Reminder: Space can and will drive you batshit insane.note
Space travel is inherently dangerous, and Planetes is not afraid to show the horrors and dangers of it on the characters, whether it be implied or explicitly.
WARNING: UNMARKED SPOILERS INBOUND.
- Right within the first episode's opening, we are treated to the very moment the shuttle disaster occurs. Thankfully, or rather even more terrifyingly, the camera diverts away to a far distant shot of the shuttle and the air plume, sparing us the horrific sight of the passengers dying of rapid depressurization from explosive decompression. This scene is a demonstration of how even a tiny object like the screw can be highly deadly and to make things worse, the object travels at 8km/s, meaning that nobody would have predicted something like this happening until it was too late.
- In the same episode, Tanabe witnesses what space can truly feel to an untrained person like her. Being kicked hard by Hachi in response to a comment she made, she screams in absolute terror spinning rapidly, at the thought of 'drowning' in space. Thankfully, she is still attached to a strap, allowing her to return to the Fishbone craft.
- Hachimaki's hallucinations. They are already unsettling in the anime but they are even more nightmarish in the manga. As shown in the page image, Hachi's hallucinatory version of himself devolves into a demonic appearance, before rotting away into dust.
- The meltdown explosion. In summary, A MASSIVE cloud of debris and dust literally climbs into where the LUNAR ORBIT IS. Jesus Christ.
- The entire Von Braun terror attack arc of Episodes 23-24. In summary, both the audience and the characters get to witness some of the most violent, graphic, and disturbing moments of the entire series. Implied and Explicit. In summary, the arc displays the absolute brutality of the attack itself, Hachi's declining sanity during his standoff with Hakim, and the fear among Tanabe and other civilians.
- The end of Episode 24. Oh god.
- Not just a tear-jerker but also very disturbing and outright terrifying as well. Just the thought of a rapidly declining oxygen tank is enough to bring the normally optimistic Tanabe into a severe mental breakdown as she screams in shock.
- And it gets worse. MUCH WORSE. As her oxygen runs out, she is faced with the option of stealing Claire's oxygen so she could survive, literally bringing her to the edge of a moral event horizon. Not helping this is her face, as shown in the page image, as her messy hair and facial emotions give her a deranged, highly unstable appearance that is quite creepy as well.
- Episode 25 thankfully reveals she survived the event, but the flashbacks to that event, are well, brutal, as shown in Episode 26. As Claire recounts her perspective of what happened, we get a silent but otherwise horrifying sight of a dying Tanabe, as she silently screams in pain and absolute terror. No noise, no music, just Claire's voiceover.
- In the real world, a large amount of carbon dioxide produced as a result of oxygen deprivation reportedly can cause an absolutely painful burning sensation in the lungs and produce a sense of terror in the victim's brain. In other words, Tanabe would have died painfully and cruelly.
