Planetes (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray) Unboxing

Planetes (Puranetesu) is a 2003 television anime series based on Makoto Yukimura’s manga of the same name. It was adapted into an anime by studio Sunrise with director Gorou Taniguchi and writer Ichirou Oukouchi. The series first broadcast in Japan on October 2003 as part of the Autumn 2003 anime season.

Background:

“The year is 2075 – a future in which widespread commercial space travel is not just a dream but a reality, and where the Moon has been transformed into a bustling colony. However, all of the advancements in science and technology which brought about this interplanetary dream have also caused an exponential growth in a major peril for spacefarers – space debris.

Enter the crew of the DS-12 “Toy Box”, part of Technora Corporation’s Space Debris section who are tasked with clearing up the dangerous detritus floating in Earth’s orbit which threatens to cause a catastrophe if left unchecked. It’s a far from glamorous job, as newcomer Ai Tanabe quickly learns as she joins the crew to find an underfunded but passionate group of larger than life characters who are dedicated to their under-appreciated craft.

So begins a sci-fi series the likes of which you’ve never seen before, as ordinary people make their way through the extraordinary vastness of space in search of their hopes and dreams – a journey which can be as dangerous as it is uplifting.”

Plot Synopsis via Anime Limited, April 2021.

Planetes is a series that I have often heard about here and there over the years. A sci-fi from Sunrise with its source material written by the author of Vinland Saga. I don’t have much to say about the show other than it was quite well-loved by the community when it was released on DVD in the United States and United Kingdom in the past.

Planetes is also one of the shows that was placed into licensing limbo when Bandai Entertainment and Beez Entertainment had to close their doors. This also resulted in other titles like Haruhi Suzumiya, Cowboy Bebop, Escaflowne and even unreleased shows like Nichijou and Turn-A Gundam to go into licensing limbo as well.

Eventually Funimation and Sentai were both able to license a batch of Sunrise titles, but bizarrely none of them included Planetes. Since then, the show has remained unlicensed for the west until Anime Limited announced the UK & Ireland rights in May 2020. In addition to the news, they were going to bring the series onto Blu-ray before any other English-speaking territory.

Collector’s Edition Contents:

Planetes gets the collector’s edition packaging treatment as expected, given the show’s reputation and team who worked on it.

This release is presented with a rigid box containing a digipack that houses the Blu-ray discs. In addition, the box will also come with an 86-page booklet with a bunch of character artwork from the series.

The artwork is free of any information or BBFC content and the info sheet covers the information and specification like previous Anime Limited releases. The collector’s edition Blu-ray has 1000 units printed for an SRP of £59.99. In addition, this is also a Blu-ray only release and is expected to receive a standard edition over time.

I pre-ordered the series during Anime Limited’s 12 Days of Christmas sale in December 2020 which was offered at £34.99, but thanks to the Screen Anime membership the price was reduced by 15% for the first order which I bundled with Oedo 808 at the time.

Physical Contents:

• Rigid Box with Digipack packaging and clean artwork
• Info sheet for specification and BBFC description
• 86-page Artbook

On-Disc Contents:

Distributor: Anime Limited
Released: 26th April 2021

This release for Planetes contains all 26 episodes spread across three Blu-ray discs in total. The encoding and authoring was worked on by the team over at MediaOCD, known for their efforts on The Vision of Escaflowne, Millennium Actress’ 4K Ultra HD and most recently Violet Evergarden. You can tell as it shares the same menu structure as Cyber City Oedo 808.

This particular UK Blu-ray is also slightly different to the Japanese version which was presented in 1080i, as MediaOCD went the extra mile to make the show set to 1080p. If this was Funimation it probably would have been the Japanese version or maybe messed around in the worst way possible.

The first disc covers episodes 1-9, second disc with episodes 10-18 and third disc with episodes 19-26 and on-disc extras. If you missed out on the out of print Beez & Bandai Entertainment DVDs, most of the bonus features were included in this release.

The audio options available for the series include Japanese with English subtitles and the Bang Zoom! Entertainment English dub from Bandai Entertainment’s release. The white subtitles (plus light blue subtitles for the lyrics) are unlockable during playback, while the regions are locked to B only for Blu-ray players.

Blu-ray Specs:

Languages	English, Japanese
Audio	English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Video	1080p High Definition Native format 16:9 aspect ratio
Region	B
Subtitles	English
Locked Subtitles	No
Discs	3 BD-50s

Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:

Disc 1:

• Japanese Cast & Crew Commentary for Episode 1

Disc 2:

• Japanese Cast & Crew Commentary for Episodes 10, 12 & 16

Disc 3:

• Clean Opening Song “Dive in the Sky” (All versions)
• Clean Closing Songs “Wonderful Life” & “PLANETES ~Affettuosso~”
• Japanese Picture Dramas [runtime: 29 minutes 34 seconds]
• TV Promos
• Blu-ray Promos
• Disassembled Opening
• Sketch Gallery
• Illustration Gallery
• Design Works Gallery
• End Card Gallery
• Tanaka Kazunari Visits JAXA [runtime: 17 minutes 12 seconds]
• Japanese Cast & Crew Commentary for Episodes 24, 25 & 26

Unboxing Photos:

Final Notes:

Planetes is available to own on Blu-ray from United Kingdom distributor Anime Limited. The collector’s edition Blu-ray is available to order from multiple retailers including Amazon UK.

(Disclaimer: Amazon links are also included when available. They are affiliated so if you decide to order them, I’ll earn a small percentage if they ship which will help me with any hauls or small bills. Due to current global situations, shipping restrictions may apply.)