Mindhive

Planetes update

_{(this post is a slightly expanded version of a personal email I sent)}

Holy crap. In the second half of the show, Planetes gets exponentially more frightening with each episode. Of course, both halves of the show deal with humanity, but it turns out that humanity has many sides. In the beginning, Planetes was, in a subtle way, uplifting. It showed us that, despite the efficient yet destructive structures of the megacorps, people can still learn to stand up for their ideals, to reach out a hand of friendship when it is required, and even to fall in love. Of course, not everything is rosy -- we begin learning early on that the "lasting peace and prosperity" that the Federation is a sham, that sometimes your ideals will stand in the way of your goals, that at times the odds are stacked so you are guaranteed to fail no matter what you do, er... where was I again ? Ah, yes, second half of the show.

Warning: minor spoilers ahead.

As I said before, the lessons in the second half of the show are altogether different. If you truly want to achieve anything -- in space, or elsewhere -- you have to be the ultimate rational agent, a cold efficient machine that maximizes its own gain by any means neccessary, focused single-mindedly on the goal. So what if people die -- that just gives you more experimental data. Is your team in trouble ? Leave them to die, because if you fail, you're dead anyway. Do you have a promising, effective section director in your employ ? He's climbing too fast, feed him to the PR machine, put the corporate weasel in charge instead; everyone wins.

In episode 20, candidates for the experimental Jovian ship (called the Von Braun, for Turing's sake !) are subjected to an Ender's Game-grade destructive test (which Planetes actually stole nearly verbatim from Twin Spica, that was the one part I didn't like), whose sole purpose is to determine just how far you're willing to go in order to win. Jupiter is a harsh place; it will not tolerate weakness. And even if you fail the test, something inside of you will be changed forever, as your weakness is eradicated.

I thought this was going to be an anime, but it's not, anymore. Now it's just real life. Planetes gets the extreme kudos from me for making the transition from human inspiration to pure rational agency absolutely seamless, and flawlessly realistic. It's not nearly as horrific as Now and Then, but it's starting to acquire the same feeling of inevitability. I thought this show was great before; but now, I am starting to think that it's exemplary. Planetes is required viewing.