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「投影機修理」 (Tōeiki Shūri)
“Repairing the Projector”
Week two of Planetarian is a short one, which is perhaps appropriate, as Planetarian the visual novel (let’s just call it that instead of ‘kinetic’) is itself quite short. There’s only a few hours of reading in it, more novella than novel, and five full episodes of anime time would probably have been overkill. Plus, it’s mostly a lot of talking anyway—what you see in this episode, where Yumemi and Okayku-sama exchange dialogue while repairing Jena. Planetarian aims to do basic things: build some sort of chemistry between its sole two characters—a robot and a post-apocalypse survivor—and then do some contemplation based off that. For an audiovisual format like anime it’s probably best to keep that stuff snippy, so 13 minutes for this episode felt fine. It’s interesting that Planetarian is direct-to-web and therefore can vary its episode times like this, unlike a TV show where scheduling requires each episode to adhere to the half-hour (more like 23 minutes, give or take) slot time. One of the complications of adaptation is that each chapter of a book may be of almost any word count, whereas anime is much more procrustean. Planetarian has no such constraints, and it’s good to see them make use of their freedom. It shows some thought in the direction, at least.
So, yeah, mostly talking for Planetarian with some backstory for both the junker and the world in general. I don’t remember much of the original VN (again, it’s been more than 10 years) so I can’t really tell you how closely they’re sticking with the source on that stuff. I do think I remember the rain being highly caustic, though, so the leisurely shower would probably have gone badly in the original. I can see why they would make such a change, if they did. Planetarian spends enough time inside the planetarium (as one might expect) as is, and they need to make use of their nice background artists. Might as well vary the sets a bit. I approve, since VNs are mostly rows of text and a few graphics, and the extra scenery in the anime adds value to the adaptation. The little details aren’t that important anyway, since humanity has so many nifty ways to destroy itself these days that the exact how of it is fairly freeform. The exposition serves the more useful purpose of pointing out some of Yumemi’s robot idiosyncrasies, in the way her memory works, in the way she processes information, and in the way she sees the world.
Many of these sci-fi stories like to have their robots play foil for their human characters, as part of an examination of the human condition and general navel gazing that sci-fi likes to dip into once in a while. Planetarian is no exception, though perhaps without the technical detail that some stories may sometimes get into. What we do know is that Yumemi is entirely incapable of cynicism, in contrast to the entire setting which, being post-apocalyptic, offers a very dim view of just about everything. In particular, Yumemi is an oddly spiritual creature—where robots are stereotypically conceived as coldly logical machines—because her colleagues filled her little head with ideas of robot heaven. I mentioned something about Planetarian being having this spiritual side to it, and here is where it shows. I won’t be tackling lofty metaphysical questions like whether heaven awaits us after death here on RandomC, but the afterlife is one of those things that humans as a whole have never stopped thinking about, perhaps ever since we understood death. Murder, then mysticism, in that order. Is heaven just one of those comfortable little lies we tell our children—noting that Yumemi’s naivete is very childlike indeed—like Santa Claus? But what is the alternative, especially in a setting like Planetarian? There’s these junkers, who scavenge through the corpses of civilisation just to survive. Instead of heaven, robot or other wise, is life hard, the struggle meaningless, and death nihilism? Planetarian juxtaposes the alternatives here, and is often the case for spirituality does not offer a case about what is true. It makes an argument about what one should believe regardless.
Well, lately i saw some really similar pictures… an Photo album from Fukushima’s Ghost City… nearly the same “forgotten” Vibes inside this pictures as in this anime
Perhaps this Robot is also “Lucky” there could be other Juckers outside, that would shut her down to scavenge her Parts or battery
also…
https://randomc.net/image/Planetarian/Planetarian%20Chiisana%20Hoshi%20no%20Yume%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2003.jpg
Look carefully in the upper right Corner, of her Battery display…
She really needs an new Battery
I recently read the VN. They ate sticking almost exactly to the source material.
I was really looking forward to this session to see how one of my favorite VNs would be adapted.
I don’t feel in the least disappointed. They are doing a good job of making her sound somewhat annoyingly kind.
I walked into this series completely unaware of what it was about. I have to say that from episode 1 you will definitely realize it’s a Key work but unlike others, it wastes absolutely no time at tugging at your heart strings and yanks them pretty deep at that.
The second episode takes things back a little and you can’t help but question the whole does a Robot really matter? But I guess when you see someone or something act just so “human” and continue down that single path that is laid out before them regardless of the odds, especially when they are living out their only real purpose for existence even when that purpose has long since gone, the whole matter of the actor being a human or robot or whatever just seems to be secondary.
You can’t help but secretly cheer them on even if you know it’s pointless or that it will only lead to heartbreak…. Damn Key! why do you get me every time.
I am sad / glad at the same time Does Yumemi have an awareness that she may not be infinite either. Thus Robot Heaven This is just so touching!
She is perfectly aware that her battery is running out and that it can’t be charged nor is there a replacement. So she is aware that she will “stop” at some point. Now whether she equates that stop with death or simply a pause until a new battery can be found is up to debate for those who havent read the original
Maybe it’s just me but I was a huge fan of planetarian visual novel. Went as far as doing extra work getting the audio to work for it. That was maybe close to 10 years ago? Anyways as much as I am excited to see this animated. I got to say I was very disappointed watching these 2 episodes.
First, they revealed the memories that was suppose to be at the end of the story. Maybe the directors thought they were clever, but at least for me I felt like they ruined it.
Second, I guess maybe my bar has been set too high but I feel like there’s only a few studios able to properly portray a good novel in its animated form. I feel there’s so much things “off” about this anime starting from visuals to maybe even the voicers. I guess this for me is similar to how Berzerk is for the fans.
Well maybe I should be glad someone picked this up and decided to animate it?
Well anyone whose read the source material, especially if its something “written” as opposed to animated is usually a bit disappointed with the adaptation as things enevitably change or some stuff gets cut out. It’s only natural since there is a change in media and stuff that works for one may not for the other.
As to directing choices, we’ll have to wait and see. Sometimes they prove to be better than the original while other times they tend to reveal too much. In recent memory I think the example of the former would be the White Album 2 adaptation and the latter for me would be the first season of Sword Art Online
I’m just waiting to see how hard the ending will destroy me as it did 9 years ago.
I thought the countdown to recharging for Yumemi was kinda ominous. You know that something will go wrong, and she’s blissfully unaware of how things are in the real world. It’s kinda sad in a way. You can kinda see why he decided to fix the projector, it quite literally is her entire world. She doesn’t know anything besides being a staff worker at the planetarium.