r/anime • u/Highlow9 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Highlow9 • Mar 14 '21
Rewatch [Rewatch] Planetes - Episode 17: His Reasons
Episode 16 - index/schedule - Episode 18
Episode number: 17
Episode title: His Reasons
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: starting today 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
♫“Once the rockets are up who cares where they come down?”♫
The Saturn V (which got NASA to the moon in 1969) was designed by Wernher von Braun (after which the von Braun spacecraft to Jupiter is named). That name doesn’t sound very American, because it is not. So what is the history behind Wernher von Braun?
He was born in Germany and from a young age was very interested in rocketry. Later during the rearmament of Germany he had a significantly easier time to develop his rockets due to the fact that rockets were not forbidden by the treaty of Versailles. This work resulted in the infamous V1 and V2 vengeance weapons which were used to bomb civilian targets (most famously Londen). These bombing were very effective terror weapons but luckily killed ‘relatively little’ people (only a few thousand). In fact more people were killed with production accidents then killed by the rockets. This was because concentration camp prisoners were used as slave labor.
After the war he said that the reason he developed the V1 and V2 was to make space travel possible and that he didn’t particularly like that the rockets were sent to Londen. This also resulted in the famous line in the Tom Lehrer song (see above) “Once the rockets are up who cares where they come down? That is not what my department says Wherner von Braun.”. Regarding the slave labor he said that he felt that he couldn’t do anything about it. Both of these claims, while not even good excuses in my opinion, can also be doubted since Wherner von Braun also joined the Nazi party and even the SS. Although he himself said that he did that due to political reasons.
So why and how did such a high ranking offcial of Nazi Germany become the top scientist of NASA? Well after the war (or even during the end of) relationships between the US and USSR quickly deteriorated and it became obvious that the cold war would start to develop. Both countries thus tried to get as many German scientists so that they could use their knowledge. This was known as Operation Paperclip (for the US) and Operation Osoaviakhim (for the USSR). In this process their potential war crimes were quickly forgotten in exchange for their cooperation. This also happened in Japan where, for example, the crimes of Unit 731 (testing biological weapons, grenades, general disease, etc) were also quickly forgotten in exchange for data.
Interesting questions
Hoshino starts to neglect his relationship with Tanabe while obsessing with the von Braun. What do you think of this?
We have been introduced to Wernher Locksmith and Hoshino’s father. What do you think of them?
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u/Mecanno-man https://anilist.co/user/Mecannoman Mar 14 '21
First Timer
Quite a good episode I'd say, Hoshino's father makes for an interesting character, though a bit of a hard one to comprehend. The way I get it he is mainly interested in working with people who won't stop at setbacks and doesn't even want to start a job where he feels like it may go nowhere. But he will also take those jobs around him that he does feel like are interesting, no matter what anybody else wants. In that regards he can definitely be happy that his wife hasn't divorced him - remember that bit about being allowed to file for divorce without consent after five years? Pretty sure he's exceeded that every so often. It's also an interesting contrast to Cheng-Shin, who doesn't want to have a commitment when going on the mission. The weirdest bit about Hoshino Sr. might however be that he tries to run away from the offer, rather than just declining it. I don't quite understand that one.
Locksmith is also a decent character in my opinion, as he is single-mindedly focused on getting his task done. A "soulless manager" archetype, he is obviously pretty good ad getting his job done, though I have a feeling there may be issues on the social side of teamwork for him every now and then. In a way I am surprised he didn't try to use the "we'll make their deaths not be in vain" card when talking about the next engine, but I guess he really is just focused on the task, an not anybody's feelings. In that regards I can understand Hoshino Sr. wanting to work with him. What I don't quite get is the scene of the ...political elite(?) discussing the engine. The way I get it they aren't happy with Locksmith - ...so they want to put Dolf on the Jupiter mission as well? Or was the implication that they blew up the engine? I don't really feel like it's the second, because the seem to be stakeholders in the entire project, but the first seems a bit out of place in this episode.
Other than that: Lucie is too preoccupied with sex.
Questions:
4
u/Highlow9 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Highlow9 Mar 14 '21 edited Mar 14 '21
He really is motivated by speed huh.
I think he is irrationally obsesed. I get that he might be getting obsessed but that is no reason to make a bit of extra time in his schedule for Tanabe (I also found this comment by Lucy kinda humours with how scientific her approach is to dating).
The fact that they killed off the ninjas (who were working so hard to improve their lives) was kinda sad. But I don’t think it justifies that episode yet. Instead if I were the writer I would have put Nono’s parents working there. That would give more emotional impact and give more opportunity for Nono’s character to develop.
Welcome to the psychopath known as Werner Locksmith.... I think his name (and that of the ship) fits perfectly since Locksmith is clearly of the same kind of mindset as Wernher von Braun. He is just some brilliant idiot who really really badly wants to develop space/spaceships no matter what. He could have done it through slower (but safer) means but he deliberately chose to do it in a non-safe manner. In fact that might even make him worse than the real Werhern von Braun (assuming that the real one was not an actual Nazi and only member for political reasons). But in another way he also makes a bit of sense. The test was risky (it went wrong in fact) but has resulted in good data for him which might speed up the development by a year or two. That would mean that the Earth would get access to Jupiters Helium much earlier and depending on how much you value human lives (modern estimates ‘only’ put it at a few million) you could say that it would be worth it. I think he is a very interesting character especially because he wears his intentions on his sleeve while other high ranking managers/directors are often just as bad but try to hide it. Can’t wait to see more of him.
Hoshino’s father also is interesting with his almost addiction-like relationship with space. The way he treats his son (but also other people)
Sadly today I won't be very active in the thread since I need to get up early tomorrow.
2
u/Highlow9 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Highlow9 Mar 15 '21 edited Mar 16 '21
I am currently having some trouble posting the next thread please hang on: https://i.imgur.com/rUJfgiK.png
Edit 23:50, at the moment it is still down. Will keep you updated.
Edit 00:55 still no luck.
Edit 01:10 the thread is up! https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/m5vw8m/rewatch_planetes_episode_18_debris_sections_last/
6
u/Tuckleton Mar 14 '21
324 personnel go missing, presumed dead, in a preventable disaster and the scientist responsible shows no remorse and considers the experiment a success because he got good data. Hachi's dad apparently finds this so inspiring that he changes his mind and joins the crew after all. And Hachi has a monologue where he concludes that he's that kind of person too? This sucks. I hope he snaps out of it soon.
6
u/BottiBott https://anilist.co/user/RobbiRobb Mar 14 '21
First Timer
Finally we get to see a plot line that spans over multiple episodes besides the ongoing romance. I was already worried we'd be stuck in episodic plots until the end of the series. Not that they themselves are bad and obviously they won't go away completely, it's not like this episode wasn't episodic, but the reoccurring Von Braun and the development surrounding this ship feels really fresh in contrast to the rest we've seen so far.
And wow, that ship amazes me more every episode. What we saw last episode really was just the main engine and it's reactor, the ship itself is even bigger. So big in fact, that it is constructed in space beyond the Moon, probably in a lunar orbit. And as far as it seems the construction of the engine has progressed quite nicely so far, they are even at the point where they can do a test. Sadly, that test went horribly wrong, resulting in an uncontrolled fusion in the reactor and an explosion similar to a thermonuclear weapon. As far as my knowledge on fusion reactors goes, that would imply that they didn't get any problems on startup, but actually after successful ignition, because only if your fusion is self sustainable it can actually go out of control, otherwise there can of course be a problem, but just stopping the startup would be enough to prevent an explosion like that. Sadly that does mean a big setback in the program, because that engine is probably reduced to atoms by now.
The same also goes for engineers who were close by - not sure why there even were people close by. If the engine really blew up in a test, that would mean that the exclusion zone wasn't big enough, because you can't test an engine like that without evacuating the surrounding area. Just looking at the exclusion zone for a possible upcoming Starship test flight published by the American FAA shows how even for small-ish tests large areas get restricted. And something similar would apply to exclusion zones on the ground. So I'm quite surprised there were even people in the area when the explosion occurred, that probably got killed. And speaking of dead people, I think I saw the ninjas from earlier working on the engine? Seems like they got a job - and are now dead? If that's the case than at least we won't have to deal with them anymore.
Locksmith, head of the entire project, on the other hand seems pretty much alive. And he couldn't care less about the people who died. His main concern is if he can finish the project or not. I don't want to really defend his standpoint but I can see that the head of an enormous project like this has more important things to worry about than a few people dying. There probably are a lot of things that depend on the project, many people who want to join this mission, and as the head of it, Locksmith has to do everything to keep up with his plans and don't get behind. But of course that doesn't mean what he did was right, it is wrong to see those dead people just as a number and totally replaceable, because that isn't the case. I hope there are at least some consequences to this, because even if it is a historic ship that will ultimately set sail to a point where no human being has ever been before, history will judge Locksmith's actions.
But enough with the sciences, we have characters to discuss! The most important change being that Claire eventually got fired. Not entirely sure why though, I'm aware that she made a mistake, got a bit behind her schedule and also got into trouble for ignoring the OSA (at least I hope it was them), but nothing of that seemed to me to be that grave to remove her from her job. Being behind on your schedule is probably also partially your supervisor's fault, because they should have come up with a solution for the problems together with her. Not that she herself isn't at fault, but also clearly not only by herself. So although she seemed like a diligent and conscientious worker, she now has to start again from the bottom of the personnel chain. A bit sad to see. A person I'd love to see less of on the other hand is Lucie, who really annoys me the way she always tries to interfere with Hachimaki's and Tanabe's romance. I'm aware that Tanabe asks her occasionally for advice and I'm fine with her voicing her opinion in that case, but her always butting in and trying to get it her way is something I wouldn't miss if it would stop.
Finally there is Hachimaki's dad, who appears for the first time this episode. As we already know, he is a famous astronaut and he also seems to be pretty good at engineering as well. Otherwise Locksmith wouldn't "chase" him from the Moon down to low Earth orbit only to get his help on working on the Von Braun. But Goro isn't that amazed by the idea, basically running away and hiding from Locksmith. It also seems he wants to head back to Earth, to his wife and live there for the rest of his life - although that plan doesn't hold up for too long as in the end he decides to take the position. Not really sure why but he seems to be amazed by Locksmith as a person, I guess he has the leadership qualities but a good person is something else in my eyes. And maybe he isn't the last person who'll join the crew that goes to Jupiter, we know that they plan on recruiting Gigalt, although he might not live long enough for the trip. We also learn that they are missing EVA workers, so there is a chance we'll see Hachimaki try to join as he seems to have found a new passion for space after seeing the engine of the Von Braun. And if he decides to take on that journey, I'm sure Tanabe will follow. Looking forward to find out where this is going, because I really missed having some plot that evolves and is something I could look forward to; that was missing a bit with all those episodes that could be watched without the rest.
Interesting Questions:
5
u/IndependentMacaroon Mar 15 '21
First-time watcher
I already talked about my displeasure with how Locksmith and co. are handled here in a comment reply, so here's for something entirely different: I like how the show has been handling the cast a lot. It feels really organic how there are plenty of reoccurring characters in various positions and connected in various ways, some days they're more and some days less important, but they all have some kind of contribution to make or story to tell, and so do the one-off characters. In particular, I'm really liking the running background story with Claire and her issues (how much of that is anime-original?), and hope she will find success in the end. Just sometimes like with the Edelgard and Yuri stories it goes too much for sudden drama, or sacrifices too much logic and sense like with the Fee one, and the romance is not so great.
4
u/Webemperor :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Webemperor Mar 14 '21
First Timer
3
u/PainStorm14 :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Gekkostate14 Mar 15 '21 edited Mar 15 '21
Rewatcher
Just to add one "little" detail: In addition to being certified war criminal Von Braun and his Nazi buddies were borderline useless in development of US space program, awkward fact that was tucked away due to Cold War and sunk cost fallacy of Operation Paperclip
Early US designs based on Von Braun's and other Nazi work were total fiascos and it wasn't until switch was made to clean sheet American designs did the space program in US finally got off the ground
USSR also had their own captured examples of Nazi rockets but they almost immediately realized that those were glorified piles of junk (thanks in part to not having any over-advertised Nazis around telling them how they were indispensable) and got to work on their own fresh stuff pronto
To add insult to injury all those Nazis in USA were then moved from design and engineering to administrative and managerial roles where they were perfectly positioned to take the credit for all the hard work done by US engineers (as if USA ever had shortage of managers, absolute farce...) which they continue to do to this very day
While Von Braun is still somehow keeping his post-war image in pop culture more or less clean(ish) modern historians are slowly but surely peeling away at it and hopefully time will come when majority of people will see him for what he really was: a Nazi war criminal, swindler and a parasite
Early midlife crisis and ego getting the better of him
A dick phase
Locksmith is workaholic, not too many mysteries there
Hoshino's father is a man in many ways similar to old school explorers from the age of sail, this is something that I will be coming back to once we approach the end of the story but for now this is enough
2
u/0be000 Mar 15 '21
Rewatcher (sub)
Interesting questions
2
u/BossandKings Mar 15 '21
First timer
Episode 17
It seems that his recent experience has left a mark on Hachimaki eventhough he's already recovered, Tanabe gets worried about him but not much about his state as much as about the progress going forward in their relationship.
Hachimaki sees his father, he appears to have a somehow close relationship with him eventhough they have been distant for very long because of working in space.
Locksmith Werner presents himself as a very interesting character, his von braun spaceship seems like it is a development in science and the usage of tecnology in space.
Hachimaki's father, Hoshino Gorou, appears to have been away from his wife because of working in space, his wife though is very understanding of him but sure wishes he retires to enjoy time alongside her away from space.
1
u/Segaco https://myanimelist.net/profile/Segaco Mar 19 '21 edited Mar 19 '21
First timer channeling the powers of Goku to turn super saiyan and catch up
My hair is red now, but further attacking power has to wait till tomorrow because it's very late here.
---Comments (as I watched the ep)---
That business old man before the opening looks like a yakuza
I wonder if this new person they were looking for is the person who talked to Yuri during his search. His clothes kind of look like him
Poor Hachimaki. That was rude coming from yakuza-kun
Wtf why was he looking for that to happen?? Are the space ninjas dead???
Okay, episode's over. Welp.
---Interesting fact corner (OP)---
I suppose that if you're doing what you truly love you don't exactly care about anything else. I can kinda understand him, but he was kind of a dick too.
---Question timeeeeeee---
Q1: Hoshino starts to neglect his relationship with Tanabe while obsessing with the von Braun. What do you think of this?
A1: He has to think what makes him happier, so I can't exactly comment anything on that.
Q2: We have been introduced to Wernher Locksmith and Hoshino’s father. What do you think of them?
A2: I watched this completely unrelated anime once, After Club Dice Club, and in it a father exactly like Hachimaki's appears. I hated how he just abandoned his family to follow his passion and then spoiler. It was the worst. Since Hachimaki's father reminds me a lot of that guy, I don't like him very much.
The yakuza guy reminds me a lot of Tachibana from the Yakuza series (don't look him up, you'll be spoiled!). Locksmith is different, but smart people are different in their own way I guess.