Planet With

I love Mizukami Satoshi and two of his earlier works: Hoshi no Samidare and Spirit Circle, and I also highly appreciate Sengoku Youko, but damn this one really, really sucks. *contains light spoilers* Setup: Alien suffering from memory loss fights against humans who try to save their home planet with the power of dragon powder. Why do they fight? Because this alien dude really hates dragons. Other aliens teleport in the sky in forms of human insecurities and mental barriers and then explode and further turn into cotton after a short past story revealing something about the psychological side of our main antagonist humans occurs. Rest of this sideof the anime focuses around mecha fights where the mc pilots an alien cat and the humans use dragon powder to battle him because he is apparently the enemy of mankind even tho the fights are personal nakama revenging -tier nonsense... until the Fairy Tail effect hits among the nakama ranks and every upcoming twist is eventually the same as in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann except the opposite in quality. Or the same if you hate TTGL. The other half is slice of life school settings where people participate in club activities, read books and try to form some sort of interspecies romantic subplot that eventually starts looking like a harem of 3. The outcome is a complete and utter mess that mainly looks like what Devilman Crybaby would have been if it had been aimed for children, directed by a baboon, suffered from hideous world-building and its 180 degree genre changes had been 300 times worse in every new occasion. Characters: Girl who has a friend wants to be strong because friend wants her to be strong. Actually it's okay to be weak, too, but she can't accept this so she loses the control over the dragon powder. Very thought-provoking and psychologically accurate. Dude who has a regret experiences enlightenment from alien rays and rides off to the sunset with a military aircraft because he has a family and should be spending time with them instead of saving the earth. Very philosophical and ultra hyped deep. Guy almost loses himself in past mistakes after mourning over a dead person and then builds his whole life accordingly to become something he couldn't be as a kid. Whatever you want to call this one. All the human characters are practically presentation of one singular human idiocy. Instead of appearing as "there is something very important that has happened to this character in his past, and to understand him at all, you definitely need to hear out what it was." the meaning is secondary as presenting the episodic theme related to character's past is more important than the character itself. The alien maiden literally exist in the series only for the memory loss alien, same with the most potential love interest, and our alien dude's entire motivation to fight relies on hatred and the translated words of a talking cat. It didn't matter whether our mc had a past and memories and personality because he is the exact same empty puppet with or without because there simply isn't anything to him. And whenever he fights, he comes up with random movements and yells out their names to a point that it mainly reminds me of that part in Naruto (shippuden) where he came up with 3 new types of rasengans in each episode. Moreover, this dude yells and yells and yells and yells to a point that it seems the only thing he can do is be loud and annoying. The entire characterization of the cast is so horrendous its hard to even gasp how Mizukami Satoshi spend 4 years writing this yet couldn't manage to make it any better than Psycho Staff (not to be confused with Psycho Pass). Major complains: The mental barriers is among the most interesting concepts in the work, yet it is being dealt with way too poorly. Appearance, past story, resolve, impact to present time = 6 minutes. Do much with little they say, yet what we get instead is the amount of information prioritized over how to present it. The pacing is ludicrous and makes all the problems seem exponentially worse. Our main character's memory loss is downright used as a mystery element in the series and its narration. Even when he experiences memory recollection, they aren't revealed to the viewer in the purpose of maintaining the illusion of suspense. It makes the whole thing cheaper. The main antagonists suffer from some highly obvious character flaws to a point that they reveal their faces in live tv. Even Lelouch in the idiocy that Code Geass was, was smart enough to use the zero mask to hide his identity. The entirety of the first half of the series would be impossible if the characters had any sense in hiding themselves. Even such shitty studios like Marvel and their "superheroes" are smarter than these fellas. One mystery gets solved. 3 seconds later --> New mysteries! The asspulled plot elements, near complete lack of foreshadowing and "shocking" twists that were used to create confrontation and some sort of "witty wordplays" are closer to being lame than anything else... Niichan! This is chaotic randomness and total nonsense to a point where it seems like zero fucks is given. I imagine the entirety of the story board was constructed by pulling new ideas from a hat. By hat, I mean that one meme where bunch of monkeys take a shit and the turds land on the words "San Fransisco", "Disco Club" and "1971" and then some clothes corporation prints that whole thing on a t-shirt. Except here we call it "epic writing stuff". Practically every single piece of writing in the latter half of the show is either deus ex machina or an asspull. The fights are.... yeah, example instead because what else can prove how awful they are: "I knew you weren't using your full powers!" *me inserting "this isn't even my final form" memes* >mc >yells >pray and spray >wins *me browsing more memes "Bravo, Nolan"* ^Some people think this anime is smart and epic, btw. All I am seeing is a collection of moviecirclejerk tier anti-quality memes. Speaking more about these memes, the appearance of Siriusian fleet is essentially Spanish inquisition and the love exist in other species an Interstellar ripoff. And the worst of them is the "the power was inside you all along" cliche which made me almost puke. If this was a self-aware parody, it would be amazing until it would turn so bad that it couldn't even be considered an excuse for comedy. One more: The dialogue. Mc: I see you're the type who uses his muscles instead of brains. Also mc: *screams and smashes buttons angrily* Unintentional comedy/5 Art: The mecha side for mc was highly inspired by/lend from TTGL like so many other things. The backgrounds are brilliant and pretty look at. The animation is often awkward. Especially robot movements which are relying on CGI. The character design captures Mizukami's style perfectly and all the anomalies in the series are rather original and well-planned. Sounds: Did this thing really have music in it? Can't recall. Other than the mc who yells more during 12 episodes than Black Clover mc during the entire series, the sounds are forgettable. Conclusion: Absolute disaster of an anime beautified with ideas and concepts that offered enormous potential yet end up being enormously nothing. Countless anime series seem better than before thanks to them not being this anime. When I say Planet With is bad, I don't mean any half-asset, zero-effort "bad",I mean the real die-hard bad stuff that wouldn't be able exist without a mastermind who was able to ruin every trace of quality in them. Planet With is not shallow, superficial bad, it is complex, deep, in-depth bad. This series will be remembered as an example that manga writer shouldn't try to make millions of compromises just to make their series fit the animated medium. Hoshi no Samidare and Spirits Circle could never work in the anime format and now I pray no one ever tries to adapt them. Planet With's biggest achievement is working as an advertisement for the mangaka's other works, but as far as entertainment goes, it certainly did its job by offering an anime that was much more fun to watch than it was good in terms of anything. Mainly because it was so bad that the difference between quality and enjoyment grew larger. If you thought this series is as bad as I did, consider giving Mizukami's manga a try nevertheless because those are great. I really wanted to praise this because I have read Hoshi no Samidare 4 times and it's in generally among the reasons why I am into the animanga industry in the first place, but Planet With doesn't deserve positive praise. Its merits are almost entirely limited to how awful it is. tldr -Story 1/10 It's rare for writing to reach this level of pathetic. Shows that impress with its lack of quality in this manner don't happen very often. In fact, I am surprised this wasn't written by the guy who did Guilty Crown and Code Geass. To make it clear as possible: I have been utterly impressed by how badly written this thing is. -Characters 2/10 Yelling, yelling, yelling. Even Hand Shaker's cast had more charm, and this isn't even meant as an insult. -Art 7/10 Really liking the art, tho. -Sounds 5/10 Lots of yelling but not much more. -Enjoyment 5/10 I enjoy bad anime often and consistently for their comedic value. This one was such advanced awfulness that it momentarily managed to even annoy me. -Total 2/10 This thing is close to unwatchable. I don't see how this thing could appear to be any better unless watched completely half-assedly in the background, casually or even ironically. Personally, I couldn't do this out of the respect I hold towards the author.

Piloting a mech with ripple patterned eyes. Such peculiar machine with a high school boy at its seat. Living with a cat creature and an adorable maid. If this short bucket list strike as an unusual setup for a story, then you’re damn right. Planet With is an original anime that takes science fiction to a surreal level. It’s an adventure that unites a variety of gimmicks together with plenty of surprises. Anyone familiar with Satoshi Mizukami’s work will probably point out his more well-known series such as “Lucifer and the Biscuit” and “Spirit Circle”. He takes his unusual cast of characters and bring creativity tolife. Through some of his works, I realized that Planet With would bring out a familiar feeling. And oh boy, it succeeded in more ways than one. Nonetheless, I think it’s important to first understand what Planet With is really about. The main story is about a boy named Souya Kuroi. He is a typical high school student with an apparent amnesia. The first episode establishes his role as he gets involved in a battle against strange floating beings known as the Nebula. First impression of the series makes me wonder if it was destiny that caused Souya to get involved in such an event. In other words, perhaps this event wasn’t just coincidental but that he was destined to fulfill his role as something much bigger than he’s ever imagined. Nonetheless, Souya also gets caught into conflict with the Grand Paladin, a group of individuals with their own unique powers. The show depicts them as a mysterious group whose goals lies in unfamiliar territories until much later on in the show. However, the heart of the show deals with Souya’s role as he regains more and more of his memories. We learn more about his past including his home planet and origins. He’s definitely a complex character that’s hard to read between the lines. In fact, Souya is less of the typical protagonist and initially portrayed as antagonist. You heard me right. His actions in the show is portrayed more as going against the heroic role. The first few episodes has him go up against Grand Paladin while also connecting with them when he’s not in his mech. In doing so, the show creates a sensation of mystery as how much we should really try to understand Souya. I think in many ways, Mizukami’s creativity shows for making a character like Souya as he is deceptively complex. There may be the type of audience that will understand Souya easier if you’re familiar with his work. But even if you’re someone lost in the dark, Souya is still a character you’d want learn more. Many questions will pop up throughout the show like why he’s living with an oversized cat or dream about dragons. As I watched more and more of Planet With, the experience became more of going with the flow and enjoying what the creator presents to us. Its ideas are otherworldly and the plot is carried by the actions of the characters. In fact, there’s an easy trend of action result in consequences throughout the show. Besides Souya, the Grand Paladin is a prominent example with its faction of members. Even their leaders have hidden agendas that far eclipses than just defeating some aliens. Many of its members are actually unaware of their true intentions as well. Members of the Grand Paladin such as Benika and Yousuke begins to question their own organization after certain events in the show. Then, there are others who follows the organization’s code to the letter. Individually, I think members of Grand Paladin are unique with their own personalities and character chemistry between each other. A noticeable example is Miu and Harumi with their childhood friendship/rivalry. In the earlier episodes, Miu wants to truly prove to herself especially to Harumi in battle. This results in disastrous consequences that nearly costs her life. But to be honest, I think the show does an exceptional job at taking risks like this. It puts the audience in their seat to see how far characters to go to accomplish their goals. In doing so, it also made me get invested into these characters with their unpredictability. That being said, there are definitely some characters that stands out compare to others. Sensei (the purple cat) is an easy example to point out not just for his unusual characteristics but also for his revelation later in the story. Others such as the Grand Paladin leader Takashi Ryuuzoji makes you curious about his true motives. Hell, even that maid Ginko Kuroi should spark more than just interest once you see what she can do. However, characters like Nozomi and Judgement are portrayed more as comic relief. Like I said before, some characters stand out more than others and not everyone can steal the spotlight. Souya’s character growth is also important to note as the more memories he recovers, the more he matures. Despite that, the show is still known for its various running gags such as Souya’s insatiable desire to eat meat. In general, I think the comedy in this show is a bit peculiar. It never relies on shock or fan service. Instead, it presents it in a sort of kooky and sarcastic way. The dialogues comes out naturally but sometimes mixes in silly words to make conversation flow like an oddball. Take it as you’d like but if this is your first time seeing a Mizukami work, then it should be an unique experience. There are many ways to describe the art style of Planet With but I find the word ‘surreal’ to be one of the more accurate representations. My first glance at the mecha designs immediately gave me a weird insight on its context. The ripple pattern eyes and cat-like ears is definitely an unusual design that I’ve not seen in many of the mecha series I’ve seen before. Furthermore, there are the Nebula that takes weirdness to another level such as the abnormal looking dolls or inverted babies. Oh and let’s not forget sensei with his idiosyncratic look. On the other hand, the human-looking characters in the show are about as average as it can get. With the exception of Ginko, no one really looks remarkable. Some of them even fall under character archetypes such as Nozomi as the ‘glasses girl’. However, I’m more than pleased at the battle choreography of the show. Even from its first episodes, I knew it was impressive with the cinematic-like explosiveness. Some of the fights look like watching a movie by the amount of details it shows. I often had to take a breather or two after some of the fighting segments because it was that damn fierce. As part of Mizukami’s involvement in the show, he also worked on the series composition. This would be the first time anyone has heard of his work in animated form. And thankfully, he aces it with flying colors. In essence, the battle OST and music in the show is phenomenal. There’s not one moment in the battle scenes that loses momentum thanks to his talent. In my opinion, Mizukami gave those scenes a larger than life moment by the sheer technical quality of the soundtrack. It’s hardcore with heavy beats that mixes in with a variety of electrical notes to make everything flow together. On the other hand, I can’t really say the casting in the show were exceptional. Other than Sensei, everyone else just sounds too normal despite the show being abnormally strange. Luckily, the theme songs makes up more of that with their creativity. Planet With is not a show that I can easily recommend to just anyone. Watching the first episodes made my head spin at how complex the characters and the storytelling may become. And indeed, this series won’t be easy to watch with just an open mind. You need to understand the characters and their motivations as every action has a consequence. As surreal as the series feels, Planet With can be very enjoyable for once you accept for what it is. As Mizukami’s first anime project, I hope his manga works gets adaptations in the future. Or if not, make another season of Planet With because I want more.

It's hard to pinpoint what Planet With actually is all about. Going into the series itself is like taking the dive into something that you don't know how would it be like, even after the absurd leaps of event after event that STILL manages to keep you on-board and invested. It's like you can predict the plot, but then it changes shift so soon that you're caught unaware each and everytime. That's the magic of Satoshi Mizukami, the brainchild of this series that honestly, Planet With is so unorthodoxly planned with the result being of perfect balance, and it is criminally one of the mostoverlooked gems of Summer 2018. Our main protagonist, Soya Kuroi, whom helms himself as a survivor of the once war-ravaged state that is Sirius, aims to do so many things at once (but with progression) which makes up for the bizarre but perfect plot. (Spoilers alert) 1) He starts off his revenge against the people whom killed his parents in his childhood years, as this character that looks like the GOOD protagonist, but the disguise is that with the occupants, the gothic-looking Ginko (from planet Riel) and the cat-looking "Sensei" (which is Rashverak), he hides his appearance with the mask that is now reminiscent of when he's swallowed by Rashverak and transforms into the Nebula Soldier, a cat-like mecha. Going after the 7 members of Grand Paladin whom destroyed the UFOs in the shape of oddly-looking animals, not with their mech power, but psychological power (as the UFOs play their minds with disillusional good memories to defeat them), and then coming in as the de-facto to steal their power, a small jar containing stardust that enables them to transform to their mechs, which in turn acts as the catalyst for Soya's lost memories. 2) The true plot of the series is now established, with Ginko explaining to Soya about the major difference: the fight for supremacy against factions - Soya's team being the Pacifist Faction, the people who want to change the world to be advocates of love, against the strange UFO weapons and Generalissimo the dog-looking general (which is Karellen)'s team being the Sealing Faction, the strange creatures from space that wants to keep the world's status quo and seal the world from more harm and damage. 3) As if this series hasn't been established yet (Mizukani's speciality of subversive plot), Soya, after the whole Grand Paladin ordeal, now finds himself in a predictament as the "People of Paradise", the culmination of a projection of his brother, who went to fight against the Dragon (which is called Azrabarakura), who has destroyed the lands of both Soya and Ginko's homelands, comes back to him as the general purpose to tell Soya that the Dragon has been defeated, but NOT yet completely laid down to rest, and will awaken in 5 years (time leap to Episode 10). And with that, all Nebula occupants, which include both the Pacifist and Sealing Factions, combine their forces to seal the Dragon that has tormented the lands of past and rest its soul back with the "People of Paradise". The story premise starts off semi-promising, but by the time it reaches the climax, it is wholesomely satisfying and you will feel like all the constant world-building and build-up is made solely to captivate and eclipse every moment of the show. It's like a puzzle picture, every piece of the puzzle making up for its slots to form the whole picture. Speaking of the characters, every character design is Mizukani-based, and props to the production staff for keeping his designs on-point, because they all look impressive, have unique premises and overall, just a visual treat to look at. Even the mech designs are rich and great, for they don't look like anything else other than a brazen copy-and-paste method, and honestly it's quite a refreshment from the oh-so-many mecha shows we're used to, with Gurren Lagann being the speciality (and the mech designs there too ware so weird, it just works). This show also tries to slot in the humour that is soldered right into the plot, and that too works best in its own regard. And I ship Soya and Nozomi (the 5 years after time-leap), why does this become Side-B info? It isn't apparent, but then again this series vaguely shows (it isn't important to the overall picture anyways), so most likely both of them are friends and then comrades in the fight...and nothing else :( Once again, I was once unsure that J.C.Staff would be the best studio to take on what can be called the solid core foundation of Mizukani, since his works are unpredictable. But after watching this series in its entirety, I'm contested and relieved that the production staff for this show really expresses their very best at creating the world that Mizukani envisioned everything to be. The art is not the greatest, but it works. The animation, especially the mecha-centric action scenes with the transformation to the battles with CGI, it was wonky at first, but the problems were quickly resolved with clean, concise and affluent animation. Some can tolerate the CGI at close range, but it's very noticeable and you be the judge of that. The music (heck and hell yeah) is Planet With's biggest win, because it not only explictly tells the story with the calm and soothing music at the low moments to the almost (slot in any superpower series you know)-feel BGM that holds the expectations ablaze with dubstep-esque bass, but also the music which is dope, which I have come to love the great purposefully made OST by Kouhei Tanaka (One Piece), and overall sound direction by Yoshikazu Iwanami (Berserk movies). The OP by Minami, 'One Unit', doesn't disappoint (honestly coming in after High School DxD Hero) and is one of my favourites in the Summer season. Mai Fuchigami's 'Rainbow Planet' for the ED isn't bad either, foreshadowing what all the characters has gone through the way in the series. And yet for all intensive purposes, Planet With falls ideally short of the fanbase, which is a shame to say the least (along with the MAL score), because it's a professionally-made show through and through. Thus far, this has been in the way, one of the most memorable series of the lackluster Summer 2018 season, and hopefully if you're like me, you don't know what this show's about but am intrigued by the storyline it has despite its shortcomings, pick this one up and prepare to be amazed.

Planet With is an interesting series for a variety of reasons. Outside of the fact that it’s a super robot anime in our current time, its premise sounds almost as peculiar as the designs of the aliens at its disposal. A vengeful fight against a group of heroes ends up spiraling into a conflict about the nature of humanity, and whether subjugation or love is the best path for them. In a way, this plot progression sounds similar to super robot juggernaut, Gurren Lagann from the previous decade. It certainly isn’t as impactful or even as well-crafted, but the charm and overall writing are strongenough to elevate this dark horse to its radar. First, we need to get an elephant out of the room; this show ain’t a looker. The CGI is generally terrible, making action scenes have no weight to them in terms of actual combat. This makes the combat feel floaty and even silly. The CGI works well when you see some absurd creature designs in the early episodes, but not for the mecha fights that are prevalent within the show, let alone any other machines that appear often. The character models are sometimes CG as well and they look even worse in those rare instances. That said, the designs are more than striking, from the mech and weird alien behemoth designs, to the wonderful, expressive, and/or sexy character designs. The actual animation and direction have some fun moments as well from interesting shots and angles, particularly later on. If only the CGI was up to par with the 2D elements, but alas JC Staff can’t help but continue its recent trend of lackluster visuals. To be fair, at least it stands out, unlike the music, which aside from the decent OP and ED, is serviceable at best. Where the show makes up for this is in its character exploration and chemistry. While few characters outside of Souya and Ginko are very memorable, the show does a wonderful job at exploring them and making their personalities bounce off each other. Most of the gags are spot-on, and despite how formulaic the early episodes were with some of its characters, what we got in terms of their backstories and how they dealt with everything was solid enough in its own right. Their conflicts, while spelled out to borderline obnoxious degrees, are handled in an engaging way, and the fact that this show works well as a modern surreal super robot shounen anime adds to this, right down to the finale. The show never indulges too far in its own bleakness despite how horrific several backstories can be and how the characters break down. All of this makes these characters charming for as unremarkable they may be. The comedy and romantic moments work effectively in that same vein. It never quite reaches Studio Gainax levels of maintaining that perfect balance between quirky, and downright tragic with shows like Gurren Lagann or Nadia. Despite this, well-respected mangaka Satoshi Mizukami still crafted arguably the most well-rounded show of the year. Cramming it all into 12 episodes as cleanly as it did is arguably one of the show’s greatest feats as well. Ultimately, this dark horse managed to be one one of the most surreal and charming shows of the year, visuals notwithstanding. Its conflicts are somewhat engaging, its feel is wonderful and genuine, and it manages to stand-out within this gigantic seasonal crowd for a variety of reasons. It’s a truly solid work with some real heart and talent to boot. Dare I say, with better action and CGI, this show could have been one of the greats. It certainly worked better as Gurren Lagann’s successor than Darling in the FranXX ever did.

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