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Planet With
An Old-School Feel
Series in a Sentence
Kuroi Soya, an amnesiac boy, is thrust into his own unique role in a battle between the protectors of the Earth and mysterious alien invaders.
What I liked
This series brought me back to the good old days of mech anime. I’m talking about the days of goofy character designs, mech-of-the-day action, colorful characters, and upbeat gags. While it’s not as solid of a series, the closest approximation I can make is the classic Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Without diving to heavily into spoilers, if you’ve seen that series you can guess where this one is going and, while many people might fault Planet With for being almost too reliant on its inspirations, I found it refreshing. I’ve seen too many mech series lately that are dark, brooding, and have extremely heavy stakes with no room to laugh or have fun with it. Not that that’s a bad thing since many series have done that well, but it’s been a while since I’ve watched a mech anime that was this fun. Other positive include the basic character designs and the way that the story actually plays with tropes and expectations but those would be almost too spoiler-heavy to really mention. Just know that this series was (1) heavily inspired by Gurren Lagann, (2) was fun and action packed, and (3) was one that I personally really enjoyed.
What I Didn’t Like
For all of the fun I had watching Planet With and reliving the story beats of older series, there was one thing that truly detracted from the experience: The CG. If you’ve read any of my other reviews you’ll know that CG is a point of contention. On one hand I’ve seen some series really pull it off well or use it in a clever way. ON the other, though, there are some that make me wish that traditional animation was used. In this series, one where I was already iffy on some mech designs, the CG just made them at times feel janky and ugly, especially when going against tradition 2D foes. Don’t get me wrong, there are some actually sweet fight scenes and moments rendered in great CG but I just don’t feel like anime is at the stage yet where it can replace the fluidity of traditional animation. Bringing it back to another series, Star Driver’s 2D renderings of each mech-of-the-day fight were fluid and a joy to watch where here in Planet With I was left pining for such action.
Overall Feelings
Planet With is a love letter to the Mech series of the early to mid 2000’s that didn’t take themselves as seriously as their earlier and later counterparts. You have goofy characters in both design and writing, off the wall mech designs that do and don’t work, a huge plot that is both serious and funny, and almost beat for beat story tropes based on works of a simpler time. The use of CG in the fights was a negative to me, as was the inherent speed of the plot since it was only 12 episodes, but the issues were never enough to make it so that I didn’t want to watch the show. If you, like me, grew up in a time where mech anime didn’t take themselves too seriously, or you just enjoy mech-of-the-day action bundled into an old-school plot, Planet With is the series for you. As in all things, growth is an inevitable and strong force.