Common Name: Planet With
Score: 7/10, 4/5
Length: 12 Episodes
Genre: Action, Mecha, Sci-fi, Shounen
Summary: By all appearances, Kuroi Souya is a perfectly normal boy living a perfectly normal life. That is, of course, assuming you aren't aware of the maid and humanoid cat that care for him, his amnesia, and the regular nightmares he suffers of a city on fire and a man who looks like him rushing off to battle a monstrous dragon. Things go from strange to worse, though, as the city he calls home comes under siege by some bizarre entity that drains the will to fight out of anyone that approaches it. It seems the city's only hope lies in the hands of a group of psychic warriors able to summon "Photon Armor" suits that protect them and give them the power to fight back against this invading force. Souya's fate, however, seems to follow a different path. His duty is to fight these heroes who gained their power from the fragments of the very dragon that wiped out Souya's homeworld. Whether this responsibility makes him the villain or Earth's true hero, only time will tell.
Review: For any who have seen it, recall for a moment the general themes and arc of Gurren Lagann. Recall the standard means through which Simon and crew justified their actions throughout the series. To summarize it neatly, Simon battles against incredible foes and impossible odds yet almost always manages to succeed thanks to the power of love, determination, and the will to overcome any struggle made manifest through "Spiral Energy." All of this action and idealism comes to a head, though, once Simon encounters a foe that was, at one point, similar to him, and he is forced to pause for a moment and decide whether or not everything he's been working to achieve is right or good. Through his contact with the Anti-Spirals, Simon is was forced to realize a free and unrestricted civilization can only grow and expand so far until the universe can no longer support them. Effectively forced to become a villain determined to prevent any other civilization from making the same mistake that nearly killed their people off along with all other life in the universe, the Anti-Spirals are essentially an image of what Simon or one of his successors might be forced to become if they keep progressing as a species and society. Then, in the most shounen manner possible, Simon proceeds to just punch his way to victory with the vain hope that humanity won't make the same mistakes as the Anti-Spirals and will one day overcome the entropic limits of the universe just like they've overcome everything else. So, why am I spoiling the intentionally contentious ending to Gurren Lagann? Well, for starters, I've yet to review that show and want to get a taste of my feelings for it out there in one form or another. Secondly, I feel inclined to do so because I've seen a lot of people compare Planet With with Gurren and I can't say I entirely disagree with them.
Though it's clear that the aesthetic is pretty different.
While I usually try to avoid using comparisons to other shows as a vehicle for critique, since that just begs for bias to creep into a review, I feel as if it's almost necessary in this case simply because of the manner in which Planet With conducts itself. In this case, I'm using the comparison purely as a means of digging into the meat of this show, since it features a similar kind of depth of thought and willingness to challenge ideas that are inherently difficult to nail-down or address in a coherent manner. Of course, you'd be hard pressed to realize that within the first few episodes of Planet With simply because the series is couched in so much anime bullshit that you'd think it'd fit in better with shows like Haiyore! Nyaruko-san or even Dai Mahou Touge, rather than the king of mecha anime. Yet, once the show starts peeling away that bullshit and you are given a moment to consider what the show is doing and why it's doing it, those shades of Lagann start to make themselves known. While I'll go into the manner in which it does this as the review goes on, I'll just say, here and now, that Planet With is a title that attempts to and generally succeeds at dealing with topics like the purpose and application of violence in pacifist ideologies, the weight and effects of both giving and taking away another person's power, and the cycle of violence inherent in the enforcement of righteousness and justice.
Full disclosure, though, it manages to do all that in the most anime way possible.
Long before it touches on any of these topics, though, Planet With primarily functions as a fairly compelling character story focused on its shounen protagonist, Kuroi Souya, and his slow and steady growth into a legitimately engaging hero character. Starting the show off as your standard anime protagonist with amnesia, you honestly wouldn't expect much of him. Yet, as the show goes on and becomes more and more complex and he's forced to make harder and harder and legitimately question all the decisions he's made along the way, Souya grows just as complex in his own right. What makes his growth as a character so fascinating to watch, though, is seeing how his beginnings led to what he would eventually become. There's no sudden shifts or changes in dynamic but, rather, little nudges here and there from friends and enemies alike that shape his understanding of the world and his place in it. For example, while Souya does eventually manage to carve out a place for himself in our world, many of his thoughts, feelings, and motivations can be traced back to his amnesia. Now, while that narrative crutch is only around for about a quarter of the show, it manages to inform on Souya's deep-seated feelings of isolation and thoughts that he is an "other," since his lack of memories make it impossible for him to connect or relate to his classmates. Even when it's gone, though, the amnesia and the desire to belong end up becoming the precursor to those feelings magnifying under the fact that he's not actually human. Then, to make matters worse, he ends up getting further isolated from humanity as his "big sister" Ginko and surrogate father, a humanoid cat that Ginko calls Sensei, force him to become both the hero and villain of the show. So, as Souya ends up getting dragged into more and more fights in a war he knows nothing about, it figures that he'd be more than a little reluctant. Since he has no real choice in the matter, though, he just plays the roles people assign him and ends up agonizing over his powerlessness and the harm he's clearly doing to the people around him.
There is, however, definitely a darker part of him that wants to fight.
In fact, one of the most interesting part's of this show's action is the simple fact that Souya is so conflicted of his duty as shounen protagonist. On the one hand, he hates that he's being forced to fight people who are throwing themselves into danger to protect humanity from an army that wishes to take away humanity's ability to grow and develop as a civilization. To make matters worse, he's effectively been wrangled into being one of the bad guys since both his guardians and the invaders belong to various factions of an interstellar conglomerate of peoples known as Nebula. While his guardians, members of the Pacifist faction, and these invaders, members of the Sealing faction, might not see eye-to-eye when it comes to dealing with the potential threat that is humanity, that's a negligible concession when for forcing a young boy to turn against the planet and people he cares for.
Well, it's actually just one person who just so happens to live on this planet
that he cares about if I'm being totally honest.
On the other hand, though, it's hard for Souya to ignore the fact that fighting gives him a chance to vent all this anger, frustration, and powerlessness out on the people he's sure won't want him, how that he's turned against humanity. Luckily for him, though, he's given yet another excuse to fight as it turns out that "Earth's Mightiest Heroes" are just humans juiced up on the remains of the dragon that destroyed his homeworld, a revelation that wipes away his amnesia. So, Souya is left with either a choice to cut tail and run away from from the only family he has, even if it is one that's using him for their own purposes, or help take away a destructive, world-ending power humanity should have never possessed in the first place. There's really not much of a choice since taking up the fight might mean getting some modicum of vengeance for his homeworld that was destroyed by the power these humans are foolishly relying on. Yet, at the same time, taking power away from humanity means taking away their ability to battle the Nebula invaders that seek to take away humanity's freedom and power alike. So, being the hero he really is, Souya eventually ends up fighting a two-sided front where he's trying to save humanity from itself and drive off the invaders that would happily turn the people he cares about into mindless, ambitionless zombies. On yet one more hand, though, why should Souya care about these people or their war at all? He's not human, after all, and this isn't his fight. The only thing he ever truly cared about, his homeworld and all the people who lived there, are gone and he barely even has the ability to remember them anymore. So, again, why should he care?
Starting to get the idea here?
On and on this roundabout of conflicting motivations, ideas of right and wrong, and the adding of more and more weight to the situation goes until, eventually, it's nearly impossible to tell who is truly bad and who is good. Half the reason Planet With succeeds at all with its variety of conflicting concepts is simply because it doesn't want to try and offer any kind of concrete answer. While it acknowledges that peace and pacifism are ideal, it honestly struggles between finding a balance between that idea and the need to punch someone in the fact just to survive. In fact, a great many of the show's problem spring from it bumbling about with that very issue, trying to balance its messaging with the hype of shounen action that the show needs to keep people engaged. Yet there is one saving grace that keeps things together and that is the show's characters. Like Souya, nearly every character in this show goes through the same journey of conflicting morals and ideals until they, like him, eventually land in a kind of Buddhist zen state where they can follow their ideals without being burdened by their past.
A fitting solution for the show's characters, given the weirdly religious iconography
Nebula's Sealing Faction uses for their Sealing Weapons.
Particularly in the case of the "Earth's Mightiest Warriors" that Souya tries to fight, the show goes to great pains to show how they are fighting their pasts and feelings of powerlessness just like Souya is. Just like Souya is for the majority of the show's run, they all work and fight to protect something they care about without having all the information they need to understand the repercussions of their fight. For instance, they are wholly unaware of just how dangerous the power of the dragon they use truly is. By their estimations, they're just testing an experimental weapon that just so happens to give them the power to fight back against any alien threat, caring very little for what having such a weapon might mean once the aliens have been beaten back until their organization's master plan of world domination is made known to them. So, just like Souya's surprise when he learns the truth of who he is, the psychic soldiers of Paladin need to question whether or not they're really on the right side. Then, once again, the roundabout of moral grays and idealism turns until the full truth is revealed and everyone can learn to get along well enough to bring the show's climax into motion--an aspect of the show that I refuse to spoil under any circumstances.
Must. Resist. Spoiling. Ending.
In all honesty, I find it difficult to talk about this show for a number of reasons. Firstly, it's hard to dig into the meat of it because there are so many themes with intangible answers and even harder to grasp movements toward those problems. It's like this show manages to weave the most complex tapestry I've ever seen, yet does so with wisps of colored smoke that I just cannot get my hands on without making it look a muddled mess. Secondly, it's even harder to talk about this show's serious topics in any kind of serious capacity because, like I said before, it's couched in so much anime bullshit that it looks moronic and weird when you try to look at a single moment or a particular character motivation. But I suppose that's one of my key issues with the show at large. As ideologically fascinating as it is, it'd be impossible for this show to tell its story without relying on all the moronic imagery and stock shounen nonsense I've grown to like and hate in equal measure. Third, as much as I praise the show for its characters, they are also a point of contention for me. As much as I love the intrigue and nuance to all these characters struggling with the moral grays of their actions and very existence, it is problematic to pace things out and set them up in such a way that they reach their Zen state of being before the show is even done. Though I won't go into detail on it, Souya's character is all but complete by the time the last two episodes roll around. While it is fun and entertaining as it is to watch him kick ass in all his enlightened shounen glory, there's nothing at stake for him anymore. All too easily, he could die and let someone else save the day and it wouldn't be even remotely tragic, and that just saps any and all investment in him as a character. If anything, we're supposed to channel that investment into the show's final big bad who only shows up for those last two episodes and is given little to no time to make his character even remotely engaging.
Yeah, take that...you....what was his name again?
So, at the end of the day, I'm forced to conclude that Planet With lacking when evaluated in any conventional sense. Yet, in spite of that, I still love the show to pieces. It's a real trip of a show that goes places I never would have imagined. what's more, it's a show requires a lot of personal investment to find all the hidden truths and ideas hidden beneath all the shounen anime bullshit, aka the kind of thing that I absolutely adore. I should mention, however, that the journey and its many narratives aren't the show's only point of quality. While I'll agree with many that the show's mecha battles are a little lackluster, most everything else is absolutely perfect. It's quirky and weird, sure, but there's a bizarre kind of polish to it all that makes it so much fun to watch. The same can be said for the show's audio and music. Rarely have I ever been inclined to praise the SFX work on a show before but Planet With manages to nail the absurdity of everything the anime has to offer. The punches have punch. The transitions have impact. Heck, one of the show's few monster battles actually freaked me out a little just because something about the noise it made managed to tap into a primal fear I never knew was there. I obviously won't go so far as to call the show an artistic masterpiece but it gives me a reason to believe others might find something to latch onto amidst all of Planet With's insanity. So, if you want a zany trip of an anime that has a lot to talk about, then this will probably be your show. For anyone else, let's just say you might be better off sticking to more traditional and concrete storytelling; lord knows I could use something like that after trying to describe this mess of a show.