JVAnimeReviews

Winner 2016 JV Anime Award: Best Animation

I can’t understand how I missed this anime in my preview for the Summer 2016 season since this is another adaptation from a Key VN and I love anime’s that come from that company. So let’s see what I thought of it.

*So what did I think about this series? Well the first thing that’s immediately noticeable in this anime was the animation. The animation was beautiful, it was absolutely stunning. Only based on the animation I would have sworn that Planetarian was animated by one of the big companies like A-1 Pictures of KyoAni. Those are known for making beautiful animation. So I was absolutely surprised when I saw that the studio for Planetarian was David Productions who are only known for making Jojo. And the animation in Jojo is questionable, let’s leave it at that. Or another anime that I did see was InuxBoku SS and also there the animation wasn’t amazing. But here in Planetarian it was astonishing both 2D and 3D wise.

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*Now point number 2. Anything that comes from Key, comes with great expectations. I expect nothing less than perfection especially when it comes to the drama. No surprise since they are responsible for some very sad anime’s like Clannad and Little Busters! and God did Planetarian not disappoint. Now it wasn’t as tearjerking as let’s say Clannad but Planetarian delivered what I call hidden sadness. It doesn’t shove the sadness right in your face but they subtly hint it in the atmosphere that the anime emits. And here it was Yumemi’s ignorance that delivered the sadness. Because she’s a robot she doesn’t really understand what happens around here but then at times it seems she does and that’s what created the whole dramatic atmosphere of Planetarian. 

*And without going into spoilers, the feels were strong in the final episode. Wauw, you feel it coming throughout the episodes but then when we arrive in the final episode it’s still so sad. But apart from the final episode there was one sentence in this anime that in my opinion was the most beautiful one of the series. And it was when the guy asks Yumemi “Are you retarted?” and she responds with “No, I’m just a little broken.”. That sentence just pierced my hearth since it carries so much meaning about the story and about Yumemi’s character. So Planetarian reached the high expectations that I have for everything that comes from Key.

*All that’s left for me to say is that I’m full of anticipation for the Planetarian movie that will be released on September 3rd which will continue the story of this ONA series which acted as a precursor. I’ll probably have to wait long until it reaches the Western world but I know that it’ll be worth it.

Conclusion

So as a conclusion, Planetarian was one hell of a short anime. If this would have been a full sized anime than this would have been gold. This could have been, in my opinion, my Anime Of The Year. Planetarian is by far the best short anime I’ve seen, it’s the saddest one and the one with the most story-development. And that’s why I’m going to rate Planetarian at 4 stars which is by far the highest score I’ve given to a short anime till today. I really anticipate the movie to enjoy more of that Key goodness.