Review for Planzet

Introduction

I lack the words to adequately communicate the thrill I felt when Planzet fell into my lap. Another 3D CG anime to review! Woo! That minor earthquake resonating at the diametric opposite side of the world is caused by my jumping for joy. 3D CG has rarely worked when it comes to Japanese animation, at least not for me. The closest I’ve come to appreciating it is with the work of Fumihiko Sori, whose Appleseed, with its toon-shaded graphics delivered a story that made you forget the medium, just as all good anime should do. It begat the Appleseed Ex Machina sequel with some serious John Woo input that just elevated it, but the subsequent Vexille was a disappointment, TO just sank, while the more traditional CG efforts, without the toon-shading have never impressed me. Earlier this year, Kazé, via Manga brought us the Tekken Blood Vengeance feature, a mess if ever I saw one. They’re trying again now with Planzet. Just when I was about to rest my coffee on a new coaster, I learned that it’s Comix Wave that’s responsible for Planzet, the same people behind Makoto Shinkai’s works. I really am a sucker for punishment.


The year was 2047, the world was facing an ecological catastrophe, and the first colony on Mars was sifting through applicants to find 100,000 suitable colonists. Hiroshi Akejima was laying about playing video-games, being harangued by his soldier father for giving up after failing his exams, and teased by his sister Koyomi. Which is when aliens invaded. During the initial invasion, his father was killed, the poles melted, cities flooded, and what remained was destroyed. A last minute technological development known as the Diffuser kept the aliens at bay, allowing a mere fraction of humanity to survive. The year is now 2053. Hiroshi now works in a secret base under Mount Fuji, preparing to pilot mecha in order to defend the survivors of Earth. Then someone comes up with a last ditch plan to defeat the aliens once and for all, but it will mean lowering the Diffuser.

Picture

The image comes across in a 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer. It is clear and sharp throughout, with a thick, intentional layer of grain to make the CGI look more filmic. The world design is impressive, with a retro future look to it that appeals. The mecha look splendid and the animation is fluid and energetic. The character designs hit the uncanny valley big time, and the sight of Koyomi speaking is going to leave me with nightmares for the rest of my life.

Sound

The language options are thus, DD 5.1 English, French, and Japanese, with English and French subtitles and signs, as well as separate Dutch and Italian subtitle tracks. This being a Kazé disc, there’s no chopping or changing at your convenience. You’ll only experience Planzet as they wish it. I watched the Japanese version with translated English subtitles, and the surround was very effective during the action sequences, while the dialogue was clear throughout. There are two dropouts in the Japanese audio around the time that Hiroshi tells his sister to pull herself together. It’s near the end of the movie, and I’d give you an exact time, but it’s a Kazé disc, and my player timer was dead for the duration. From what I sampled of the English dub, this is one of the rare cases where the English actors surpass the Japanese cast. Alas I have no intention of watching this film again.

Extras

If you’re in the UK, Italy or the Netherlands, you get absolutely nothing. But if you’re French, well, let me cut and paste from Amazon.fr...

Moyen métrage : "Negadon : The Monster from Mars" (30')
2 courts métrages
2 interviews
Making of (23')
Story-board animé 3D
Kaze+ : Bandes-annonces vidéos, VOD & manga et clips videos

I had a look at the French menu, and there seems to be more even than that, including a commentary. That’s well over an hour of extra stuff for the French including other animations from the director of Planzet, and the rest of Europe gets it on Blu-ray as well.

Conclusion

Save some money, watch Independence Day again. The only saving grace to Planzet is that it is short. The pain is past almost before you realise it. Of course because it is short, there is no time to develop the story, to develop the characters or even make them slightly approachable, and no time to make any of this interesting or original. What Planzet is, is utterly derivative, ripping off half a dozen alien invasion storylines, and stuffing the mouths of its characters with the most tedious, dated and overused clichés possible. For 50 minutes, I was sat watching this claptrap, daring, no begging it to give me something of value, something original, something to at least spark half a synapse of inspiration or appreciation in my mind, that all this time, money and effort spent making this movie was worth something at least.


I spent fifty minutes utterly freaked out by characters whose mouths looked like separate entities to their faces. And I was also thinking of the EU, and all those complaints that middle-Englanders have about farm subsidies, and fishing quotas. Planzet has a R.R.P. of £19.99 in the UK... Yes, £20 for 51 minutes kicks even the bad old days of three episode DVDs into touch. In France, where Planzet’s extra features are comprehensible to the native audience, Planzet’s R.R.P. is €20.35 on Amazon.fr, about £16.07 on today’s exchange rate. The French pay less, we pay more, and we pay more for the same thing, so that the French get to watch their extra features. Of course that’s far from the truth, with the audience for anime in France dwarfing the UK audience, but that’s the perception that I have. It’s the EU anime subsidy. Not only did I loathe this 50 minute waste of my intelligence, but it came damned close to turning me into a UKIP voter.


If you were a UK fan of Planzet, and believe me that concept is making my imagination work overtime, why would you get a disc that was, for all intents and purposes, barebones, but on top of that taunted you with extra content that you can’t comprehend without learning another language?


The US release of Planzet from Sentai Filmworks has these extras, with English subtitles...

Interview With Mamoru Miyano (Hiroshi)
Interview With Kaori Ishihara (Koyomi)
Interview With Jun Awazu (Original Creator)
Side-By-Side Animatic Comparison With Director Jun Awazu
Commentary With Jun Awazu (Director) & Takeshi Maeda (Voice Actor)
Japanese Trailer Collection
Sentai Trailers

And if you have a Region A or Region free Blu-ray player, you can opt for the Sentai HD version of Planzet too.