Planet With

According to the theories of oneiromancy, dreams of dragons represent the struggle of losing yourself to your own anger. Fittingly, Souya Kuroi wakes up from a nightmare of a massive dragon destroying everything around him in a blaze of rainbow colored light. After being told that he lost his parents and memory in a strange accident, the waking world becomes another nightmare in itself. With this dream being his only memory, he has no choice but to be taken care of by his two strange guardians: the spunky and energetic maid Ginko, and a huge cat known only as "Sensei."

His new life is turned upside down when the denizens of Saromisaka City are beset by a teddy bear-shaped UFO. When military power proves to be ineffective, seven mysterious people rise up to fight off the monstrosity. These heroes destroy the invader in a flurry of rainbow colored lights, the very same lights that Souya saw in his nightmare.

With the alien threat repelled, these seven strangers find themselves facing a new adversary: Souya. Swearing vengeance upon the people who decimated his old life, he begins his crusade against these "heroes" and becomes embroiled in a struggle of galactic proportions.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kuroi, Ginko Main

Izawa, Shiori Japanese

Kuroi, Souya Main

Abe, Atsushi Japanese

Sensei Main

Koyama, Rikiya Japanese

Takamagahara, Nozomi ing

Harada, Sayaka Japanese

Nezuya, Tadayoshi ing

Sugawara, Shinsuke Japanese

Inaba, Miu ing

Oowada, Hitomi Japanese

Torai, Hideo ing

Umehara, Yuuichirou Japanese

Ryuuzouji, Takashi ing

Nomura, Kenji Japanese

Kakka ing

Wakamoto, Norio Japanese

Oka, Hiroko ing

Inoue, Honoka Japanese

Oowada, Tomoyuki Producer

Kananiwa, Kozue Producer

Matsukura, Yuuji Producer

Yukawa, Jun Producer

Reviews

Sep 23, 2018

TakaCode

Recommended

The summer 18 anime season is a pretty rough season for anime that are not squeals mainly because it was the season that was filled with forgetful seasonal anime such as Harukana Receive, Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs and Angolmois: Genkou Kassenki. This was also the season gave us broken and boring dumpster fires like Back Street Girls, Island and my personal favorite The Master of Rock Bottom (The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar). Thankfully in this rabbit hole of a season, there were a few hidden gems and great shows such as Banana Fish, Cells At Work, High Score, Grand Blue ... and Planet With which is by far the most underrated show of the season for me. While Planet With did not dominate the Summer 18 season as I enjoyed J.C Staff other show from this season High Score Girl as well the more intriguing Banana Fish. It was still better than everything from this season alone.
So what made this show so good may ask? Let's find out, shall we?

Story.
The story of Planet With follows a young high schooler named Soya Kuroi Soya Kuroi who is living a peaceful life despite having no memories of his past. Along with his peaceful life he is living with a large cat named Sensei and a maid named Ginko. One day, strange floating beasts appear in the sky above Japan, and conventional weapons are useless against them until seven men and women transform into powerful weapons and destroy them. Sōya finds himself pressed into battle, fighting not against the beasts, but against the seven heroes instead, as he becomes an unwitting pawn in an interstellar war that has come to Earth.
The story for Planet With is great and interesting.
For starters, the story is very easy to follow as not only the knows gets straight to the point narratively but the story completely avoids all the traps that plagued the mecha anime genre such as big info dumps, unneeded fan-service, wish fulfillment, edge, lack of focus and bad filler content.
The first 4 episodes of Planet With are pretty episodic but after episode 4 the show completely leaves it episodic roots by going for a different direction and the direction that it took, in the end, was great that is filled with great writing and story elements. The best thing about Planet With was how unpredictable it was. Compare to any other anime in the season Planet With is filled with interesting exciting story moments that were, for the most part, were well executed.
The show is for the most part well paced as the show moves at a smooth pace where the viewer can understand what is going on screen.
Even though the story of Planet With was pretty great I have two minor nitpicks with it.
While the show was indeed easy to follow for the most part, however, there were a couple of times where the show became a bit too complex and a bit hard to follow. Don't get me wrong this is pretty easy to follow, for the most part, however, there were certain story elements in that can be a bit tricky to fully understand especially if you're a new anime fan. This was not an issue for me, however, I can understand why newer anime fans would fell lost and confused while watching this show at times.
Also while the show was a great ride that I really enjoyed, however, I honestly thought the show was way too short for its own good.
This is more of a personal complaint but I thought that this show could have been 24 episodes long. Yes, the ending was great as it was not rushed and manages to conclude the series very well but there was a small part of me wanted this show to be longer. Oh well, you can't have them all I guess.
Overall the story of Planet With was great.
8.5/10

Characters.
The characters in Planet With are pretty cool and enjoyable.
Soya is a pretty great mecha protagonist. Not only he is a likable character in his own right but he is a well written who develops very well. Not to mention his backstory and motivation for revenge was well told and intriguing. He's is far better than that lifeless potato named Hiro from Darling in the Franxx.
Next, we have Ginko who is by far favorite character in this show. Outside of being my favorite Waifu of this season, she is a fun and interesting character that I really enjoyed from start to finish. I really enjoyed her character chemistry with Soya as feels like a great sister for Soya.
The other characters in this show are very good that are not only well developed but they all fun and entertaining characters that have charm.
Overall the characters in Planet With were pretty awesome.
9/10

Visuals.
Visually Planet With is very good.
The character and background designs were pretty great and appealing to look at. There was hardly any art failures in this show manages to use its production values budget very well.
The mecha designs are solid overall. Yes, the mechs are in CGI but for once it actually works as this show almost perfectly manages to blend in CGI mecha into traditional 2D animation. Sensei mecha form itself is easily the best mecha design of 2018. Yes the mecha itself at first may look like SD Destiny Gundam but what it can do in combat says otherwise not mention the use of blue sci-fi color palette for the mecha was great as the mech was made from a competent mecha designer instead of a talentless hack who designed the cringe-inducing mech designs from Darling in the Franxx. As for the other mechs they were all pretty good for what they were especially Kakka mecha form.
The animation in Planet With is pretty good overall as it's very smooth and the fight choreography for the mecha fights was awesome.
Awesome job J.C Staff
8.5/10

Sound.
The soundtrack in Planet With is awesome. Not only the music by itself was a great listen as all of the tracks have that great sci-fi dubstep but it masterfully blends in well with the show plot and setting.
The opening theme One Unit'' by Minami is a fantastic opening theme that is not only epic song in its own right but it perfectly captures the tone of the series.
The ending theme Rainbow Planet" by Mai Fuchigami is a pretty good ending overall.
The voice acting in this show is great as every single Seiyuu did a great job with the roles that they were given.
It's such a shame that Planet With hasn't got a Simulcast English Dub. Then again Funimation would rather simulcast Isekai train-wrecks like The Master of Rock Bottom and How to Not Summon a Demon Lord. Hopefully, this show gets the English Dub that it deserves.
10/10

Final Thoughts.
I had a blast watching Planet With.

Yes, it may not be my favourite anime from this season as I prefer Banana Fish and High Score Girl over this show but I still think that Planet With is better than most of the throwaway anime from this season.
The story was pretty great and enjoyable. The characters were amazing and well developed, the visuals were great and the soundtrack was awesome. Honestly I mecha genre completely redeemed themselves after that shameless train-wreck that was Darling in the Franxx.
If you're looking for a good modern mecha anime that is well executed and has intriguing characters then I strongly recommend Planet With.
Planet With is one of the best animes I have ever seen and I say thank you to the creators for making this wonderful mecha series. It may not be in the same league as Gurren Lagann, Eureka Seven and Gundam The Origin but it's still one hell of an awesome mecha anime that I love.


Final Score 9/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jan 21, 2020

BasicallyAnybody

Mixed Feelings

This isn't a bad show at all, it's pretty entertaining but it has some flaws that hinder it too much.

The first one is the CGI, it doens't look too bad most of the time, but there is an specific character with and very notorious and bad CGI that just looks like it's made of plastic and that robs part of the seriousness of some scenes. All the robots are CGI too, but they actually have some good shots and some action scenes are pretty good but in general it doesn't work as well as it could.

The story isn't bad, actually it has a few surprises ... and it's structure allows to unveil it slowly but it feels childish and without tension. There is a nice message about forgiveness but it's taken too far, the extent is taken to makes it seem absurd and stupid. It's events don't have the weight that they should have to tell a story like this correctly.

The characters are ok, there isn't much to say about them. It actually makes an effort to deepen a few of them but they are mostly archetipes so it's not anything amazing. They are characterized enough but not much more.

The soundtrack is ok, a little forgettable, but it does it's work.

In general, it's an amene watching that anyone who isn't expecting much can enjoy. It's short and has some things to say so it has some worth to what it does. Basically, you could watch it as long as you are not bothered by the CGI.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Sep 23, 2018

Karhu

Not Recommended

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 side ... of 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 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 ).

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 ed 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 ment 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 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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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