{"id":29869,"date":"2024-05-25T08:00:50","date_gmt":"2024-05-25T08:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=29869"},"modified":"2024-05-24T16:20:49","modified_gmt":"2024-05-24T16:20:49","slug":"planetes-omnibus-volume-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2024\/05\/25\/planetes-omnibus-volume-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Planetes Omnibus volume 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Makoto Yukimura<\/strong>, adapted by Anna Wenger<\/strong> & Brendan Wright<\/strong>, translated by Yuki Johnson<\/strong> (Dark Horse Manga)
\nISBN: 978-1-61655-921-2 (Omnibus TPB)<\/p>\n

The hard, gritty mystery and imagination of space travel, so much a component of immediate post-WWII industrial society, briefly re-captivated legions of level-headed imagineers at the end of the 20th<\/sup> century when relative newcomer and manga debutante Makoto Yukimura \u00a0rekindled interest in near-space exploration in all its harsh and grimy glory with this inspirational \u201cnuts-&-bolts\u201d manga series exploring the probable rather than the possible\u2026<\/p>\n

Yukimura (born in Yokohama in 1976, just as the once-ambitious US space program was languishing in cash-strapped doldrums and five long years before the first space shuttle launch) began his professional life as an assistant to veteran Mankaka (\u201ccomics creator\u201d) Shin Morimura before launching his independent career with the Planetes<\/strong>. Working exclusively for Kodansha, his award-winning premier Seinen<\/em> series ran in Weekly Morning<\/strong> magazine (from January 1999 – January 2004) before being collected in four tankōbon editions. The serial easily made the jump to an anime series and the books became a multi-award-winning global sensation. Yukimura – after producing evocative one-shot Sayōnara ga Chikai node<\/strong><\/em> (For Our Farewell is Near<\/strong>) for Evening<\/strong> magazine – in 2005 abandoned the future for the past, to concentrate his creative energies on monolithic historical epic Vinland Saga<\/strong>. Serialized in Weekly Shōnen Magazine<\/strong> and Afternoon<\/strong>, it has thus far filled 27 rousing volumes to date\u2026<\/p>\n

The premise of Planetes<\/strong> is diabolically simply and powerfully engaging. Humanity is a questing species but cannot escape its base origins. In 2074, space travel and exploitation is commonplace but as we\u2019ve conquered the void between Earth and the asteroid belt and prepare to explore – and ruinously exploit – the outer planets, the once-pristine void around us has become clotted and clustered with our obsolete tech and all manner of casually discarded rubbish. Even the most minute speck of junk or debris falling through hard vacuum is a high-velocity, potentially deadly missile, so to keep risk to a minimum hardy teams of rugged individualists must literally sweep the heavens free of our discarded crap.<\/p>\n

Prelude \u2018Phase 1: A Stardust Sky\u2019 <\/em>begins with the death of a passenger on a commercial low-orbit spaceliner before jumping six years forward and introducing a trio of these celestial dustbin-men scooping up Mankind\u2019s negligent castoffs and unconsidered detritus. Hachirota Hoshino<\/em> is the newest, youngest member of the team, a kid who craves becoming a real astronaut and famed explorer like his dad. Dreaming of one day owing his own prestige spaceship, excitable \u201cHachimaki\u201d<\/em> is soon disenchanted with the dreary, dull and disgusting daily life of drudgery aboard DS-12: <\/em>a sanitation\/cargo ship fondly dubbed \u201cToybox<\/em>\u201d but little better than the discards he and his two comrades daily scoop up or destroy\u2026<\/p>\n

These days there\u2019s something wrong with the sombre, stoic Russian, Yuri<\/em> Mihairokov<\/em>. The big man is increasingly distracted, blanking out, staring vacantly into the Wild Black Yonder as the cleaners orbit Earth at 8 kilometres per second. Events come to head when a shard of micro-debris holes their ramshackle vessel and an old timer reveals the Russian\u2019s tragic secret.<\/p>\n

Long ago Yuri and his wife were passengers on that shuttle and when it was holed she died. Heartbroken, her husband – one of the few survivors – returned to space to clear the deadly trash that took his wife. He never forgot her.<\/p>\n

Years later, whilst drifting in the void the solitary heartsick astronaut sees a glitter, and her keepsake compass just floats into his hand, brought back to him by the winds of space and cruel fate. Beguiled, he falls into Earth\u2019s gravity well and only Hachimaki\u2019s most frantic efforts save his comrade from fiery death.<\/p>\n

Safely back in free orbit, the Russian opens his gauntleted fist. On the compass are scratched his wife\u2019s final thoughts as death took her – \u201cplease save Yuri\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n

The poignant, bittersweet and deeply spiritual tale properly begins with \u2018Phase 2: A Girl From Beyond the Earth\u2019 <\/em>wherein Hoshino slowly and impatiently recovers from a broken leg in the hospital of the moon colony Archimedes Crater City<\/em>. These tales are laced with the most up-to-date space science available to author Yukimura, and the recent revelations that extended time spent in low\/zero-gravity radically weakens bones and muscles was the lynchpin of this moving brush with another youngster bound irrevocably to the void.<\/p>\n

When a doctor suggests returning to full-gravity Earth to recuperate the easy way, Hachi is in two minds and sorely tempted. His commander and fellow debris-destroyer Fee Carmichael<\/em> and a grizzled 20-year both veteran pour scorn on the quitter\u2019s option. All real astronauts know that once back on the home world few ever come back to space.<\/p>\n

The kid is still tempted though\u2026 until he strikes up a friendship with a thin, wasted young woman. Nono<\/em> has been on Luna for 12 years and dreams of blue skies and open seas, even though she will never see them. After aged Mr. Roland<\/em> chooses to spend the rest of his life among the stars, Hachimaki discovers Nono\u2019s sad, incredible secret and at last abandons all notion of forsaking the stars\u2026<\/p>\n

Focus stays on nicotine-fiend Fee Carmichael<\/em> as she struggles to enjoy a well-deserved vice in \u2018Phase 3: A Cigarette Under Starlight\u2019 <\/em>in Orientale Basin Underground City<\/em> some months later. With breathing-oxygen at a premium, smokers must juggle their addiction with the dedication to life in space. Poor Fee has been Jonesing for a drag for far too long. Now though, whilst on shore-leave at a station big enough (and sufficiently civilised) to house a designated smoking area, the Toybox\u2019s chief is still unable to indulge her vice\u2026<\/p>\n

Ideological terrorist group the Space Defense Fighters<\/em> want to keep the void pristine and free of Mankind\u2019s polluting influence and have been detonating bombs in outposts all over the moon. Their latest outrage targets the base\u2019s vending machines and smoking rooms, so the authorities have sealed them all in the name of public safety. Driven near to madness, Fee snaps and lights up in public toilets, forgetting fire countermeasures and smoke detection devices are automatic, incredibly sensitive and painfully effective\u2026<\/p>\n

Humiliated, sodden but undeterred, she takes off for another city and a solitary snout (for any non-Brits, that\u2019s a particularly demeaning and derogatory term for a smoke) and finds the only guy more in need of a drag than her. Of course, setting bombs is nervous work and a quick ciggy always calms his nerves\u2026<\/p>\n

The frustration is too much and Fee returns to her job, but the SDF\u2019s explosive campaign has barely begun. Their next scheme is the creation of a deadly Kessler Syndrome<\/em> wave (a blast or impact which changes the trajectories of free-floating orbital scrap and debris, creating even more debris\/shrapnel and aiming it like a hard rain of lethal micro-missiles)\u2026<\/p>\n

With a commandeered satellite directed at a space station, the terrorists intend to detonate their captured vehicle and shred the habitat – which coincidentally carries the last cigarettes in space – shooting it out of the sky to create a lethal chain reaction to make high-orbit space forever unnavigable.<\/p>\n

Unsure of her own motives, Fee uses the DS-12 to suicidally shove the stolen projectile away from the station and into Earth\u2019s atmosphere\u2026<\/p>\n

Whilst she recuperates in Florida, \u2018Phase 4: Scenery for a Rocket\u2019<\/em>, depicts Hachimaki bringing Yuri to visit the family home in Japan. However, the volatile lad immediately slips back into a violent sibling rivalry with younger brother Kyutaro<\/em>: a rocketry prodigy even more resolved to conquer space than his surly and increasingly fanatical brother… or their absentee astronaut father Goro<\/em>. Happily the steadfast Russian\u2019s calming influence begins repairing fences between the warring Hoshino boys, although not before a series of explosive confrontations lead to Yuri finally passing on his beloved wife\u2019s compass\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2018Phase 5: Ignition\u2019 <\/em>finds Fee, Yuri and Hachimaki reunited just in time for the junior junkman to suffer an (almost) career-ending psychological injury. Although physically uninjured by a rogue solar flare, the lad is completely isolated in the void for so long that he develops post-traumatic \u201cDeep-Space Disorder\u201d. If he can\u2019t shake off the debilitating hallucinatory condition his life in space is over. Nothing experts at the supervising Astronaut Training Center<\/em> do has any lasting effect, but fortunately Yuri knows just what prodding might awaken the wide-eyed, Wild Black Wonderment in his feisty little comrade\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2018Phase 6: Running Man\u2019<\/em> has the Toybox\u2019s weary crew visit Moon Orbital Space Port<\/em> where the obsessively training Hachimaki is approached by an unctuous business type looking for his infamous dad. Werner Locksmith<\/em> is head and chief designer of the Earth Development Community-sponsored manned mission to Jupiter and, unknown to the starry-eyed kid, had pegged Hachi\u2019s father as the only man capable of piloting the innovative new vessel on the 5-year mission: one the lad would give anything to be on. Frustratingly, the elder explorer doesn\u2019t want to go and has actually absconded from the Private\/Public sector project and is currently a fugitive on the run through the vents and ducts of various moon bases…<\/p>\n

The old rogue has had enough of space-faring: a fact he finds impossible to relate to his furious, outraged son when they accidentally meet. The old spacer intends to retire to Earth and make things right with the wife he\u2019s abandoned so many times…<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Locksmith has been called away. Something has gone disastrously wrong with the Jupiter ship \u201cVon Braun\u201d…<\/em><\/p>\n

Above Luna as Hachi argues with his dad, another crisis crescendos as a devastating explosion rips through the station. As everybody evacuates, in the safe chill of the void, Hachi and the crew watch a phenomenal debris field emanate from the moon\u2019s surface. The Von Braun\u2019s experimental engines have failed and an entire lunar base has been evaporated…<\/p>\n

Following the tragedy, ruthlessly cool Locksmith unswervingly starts to rebuild and the senior Hoshino breathes a huge sigh of relief. Hachi however is undeterred. He fanatically resumes his physical training, knowing that when the Von Braun is ready to fly, he will be ready to join it…<\/p>\n

In \u2018Phase 7: Tanabe\u2019<\/em> stoic Yuri<\/em> and harassed commander Fee a<\/em>cknowledge and address their comrade\u2019s impossible dream, inducting a raw recruit to the Toybox crew and task Hachi with training her to be his (eventual) replacement. According to the ambitious spacer, however, mere girl Ai<\/em> is a hopeless case, fruitlessly wasting valuable time he could be using to train and study for his application to the Jupiter Mission. Suffering mightily from having to babysit the useless girl, he only discovers her suppressed inner fire after a 50-year old space coffin is recovered from the dark expanse and provokes a bitter dispute about love, passion and man\u2019s place in the cold, lonely universe…<\/p>\n

Hachi\u2019s dream comes a giant leap closer to reality in \u2018Phase 8: A Black Flower Named Sakinohaka (Part 1)\u2019<\/em> as he begins his official audition regimen for the Von Braun. He has become an emotional void with nothing but cold ambition driving him. He can\u2019t even process the deadly constant threat posed by increased sabotage activity from the terrorist SDL<\/em>: more determined than ever to keep space free of Man\u2019s toxic presence.<\/p>\n

Despite competing with more than 20,000 applicants, Hoshino is beginning to distinguish himself when a series of bomb blasts rock the project. Narrowly escaping death, Hachi is visited by his old friends who are horrified his obsessive and blas\u00e9 attitude and apparent disregard for the pain and suffering of his rival candidates caught in the detonations. Is he truly so determined to get on the mission that all he sees are fewer competitors?<\/p>\n

Only fellow applicant and new buddy Hakimu<\/em> seems to understand that any sacrifice and personal misery are worth the prize\u2026<\/p>\n

Soon testing reaches its final stages and Locksmith lectures the remaining candidates from the bridge of the almost completed Von Braun. Only a handful of desperate spacers will make this final cut but the big day is again delayed after Hachi confronts the insidious saboteur… and fails to stop him.<\/p>\n

The tale resumes six months later, and the last 23 candidates await final call as \u2018Phase 9: A Black Flower named Sakinohaka (Part 2)\u2019<\/em> sees Hachi\u2019s still-fugitive father targeted by SDL assassins and heading back to the son who disowned him. His arrival coincides with Ai Tanabe\u2019s visit as she delivers Hachi\u2019s belongings from Toybox, and leads to an embarrassing confusion as to her amatory status, but before things can be clarified the terrorists attack again, seeking to kill the \u201conly man who could pilot the Von Braun\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n

Fleeing via the lowest levels of Oriental Basin Underground Tunnel City<\/em>, the spacer trio are more dangerous to each other than their murderous pursuers. After another devastating blast Hachi again confronts the traitor who sabotaged his last attempt to join the Jupiter mission and almost commits an unpardonable act… until gentle Tanabe talks him off the emotionally-charged metaphorical ledge. \u2018Phase 10: Lost Souls\u2019 <\/em>sees Hachi successful in final training for the mission that has become his life when a lunar accident strands him and new comrade Leonov<\/em> on the unforgiving surface with only hours of oxygen and a 40-kilometre walk to the nearest relief station. It would have been impossible even if the copilot wasn\u2019t wounded with a slowly-leaking suit. By the time rescue arrives Hachi has reached the stage where he fights his saviours, frantic to prove he needs no one\u2019s help to achieve his goals.<\/p>\n

\u2018Phase 11:<\/em> – what on the page translates as \u201cSpasibo<\/em>\u201d’ (either \u201cthank you\u201d or \u201cGod save you\u201d) sees recuperating Hachi return to the family home in Japan, accompanied by his penitent father, and visited by Leonov\u2019s grateful mother. Although he doesn\u2019t understand a word she says, the old lady still makes far more sense than his constantly warring family and, after another drunken fight with dad, events come to tragic, galvanising crisis which at last crushes the walls enclosing his traumatised head and heart\u2026<\/p>\n

This first passionately philosophical, sentimentally suspenseful chronicle concludes here with a moment of eerie portent when \u2018Phase 12: \u2018A Cat in the Evening\u2019<\/em> sees a simulation test with crewmate Sally turn into a creepy moment of premonition after Hachimaki finds himself stalked to the point of distraction by a dead and decaying alley cat that talks philosophy and tries to kill him…<\/p>\n

To Be Concluded…<\/p>\n

Each chapter opens with a full colour painted section before reverting to comfortingly appropriate monochrome line art, with superb developmental sketches, pin-ups, a selection of 4-panel sidebar humour strips (\u2018A Four Panel Comic\u2019<\/em>, \u2018Namao-san (Presumably Male)\u2019<\/em>, \u2018Eat? That Thing?\u2019<\/em>, \u2018Drinking Hot Coffee through a Straw\u2019<\/em>) included throughout as breaks between story phases. Should you be lucky enough, the original turn-of-the-century English-language TokyoPop editions (which have bonus features not included in the omnibus edition) are still obtainable in many comics shops.<\/p>\n

Suspenseful, funny, thrilling and utterly absorbing, these tales perfectly capture the allure of the Wild Black Yonder for newer generations, making this authentic, hard-edged, wittily evocative epic a treat no hard-headed dreamer with eyes set firmly above the clouds should miss\u2026
\n\u00a9 2015 Makoto Yukimura. All rights reserved. Publication rights for this edition secured by Kodansha, Ltd, Tokyo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Makoto Yukimura, adapted by Anna Wenger & Brendan Wright, translated by Yuki Johnson (Dark Horse Manga) ISBN: 978-1-61655-921-2 (Omnibus TPB) The hard, gritty mystery and imagination of space travel, so much a component of immediate post-WWII industrial society, briefly re-captivated legions of level-headed imagineers at the end of the 20th century when relative newcomer … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Planetes Omnibus volume 1”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[191,239,25,107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-drama","category-japanese-comics","category-science-fiction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-7LL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29869"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29873,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29869\/revisions\/29873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}