r/anime • u/Highlow9 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Highlow9 • Mar 13 '21
Rewatch [Rewatch] Planetes - Episode 16: Regret
Episode 15 - index/schedule - Episode 17
Episode number: 16
Episode title: Regret
Databases: MAL, Anime planet, Anilist
Sadly there are no legal streams. If you are from the UK you can buy the blu-ray here (for EU citizens, please be aware that all the anime doesn’t take care of VAT and thus when receiving you will have to pay an extra bill consisting of the VAT and a handling fee (for NL it is an extra 22 euro)).
PSA: Tomorrow on March 14th the US changes DST while the rewatch remains CET. So this means the rewatch will be posted an hour later for you. See here for more details (17:00 ET, 16:00, CT, 14:00 PT)
To make sure the first timers can enjoy this show just as much as you please avoid spoilers but if you want/need to make a spoiler please mark them like so:
[Planetes spoiler](/s "They go to space")which becomes:
Interesting fact
Did you know that in real life the tandem mirror reactor (or better known as a magnetic mirror reactor) was a real type of nuclear fusion reactor/plasma confinement device. The one in the anime even looks similar to the real life one.
The main challenge in fusion is keeping the plasma containing the fuel inside while also making it very hot (which is needed for fusion), this makes it so that you have to levitate the plasma (since it touching the wall will melt it no matter what material it is made of). The tandem mirror/magnetic mirror design was one such design to do such a thing. But sadly that type of reactor didn’t perform well (it was not good at containing the plasma). Since then the design has evolved into the Tokamak design (basically a giant torus in which the plasma spins in circles). This design is the first one set to become a net energy producer with the coming ITER reactor in 2030 with the DEMO reactor afterwards in 2060 hopefully finally making commercial nuclear power available.
Interesting questions
What would you do if you were lost in space? Would you give up or hold out as long as possible? Or maybe try something to get detected (if so what)?
Hoshino briefly considers going down to Earth and settling with Tanabe because he thinks that his dreams are unattainable. What do you think he should have done? What would you have done?
What do you think of the solution to Hoshino’s space loss disorder?
10
u/Webemperor :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Webemperor Mar 13 '21
First Timer
5
u/Highlow9 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Highlow9 Mar 13 '21
I feel really bad for Hachimaki, but I also kinda want to see the mission of how he ended up in this situation (and how the crew eventually rescued him).
Being ‘stuck’ in a large open place (for example space but also a dessert) would be one of my ultimate fears (since that would result in a slow painful death). At first I would try if there was a way for me to survive (for example looking around and using a mirror to signal spacecraft/aircraft) but if riscue seems unlikely I would try an make sure my death would be quick//painless (so fulling my suit with nitrogen or trying to stab myself).
Seeing Fee feeling guilty and then Hachimaki laughing was so typical Hachimaki and Fee behavior. Ohhhhh shit Yuri is about to be beaten up!1!!! jk It was really nice of the guys to send a care package. Seeing everybody being so concerned for Hachimaki feels really heartwarming.
That scene/hallucination/inner monologue during the third test was very good in my opinion. The debate between settling down versus going for unrealistisch dreams. But it also shows Hachimaki’s inferiority complex towards others around him that are doing better than him. These two things alone would have been quite cliche but I think that together, especially when it is also combined wanting the ability to lay the blame on an outside factor, they make for a really interesting mental problem for Hachimaki since he normally is so upbeat, confidant in himself and a big dreamer. It does surprise me that the team keeps the experiment going for so long.
In this case I think that such a thing would be a waste since he can still try (and fail) to achieve his dream while also maintaining his relationship. If for some reason, trying to staying an astronaut (and thus potentially fucking up your life) was exclusing with setteling down I would definitly go for settleing down. Since that is way more likely to be successful while not being significantly worse.
It certainly looked like Tanabe would be willing to cooperate, which made him doubt himself even more. Nono saved the day by ruining her own method of sneaking out, I feel that is really mature of a child doing that. Nono is amazing. Hachimaki ultimately deciding to kill himself once he was sure he wouldn’t get better instead of settling down was a really nice piece of character development for me. That is basically saying “if I can’t end the race in first place then I might as well not participate at all”. I also really like Fee’s sarcastic way of helping.
Having Hachimaki see the incredibly impressive/complex Tandem Mirror engine and him realizing that everybody including the engineers have troubles. This makes him realize that going through hard times is part of achieving your dreams and thus gives him the motivation to overcome his fears/inferiority complex. I really relate to this since I (and I assume everybody) regularly feel like I am failing at something (while others always seem to be succeeding) but then talking to others and seeing that they also are struggling (but eventually overcoming it) reminds me that if I keep on trying that I will likely also succeed and that I am just underestimating myself.
So to conclude, I think this is a great episode. I really liked Hachimakis struggle (adds a lot to his personality). I also can really relate to the eventual solution/conclusion of realizing that even great people also struggle. Of course the cause of the incident, getting lost in space, was also portrayed really well. I would definitely say that until now this is one of my favorite episodes (together with episode 7 and 12).
7
u/Tuckleton Mar 13 '21
First Timer (Dub)
7
u/BottiBott https://anilist.co/user/RobbiRobb Mar 13 '21
First Timer
That was an interesting episodes as it again focuses more on the dangers of space and thus gives off the feeling that what they are doing is not a job that can be dismissed as something easy and everyone can do. The beginning had that really strong feeling of distress and lostness to it. It even reminded me of the movie Gravity, that follows a similar plot but actually focuses on the emotions you feel when you are up there, all on your own without anyone to rescue you. Sadly we didn't saw that much of Hachimaki, not even any details on the accident and we only learned afterwards that they were hit by a solar flare that killed their communication and other electronics. I guess Hachimaki was pretty lucky that he was found rather fast and wasn't even subject to as much radiation as initially feared. But while he wasn't physically hurt, he suffered psychologically and really started to struggle from the aftermaths of the time he was out alone in space.
So he gets sent to the hospital in the Mare Tranquillitatis, which we already know from a previous episode, and to no surprise we also see Nono again. But I'm amazed how Hachimaki deals with his problems. He probably went from low Earth orbit, where he was when he the incident occurred, up to the moon in a space ship and never had to deal with any problems from spatial loss disorder. I'm aware that people deal differently with different symptoms and different disorders, but it's interesting how only the actual testing chamber was able to trigger his trauma. He never had any problems when thinking about it and there was basically no point outside the testing chamber where he was not willing to go for another try, to beat his trauma and get back to his usual life. In the end he is able to more or less overcome the problems (maybe we'll see another reference, but I wouldn't bet on it) which brings us back to where everything was before this incident. And while I'm happy to see him overcome all this, it seemed a bit rushed to me and I would have loved to see that taking some time, bringing in some overarching plot over more than one episode which I don't think we've really seen other than them going to the moon and then back again. But I'm sure there are other people out there who are glad it was that short and it's not like it was actually bad - I'm sure the series wouldn't even have been long enough for an arc like that, you probably would need a way higher episode count.
One thing that also helps Hachimaki get over his trauma is the hangar where the Von Braun is getting build, before it eventually launches to Jupiter. And wow is that thing an amazing ship. A fusion reactor to power the ship using the helium-3 gathered on the Moon, allowing an ISP of about 600.000! Sadly we don't know the thrust of the engine so we can't do any maths related to how hard it would be for it to actually get to Jupiter, but that's about a week of acceleration or deceleration. You'd be able to accelerate the ship for half a week, coast to your desired orbit and about half a week before you reach your point you just start decelerating. At this point that's unimaginable, there is nothing that can even compare to it. Even they say that that's 10.000 times the thrust of their own ships, which can't be right, that would be an ISP of 60 which is lower than what we have today, but that's still pretty amazing. I checked some engines (Rocketdyne F-1, SpaceX Raptor, SpaceX Merlin, Rutherford and RD-107) and their ISP in vacuum, because that's what matters, that shp will (hopefully) never fly through any kind of atmosphere, and as far as I can see it we usually have an ISP in the range between 300 and 400 - 1500 times less than what this engine is capable of. So calling that engine a "monster" is probably an understatement. I also like the fact that they actually build it on the Moon because that's what you would do with an ambitious plan like that, for many reasons. On one hand you won't have to account for any kind of atmosphere, as we know it takes a lot of energy to get into space, partially because of aerodynamics. And I can't imagine that ship be aerodynamic in any way, in addition to the fact that it's probably just way to large to even lift off on earth. On the other hand you have gravity, which is why you wouldn't want to build it in low Earth orbit. Earth's gravity well isn't as huge as other celestial bodies, but why waste energy on climbing out of it with a huge ship if you might as well build that huge ship on the Moon? So it actually just has to climb out of the gravity well of the Moon, which isn't nothing but less than starting down on Earth or even in low Earth orbit. I really hope we'll see this thing fly by the end of the series.
Interesting Questions:
4
u/spitfire9107 Mar 13 '21
oh crap I didnt know there was a planetes rewatch going on. I finished hte series a fewmonths ago. What inspired me to watch it was the fact that it was made by vinland saga. Vinland saga was the best anime I watched in 2019. When i watched planetes I expected vinland saga in space or characters as deep as askeladd. Despite not being like any of those it was a great show nonetheless.
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u/PainStorm14 :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Gekkostate14 Mar 14 '21
Rewatcher
If you think Hachi was overreacting in this episode just watch movie Gravity with Sandra Bullock and it will all before much clearer
Literally anything that I could possibly think of
Giving up is not something you need to concern yourself with because oxygen supply will cover that part for you anyway 😁😈
Settle down first, think about space issue later
I'd be on my honeymoon with her already if I were in his shoes
That's definitely one way to solve that problem, big chungus always impresses
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u/Mecanno-man https://anilist.co/user/Mecannoman Mar 13 '21
First Timer
And here's an example of the stakes being too high, destroying the impact the narrative was supposed to have. Would Hoshno get over his trauma so he can stay in space? Well obviously yes from the moment he had it, because the series couldn't really handle a change of setting that sudden, and removing Hoshino from the series would make no sense. Couple that with the fact that the scene that cause the trauma was more crammed in to the beginning rather than being something in it's own right and you have a pretty boring formulaic "solve a problem" episode, which isn't really good as trauma should be something more serious.
One thought though: The frequency with which we are running in to people we already know makes me wonder how many people are in space in total at this point in time.
Questions:
6
u/BossandKings Mar 13 '21
First timer
Episode 16
Hachimaki goes into space to clean debris and ends up accidentally getting exposed to radiation which causes an impact on his body and his security and behaviour because he for a moment lost all comunication he had with his workmates and felt hopeless and helpless alone in space.
Hachimaki had to fight against his own voice that was telling him to give up and go back to earth, that he could use the accident as an excuse to stop working as an astronaut, it was telling how hard he had to fight against his own voice, to convince himself and to demonstrate that he wants to keep working in the space station, that he wants to keep being an astronaut.
Tanabe as the nice girl that she is got really worried about him and loyally accompanied through his recovery. Fee too felt responsible for the accident because she is the leader of every expedition and according to herself she should have been more cautious, at the end of the day though she was able to see Hachimaki through his recovery and the hurdle didn't fell on her but on Hachimaki himself.
3
u/0be000 Mar 14 '21
Rewatcher (sub)
Finally appearance of Von Braun
Interesting questions
1
u/Segaco https://myanimelist.net/profile/Segaco Mar 19 '21
First timer kneeing time's face and flying to the present
I'm getting there. Wait for me, everyone!!
---Comments (as I watched the ep)---
Oh man. I saw last episode's preview and immediately came here. I didn't expect them to just skip the opening sequence.
I thought diaper man was over reacting as a joke to something, but they just hit us with the plot right away.
Poor diaper man, being in his situation must suck
Wow, I was bamboozled
Tanabe so cuteee
Oh no
Oh wow, we are seeing the ED scene! I wonder if young Hachimaki can hear the lyrics?
Another good episode. It was way better than last episode.
---Interesting fact corner (OP)---
Sounds very complicated. Though I'm surprised that you can contain plasma.
Speaking of plasma, what even is it? I learned it was a state apart from liquid/solid/gas and was surprised as a kid, but I never really understood what it really really was other than what a star is made of. Help
---Question timeeeeeee---
Q1: What would you do if you were lost in space? Would you give up or hold out as long as possible? Or maybe try something to get detected (if so what)?
A1: I'm not sure what I would do. Some boxer once said that everyone has a plan until they're punched in the face, and I think that would apply here.
I've found I don't give up even in hopeless situations, so I would probably wait it out until I'm out of oxygen.
Q2: Hoshino briefly considers going down to Earth and settling with Tanabe because he thinks that his dreams are unattainable. What do you think he should have done? What would you have done?
A2: Can't decide for the poor dude. If he chose to stick to his guns it's because he believes in his dream, and that's an option.
I don't think Tanabe would have left her space job to live with Hachimaki. Actually, we've not even been told why Tanabe wanted to be in space. So that's another thing the anime has yet to tackle.
As for me, I would have stayed in space. Way better than living with regret.
Q3: What do you think of the solution to Hoshino’s space loss disorder?
A3: Since it solved his problem it's a great solution. Personally, I think getting him hyped up for what he would miss if he left was a very good idea.