Planetes volume 01 (Paperback)

Planetes is much more mature than the usual peers in its genre.
It feels more like a really good drama taking place in todays world if today were the 2070:ies.
The drama based on the space theme feels both classic and original and might not be very strikingly new as scifi but I feel the scifi part has a more settled profile. What isn't new to the people who have lived in space a long time isn't posed as new excitements of space (if not conveyed through a touristing medium) and the drama seeks deeper into a more established fictional society of earth and space and finds more elaborate things to portray and events to stage. Or atleast well towards that direction compared to conventional scifi-manga.

So a mature and intellectually interesting theme within the space-theme.
A very good basis on actual science which is served in an easily digested way and a modest and respectful way of imagining todays worlds consequencial developement into a controllably near future.

But most of all I'd like to commend the acting of the characters or what to call it. Characters feel very live and round (in contrary to flat that is).
And their drama could hold water without the space-part I feel.. and I don't mean the space-part is anything but well applied.

Oh and it has everything else like great action, humor and some romance too.... :P

I wouldn't waste 5 star ratings but this is definately one for me. I hope mr.Yukimura will release a new work in a near future cause I'm bitterly hooked :¨)
Oh and read this before you watch the anime! absolutely you should! The anime is like a consolation for those who didn't get enough of the manga I feel. Not to say how good it is I'll say it was alot better for me when I had read the manga than when I started with the first few episodes before I read the manga.

Unlike most other sci-fi, which often concentrate on intergalactic struggles and strange technology, what Planetes is most interested in is the life and struggles of a group of individuals whose job it is to keep the space around the earth free of floating debris - captain Kirk and the Enterprise this isn't.

While we see the main characters (initially the experienced Yuri, tired Fee and fresh-faced Hachimaki) at work, what the manga actually concentrates on is the way that the various characters feel and behave, and how this changes over time. As the plot goes on each character is more and more fleshed out, as we learn more about their past and way of thinking.

While occasional incidents do occur - terrorists, and then governments, threatening to cause Kessler Syndrome - a scientifically proven threat, whereby an explosion of debris in orbit causes exponentially more debris to be created, constantly, effectively making it impossible for humans to safely get into space - these events are used more to show us other sides of the characters, than to simply get the heart pulsing.

Through the show there are aspects of love - romantic, familial and between friends - and all of these are handled believably and in a way that could fail to move only the most hardened hearts.

The other side to the show is the science-fiction, and as you may have guessed from the inclusion of such real problems as Kessler syndrom, this is hard sci-fi - everything detailed within is believable, with the designs of craft and other technology of the time never entering the realms of fantasy - no laser-cannons here!

As things stand, the sci-fi interested me less than the characterisation, as it isn't a primary interest of mine, but I feel that I can safely say that fans of hard science-fiction won't be disappointed by this series.

In short, the brilliant characterisation and handling of dramatic elements ensured that I fell in love with the series, while the realistic science-fiction impressed me, and my only real problem with the series was that it ended so soon - five volumes seems so little! This is an absolutely brilliant manga, and one I can safely recommend to any reader who wants more from their manga than just action.