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Planetes is a strong anime on several levels: as a realistic sci-fi that paints a detailed and interesting vision of the future of space travel, as a drama that builds some rich characters and delves into their various perspectives, philosophies, and emotional development, and also partly as political discussion on the possible implications of space travel.  It is an adult drama, not in terms of having any ecchi content, but the characters are all adults and Planetes delves into them, their perspectives, agonies, and relationships in a serious way.  The backdrop, set about 70 years in the future, is that commercial development of space is now a serious reality with colonies on the moon, major space stations, and space resource mining as major commercial ventures.  The show revolves around a department of space debris collectors at a major firm; the vast quantity of orbiting space debris now being one of the major impediments in the commercial use of space, but in the latter half it sprawls out from there. 

As with many animes, it starts in episodic format, introducing various character back stories,  and then coalesces around a main story arc.  The beginning is a bit rocky - the show has a few main concepts it plays with: a person's dream/seizing the future (an anime favorite), love, and most of all space itself.  The first few episodes are heavy on the dream/love part which seems a bit childish to start with, but the show takes a break from it, and in the end the "love" theme returns in a quite satisfying way, so you come to view the first episodes as a necessary awkwardness need to sow the seeds of some good stuff down the road.  The reason for this, is that Planetes deals with the concept of space with an amazing depth.  Moreso than almost all space sci-fi I can think of it delves deep into the realities of space as the most inhospitable environment mankind can face, it's deadly realities, and the moral and psychological implications for those who are living right on the edge.  It also then plays considerably with the metaphor of the space between human beings, a perfect turn of thought considering that space is the most isolating environment there is.  The pacing is slow, at first space is a backdrop, but it builds and crescendos, with space becoming not only an all encompassing environment, but an idea, and almost a character in and of itself.  This is the context in which love eventually returns as a main idea, amidst the bleak realities of space, where conventional morality may only lead to death and this time the treatment of love is mature, thoughtful, and welcome.

Beyond the philosophical themes and environment created, the show has a two main storylines (and a smaller theme focusing on corporate/salaryman culture as well).  Character development is considerable with a lot of focus on the relationships of the protagonist Hachimaki to other characters, centering on his eventually romantic relationship with the other main character Ai.  During some episodes, Planetes  feels like it 's mainly a situational drama or even a sitcom set in space, sometimes it seems like it's a show mostly about space, but then it also ends up having a considerable political storyline, framed around a terrorist group Space Defense Front.  The political storyline is thoughtfully done - commercial space development has a major implication for future social order, namely that only a few nations will have the access to space and thus it's resources, increasing the imbalance of power on Earth exponentially.  The show gets right to the heart of this, and does it well with the terrorist frame.  It is not sympathetic, in fact I really have to respect that it strongly paints the terrorists as antagonists from the get go, has no problem showing the flawed natures of individual terrorists throughout and alternative approaches for a solution, but by the end still presents the legitimacy of their issue maybe even the necessity of violent action to address it.  Overall, I found myself thinking for some time about this storyline, which I consider a testament to it's depth.

While there are some caveats; some characters are mostly foils, the main female character Ai is rather underdeveloped but serves her role in the plot well, and some weird moments (the comedic ninja scene for instance), Planetes is overall a remarkable rich show - not just the technical detail on space travel, but the characters, the writing, and the ideas it plays with.  It will switch tempo and mood and along the way you may wonder what type of show it is trying to be.  But by the end you will be remarkably satisfied that you have just seen some truly strong science fiction.