In Space No One Can Hear You Clean - Planetes Simulwatch (Episode 26 - Finale)

Episode 6

A big reveal in this episode: the real enemy to your inner ninja is that blasted cretin Gravity! So moving to the moon is a reasonable solution (though not a cure for being a weebo...). The ninjas (& Bruce Lee) were hilarious despite a pretty tragic backstory of effectively having been trafficked and left in the lurch.

Episode 7

Probably my favourite episode so far, beautifully ending on the theme of where is home, with the parallel stories of yet another space-obsessed astronaut & the Lunarian (not the gem-hunting variety I might add haha.... anybody? Nobody? I'll get my coat...). Hachi in the background reminiscing of his past home. Another great practical focus on the long-term health & developmental issues arising from a life in space. The sun nicely shown in the background during some discussions of these (goodbye and thanks for all the fish radiation). Ai gets jealous of a twelve-year-old & maybe we'll see her realising her feelings towards Hachi hereon.

Interesting how both episodes have serious topics running in the background but with an overall light-hearted presentation, which seems to be a forte of this series so far. The latter episode for me seemed to raise the stakes though and I'm looking forward to more in this vein.
 
Episode 8

Ah I've just realised yesterday was a break day and this episode is not due until tomorrow. Oops, shall add a spoiler tag then.


Another good episode with focus on the quietly competent Fee, my favourite character thus far. Following the last episode we get a bit more development on her shared background with the divisional director, and the sad reality of their little company going the way of so many others in being absorbed by larger monopolising corporations. Throw in some sleazy political ongoings with a stereotypical company exec type for further intrigue.

Ongoing allusions of humanity not doing so well on Earth and being pushed out into space for resources. As much as we have seen characters who love everything about space until now, there is likely to be increasing focus on how it's not so rosy for a lot, if not most, others who have to do it just for survival & to keep a roof over their heads (such as the trafficked ninjas potentially).

Funny how the team thought their managers doing actual space work would not result in disaster; funnier still that it didn't but it was all a set-up to showcase Fee's overarching skills after all. Ai still demonstrating her so far untainted faith in humanity, but unsurprisingly being proven right in relation to Fee. And lastly, I suspect our temp is a dominatrix by night.
 
Episode 7

A more sedate and pensive episode. I guessed the girl was only 12 years old as soon as she had her first convo with Hachi so it was a bit odd to see Ai be jealous of her and then have Hachi be surprised of the fact. I didnt find the epsiode to be a stand out but it was in the top half of epsiodes so far and the way it handled its themes of home and belonging were well done.
 
Episode 7
Again probably going to roll the manga notes in. Hachi questioning whether humans were meant to be in space seems a little bit odd at this stage as he's been shown as someone pretty enthusiastic about space. I guess it comes from the fact that this comes from chapter 2, maybe if the accident was the same as the manga it might leave him questioning things as it was on the job.
Most of the rest of the episode is pretty faithful apart from: Yuri is there in the manga, but Tanabe isn't (doesn't appear till chapter 7), so Fee takes Yuri's part in talking about the old astronaut and Tanabe takes Fee's role of walking in on Hachi and Nono playing cards.
Tanabe getting jealous was interesting, I guess she couldn't tell by just looking at her that Nono was 12, although her voice was a bit of a give away.
 
Episode 8
A Fee focused episode as we learn how she came to the company along with the Divisional Director when their company was bought out by Technora.

I think it's also the first mention of her family back on Earth, you wonder how these guys ever have time off with such a small crew let alone have time to have a kid. He looked younger than 10 (actually went back to look, probably is around 10, although he certainly wrote like a young kid "work with the work"? Probably some good old Engrish rather than making him seem young) so the company must have hired others at one point.

Hachi acts decisively, Ai is still jealous, but gets corrected by Hachi. She also sticks up for Fee and then the crew with that Clare from Control Section (who then gets put in her place firmly by Fee when she has to rescue the situation).
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The assistant manager actually does some physical work, but also does some slimey stuff with his "networking" and being the one jumping to the conclusion of an affair in the first place along with the manager, who still does nothing. The Temp, even though she hardly says a word, still has more of a personality than both put together! Loved the "right I'm off and ready to party" moment!

Manga note: Fee's chapter is very different in the manga. It's a largely comical one, but introduces some story elements that I think will be introduced in the anime at some point:
Still on the moon after chapter 2 Fee is desperate for a cigarette, but a terrorist group has put a bomb in the cigarette machine! She takes Hachi's emergency supply, but the smoking room is shut so she tries the Ladies bathroom only for the fire detection system to turn on the sprinklers. So desperate is she now that she goes to the next settlement over to use their smoke room only to bump into the terrorist planting another bomb, she realises what's going on in the knick of time and gets out, but gets another soaking! Back on the Toy Box they go to pick up an old satellite, but it comes alive and starts broadcasting. It's the terrorist again and he starts to fire the satellite towards a space station, the collision with which will cause a debris field so large it would cut off the Earth from Space. Fee races after it with the Toy Box and slams into the satellite just in time. Miraculously she survives crashing through the Earth's atmosphere and finally gets to smoke a cigarette!
 
Epsiode 8

Enjoyed having more focus on Fee. My god the Chief and Manager dont half enjoy jumping to conclusions. How they survive with so much self induced stress is beyond me! Especially considering how fundamentally cowardly they are.

It was also nice to see more of the machinations of the space station and the company politics going on. Doesn't really seem like the nicest place to work and live.

D1tchd1gger said:
The Temp, even though she hardly says a word, still has more of a personality than both put together! Loved the "right I'm off and ready to party" moment!
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I too enjoyed that a lot!
 
Episode 9
The return of Hachi's sensai interrupts romance talk. Despite his tough demeanour he seems quite a kind fella, but puts them through some rigorous training.
As Hachi is talking about him in the warehouse you can see Ai falling more in love and is obviously thinking about what Hachi was going to say, but with the scene with Sheng-chin we know Hachi was going to ask her if she wanted to go out with Sheng-chin. Ai then gets all jealous again about the "Swan" and makes Hachi tell the story about them. Meanwhile Ai's friend is also jealous and I thought was a little mean. She going to be stewing away on her flight, but will be relieved about the answer she gets when she talks to Ai again.
The second half is more action-y with the space dumpers getting their ass handed to them by the Toy Box crew, although both Hachi and his sensai had close shaves as well. Just before Ai saves the day with sensai he seemed to have accepted his lot and we find out later that he's dying anyway and possibly would have been happy to die on the job.

Manga note: Vastly anime original. There is a character called Hakim in the manga, although spelt (translated to) Hakimu. Hard to tell under the suit, but I think it's the same one.
 
Episode 9

Another good episode. The show definitely seems to be hitting its stride and again works best when theres an actual antagonist for the team to rally against.

The world building is done really well in this show. We meet what's essentially the space police and then we end up facing off against illegal space fly tippers. Man fighting in space without life lines attached to the ship would be terrifying!

The love story angle doesnt interest me much as this stage. The idea Ai would fall for Hachi seems pretty far fetched at the moment.
 
Neil.T said:
It was. Fee read the sentence aloud in Japanese as "O-shigoto gambatte." The subs correctly translate that as "Keep up the hard work."

🖐️😑
Hi. I'm still here.
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Oh yeah, that's pretty much a stock phrase in anime, that or some variation.

From what I've seen anime nowadays that has English in it is better than it used to be.
 
Episode 9

We're introduced to Sensei who comes across as genuinely likable and inspirational, as the very best teachers tend to be. Quite sweet moments with the team's reunion with him and also his sense of contentment when his two kids protégés meet at the end. The dangers of space again demonstrated chillingly in Sensei with him first drifting off helpless into the void of space, and second with the revelation of his cancer diagnosis (not that landlubbers aren't affected, though at what would be expected to be at a lower incidence). Also hijinks with space fly tippers, a self-righteous avenging angel & scary space police. Preview for the next episode promises a focus on what seems to be a tragic backstory to the so far enigmatic Yuri.


Neil.T said:
It was. Fee read the sentence aloud in Japanese as "O-shigoto gambatte." The subs correctly translate that as "Keep up the hard work."

🖐️😑
Hi. I'm still here.
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Oh my goodness @Neil.T, that's one scary looking avatar! Best behaviour everyone and stop acting like foos...
ayase said:
If you’re still not enjoying the characters and relationships in Planetes @Neil.T it’s only going to make my final post on Franxx worse out of pure spite :p
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Duuuuude....please be nice and don't be mean heh.
Neil.T said:
@ayase:

I'm really not, so bring it on, buddy! I've been bloody waiting for your post on those last two episodes. 😛
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Argh stop baiting him man....uuuhhh I mean Sir Mr T sir...
WMD said:
The world building is done really well in this show. We meet what's essentially the space police and then we end up facing off against illegal space fly tippers. Man fighting in space without life lines attached to the ship would be terrifying!
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Heheh took the words right out of my mouth. There I was thinking that up until now they always had tethers and life lines for their evas, but guessing they couldn't do space judo with them and so left them out for fighting them foos.
 
Episode 10

Good god going into space with a faulty air unit would take serious balls!

It seems like Ai is fretting over Hachi but then we see Hachi saying Ai thinks anything can be solved with love. We then see Ai remembering sensei who's dying of cancer. Nothing can be done. Her entire world view is shaken. It's a good set up for this episode which deals heavily with life altering uncontrollable events.

Yuri's grief advice is pretty bleak and very unhealthy sounding I might add. Repressing all your emotions like that is not something I'd reccomend to anyone. Maybe that's why I find Hachi so relatable in this series. He may be abrasive but hes also open and honest and st least understands that closing yourself off isnt going to make things better.

What a twist to have Yuri be a survivor of the space shuttle accident that the shows entire premise is based around. To loose his wife in that accident and to carry around the grief that he survived because he left her in her seat to go grab a coffee. What a burden but he really needs therapy not to close himself off.

Another exciting finale and it's like Hachis earnestness is what saved the day. The idea the thrusters on that little module could've brought them back up into orbit seems a touch far fetched to me but Hachi wasnt backing down.

This was a superb episode.
 
Episode 10
WMD said:
burden
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A word that sums up the episode. Yuri's obviously, but also Ai's at whether to tell Hachi about sensei or not. It's so bad that she gets distracted at work and while Hachi has a point that it's dangerous to lose focus he went a little OTT in his telling her off and then again when he catches Yuri and Ai together as he grabs the wrong end of the stick, although both withholding information doesn't help.

Obviously Yuri is totally obsessed with finding something from his wife and pulls a stupid stunt himself, but Hachi is there to save the day.
WMD said:
The idea the thrusters on that little module could've brought them back up into orbit seems a touch far fetched to me but Hachi wasnt backing down.
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I think there was a line of dialogue where Hachi says something like "it was a good job Fee grabbed us with the arm." The thrusters seemed only good enough to stop them falling. I don't know how Fee managed to fly the ship and control the arm at the same time, but she's seems competent enough to pull it off.
At the end, even though Hachi himself says it, I'm not sure not telling him about sensei is the right thing. At least he can say goodbye rather than just find out 2nd hand that he's gone.

Overall an extremely moving episode.

Manga notes: This is chapter one. Most of the Yuri stuff is true to the manga, except for the research stuff and Hachi finding out about his wife was from a different character as the manager is anime original.
As sensei is anime original as well, that part isn't in the manga and neither is Ai at this point as she only shows up in chapter 7.
The thing with the flowers is different as well, the only part from the manga is the one left by Yuri right at the end, but it's a White Stargazer Lily. These symbolise purity in Japanese flower language (Hanakotoba), so I think it was chosen more for the name. Stargazer is obvious, but also the Japanese for Lily is Yuri! The Carnation seems to be an equally good choice, but from the meaning point of view as the Temp says "longlasting love". Carnations are normally given to family members with different colours for different people, such as red is a gift normally given on Mothers Day.

I also watched the commentary track, but there was a lot of joking around. There were a few tidbits though, the VAs (Hachi, Yuri and Ai) talked about how hard it was to act as a normal person rather than a character and the director mentioned that they felt they had to put in normal actions like little ticks and stuff and again how difficult that was compared to an explosion or some action scene. He also mentioned adding in stuff copied from the VAs themselves as they performed.
 
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