Planetarian

Have you wondered what kind of world it'll be when it's ended? Perhaps, will it be one where we can no longer look up at the sky and gaze at the stars during the night? The anime I'm reviewing started out as a visual novel (a kinetic novel, to be exact) from Key, and I actually played it over a year before the anime adaptation was even announced because I just love Key's works; although it started off as a bit of a disappointment, it gradually got a lot better and left me close to tears in the end. With how short it was, however, I thought it would never get an anime adaptation, and when it was, I thought for a second that it was a joke, since it WAS April Fool's Day. However, it turned out to be real (albeit in the form of an ONA), and luckily, it ended up being enjoyable.

Ladies and gentlemen, my review of "Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet", or "Planetarian: Chiisana Hoshi no Yume" in Japanese, awaits you! (To read it, that is.)

Planetarian, as it shall hence be referred to, takes place 30 years after the failure of the Space Exploration Project has brought an end to the world as we know it. Some men, known as "junkers", seek resources required to survive in this kind of world. One such junker (or Kuzuya, as I shall be referring him to, since he doesn't really have a name) ends up finding his way into a planetarium and meeting a robot named Yumemi Hoshino. Yumemi, unaware of what has happened to the world, attempts to show him a projection of the stars in order to commemorate the planetarium's 2,500,000th customer (although it's actually less than that), but the projector, Miss Jena, stops working. Albeit reluctantly, Kuzuya decides to stay at the planetarium and fix Miss Jena. From here, a heartwarming story unfolds, and Kuzuya ends up finding beauty in the stars that Yumemi shows him.

As with all of Key's other works, this story is one that, at one point or another, will tug at your heart strings and, even if you don't cry, leave you on the edge of doing so. There may be only two characters in Planetarian (or at least only two notable characters), but they both manage to keep this anime's story going. Kuzuya is quite an interesting character; he started out very coldhearted, but considering the conditions of Planetarian's world, I can't say I blame him. The development he gets is quite excellent, too. As for Yumemi, one may see her as an annoying character due to how talkative and oblivious she is, but she's actually a very interesting character, as well. I simply cannot picture this anime without her.

The animation, done by David Production.... well, I haven't seen a lot of their anime (other than this and Ben-To, which I've currently only seen two episodes of), but their animation in Planetarian is simply BEAUTIFUL, even for an ONA; it's a good match with the story. The voice acting was great, too; Daisuke Ono and Keiko Suzuki did well in their respective roles as Kuzuya and Yumemi. I noticed that Yumemi's voice was a bit deeper than I remembered hearing her in the visual novel, but since it has been over a decade since the visual novel was released, I don't see it as an issue at all. This anime goes without an opening theme, but since it's an ONA with somewhat-short episodes, I can let that slide. The ending theme, "Twinkle Starlight" by Sayaka Sasaki, is a solid song that I've actually listened to countlessly even before this anime's first episode aired.

Overall, Planetarian was a very good anime. I'd recommend this anime for Key fans or fans of heartwarming stories in general. I'm also looking forward to the upcoming movie, "Planetarian: Hoshi no Hito", and I'm sure many other people are, as well; after all, the planetarium awaits our return!