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

Geriatric hedgehog said:
Dearie me, where is everybody?!
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While I might not be watching along so have little to contribute, I am at least still reading people’s posts and am glad that you seem to be getting similar things out of the show that I did. As I said earlier, I think it’s a show that does a fantastic job of building its characters and I’ll be very interested to read your thoughts on the last few episodes!
 
Episode 20
Hachi and Hakim are determined enough to get to Jupiter to consider murder! But it doesn't come to that with the ingenious idea to lower their metabolism. We know about Hachi's dream, but Hakim seems to be up to something with the passing of that note.
Claire is the new member of Debris Section, but it doesn't seem like she'll get on too well with Ai. It's more than just the fact Ai is going out with Hachi, but her goody-two-shoes attitude. How much did she see of Cheng-shin and Ai's "kiss"? It was pretty insensitive of Ai to ask him about the trials, but equally poor from him to do that. At least Ai fought back with the bite.

Manga note: The manoeuvres at the start by Hachi are from the manga chapter 8. Everything else is original. Sally is a manga character though.

Episode 21
Now we know what Hakim was up to!
Elsewhere political maneuvers ensure that the previous accident was covered up and seen now as a terrorist attack (nowadays that would be the first thought, with or without evidence!). Claire tells Ai where to shove her "love" in a scene that mirrors the one with Hachi and Hakim later about the haves and the have-nots of the world. I'm sure Claire held these beliefs before, but swallowed them down to get on with her job, but since she was demoted and talked with Hakim she seems a bit more dissolutioned with everything.

Manga note: The scene with Hachi talking to himself and the confrontation with Hakim are from the manga chapter 8.
 
Episode 21

We're getting to the meat of the matter with the groundwork the show has laid down so far now starting to come together nicely. The same way that earlier on in the series a combination of character stories came together to comment on success & failure at the attainment of life goals & ambitions, now the picture is developing on the divide that has always been creeping in the background of the episodes between the haves & the have-nots, and how the "philistines" are fixed in their fates, despite when, like Claire, they strive to change their circumstances & join the "elites". Her counterpart of sorts, Hakim, revealed to have his own motives on countering this divide, for what it's worth. Political intrigue around the blame game on the first drive's accident, despite the terrorists seemingly being unaware, as implied by Hakim.

I'm definitely impressed now, as even episodes I previously thought were fillers, like the terrorist attack one earlier, are all part of this main narrative now being revealed. I had discounted them so much that I very happily got misdirected at the cause of the first drive's explosion being down to an accident, not even accounting for mischief possibly being involved.

In my appreciation for the grand narrative, I forgot about Tanaka's (ah okay, okay I think I'll go back to calling him Hachi now) double Mr Doubt, rearing his head. His treatment of Ai was pretty damned cold and once again, it's a bit heartbreaking to see that he feels he has to excommunicate himself from human relationships to be able to achieve his goal, rather than be strengthened by them. I felt for Ai this time with her well meaning idealism being brutally shot down by Claire with a healthy dose of reality.

Very much looking forward to seeing where the show goes from here. One episode at a time will be more painful now heh.
 
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Episode 22
Hachi's at his lowest point after the feeling of being betrayed by Hakim and his subconscious is there to remind him all about it. I say his lowest, but he gets a few more kicks when he's down: finding out Claire may also have been involved with the terrorists, that his sensei is dead and then that Ai didn't tell him that she knew. Hachi had at least tried to find Ai earlier, but received more bad news about the "ninjas" dying in the earlier Van Braun accident.
The boots on the other foot now for Cheng-shin with his friend getting ahead of him in their personal space race and his behaviour has become so erratic that he's been demoted and then Claire puts her boot in as well as she says she hated all his privileges that she never got just because they were born in totally different circumstances.

Manga note: Hachi's line about how all his pain, etc is his own and he doesn't want to share it is the same, but the preceding bit is different. It comes at the end of the scene when he's in his bedroom (seen in ep 21) and his subconscious instead of telling him he's all alone is telling him to share his pain with Ai, but that line is given to Ai herself here in the anime!

Episode 23
Terrorist attack! Claire is confirmed as having switched sides.

Manga note: This is chapter 9, but on a much larger scale. In the manga the terrorists target Hachi's dad and the action is mostly confined to tight spaces on the moon as Ai and Hachi also get caught up with the events. The cat appears in the manga, but is used differently here in the anime.

What a cliffhanger! I sort of want to keep going, but also want to keep hanging on that cliff! Tuesday is my next day off, so I'll probably watch all 3 remaining episodes then, with some final thoughts later.
 
Sorry I've been absent for a while. Had a super busy weekend last week for the first time in forever and then was back at work this week and it all left me exhausted. But I'll try and catch up as much as possible today.

Episode 16
Weird space name for PTSD. It's odd the show tries to steer clear from using the term altogether. But either way this was a fascinating episode. Hachi can be so blunt and direct but here hes effectively battling himself and it was interesting how they portrayed that in the show with him having discussions with himself. His demon being a calm and collected more logical version but also a pessimist willing to give up. I guess because they wanted this to be a single episode it feels a little quick and easy for him to get well again.

Episode 17
Of course this is what Hachis dad is like though it boggles the mind that you'd willingly go and work for someone after realising they're a sociopath who will kill people to reach their goals.

Episode 18
Great episode. New director, new priorities. And debris isnt one of them and we getvto see the team go through an existential crisis. None more so than the assistant manager. It was nice to see the Cheif and Manager get some time to shine. Things got pretty dicey out there but they managed to pull through and make the choice of what was important to them.
 
Episode 19
Manager gets a hero moment on tv. And by god Ais friend is the worst! The bulk of the episode is given over to Hachi and his drive to make something more of himself. It's quite scary how ruthless he has to become and I liked the way the show compared him to his pilot friend and Hakim. It was also interesting that they had a professional athlete in the mix, an area where a ruthless determination is also required to become the best but here they were more concerned with celebrity and the documentary and so failed when things got tough.

Episode 20
Things are hotting up in the tests. And things get real serious when the lives of the team are on the line. I wonder which member of the team came up with the idea to lower their body temperatures? I have a feeling it was Hakim who seems to be playing chess with the tests and trying to stay as many moves ahead as possible. As well as murder plots we also get a dose of sexual assault to make this episode the darkest one yet. Poor Ai what an awful thing to happen to her. And pilot guy just went from boring to scum bag.

Episode 21
Oh wow what an episode. As everyone else said the way the shows theme come south in this episode about the elites and the growing divide between richest and poorest was amazing. So much of the shows makes so much more sense now we are reaching the endgame. Very impressed at how it's coming together.

Though I have to say Hachi was brutally cold to Ai in the phone. I cant tell if he really believes he has to be that way or is just trying to convince himself he has to. The reappearance of his vision self suggests he still hasn't resolved his feeling yet properly. And Hakim. I was convinced he was going to be doing undercover work for the authorities and hadnt really resigned but no hes a terrorist now. That makes me kinda sad for him.
 
Episode 22
Blimey what a melancholy episode. Hachi is sent spiralling in a series of emotional blows that culminate in him finding out AI knew about sensei having cancer all along. It's a crushing epsiode but in its final moment we see he does still care and on some level believes himself to be a martyr not opening up to AI. It's a testament to how they've built this narrative that with a handful of episodes left I have no idea how it's going to play out.

Episode 23
Ah good old Fee rage to start the epsiode off! But oh my this episode gets intense. It really upset me to see Claire had become a terrorist. And everything just goes nuts and out of control. The deranged look on Hachis face when confronts Hakim is also pretty terrifying. He is totally losing himself in all this!

Phew all caught up! It's been a lot of fun to just binge a whole chunk of the show.
 
Sorry for the long absence. I have been watching along although I did watch the last 3 episodes today, just haven't had the time to post for each episode.

I'm liking the direction of the show. Hachimaki trying to burn all his bridges so he can concentrate on becoming a Von Braun crew member. Tanabe deserves better. Although I'm questioning his sanity, especially if he's seeing another version of himself. I like how everything from previous episodes, minor or major, are culminating into the finale. One thing that has bothered from time to time is the music, sometimes it doesn't go with what's happening in the scene, or the mood.

Episode 23
I will say this - Die Hard in Space..
 
Episode 24
Wow this show is just going from strength to strength in this final run of episode. The epsiode is neatly split into 2 halves but both are super intense.the first half continues where we left off but doesnt play out as anyone expects. I've never liked Ais friend but it was shocking to see her break and completely lose herself and as she screams about all the things she still wants in life it's all so trivial and kinda sad.

The resolution to the terrorist plot is also very interesting. It seems almost anticlimactic. As everyone is moving around and struggling to come up with a solution agreements are made elsewhere and everything just stops. Even the terrorists were pawns in another persons political game. The have and the have nots. The elites in control while ordinary people struggle to survive. It pretty neatly sums up this part of the shows message.

Then we have the second half which might be the best 10 minutes of the show so far. Ai and Claire running out of air. They've been at odds all season over the power of love and it seems so set up to have Ai make it there just in time and show Claire that life is worth fighting for so it was pretty amazing of the show to go the other way and break Ai instead. Her air runs out and she reaches out to take Claire's tank so she can save herself a truly manic look in her eyes. The way the flashback images are kinda cloudy was a nice visual touch, even as Ai is preaching the message isnt as clear this time and in the end she loses her conviction. Cliffhanger... Argh come on!
 
Episode 24
I agree with WMD, these final run of episode are great and the terrorist plot is a bit anticlimactic. I thought it would have lasted longer than it did, with the resolve being in the final episode or second to last. Tanabe's situation with Claire kind of mirrors what Hakim asks Hachi, if he's capable to kill.

I really wanna watch the next episode but I'll be a good boy and watch it tomorrow. I'm so glad I went for the blind buy.
 
Episodes 22 to 24

Phew, just managed to catch up but too exhausted to make much sense with my rambling right now. Suffice to say these last few episodes feel like Planetes doing it's version of End of Evangelion. So will focus on summer character elements for now.

Hadn't picked up on the fact that Hakim never had a nickname until Sensei mused on his inability to have given him one; talk about early hints completely missed heh.

I've always loved the stars analogy of appearing so close together from our perspective, whilst really being incredibly isolated individually. Hachi's doubt continuing to consume him and driving him further away from human relationships, in fact his goal of traveling faster and further way in space itself is very much an overt attempt at just that. And yet, whilst extricating himself from his immediate family/work colleagues, he still felt incredibly betrayed whilst still seeking a bond with Hakim, seeing Claire having moved on, and being distraught at losing Sensei in the knowledge that Ai didn't divulge the cancer diagnosis. So whilst trying to tear himself away from people, Shinji Hachi still desired proximity to them.

Cheng Shin's facade also slipped, showing up his calm and considerate self actually requiring much active effort rather then being his baseline nature, with him being a different & more aggressive personality when no longer having the will to carry on the act with the battering his ego had been taking recently. He reminds of Hayama from My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU, another character I never really liked down to there being an element of insincere sincerity in his consideration and concern for others.

Claire and Hakim epitomise the abandoned, maligned and sidelined coming back for vengeance on their oppressors. And yet they are exactly the type of cannon fodder that power hungry leaders indoctrinate for their own selfish goals. Their efforts and plans coming to naught when the boss terrorist throws them all under the bus once he is promised his own private Bahamas Island from INTO...

And lastly Ai, living up to her namesake and continuing to wave the flag for Love being all you need, until the reality of her relationship with Hachi hits her, and of course her oxygen runs out... Those haven been some serious cliffhangers Batman! But I do really feel for the poor girl, there is a real sadness in the loss of innocence. Always reminds me of why Homer stuck that crayon back into his brain...

D1tchd1gger said:
The boots on the other foot now for Cheng-shin with his friend getting ahead of him in their personal space race
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Ah yes that is it exactly, I missed that and focused on his anger at the rejection from the test, Hachi & Ai altogether driving him to lose it but you're right in that the two friends' roles being reversed is the likely crux of his behaviour.
WMD said:
And Hakim. I was convinced he was going to be doing undercover work for the authorities and hadnt really resigned but no hes a terrorist now. That makes me kinda sad for him.
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WMD said:
It really upset me to see Claire had become a terrorist.
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Me too, I thought he was undercover to weed out the terrorists but that was quite the curve-ball heh. It is incredibly sad to see such talented individuals like Claire & Hakim pushed to such extremes. Their anger is completely justified but i struggle to stomach the comparing the value of life in numbers, regardless of logic, and certainly will never accept the nonsense terrorist rhetoric that taking the lives of innocents is justified for so-and-so a reason or the other. And ultimately human nature betrays them anyway, as Hachi's is reminded a lot in these episodes.
Birdie Num Num said:
One thing that has bothered from time to time is the music, sometimes it doesn't go with what's happening in the scene, or the mood.
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Agree with that and in my case more so with the end credits music, it just does not go with the current mood of the series at all, if anything the music for the next episode's teaser works better. I'm really surprised they didn't change the end credits for this latter half of the show.
Birdie Num Num said:
Oh yeah, almost forgot, looks like it's starting
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D1tchd1gger said:
Woah! Freaky that it happened during this simulwatch!
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That's the second coincidentally timed headline I've seen during this simulwatch! Just goes to show how this series falls in that category of prescient hard sci-fi like Arthur C. Clarke's work (and also the choice to simulwatch this at this point in time heh). I was reminded of this headline I forgot to post earlier during the tourist-(flip-phone)-ship episodes:
Virgin Galactic rocket plane flies to edge of space
WMD said:
Then we have the second half which might be the best 10 minutes of the show so far. Ai and Claire running out of air. They've been at odds all season over the power of love and it seems so set up to have Ai make it there just in time and show Claire that life is worth fighting for so it was pretty amazing of the show to go the other way and break Ai instead.
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Very nicely put and as much as I was expecting Ai to come crashing down to earth, the way the show broke her very much during her lofty but well-meaning speech, that was a steep cliff (lots of those these last few episodes heh) to drop her down. Poor thing and yet she is only human after all...
Birdie Num Num said:
I agree with WMD, these final run of episode are great and the terrorist plot is a bit anticlimactic.
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I loved that anticlimactic aspect! The show properly bringing up all the idealistic motives of the characters and throwing them right in the bin in the most "elitist" of ways heh. Talk about the irony of subverting expectations of characters like Ai, Hakim & Claire.


Right, last two episodes left. I too am very glad now for the blind buy and am also going to try and be good and watch one a day as possible heh.
 
Episode 25
Unexpected opening with Hachi news conference. Really thought this episode would carry on where we left off last time. Instead most of the epsiode feels entirely disconnected from the rest of the show much like how Hachi has become entirely disconnected from everyone and reality. To be honest even after we find out what happened to him his reaction to events seems a little extreme.

On the other hand its obvious this was plot writing so that the reunion with Ai after his crash and ephithany would be all the more impactful. Seeing Ai like that hurt though it seems she either didnt take Claire's oxygen or was found soon after/around the same moment which to be honest robs the climax of last epsiode of a lot of its weight. The finale between Hachi and AI is touching and sweet however.

Overall this epsiode didnt live up to the last few and Hachi was so departed from all his drive at the start it didnt make much sense. (I think the end of his showdown with Hakim should've opened the episode rather than coming later)
 
Episode 25
Because of how it started, set some time after the Space Defense Front incident, I started to worry that Tanabe had died and this was causing Hachi to become further insane. I thought he found out about her death but didn't accept it and then he found her last will on her desk. My heart sank a little, then we found out she quit and everyone survived, not including Hakim. Thank god, but poor Tanabe.

Again, the music over the montage of memories while Hachi drove didn't do anything to the scene, it took the mood away in my opinion. why Jazz?

Let's see what the final episode brings.
 
Episode 25

A slow melancholic episode focusing on Hachi being lost in a sea of no emotions, functioning on autopilot, yet gradually making his way back to Ai. After the last cliffhanger, the first half of this episode was pretty foreboding but can't say it lived up to that promise.

Ai didn't sacrifice Claire to save herself, rather the opposite, and Hakim didn't really meet his demise at Hachi's hands. So Hachi wasn't dealing with that guilt, but the opposite even though he did pull the trigger?? That seemed a bit weak to me. Similarly Ai, to begin with had survived, and then hadn't quit from suffering a conflict in her principles and actions. Which is good for the characters I guess, though I was expecting a darker maybe more realistic outcome perhaps..

The rest of focus on Hachi's aimlessness was quite well done, especially culminating in his realisation of connections and that his take on space was too small if anything. That imagined scene with all his colleagues and family reminded me a bit of the final scene in the last episode of the Evangelion TV series.

WMD said:
Seeing Ai like that hurt though it seems she either didnt take Claire's oxygen or was found soon after/around the same moment which to be honest robs the climax of last epsiode of a lot of its weight. The finale between Hachi and AI is touching and sweet however.
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Very well put, I guess I felt the same way hence wasn't much impressed with that outcome with the groundwork done to that point. I agree the two meeting was sweet, even if a bit too convenient.
WMD said:
Hachi was so departed from all his drive at the start it didnt make much sense
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I did like how detached Hachi was, as I still think taking Hakim out of the equation, he had been thinking himself into that scenario anyway, with his blind focus to the detriment of all his personal relationships, and paranoia over human nature, so I felt that was believable enough.
Birdie Num Num said:
Let's see what the final episode brings.
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More discordant music and teasing of disasters that didn't really happen! Bloody first world problems, where are the space defence front?? Oh yeah, I forgot they disbanded after the boss moved to his Bahamas Island...
 
Episode 26
Not much to say about this one. It's the epilogue that wraps things up and we see how everyone is starting to move on after the chaos and carnage of the previous episodes.

Overall I really enjoyed this series. It had a rocky start and Ai could be super annoying in those early episodes but once it hit its stride it got far more interesting. And then the big final arc was absolutely superb. The way tied up the whole show thematically and meant even the filler episodes were no longer filler but crucial little stepping stones toward the finale was incredibly well constructed.

Also these last 2 episodes are the only time I've finally bought into Ai and Hachi as a couple. For whatever that's worth. It was nice to see them reconcile after everything both of them have been through and find a compromised middle ground from where they both started.
 
Episode 24
I have to agree with everybody that this was a really interesting episode, although I kept thinking about the changes from the manga and can't decide which I like better.

Manga note:
End of the Hachi/Hakim fight: From the point of Hachi pointing a gun at Hakim, Ai steps in and kisses Hachi which means he doesn't shoot. Thus Ai (love) literally saves the day, which I thought was better.
End of the terror plot: Hakim is the leader and immediately after the Ai kiss Hachi's dad asks Hakim if he's going to keep fighting. To which Hakim says he's tied and there's a note saying from then on the SDF stopped, which is even more anticlimactic than the anime. I think the anime wins this one.
The Moon crash landing/rescue: This is a switch from chapter 10 where Hachi and a copilot who crashed during training are then rescued by the Toy Box. Hachi is initially reluctant to be saved again by Ai, but then says his copilot needs help. I was waiting for Fee and Yuri to show up last minute. I'd say I'm 50/50 on this as it cuts out more trauma for Hachi which makes things in episode 25 make a bit less sense.

Episode 25
This was all a little weird as it was pretty much all manga stuff, but jumbled around. I think trying to follow the episodes with the manga in mind has slightly affected my enjoyment of watching it, especially as dispite hitting quite a few points the order has generally been quite jumbled and there's been changes here and there, and plenty of original material.
When Hachi goes walk-about you see an empty spacesuit. I suppose you're supposed to think it's either Ai's or Claire's.
One thing I will point out is how the hell did Hachi get to Hokkaido and then when there it just so happens that Ai is the first person he bumps into after pulling himself from the sea! I don't think his home town is mentioned anywhere, but I do remember him living near a rocket testing site IIRC (I guess that would make sense if his dad is an astronaut as well). In real life the JAXA Space Centre is in Kagoshima Prefecture, literally the other end of Japan from Hokkaido!
Seeing Ai like that though is quite upsetting!

Manga note: Like I said it's a bit all over the place with a few changes thrown in as well:
Press conference is from ch 12 and ends differently.
The next scene is original.
His mother seeing the sign is ch 16
Sally and the rest discussing where they're going is similar, Sally talks about the Thames. Ch 12
Hachi's accident is also ch 12, but is supposed to be his R&R, camping on the Moon! Sally drops him off right after the line above, but here he just walks off.
A few anime original scenes.
Hachi goes to see the crew in ch 15, but it's the Toy Box where Ai has taken his room, not desk, and he finds the will in a similar way. Fee tells him where Ai (she hasn't quit as she didn't have that incident on the Moon) is.
We see the windmills which we later discover are located where Ai is. Ai's home and backstory are from ch 13.
The Hoshino's at home is ch 11. Goro is already there and Hachi joins a little later, unlike together in the anime.
It's Hachi and his mother having a discussion, about his crew mate who had to quit the Jupiter Mission after the accident in ch 10, which was why I felt it was a little weird they changed it.
Hachi has his accident on a push bike rather than a motorbike after going out for a few beers (rather than going to Hokkaido!) after having a nightmare similar to what he sees when he's in the water in the anime and then he sees a vision of everybody at once rather than individually in the anime (which I thought was cool change). He has a similar epiphany about already being in Space after being rescued by a truck driver.
The Ai scene is anime original apart from the bit about the will which was slightly different (her reason for not writing anything), from ch 15.

Birdie Num Num said:
Jazz
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I'd say it was blues-y and maybe trying to ape similar scenes from Cowboy Bebop, but the composer is no Yoko Kanno!

Episode 26
Epilogue. Everyone involved including all the small side characters gets a little bit of an ending, including Hakim which leaves a bit of loose end! Seems Hachi and Ai had a baby? Or she's pregnant? That'll be harsh on the kid who won't see his/her father for 7 years.

Manga note: The proposal scene is the only manga scene. Ai doesn't have a kid and as mentioned didn't have that accident, so is still working on the Toy Box.
 
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