Planetes

(Tokyopop, 2003-2005)
™ and © 2004 Makoto Yukimura
reads right to left; b&w

With the now-monthly wave of manga titles coming out from a half-dozen publishers, they’re all starting to look more and more alike. That means it would be easy to fall into the trap of thinking that we’ve seen it all. So let it be known that Planetes (its only defect is its unnecessary corruption of a perfectly good English word) is different.

This near-future story, of a crew of space garbage men—black female Fee, Russian Yuri, and Japanese Hachimaki—who clean up the junk that threatens navigation, has enough hard-science edges to it to be utterly convincing. The art is beautiful and detailed, which helps sells the characters, all of whom are more than they seem at first. Even the standard Japanese “kid learning the ropes” isn’t nearly as insufferable as most of his counterparts.

There’s no aliens, psychic abilities, or wars fought with mobile battle suits; at its heart, Planetes is an SF procedural that tells a simple story cleanly and clearly. Now all we need is more like it.

— Jack Abramowitz

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