Planetes

Outside the AtmosphereSpoiler Hidden

It's the first day on the job for Ai Tanabe as she's introduced to her eccentric co-workers in the Debris Section of space station ISPV-7.

Like a DreamSpoiler Hidden

Hachimaki is made fun of by his co-workers in the Debris Section and Technora because he dreams of getting his own spaceship by winning the lottery. Tanabe continues her zero gravity training with Hachimaki. Kho Cheng-Shin, Hachimaki's friend, celebrates his promotion to orbital shuttle co-pilot. Tanabe and Hachimaki are later sent on a debris retrieval mission to recover a derelict satellite. However, Tanabe accidentally activates its maneuvering system and sends it on a collision course with Cheng-Shin's orbital shuttle. Hachimaki risks his life to save the passengers by manually activating the satellite's engines.

Return TrajectorySpoiler Hidden

Life insurance salespeople swarm the ISPV 7 while members of the Debris Section write their annual wills. Tanabe is annoyed that Hachimaki is not taking his will seriously enough. During a routine debris collection mission, Tanabe and Hachimaki, along with Yuri Mihairokov, recover a space coffin containing a famous astronaut. Although the astronaut's daughter wants him to be buried in outer space since he never visited his family in life, Tanabe believes that he should be valued as a family member and returned to Earth to be buried. His daughter changes her mind when she sees that he was buried with a picture of his family, and asks that he be brought to Earth.

Part of the JobSpoiler Hidden

Colin Clifford, the spoiled son of the current INTO chairman, visits the ISPV 7 and observes a debris hauling mission with the Debris Section. Claire Rondo, a member of the Control Section that is supervising Colin, tells the crew to retrieve Colin's camera, which he carelessly left attached to a derelict satellite after visiting it as a space tourist, much to Hachimaki's frustration. Fee Carmichael volunteers herself to do the job after it becomes clear Hachimaki might physically assault Colin. After the mission, Colin and his friends mock Hachimaki about the low status of debris collecting, prompting the other members of the Debris Section to defend Hachimaki and humiliate Colin.

Fly Me to the MoonSpoiler Hidden

Hachimaki, Tanabe, and Fee decide to go to the Moon for their holiday, and happen to end up on a lunar ferry co-piloted by Cheng-Shin. On the trip over, Tanabe loses her wallet. After confusing an actor for a thug, Hachimaki fills in for a movie scene, not long before the film equipment is confiscated because the film crew didn't have permits. A mother and father are planning to commit suicide on the ferry and to take their daughter with them, because they are deeply in debt. A pickpocket is reported to have stolen Tanabe's wallet and the poison intended for the daughter. The pickpocket takes the daughter hostage, but with Cheng-Shin's help, Hachimaki rescues her. The girl's parents find a renewed will to live from the experience.

The Lunar Flying SquirrelsSpoiler Hidden

Hachimaki takes Tanabe to a rundown hotel on the Moon. Unfortunately, the surrounding neighbors are a group of wannabe ninjas who chase after Hachimaki due to a misunderstanding. The neighbors apologize to Hachimaki and welcome Tanabe to the hotel, where they all reveal that they are currently looking for job. At a nearby fancy hotel, a father sets up a marriage arrangement for his daughter (formerly the wife of one of the ninjas) with Hachimaki, but a fire starts and Hachimaki helps her evacuate from her room. The wannabe ninjas enter the hotel and find Hachimaki and the daughter, and with a combined effort, they all manage to parachute down from the hotel.

Extraterrestrial GirlSpoiler Hidden

After injuring his leg parachuting from the hotel fire, Hachimaki must stay in a hospital on the Moon for a week to recover. He meets Harry Roland, a veteran astronaut who is initially in an adjacent hospital bed, but later goes missing from the hospital. Hachimaki also meets a young girl named Nono, and tells her what it is like to live on Earth. After his release, Fee drives Hachimaki to the airport. On their way there, they find Roland on the side of the road, and he reveals he has leukemia before he passes away from decompression sickness. Returning to the hospital, Hachimaki is surprised to find that Nono is a twelve-year-old Lunarian, a person born on the Moon.

A Place to Cling ToSpoiler Hidden

Arvind "Robbie" Lavie suspects that Fee is having an affair with Dolph Azalia, the Technora Second Division director, and informs the other members of the Debris Section about it. However, Fee is actually being promoted to assistant chief of the Control Section. Debris Section soon discover this. The next debris retrieval mission is to collect some experimental material that is invisible to radar and expands when heated, requiring collection at night. Although debris that is unseen by radar will be difficult to haul in at night, the rest of the members of the Debris Section take the opportunity to do this on their own without Fee to prove to her that they can function without her. When Fee hears word that they are struggling, she manages to guide them to success, and she later decides to turn down the promotion.

RegretsSpoiler Hidden

Gigalt Gangaragash, Hachimaki's extra-vehicular activity former instructor, visits the Debris Section as part of a safety inspection. Hachimaki asks Tanabe if she is seeing anyone, and she replies that she is not. Hachimaki formerly dated Claire, much to Tanabe's surprise. Gigalt explains to Tanabe that Hachimaki wears his headband when he is focused. On a debris hauling run supervised by Gigalt, the crew encounters a group performing illegal debris dumping. Hachimaki and Gigalt try to stop them, but Hachimaki becomes glued to the vessel, while Gigalt is rescued by Tanabe after his suit thrusters become damaged. Hakim Ashmead, also one of Gigalt's former pupils who now works for the Orbital Security Agency (OSA), arrives to arrest the illegal haulers and save Hachimaki. Tanabe finds out that Gigalt has cancer while fixing his thrusters, and is told to not tell Hachimaki.

A Sky of StardustSpoiler Hidden

Hachimaki notices that both Tanabe and Yuri have been acting strange lately. Tanabe is preoccupied with her discovery of Gigalt having cancer, both worried that Hachimaki may suffer the same fate and concerned about having to keep it a secret from him. Philippe Myers later reveals that Yuri was aboard a sub-orbital shuttle with his wife, who was killed after orbital debris struck it. On a routine debris retrieval mission, Yuri finds the only keepsake of his deceased wife, a compass she brought as a good luck charm, which he has been searching for ever since the accident. However, because he was forced to move into the path of debris to retrieve it he is struck, knocked unconscious, and forced into the Earth's atmosphere. Both Hachimaki and Tanabe are forced to risk their lives to save him.

Boundary LineSpoiler Hidden

An engineer from an impoverished country called El-Tanica comes to the ISPV 7 to have his new spacesuit tested. No company or department will agree to test his unusual suit because of the lowly status of his home country until the Debris Section volunteer to help him with the basic testing procedures, monitored by Claire, who is revealed as a native of El-Tanica. During the final set of tests, in outer space proper, Hakim receives orders from INTO to arrest the engineer and return him to El-Tanica under protective custody. Hachimaki manages to buy time to complete the final tests, which are all successful. Although Claire is able to prevent Hakim from arresting the engineer, the engineer accepts being taken into custody, having accomplished his goal of proving that even third-world countries can reach space.

A Modest RequestSpoiler Hidden

Fee and Yuri take the Toy Box to the Moon for routine repairs. On her way to the smoking room there, Fee narrowly escapes a terrorist attack. She is told that there have been bombings set off by the Space Defense Front (SDF), a terrorist organization, in various smoking rooms to stop human development in space. Much to Fee's frustration, many of the smoking rooms on the Moon are being torn down. Meanwhile, Tanabe goes on for her date with Cheng-Shin, after she overhears her friend, Lucy Askam, seemingly asking out Hachimaki. However, she is really asking Hachimaki to help her date Cheng-Shin by becoming Tanabe's girlfriend. Fee is again unable to have a smoke after another terrorist attack in a nearby Moon city. Hachimaki and Tanabe accidentally damage her smoking chamber on the ISPV 7, further denying her the ability to smoke. Shortly after, during a debris mission, the SDF prepares to send a large missile towards the ISPV 7, in order to initiate the Kessler syndrome. Fee realizes that her newly repaired smoking chamber will be destroyed, and retaliates by driving the Toy Box straight into the missile, deflecting it into the Earth's atmosphere and destroying the Toy Box in the process. After saving the ISPV 7 from destruction, Fee safely lands on Earth, and is happily able to enjoy a cigarette.

Scenery with a RocketSpoiler Hidden

Since the Toy Box has been destroyed, the Debris Section go on a holiday on Earth. Tanabe and Yuri accompany Hachimaki on a visit to his mother, Haruko Hoshino. At the household, they meet Hachimaki's brother, Kyutaro Hoshino, who is a rocketry enthusiast. Yuri helps Kyutaro modify his home-built rocket and then helps him conduct a test launch at the beach. Hachimaki and Tanabe, after meeting an old friend of Hachimaki's at the grocery store who mistakes Tanabe for Hachimaki's girlfriend, stop for a walk on the beach. They almost kiss, but are interrupted by Kyutaro's malfunctioning rocket. Fee informs Hachimaki that the Debris Section has received a new debris hauling ship. Hachimaki makes Kyutaro apologize to Yuri for breaking his compass during the failed launch, but Yuri thanks Kyutaro for doing so, as the destruction of the compass has helped him realize how to move on with his life and not dwell on the past. As Hachimaki, Tanabe, and Yuri fly back to the ISPV 7, Kyutaro successfully launches his rocket with Yuri's compass in the nosecone.

Turning PointSpoiler Hidden

Tanabe and Hachimaki hesitate to realize their feelings for each other, especially after Robbie informs the Debris Section that office romance is prohibited because of the risk of demotion or reassignment. Hachimaki accidentally insults Tanabe while trying to prove he isn't in a relationship, and she rejects him multiple times. On a test flight of the new Toy Box, the Debris Section become embroiled in company intrigue, as they choose to help a scientist move an orbital research facility away from a meteoroid against the will of the Technora Third Division manager, whose daughter was involved in an office romance with the scientist. After saving the facility, the scientist thanks the Debris Section for their help, and Tanabe is impressed with Hachimaki's handling of the situation. Hachimaki asks Tanabe to be his girlfriend, and she responds by kissing him.

In Her Case...Spoiler Hidden

The Debris Section worries about office temp staffer Edelgard "Edel" Rivera and her serious attitude, despite being a non-contracted employee at Technora. During a conference meeting, Gigalt's heart gives out and is sent to the hospital upon Hakim's request. Hachimaki seems to be struggling on his first date with Tanabe, and they decide to check into a hotel for privacy. After being contacted by an old acquaintance named Sasha, Edel sets off to meet him, although she is delayed as Sasha wrote down the wrong room number. Hachimaki and Tanabe find Sasha in their hotel room, and soon learn that Edel used to be his wife. Edel threatens to shoot Sasha because she was abused by him, but Tanabe and Hachimaki intervene. When Sasha tries to escape, Hakim arrives and arrests Sasha because he was one of three criminals being tracked by the OSA.

IgnitionSpoiler Hidden

His ReasonsSpoiler Hidden

Debris Section, The Last DaySpoiler Hidden

Endings Are Always...Spoiler Hidden

Tentative StepsSpoiler Hidden

Tandem MirrorSpoiler Hidden

ExposureSpoiler Hidden

Debris ClusterSpoiler Hidden

LoveSpoiler Hidden

The LostSpoiler Hidden

And the Days We Chance Upon...Spoiler Hidden