Planetes - Makoto Yukimura
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Planetes is a unique work in the manga landscape. Neither space opera nor pure psychological drama, it's a deeply human story that chooses space as a mirror for the intimate. Makoto Yukimura tells a tale of solitude, aspiration, and cosmic dust—but above all, of the invisible bonds that connect people.
The story follows a team of orbital debris collectors. The premise might sound amusing, yet it’s one of the most beautiful introductions to humanist science fiction you’ll ever read. Every mission becomes a pretext to explore the characters’ doubts, wounds, and dreams. Ai Tanabe, Hachimaki, Yuri… each of them moves forward in a silence often more powerful than words.
What struck me about Planetes is its ability to combine cosmic wonder with human turmoil. The manga never tries to impress—it observes. Yukimura gives us a realistic, believable future world, but it’s never the technology that matters most—it’s the fragility of those who inhabit it. The fear of loss, the yearning to rise, failure, grief, the void that nothing fills.
Hachimaki, in particular, is a fascinating character. His journey is that of a young man striving to assert himself, to reach the stars… and in that pursuit, he collides with himself—his solitude, his anger, the absurdity of certain ambitions. The emptiness of space becomes the exact reflection of his internal contradictions.
Planetes is a slow, contemplative manga. It doesn’t seek to entertain—it offers an experience. Reading it feels like drifting. You move away from the usual rhythms of shōnen or seinen storytelling. You enter suspended time, a silence where emotions resonate more powerfully. And within that silence, the most essential questions surface: why live? why keep going? what are we reaching for?
I closed Planetes with a sense of serenity. This manga doesn't aim to shake you—it aims to center you. It doesn't speak of heroism, it speaks of gravity—both literal and emotional. A singular work that stays with you for a long time.