Planet With certainly hasn’t been a restrained sort of series at any point since its inception. But this was the most balls-out crazy episode so far to be sure – a densely packed explosive device full of plot, spectacle and absurdity. One thing you know about Mizukami Satoshi if you’ve read any of his manga – this guy is a huge anime fan. I don’t know if I’d call him an otaku necessarily, but he’s clearly in love with the medium of anime and the trappings that go along with it.
As such, I can only imagine (though it’s pure speculation) that there must be a a certain frustration for Mizukami-sensei at never having any of his works adapted. Until now, of course. There’s been a real sense of gleeful abandon to Planet With right from the beginning – none of Mizukami’s series are restrained by any means, but this one is especially exuberant. Almost as if he’s like a kid who’s just been given the keys to a brand new sports car – I mean, you’re not going to keep it under 40 and use it to run errands to the corner store, are you? No, he’s taking it out on the highway and seeing what it has under the hood – trying to pack as much anime into one series as a writer possibly can.
It’ll be up to the individual viewer to decide how that works for them, of course, but for those of us who’ve been waiting for this development for many years, Planet With is an exhilarating ride. I was hoping we might get a little bit longer sequence with Nezuya’s visions inside the Nebula beast, but I couldn’t help thinking of how much fun Mizukami must have had writing that ludicrous scene. I suspect there may end up being more to this subplot than its humorous treatment in the episode suggests – I can’t help but notice that Nezuya-kun still hadn’t woken up by the time it ended. Perhaps there are side effects if one’s psychological journey is interrupted halfway?
The problem here is that Haru isn’t satisfied to have defeated the Nebula beast (and endangered her colleague) – revenge for Miu-chan is very much on her mind. She sets off to find the Nebula soldier who defeated Miu, accompanied by the last two Paladins to properly engage with the story – Takatori Benika (Ishigami Shizuka) and Hitsujitani Yousuke (Okitsu Kazuyuki), who seems to follow her pretty much everywhere, puppy-dog fashion. Haru is insistent that they not interfere in her grudge match with Souya, but that proscription will be out the window soon enough…
It’d already been hinted at (and Ryuuzouji’s name was an obvious tell) but it is indeed the dragon’s power that the Paladins are using to play superhero. Just to step back – this is the same power we know destroyed Souya’s home world of Sirius, which certainly calls into question the already questionable motives behind that group. The initial alliances of the series were already starting to fray – with the events of this episode, they’re effectively shattered. When Souya destroys both Haru’s mecha arms, she uses her powers to regrow them (in rather grotesque form), but in doing so is consumed by that power, becoming a dragon herself. This leaves Benika and Yousuke with no choice but to throw in with Souya, shuffling the cards in such a way that they’re likely never going to be restored to their prior configuration.
The fight is pretty thrilling, a real barnburner, but it’s also quite disastrous on all fronts. Haru completely loses herself in her mad desire to destroy Souya – it’s only the fact that the area has been evacuated due to the presence of the giant sensei-ship that massive collateral damage is avoided from her Godzilla-like fireballs. In order to try and stop dragon-Haru Sensei is forced to rely on “cat doping” – a can of “Matanbi Z” (catnip’s Latin name is Matatabi), a super power-up but one guaranteed to cause a hangover the next day (for both mech and pilot). In the end it’s only Miu’s entreaties (communicated with Ginko’s help) that finally reach Haru and allow the Souyabot and Haru’s allies to bring the situation under control. Ginko gets something in exchange for her help, though – Haru’s vial of dragon power.
When Benika confronts Ryuuzouji in the aftermath of this debacle, he admits – quite proudly – that as she’d suspected his plan is basically one of global conquest, a “uniform” way of being that he will impose on the world. The Paladin faction is pretty much a shambles at this point – Torai, Miu and Haru have all lost their powers, Benika has resigned the group in disgust, and since Yousuke seems to shadow her every move, it’s very possible he’ll follow. That would leave only Takashi’s dad and the still-comatose Nezuka-kun on his team – and the uber-suspicious Shiraishi, of course. I don’t know if a formal alliance between the rebel Paladins and the Pacifist Faction is imminent, but it certainly seems inevitable – and the battle lines for the future of the Earth will coalesce around these two poles.
Jindujun93
July 30, 2018 at 5:38 amFor me at the very least, there was no doubt that this episode here was the strongest one that not just Planet With had to offer, but the summer season so far in general. As with the previous episodes I couldn’t help but to rewatch it a second time immediately afterwards, and by now went for another third viewing simply because I wanted to take it in again. Honestly, it’s a very ‘Mizukami’ episode for a lack of a better word (okay, all the previous episodes were too, but in a different way and not as much as this one), as Mizukami is fond to throw in some wham moments early on (like the third golem fight in Samidare or what happens one third into Sengoku Youko – you know what I mean, I just don’t want to spoil it for potential readers unfamiliar with his works).
So far, every episode had at least one character that I really wanted to see more of in the future, and this time the star of the episode was Benika for me – and not just for actually calling her boss out on his plans and quitting at the end of the episode. That raises the question of whether she’ll act on her own (since we know Mizukami doesn’t get rid of his characters), whether she’ll cooperate with Souya in some fashion at least going forward, or whether there’ll be something that forces her hand and makes her return to Grand Paladin, for example if Takezo and Yosuke get taken out, Nezuya is still comatose and another invader shows up. Kind of a “you or the safety of everyone else” moment.
But what I’m having by far the most fun with so far? Due to it being an original series, there’s a lot of theories to craft of just what is the bigger picture and how this’ll progress, and I’m having a blast with looking through those on the net so far, as sparse as they are. At this point the Mizukami ride is accelerating, and I suspect it won’t hit the brakes anytime soon.
Stefan
July 30, 2018 at 6:10 amI think this whole series isn’t working for me because I’m not part of the narrative of expectations about the author, and I’m much more inclined to the individualities of an author than to anime for its own sake. For me, this was the weakest episode so far.
Mike
July 30, 2018 at 3:08 pmI tuned out when I realised the whole episode was going to just be: Fight! It felt like Power Rangers. I thought this guy wrote seinen ?
Jindujun93
July 31, 2018 at 3:46 amHe kind of does both, actually. Spirit Circle was as Seinen as it gets, Sengoku Youko very much on the Shounen side, and Samidare a Seinen initially disguised as Shounen.
TheYepMan
July 30, 2018 at 4:53 pmEnzo, despite me modestly enjoying this show for what it is, this is the only time I remember a show being polarizing with the audience in the way it is right now.
People familiar with the work of Mizukami and are loving this show so far just can’t take him out of their mind when watching this – hell, they can’t avoid mentioning Mizukami and his past work in reference to the show. I mean, I can tell this is very much an auteur show, and that he’s a prolific mangaka and that this is his first time to get a work animated, but I do think the nature of Mizukami’s work and the expectations that follow are clouding not only your judgment, but the judgment of every other person familiar with Mizukami – and this is, of course, a double-edged sword; there’s no guarantee all of the works of an author will land (wait, no, an auteur – the risk is higher!), and we’re too early in the season to know if this show’s gonna stick the landing.
Then there’s the other side of the coin: people who aren’t familiar with the works of the aforementioned, and are standing there going “just what is making all these people get so hyped”? An especially cynical commentator could just chalk this up as “some dude liked Invader Zim enough to make a similar anime, within which a milquetoast ripoff of Evangelion is happening simultaneously in the background” – and non-manga audiences will likely agree and move on. It also doesn’t help that this is being handled in a very lazy way by JC Staff, this is a show that could’ve at least sold the “non-believers” through visuals alone in the hands of Madhouse, ufotable, hell – even Trigger. (Though, the Gainax of old would be the absolute best pick – maybe if IG weren’t making crude imitations of FLCL they could’ve done something cool with this one).
Look, I don’t mean to pick on you or your articles, and like I said I’m actually enjoying this a bit. But there’s a point when too much enthusiasm (and too much namedropping) turns a review into a fluff piece. And whoever pays attention to articles like this one might feel the same.
Guardian Enzo
July 30, 2018 at 6:38 pmOr we might just have differing opinions about the show. Occam’s Razor and all.
Stefan
July 30, 2018 at 7:06 pmLOL. To try to strike a balance between William of Ockham and Yep, I’ll have to note that the readership of your website skews the context of this debate (which can lead to polarization), so to settle the debate we’d have to see how a pool of random new anime viewers would react to this series before we can say it’s the skewness of Mizukami’s hype or differing opinions that are playing tricks with us right now.
William sure saves us time from the conceptual analysts though.
TheYepMan
July 30, 2018 at 8:03 pmI think I talked too much without making myself easy to read here.
What I meant is that I’ve only seen positive comments about Planet With from people familiar with Mizukami’s oeuvre, and so far no newcomers that I know of have settled on their decision about this show. That “cynical commentator” I posted about? That’s a (paraphrased and translated to English) quote from a coworker of mine, in response to a chat about Mizukami’s manga and Planet With’s promise in turn. (Though I’ll admit – I disagree with his taste a whole lot.)
And well, I never said I dislike PW – I’m very much entertained by what I’ve seen and I’m intrigued by what’s gonna happen after episode 4’s ending scene. It’s just that I’m the newcomer to Mizukami’s body of work and I can’t seem to find a chance to talk about this show with anyone without getting into conversations like “but have you read this or that of his manga”, “oh come on it looks pretty stupid and the fans are obv tripping balls”. And well, one person that said “I’ve never heard of it and I didn’t even know anything like that was airing”.
Stefan
July 30, 2018 at 8:41 pmI’m actually in the same position; mildly lukewarm, with the extremes being pretty much a light intrigue and “style: overblown; substance: ???”. I think the judgement about the show will not vary too much among the readers, but the experiences are wildly divergent and, as a consequence, the opinions are volatile. I share your experience.
Therefore, you ask “Why are our experiences so divergent?”, but I think that’s in the long term a self-defeating question.
Guardian Enzo
July 31, 2018 at 2:10 amWell, I can only write about it from the perspective of someone who knows Mizukami’s work and knows where PW fits in context. I can’t un-know what I know, you know? I realize that will come across as “biased” to some viewers, but in my view it’s unavoidable.
Rita
July 31, 2018 at 9:58 amThere’s definitely a ‘group’ for which types of people will like Mizukami’s work in general, I think the problem is basically the problem you get with any show a group of people love and are outspoken about, everyone else who isn’t in that group is left either confused or annoyed.
It’d be no problem if both sides just sort of shrugged and accepted that people have different tastes (and I do think Enzou’s done a good job of just that) but the more people love a work, the more they feel the need to ‘defend’ it a lot of the time. And while I understand that sentiment, it usually doesn’t go anywhere (except maybe flame wars that eventually lose track of what the starting debate was ever about). And that in turn tends to make people not in that group more confused (or in the worst case, antagonistic, though that’s usually not a problem very often on LiA so good on everyone)
But Mizukami’s a fantastic writer and he’s never seen any of his works adapted and he has dedicated fans who have been praying for an anime by him for ages.
I sort of understand the sentiment from the other side because I’ve had it for other series (especially some of urobutcher’s works after madoka fame). It’s a sort of ‘can you please evaluate this series on its own without tying everything back to the author/director/writer/etc’. And sometimes the answer is no, because it’s a fan writing the post and they’re having a blast being, well a fan. And seeing as I will personally fight someone to the death over some of my favorite works, I don’t think I’m in any position to deny them that, even if I personally don’t understand what’s so great.
Hell, I LOVE Mizukami’s works. I still think Sengoku Youko and Spirit Circle belong in whatever the manga equivalent of a Hall of Fame is. I don’t think Planet With is as good as either of those, but I do find it a blast and a lot of fun. And I totally get that a lot of people (especially people who’ve mostly only experienced anime in its more recent, seasonal form) will have no idea why I like this stuff. And I also know that most Mizukami fans will tie PW back into what it means to be a ‘Mizukami work’, and that some people will find that utterly confusing or annoying. And personally I think that’s fine, mainly because it really IS a big difference in whether or not you’ve experienced his previous works (they’re pretty balls of the walls too, but without needing to fit their content into 12 episodes constraint)
Guardian Enzo
July 31, 2018 at 3:51 pmQuite a nice summation of the situation there.
sweejen
July 30, 2018 at 6:09 pmSoooo…I had no idea who Mizukami was before I started watching this (which I did mostly because the art style appealed to me), and I’m enjoying the hell out of it.
leongsh
July 31, 2018 at 3:01 amI am not one familiar with Mizukami’s works. Planet With is entertaining enough to follow but I don’t understand the high praise being lavished on the show. I have mentioned my summary thoughts about what this show seems to be about in the comments of the previous episode, i.e. this show seems to be about wanting to out-animeing anime.
The fact that the metaphor was brought up of Mizukami getting the keys to a sports car and driving the heck out of it on the highway and back roads dovetails with my aforementioned summation. For now, it has not crossed the line to being obnoxious or annoying but at the rate it is going, it runs the risk of ending up doing so later.
Passa
July 31, 2018 at 5:43 am” this show seems to be about wanting to out-animeing anime”
This. This is exactly how I feel about this show so far but I’m still hanging in there a little while longer.
I made peace with the fact that when Enzo gives an anime glowing reviews there is a 50/50 that I’m either gonna love it with all my heart (see Cross Game) or be left scratching my head like, I guess??? (see Concrete Revolutio). This anime is falling in the latter category this time around.
Passa
July 31, 2018 at 5:46 amForgot to log in :/
Matti
August 1, 2018 at 9:59 amMan… and I used to think your coverage of Mitsuru Adachi adaptations was overly bouyant.
You’re making rabid Tesla fanboys seem downright tame here.
Sandra
August 1, 2018 at 11:06 amPlease make a appreciation post on monster/ urasawa Naoki.
Dop
August 1, 2018 at 11:39 amI know nothing about this Mizukami guy, bur I am enjoying this show for what it is.