. Indeed, it is no surprise that her most detailed features are the mechanisms within her otherwise static eye pupils—if Planetarian has any message behind its inevitable sadness, it is necessary that somewhere inside Yumemi, there is a willing, rightful love for mankind that she cherishes to the very end, and expects to last indefinitely thereafter. Akin to the cosmos itself, such an affection has nothing to it if not a certain permanence.

In our wizened ways we recognise this as a feeble and foolish notion, but just as the Junker comes to realise when he compares his own feelings to drunkenness, the robot he meets is no more a fool than we are, and we are perhaps all the better for this being so.
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nobahn
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Joined: 14 Dec 2006
Posts: 5159
PostPosted: Fri Sep 23, 2016 8:07 pm Reply with quote
Zin5ki
You are quite welcome! Your line
Quote:
[T]he robot he meets is no more a fool than we are, and we are perhaps all the better for this being so.
reminds me of this:
Robert Frost wrote:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

I have made a note of Errindundra's review in the OP.
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