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Planet With
Modern-Day(ish) Mech
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
I’ve seen a lot of people bash this series for adhering too closely to the different shows that inspired it but, for me, that was what made this special. In my spoiler-free review I called this a love letter to a bygone era of mech anime and all of the callbacks and shared story beats brought me back to my childhood. Things like Ryuzoji evoking Gurren Lagann’s Lord Genome, the suppression faction being the spiral people, the various sensei power-ups mirroring the various forms of the Gurren Lagann, the timeskip, and the different members of Grand Paladin mirroring the beast generals felt like nostalgic ideas that haven’t been used in a while. What also made these work, though, is the fact that small tweaks here and there were made to the formula that kept it fresh. For example, the framing of Grand Paladin as the enemy despite being (at least facially) an organization meant to save the world from the aliens served to set this series apart from other series as did the idea of Soya’s amnesia in the beginning. Furthermore, ideas like having Soya befriend members of Grand Paladin, like Nezuya, added a thin layer of internal conflict to the general battle against Grand Paladin. Ultimately, what I liked about this series might stem from blatant inspirations but such factors were elevated by smaller touches that added some unique charm.
What I Didn’t Like
I could spend this whole time talking about how the CG battles and designs (especially the big bad dragon) detracted from the experience but I feel like that is too easy. Instead, I want to talk about certain story beats that I felt weren’t handled correctly. Also, while I could attribute such things to the short run of the show, I still feel that they are important to mention. First of all, I feel like Soya’s amnesia was an inconsistent issue in that a big deal was made of it to start and then, once it was corrected, it was hardly mentioned again. Yes, he couldn’t just let everyone know that he got his memories back, but him getting them back so soon felt like the writers wanted to go one way and then dropped the idea for others. Next, Ryuzoji ended up feeling wholly underwhelming to me. His introduction included a huge showing of power yet his defeat, coming immediately after another fight, felt like it came with little to no hardship despite what the characters looked like. A quick aside on the topic of characters: Nozomi's immense psychic potential and power took the opposite route of Ryuzoji's development by shirking any build up. Again, I could attribute the poor setup (or lack thereof) to the story trying to get to the timeskip and true battle against the dragon yet I couldn’t help but feel left down. One final thing that really ended up eating at me was the structure of the show. In the past, I’ve praised a show for setting up a formula and sticking to it. In all of those cases, though, I felt like the series was able to establish a structure and follow it without it being so in the viewer’s face. Here, I felt like the showrunners were holding a bat labelled “Fight -> Backstory -> Fight” and were beating me over the head at every chance they got. In my eyes, there was almost no attempt to shake up the formula until the very end and, while this made the show extremely easy to watch while keeping ideas easy to digest, the show’s predictability got tiring considering that a large chunk of the series was dedicated to these fights against the members of Grand Paladin.
Overall Feelings
I wish Planet With was a longer series because most of my issues with it could have been remedied by a longer run. Perhaps character backstories could have been spaced out, perhaps the formula could have been hidden better, and perhaps fights could have felt like that had more stakes through better build ups. As it stands, though, those issues exist yet did not truly detract from my experience. I found myself enjoying a trip down memory lane with some of the ways characters interacted or were written and I found myself smiling when a story beat that I thought was going one way ended up going another. Is Planet With a masterpiece? No way, other shows exist that are better versions of this (by way of being its inspiration). Is Planet With a good time? In my honest opinion, yes. If you don’t like mech anime this isn’t going to change your mind but if your ‘re open to the genre and are willing to go back to a goofier and simpler time, then this is the show for you. The love of something will lead the way.