THE FINAL FRONTIER: PLANETES v. 2 and 3. Just finished the second and third volumes of this ongoing, excellent sci-fi manga series. Scattered thoughts:

First of all, go read Planetes. It’s a messy, character-focused space exploration story that manages to almost-successfully combine episodic drama and a strong plot arc. There are some beautiful moments (the books are worth it just for the drawings of space, or for static lovelinesses like the vol 3 image of the dragonfly against the moon) and you will root for the characters.

I have a couple caveats, especially about these two volumes. The first volume was divided about evenly between the three crewmembers of a ship that collects space debris–basically Garbage Truck To The Stars. I empathized with bereaved Yuri, adored fierce and down-to-earth smoker Fee, and felt embarrassed recognition when confronted with conflicted and angsty Hachimaki. The first volume is fantastic and you should go get it right now if you haven’t already.

The later two volumes (I think there are three more coming) focus much more tightly on Hachimaki. Some of the subplots continue (especially a nicely-done storyline about anti-exploration terrorism, which simmers for a while before bursting into the main plot) but it’s mostly the story of Hachimaki and the first mission to Jupiter. The first volume’s themes of isolation and the need for human connection are repeated, but I thought they were overemphasized here, over-obvious. We’re being leaned on in these volumes and I don’t like it. Stuff gets spelled out much more explicitly than is healthy.

My other caveat is Tanabe, the love interest. ‘Cause that’s just about all she is. She is the Eternal Feminine, forgiving and compassionate and able to reconcile terrorist and victim with her abounding sweetness. Kill… me… NOW. Oy, but Tanabe is the kind of character I just cannot deal with, on a very basic philosophical and personal level. I think she’s fake and wrong and kind of horrible. Tanabe is Nutrasweet personified.

But! It takes a lot for me to recommend a book with one of those Nutrafemme characters in it. But Planetes is so good it can get away with Tanabe. These two volumes have lovely portraits of family life; sweet, quick, confident vignettes; truly awe-inspiring pictures of space; a contemporary sense of tragedy combined with a Golden Age sense of wonder; and a very funny scene with a word game that overcame all my resistance to sentiment and cuteness.

Planetes is a deep and sometimes too-blatant testament to Eric Sevareid’s statement, “Everything in space, von Braun said, obeys the laws of physics. If you know these laws and obey them, space will treat you kindly. The difficulty is that man brings the laws of his own nature into space. The issue is how man treats man. The problem does not lie in outer space, but where it’s always been: on terra firma in inner man.” The third volume is all about how you can only recover the wonder we feel at the vastness of space and the astonishing exploratory need of the human intellect once you’ve understood human love. There’s a gorgeous scene of Tanabe and Hachimaki looking at a rocket as it sails into the night sky: Hachimaki can finally love space again, because he isn’t alone. Planetes knows that this terrible human drive for the frontier, for the unknown, can be either a pathetic escape attempt or a transcendent submission to beauty.

For that alone you should be reading it. Even if it weren’t cheaper than American comics!