LogFAQs > #969409402

31. Planet With
https://myanimelist.net/anime/37578/Planet_With
Summer 2018 (12 episodes)
My Score: 8/10, MAL Score: 7.17/10
Best Characters: Kuroi Souya

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl5ZGNYDGiI

Premise: Kuroi Souya has lost most of his memories, leaving only dreams of a dragon destroying everything around him. When a group of heroes defending Earth use similar looking powers, Souya begins fighting against them.

The Good: Planet With is a mecha anime that goes in some unique directions. It follows Souya, a boy with a grudge against something he barely remembers. Earth is under attack by exceedingly strange floating constructs, and a group of heroes have risen to fight back against them. Before they can celebrate their victory, however, the heroes are attacked by Souya in his own mecha. All he knows is that something ruined his life, the power the heroes are using looks suspiciously similar, and that his guardians (a maid and a weird cat creature) say hes doing the right thing.

As you can probably tell, Planet With isnt an easy anime to describe. Its a conflict with a lot of different sides, and its unclear at first who the good guys are or if anyone even knows for sure. All I knew at the beginning was that Souya walked out and there was a weird cat creature sitting at the table. It was such a bizarre visual, but it hooked me! I love how this anime can go from absurd and funny to serious and dramatic without ever missing a beat. Sometimes the weird cat creature is trying to look up an anime figures skirt. Other times there are legitimately thought-provoking philosophical questions alongside awesome mecha battles. I was also impressed at how far the story went. There were at least three different points where it couldve ended and I wouldve been satisfied, but then it just kept going and getting better and better. It felt like several seasons were condensed into one, and somehow none of it was rushed.

The Bad: There are times during the mecha battles where the sound mixing isnt very good. I use headphones, so maybe it wouldnt be as noticeable with speakers or from a TV, but a lot of the attacks were incredibly loud compared to everything else. It doesnt ruin the battles, its just annoying. This was the only bad thing I can think of for Planet With, so I figured Id mention it.

Overall: Planet With is zany at times. There are weird animal creatures, and the alien constructs are just I dont even know how describe those things other than calling them random in an uncomfortable way. I enjoyed all of that. However, what hooked me was the story this told. It has a lot of serious moments. Some were heartfelt, some were heartbreaking, and some were simply awesome. The mecha battles were also all great aside from some shoddy sound mixing.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/9/4/AABz_zAAD4N2.jpg

CHARACTER: Kuroi Souya (Planet With)
https://myanimelist.net/character/160400/Souya_Kuroi
Voiced by: Abe Atsushi
TOP 100 RANK: 34th

SPOILERS FOR PLANET WITH

VIDEO LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rK3kuQ12rrw

That video is from the first episode, and I think it encapsulates a lot of what Planet With is about. Souya gets swallowed by his weird cat creature, Sensei, to enter the mecha. A vegetarian maid needs to translate Senseis instructions, but eventually Souya wins even though he doesnt get whats going on. Its only afterwards that he realizes the power the heroes are using is similar to the one from his vague memories. Then he gets angry and pledges to beat them all. It intrigued me the first time I watched this. The heroes seemed like good guys, I mean they just defended Earth from a weird alien construct that could get into peoples heads and pacify them. Souyas destructive memories were true too. I wondered who the actual good guys were, but it turned out I wasnt giving Planet With enough credit. The conflict here isnt as simple as good vs evil.

It turns out that Souya is the subject of a kind of intergalactic bet. Hes from another planet, one where the people used their awakening psychic powers to become warlike. This contrasts with planets like the one the maid Ginko is from, who became peaceful. Theres a large intergalactic federation of species called Nebula who all chose the so-called evolution of love. One of their most powerful members, a dragon-like being, became angry at the people from Souyas planet, Sirius. The dragon destroyed it and every single person on it except for Souya, who was rescued by Sensei. Sensei made a bet. He argued that nothing is black and white. Not everyone on Sirius was evil, and he wants to prove that by showing that Souya can also reach the evolution of love.

The story is all about Earth reaching its own psychic awakening, and being faced with that same choice. One part of the intergalactic Nebula wants to seal Earth in blissful emptiness before they can turn warlike, but the other half wants to at least give them a chance. Meanwhile, Souya is grappling with his need for revenge vs his desire to do the right thing. He lost his whole planet. Theres a scene where he breaks down talking about the people he knew and the family he lost. Little things, like how he never returned something he borrowed. He has a good reason to hate the dragon. However, thanks to new friends like his classmate Nozomi, Souya overcomes his hate. He also spreads that message to most of Earth and helps them overcome Nebulas sealing.

The final act of the anime involves fighting the returned dragon, and I was glad there was a happy ending. The story couldve ended before that and I wouldve been satisfied too, though. Souya had already gone through all of his important character beats by that point. It was still nice to have the finale as an affirmation that the choices he made were correct. They only avert disaster by having everyone come together, after all. Planet With isnt about good and evil, because no one is completely evil. Its about doing your best to be good despite the temptation of evil, and Souya represented that theme in a way I found really compelling.