I’m really enjoying Planetarian so far. As I say in my review, I appreciate a show whose storytelling tightly matches the scope of its premise – there’s a whole world being implied here, but Planetarian has one very specific story to tell. Yumemi’s character manages to thread a difficult path between inert cliche and maudlin overselling, coming across like a sympathetic person without the show having to harp on the tragedy of her situation. I’d love to see more small dramas like this; the 12 or 13 episode season can often result in unfocused narratives, but five episodes is a very manageable amount of time.

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my episode two notes below!

The Junker decides to fix the projector. Hope in a space of despair. More important than pragmatic choices

“Those who survive now have no interest in things like stars”

Ah good, he actually explains things to the robot

The robot being upbeat about everything

“Remaining operation time after reactivation will be 75 hours.” Of course

The constellation locket. Bad memories

“As I am a robot, I am incapable of dreaming. But I have very much longed to.” But her whole existence is pretty much acting out a dream – that’s the fundamental conceit of the series

Ah, she just activates for a week every year

“So are you incapable of shedding tears?”

I like the repetition of “will it be done in time for the 11 AM projection?”

Her creators defined her heaven