History Manga / Planetes

[[quoteright:281:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/planetes.png]]

The manga was adapted to a 26-episode anime series that aired from 2003 to 2004.

The manga is licensed by Creator/DarkHorseComics and available in two omnibus volumes. The anime is licensed by Bandai and available on Blu-ray.

* TheBadGuyWins / TheExtremistWasRight: The [[Administrivia/EditWar heavily debated]] interpretation of the [[WesternTerrorists Space Defense Front]].
** The Bad Guys Won; [[spoiler:the ObviouslyEvil genocidal terrorist nations succeed in forcing the industrial nations which invested heavily in space and sacrificed lives to that effort to give up their investments, most likely causing a depression. It's unlikely that the "underdogs" will see a cent of that money, as it will likely go into the pockets of dictators -- who just might be inspired by the SDF's success to further acts of terrorism. Ironically summed up by Hakim's rationale for joining the SDF: since fossil fuels are now obsolete, the oil trade that his home country had depended on could no longer provide significant revenue, making them take a back seat to nations that had already invested in alternative energy sources. Acquiescence to the SDF's demands means that the holders of the old hydrocarbon energy monopolies will still be pulling in significant amounts of money, and quite a few of them are not the nicest people ever. So, not only will dictators with ties to terrorism be rewarded, it will probably be the ''exact same'' dictators with ties to terrorism that are currently in power. Series/TwentyFour InSpace anyone?]]
** The Extremists Were Right; [[spoiler:[[WellIntentionedExtremist the united underdogs of earth]] succeed in forcing [[CorruptCorporateExecutive a bunch of fat cats]] to accept a deal that will prevent the rich nations able to afford space travel from getting dibs on all the solar system's resources while the rest of humanity is left to wither in war and poverty. Sure, they are willing to sacrifice a city of 100,000 in the process, but millions died and will continue dying from the wars and famine that INTO policies caused]].
** The most interesting part? In the manga, the SDF is just a means for industrial saboteurs to use Third World refugees as suicide bombers against rival companies. They're just the B plot of a single chapter - Ai and Hachi's relationship is the A plot. They dissolve in the ending text.

* BeardOfSorrow: Variation, [[spoiler:Hachimaki sort of Grows a Beard of Contemplation during his week-long Vision Quest on the moon.]]

* BrokenBird: Claire. Increasingly broken as the series goes on. Edel was one in the past.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Many of the main characters are really good at their jobs, even if they're a bit eccentric. Such as Locksmith, Hachimaki, and Fee.

* ClingyJealousGirl: Tanabe towards Hachimaki, who gets angry or at least suspicious anytime she sees him hanging out with a woman. Lucie towards Cheng-Shin.
* CloudCuckoolander: [[{{Deconstruction}} Deconstructed]] with Fee's uncle, Roy Bryant. He was kind and talented, but almost terminally shy and autistic. Not that terrible ''per se'', but he had the misfortune of being an unusual, unemployed black loner in the DeepSouth. He was feared and ostracized by almost everyone around, until some day, after the locals, suspecting him of kidnapping a neighbor's daughter, burned his shack, and he went off to the woods and was never heard about again. This still weighs on Fee.

* ContinuityNod: The [[{{Filler}} Moon Ninjas]] from the anime are eventually [[TearJerker mentioned again]]...

* CooldownHug: In the manga, Ai to stop Hachi's [[UnstoppableRage Unstoppable]] [[strike: [[UnstoppableRage Rage]]]] TranquilFury, as the latter is about to [[spoiler:kill Hakim.]] Preceded by a [[spoiler:ShutUpKiss just before Hachi pulls the trigger]], and followed by a [[spoiler:PostKissCatatonia (since the compartment had suffered a hull breach and Ai was already feeling the effects of low air pressure]].
* CoolOldGuy: Gigalt.

* CoolShip: ''von Braun''.
** Also, the ''Toybox I''. It's ugly, unwieldy, and [[UsedFuture older than most of its crew]], but it has a lot of character and had an incredible [[SavingTheWorld sendoff]].

* FailedFutureForecast: Written at the turn of the millenium, Planetes followed then-current predictions for space at the time, including "regular commercial shuttle flights to the ISS by 2010." The Columbia Disaster and subsequent setback to space development throws off the timeline considerably.

Garbage collecting... [[JustForFun/RecycledInSpace IN SPACE!]] Because [[RussianReversal in space]], [[IncrediblyLamePun bolts screw]] you.

* ThreeAmigos: What Hachi, Cheng-Shin, and Claire used to be. A lot of [[{{UST}} unresolved baggage]] with Hachi and her own quick climb up the corporate ladder has distanced Claire from the others, who remain close friends.

* {{Hachimaki}}: There's a reason Hachirota is nicknamed Hachimaki.

* {{Bishonen}}: Hachi's old friend and spaceship pilot, Kho Cheng-Shin.
** Most male characters below fifty in the manga. Which leads to a ''lot'' of AmbiguousGender moments for the reader.

* SenpaiKohai: Tanabe does this with Hachimaki, even in the English dub.

* AbsentAliens: This is lampshaded at the very beginning, as upon first arriving at the [=ISVP7=] station, Tanabe sees a hairy pink creature holding an information sign. But she quickly remembers that it's only Technora's company mascot.

* ADateWithRosiePalms: Implied in episode one, as they're gathering equipment for the next mission.
-->'''Hachimaki:''' This, this, this... And this too. (''places Hustler magazine in the cart'')\\
'''Tanabe:''' Wha... What is that?\\
'''Hachimaki:''' In this field of work men and women may have to live together in close quarters for several weeks. If we don't take matters into our own hands something ugly might happen. Here, this is yours. (''holds up a porn mag supposedly for women'')

Garbage collecting...[[RecycledInSpace IN SPACE!]] Because [[RussianReversal in space]], [[IncrediblyLamePun bolts screw]] you.

* MultinationalTeam: The section, and the company as a whole, are nationally and ethnically diverse ([[WeAllLiveInAmerica but seem to act unilaterally Japanese in certain cases]]).

* SempaiKohai: Tanabe does this with Hachimaki, even in the English dub.

''Planetes'' (derived from the Greek word for Planets, which translates to "Wanderers") is a {{seinen}} manga series by Makoto Yukimura (who would later create ''Manga/VinlandSaga'') that ran in ''Morning'' from 1999 to 2004. It provides a realistic and dramatic view of life in space in the near future. The principal cast are the "Debris Section" of the Technora corporation, space trash collectors that are charged with the prevention of deadly orbital collisions with free-floating junk.

* {{Gainaxing}}: Fee, who apparently [[VaporWear doesn't wear a bra]].

* CooldownHug: In the manga, Ai to stop Hachi's [[UnstoppableRage Unstoppable]] [[strike: [[UnstoppableRage Rage]]]] TranquilFury, as the latter is about to [[spoiler:kill Hakim.]] Preceded by a [[spoiler: ShutUpKiss just before Hachi pulls the trigger]], and followed by a [[spoiler: PostKissCatatonia (since the compartment had suffered a hull breach and Ai was already feeling the effects of low air pressure]].

* ForeShadowing: That woman we see in the spacecraft in episode 1 when a stray bolt hits it? [[spoiler: She's the wife of Yuri]], and in episode 10 we get more [[CharacterDevelopment background]] on why Yuri was obsessed with looking for space debris and why he joined the Debris Section in the first place.

* HeroicBSOD: Tanabe suffers from one in episode 10 after finding out in the previous episode that [[spoiler: Gigalt, Hachimaki's space teacher]] has cancer and is dying. What makes it worse is that he asks Tanabe not to reveal this information, which would be devastating to Hachimaki, who idolizes the man.

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: Hakim.]]

** Also, arguably. [[spoiler: Locksmith]], who happens to be delightfully aware of that fact. [[spoiler: "I won't get fired even if I blow two or three labs to smithereens".]]
* KilledOffscreen: [[spoiler: The Moon Ninjas.]]

* TheMole: [[spoiler: Hakim Ashmead, a top Space Defense Front lieutenant who joined the ''von Braun'' mission in order to sabotage it.]] Played for even greater effect in the anime, where the character is introduced ''long'' [[EarlyBirdCameo before his arc begins]], and is given a sympathetic background as Hachimaki's [[spoiler:BigBrotherMentor]].

* SecretKeeper: Gigalt asks Tanabe to keep his [[spoiler: cancer]] secret from Hachimaki in episode 9. Then he finds this out anyway in episode 22.
* SecretTestOfCharacter: The ''von Braun'' crew candidate selection tests in episode 19. More specifically, while Hachimaki is taking the test with 3 other candidates in a pool repairing a pod to simulate a system going down at Jupiter, one of the other candidates accidentally cuts her air hose. The other two students taking the test at the time go to help her, while Hachimaki continues to work. [[spoiler: When one of the candidates later complains that it was unfair to disqualify them for helping her, the director simply states that were this a real life situation, not repairing the broken system would've killed the entire ship's crew while they were busy saving her, and he wanted to have people who could minimize the amount of potential deaths, even if they seemed cruel and harsh at the time.]]

* WellIntentionedExtremist: The Space Defense Force. [[spoiler: Which makes it somewhat less terrible when TheBadGuyWins. Their methods were pretty evil, but their goal that time wasn't.]]

* IllGirl: Nono is a rare case of a GenkiGirl who is also technically one of these. She's a Lunarian; a human who was born and raised on the moon, and human bodies obviously didn't evolve in 1/6th Earth gravity, which resulted in numerous side effects. Hachimaki is implied to have been developing a crush on her during his stay in the hospital, and has a short-lived BSOD when he realizes that the friendly, attractive woman who's actually a bit taller than him is actually a ''[[YoungerThanTheyLook twelve-year-old girl]]''. She ''lives'' in the hospital because she needs constant treatment just to stay alive, and judging by the looks of her room (which is filled with gym equipment) has to exercise constantly so she doesn't get any sicker. If she actually tried to land on Earth, she would be severely handicapped, and even that's assuming her cardiovascular system wouldn't just give out. She's super-cheerful because she's flourished under the constant care and attention, and proud that her life has improved the lives of pretty much every human being alive; the techniques developed to keep her alive have revolutionized medicine, resulting in countless breakthroughs in treating organ failure, radiation sickness, strengthening muscles and bones, etc.

* TheStinger: A few of the earlier episodes that seem to end a little too close to TastesLikeDiabetes territory include a final scene showing some amusing real-life background or consequences. For example, Tanabe finds out Hachimaki didn't delay scutteling a satelite to give the people it was supposed to be dedicated to a nice show, but because he wanted to cash in some overtime pay.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: To roughly the same level as Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine. 7 main characters (Hachimaki, Tanabe, Fee, Yuri, Chief, Ravi, Edel), and a host of well developed and influential secondary (Claire, Hakim, Colin Clifford, Cheng Shin, Goro Hoshino, Werner Locksmith, Gigalt, Dolph) and tertiary (Harry Roland, Kyutaro Hoshino, Nono, The Ninjas, Lucy), characters.
** It's even worse in the manga, which doesn't have salarimen and Ninjas, but has a lot of ''other'' people.