A weary scavenger has scarcely escaped death from automated soldiers and looks through the rubble of a department store, left from a city devastated by a germ bomb. Amid his curiosity, he enters a room where, he is welcomed by a robotic host as the 2 millionth customer to a planetarium. He is bewildered at the sight of robot functioning, and the robot is unnerved at the scavenger pointing a gun at her. The robot presents him a bouquet made of microphones and broken machines parts, and invites him to a presentation of the starry sky-something covered by the pollution.
“Planetarian” is a five episode Original Net Animation (ONA) series based on the 2004 Japanese visual novel “Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet.” The animated series was released in the summer of 2016 in Japan, and later distributed in America by Funimation. The “Planetarian” series has spawned multiple books and CD Drams in Japan, which contain side stories that take place before or after the original game story. The series has been well received by critics and viewers for its thoughtful story, its main characters and its melancholy yet hopeful themes of humanity.
The series takes place in the aftermath of a devastating nuclear war that has left humanity on the verge of extinction, forced to live in small communities amidst the leftover killer robots and radioactive weather. A scavenger, known as the Junker, is chased into an abandoned department store where he finds a robot named Yumemi Hoshino. She welcomes him as the first visitor to the department store’s planetarium in thirty years and invites him to see a show about the stars. With the broken projector and her unceasing positive attitude that people will come, the Junker reluctantly decides to repair the projector and help Yumemi showcase her dream of sharing the night sky in these dire times.
Despite the set-up of tragedy in the story, there is a surprising amount of depth and restraint to the characters of the Junker with how he accepts Yumemi’s desire and how they react to a dying world. The movie follows the story decades later, as three children encounter an elderly man called the “man of the stars,” who has been spending his life showing various survivors a projection of the starry sky. Both the Japanese and the English cast of this series is well executed in conveying the character’s emotions and their delivery.
On the animation, “Planetarian” has great animation and very detailed backgrounds when showing a dreary and empty world of the main city and the environments of a broken world. The world seems lifeless with humanity barely making an appearance. The movements of the characters are fluid, which works really well for both the ONA and the movie. One of the best moments of the series is when the characters see the beauty of the starry sky from projector and Yumemi conveys her program to the Junker. The animation has heart wrenching and heartwarming moments where the characters explore with each other topics of the night sky and the afterlife.
One of the key themes in this series is the beauty and mystery of nature and how people are impacted by it. In her program to the Junker, Yumemi notes how even after thousands of years, the stars would still remain in the night sky even if we cannot see it. This moment affects both the Junker and the children, as they see the stars as both a symbol of hope and a reminder of humanity’s past ideas of exploration and curiosity. While most people in the world of “Planetarian” are more focused on surviving, the stars give the characters a will to live and inspire others to rebuild.
“Planetarian” is tragic yet beautiful story delivered in five short episodes and a movie that showcases the idea of hope and optimism in a time of the unknown. Its animation, characters and stories push the boundaries of storytelling to show the splendor of something we take for granted. Hopefully, you will enjoy the starry sky when you look up and night and think about the bright future humanity has, no matter what troubles come.
The “Planetarian” ONA and Movie has rated TV-14, with instances of alcohol and tobacco use and references, mild language and brief violence. “Planetarian” is available for streaming and for purchase on Blu-Ray and DVD by Funimation.
