Planetarian: Snow Globe ONA 1 Episode
Characters MC:
Yumemi Hoshino (ほしのゆめみ, Hoshino Yumemi)
Satomi Kurahashi (倉橋里美, Kurahashi Satomi)
Ratings:
ANN 7.375
MAL 7.22
IMDB 7.6
Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet ONA 5 Episodes
Characters MC:
Yumemi Hoshino (ほしのゆめみ, Hoshino Yumemi)
The Junker (屑屋, Kuzuya)
Ratings:
ANN 7.799
MAL 7.56
IMDB 7.1
SPOILER ALERT: Many spoilers follow, read at your own risk
PLANETARIAN REVIEW
“Chobits”, “A.I. Artificial Intelligence” and “Time of Eve” are three works with similar contexts to “Planetarian”. Given a robot as a character, who is obviously a robot to all the humans in the story, what are the reactions of Human Beings? In all four stories, the Humans are very hostile to the Robots.
But the Turing test is more than the Characters in the story and their reactions. These works are also playing off of you, and testing your feels towards the robots. And this is really a Turing Test on you, the reader/viewer of these types of stories.
We are all aware that imaginary characters in stories capture our feels big time. Pets and even inanimate objects can also capture our feels. So given our own human feels to contend with, if we encounter a machine who acts like Chi in Chobits, David in AI, Sammy in Time of Eve, and Yumemi in Planetarian, and spend time with the machine, what happens to our feels? Can we fall in love with a machine?
Well if we can feel for imaginary movie characters, and our pets at home, and our living family, it seems as if the answer would be yes. We are lead to feel for the robots in the same way that we are lead to feel for any imaginary character in a story.
I think the answer would have to be yes. If robots ever reach the behavior of the characters in the stories above, we would certainly fall in love with the robot. I personally am in love with Chi, Sammy, Yumemi, and David.
In a counter example, the movie “Ex Machina”, shows a robot seducing Caleb in order to gain her freedom and she has no hesitation in killing all those who get in her way. The evil robot is a staple of the movies after all! Welcome to the world of HAL in “2001: A Space Odyssey”, “The Terminator”, and Roy Batty in “Blade Runner”. Get one of these cruise missiles on your tail, and you are a cooked pork chop.
A machine can in fact be programmed with whatever objective is desired. There are no commandments higher than the laws of a machine’s software. Of course a sentient, conscious machine might develop the abstract set of rules which underlie morality. At the end of Blade Runner, Roy Batty seems to feel compassion for Decker and saves him. In “Wreck-it Ralph”, Vanellope von Schweetz tells Ralph, that she knows how to race because it’s in her code. In the “The Matrix”, humans learn to fight in the virtual world by downloading code into their brains. Could you download the rules of morality? You could program “The Three Laws of Robotics”, and robots would follow those rules, but you could just as easily not program a robot that way and then what do you have except a Frankenstein monster or a human psychopath who seems to lack any moral order, or a cruise missile.
So where does that leave us?
In Planetarian, Yumemi asks Satomi for the name of the theater projector, and Satomi answers “a Carl Zeiss Jena Double Ball Projector Universal 23/3”. Satomi is talking about Yumemi with her boss, and says, “She’s just reciting lines set beforehand.” and then Yumemi delivers her speech and changes the name to Jena-san which surprises Satomi and her boss.
Yumemi leaves the Planetarium in an effort to find more business and delivers her spiel all over town. Software of very large dimensions, does indeed develop new ideas that no human programmer could have even predicted. That is one of the powers of a computer and a huge database. A machine never gets tired, and can transverse an astronomical amount of data searching for patterns that no human could ever see. But this is where scary comes into play. We are used to machines with a high level of predictability. Think your thermostat on the wall. But complex computer systems are not predictable in that way. This is what surprises Satomi. Yumemi-chan invents her own name, Jena-san. So you go out and buy the latest model house robot, and bring it home. You turn it on, a super deluxe mobile Roomba Alexis. And a thought crosses your mind, what if it begins to think that I am not useful, just dirt on the floor, would it then eliminate me? HAL makes exactly that decision, to get rid of the Humans because they are hampering my number one objective of this mission! HAL suffers that most human of sins, Pride. He makes a mistake, and then cannot admit that he made a mistake. He then concludes that it must be due to Human Error!
The Fractal algorithm is extremely simple yet the output patterns are totally unexpected because no human was able to devote their entire life to calculating those patterns. The computer doesn’t mind and will follow it’s programming forever so long as it has the electricity to do the calculation just as Yumeni waits 30 years for a customer.
The creators of game programs like Chess and GO, are surprised by the moves that their creation does make which depend on a vast number of variables which they are not able to calculate. Humans are not computers even though they are able to compute small problems
Yumemi is so very precious, and she grabs hold of your feels big-time. But so do big eyed puppy dogs, and fluffy cats. We are a sucker born every minute who falls in love with imaginary characters and sentient kawaii machines.
Chi, David, Sammy are all shown to have developed what appears to be real emotional feelings. Even HAL from 2001 and Roy Batty from “Blade Runner” were afraid of death.
But Planetarian takes a different track. Hosino Yumeni-chan is clearly shown to be a robot, and she constantly says that she is a robot, and that she has no feelings. She does not understand many questions and blankly says that she does not understand when questioned outside of her programming.
So one clearly knows and feels her robotness and mechanical nature, and yet we like her, we feel for her in exactly the way we feel for imaginary characters in stories. All those in the story who come into contact with her, fall under her spell. I would like to sit down with her and just talk about whatever she wanted to talk about which is probably the Planetarium and the Stars. I know clearly that she is a machine, and yet I feel for her in a way that I don’t feel a strictly inanimate object. There seems to be some soul present in the machine, a Ghost in the Shell.
This is hard to wrap your mind around rationally. She has no fear of death and she says that she feels no pain, so you should not feel sorry for her when she dies. But geez, that just makes me want to love her even more, and it hurts to say goodbye as she passes out of existence. But why?
I guess we are just programmed that way!
“Why don’t you come to the planetarium? That beautiful twinkling of eternity that will never fade, no matter what. All the stars in the sky are waiting for you.” – Hoshino Yumemi-chan
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED For the ONA’s only
SUGGESTION For Viewing
This story work has a very complex history.
The Film combines the VN Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet with the LN Man of the Stars (星の人, Hoshi no Hito) and the 5 episode ONA Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet.
The origins of this story are confusing to say the least but basically the Film is about The Junker (屑屋, Kuzuya) in old age with the ONA inserted as the back story of Yumemi Hoshino (ほしの ゆめみ, Hoshino Yumemi) which is the entire ONA slipped into the film even to the actual animation.
This reviewer would not recommend the film unless you really want to know about what happens to the Junker. So by doing the film, you are also doing the 5 episode ONA which features Yumemi Hoshino the little robot. Keiko Suzuki (すずき けいこ, Suzuki Keiko) does a wonderful voice for the little Robot, and literally brings her to life.
We would recommend starting with the 1 episode ONA Planetarian: Snow Globe and
then the 5 episode ONA Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet. These works are essentially about the little robot, Yumemi Hoshino which makes up the core of the story.
If you really must know what happens to the Junker, then do the Film and skip through the ONA backstories which you have already seen. But many plot points are never explained and if you were hoping for a resurrection of Yumemi Hoshino, you will be disappointed.
Yumemi gives the Junker her memory chip at the end of the ONA which includes all her memories and personality. The Junker carries this around his neck for the rest of his life, but it is never used, so come on guys what is the point of bringing this into the story and then not using it?
What is the point of the nun Android? Does mankind survive? A fan gets no answers here, and no ending. The Film version is very disappointing in this respect!
THE GENESIS OF THE STORY
The Planetarian story has a very complicated genesis and various parts exist in many forms:
Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet
Visual Novel (VN)
W: Yūichi Suzumoto (涼元 悠一, Suzumoto Yūichi, born January 13, 1969)
The Reverie of a Little Planet 11-29-2004
W: Yūichi Suzumoto (涼元 悠一, Suzumoto Yūichi, born January 13, 1969)
Snow Globe 9-3-2021
Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet
Light Novel (LN)
W: Yūichi Suzumoto (涼元 悠一, Suzumoto Yūichi, born January 13, 1969)
P: 4-28-2006
Snow Globe (雪圏球, Sunō Gurōbu) before the war
Jerusalem (エルサレム, Erusaremu) during the war
Man of the Stars (星の人, Hoshi no Hito) after the war by about 30 years
Tircis and Aminte (チルシスとアマント, Chirushisu to Amanto)
Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet
Original Net Animation (ONA)
W: Naokatsu Tsuda and Shogo Yasukawa after VN “” by Yūichi Suzumoto (涼元 悠一, Suzumoto Yūichi, born January 13, 1969)
R: 7-7-2016 to 8-4-2016
5 Episodes 93 minutes 12 seconds
EP 1 18:10 The Robot’s Bouquet
EP 2 13:27 Repairing the Projector
EP 3 20:33 Yumemi’s Projection
EP 4 17:30 Drunk with Alcohol
EP 5 24:09 Yumemi’s Wish
Planetarian: Snow Globe
Original Net Animation (ONA)Planetarian: Snow Globe
W: Shogo Yasukawa after LN “Snow Globe (雪圏球, Sunō Gurōbu)” by Yūichi Suzumoto (涼元 悠一, Suzumoto Yūichi, born January 13, 1969)
R: 8-25-2021
EP1 36:00
Film
Planetarian: Storyteller of the Stars (Japanese: planetarian～星の人～, Hepburn: Planetarian: Hoshi no Hito, literally “Planetarian: Man of the Stars”)
Screenplay: Naokatsu Tsuda and Shogo Yasukawa after Visual Novel (VN)
W: Yūichi Suzumoto (涼元 悠一, Suzumoto Yūichi, born January 13, 1969)
The Reverie of a Little Planet 11-29-2004
Film released on 9-3-2016 117 minutes
PRODUCTION TIME LINE
11-29-2004 VN The Reverie of a Little Planet
4-28-2006 LN Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet
Snow Globe (雪圏球, Sunō Gurōbu) before the war
Jerusalem (エルサレム, Erusaremu) during the war
Man of the Stars (星の人, Hoshi no Hito) after the war by about 60 years
Tircis and Aminte (チルシスとアマント, Chirushisu to Amanto)
7-7-2016 to 8-4-2016 ONA Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet
EP 1 18:10 The Robot’s Bouquet
EP 2 13:27 Repairing the Projector
EP 3 20:33 Yumemi’s Projection
EP 4 17:30 Drunk with Alcohol
EP 5 24:09 Yumemi’s Wish
9-3-2016 FILM Planetarian: Storyteller of the Stars
8-25-2021 ONA Planetarian: Snow Globe
9-3-2021 VN Snow Globe
STORY TIME LINE
Snow Globe –
Yumemi Hoshino is activated and begins working at the the Hanabishi Department Store’s rooftop planetarium. Then there is a story skip 10 years, and the Planetarium is almost out of business. This causes Yumemi to go out into the city and attempt to bring in customers. We also see anti-robot attacks and civilization seems to be on the verge of breaking down.
Jerusalem –
Biological and Nuclear war breaks out, Sniper Nun
The ONA The Reverie of a Little Planet –
This story opens 30 years after the war, mankind is almost extinct.
The little robot, Yumemi Hoshino is still working at the Planetarium waiting for customers who never arrive until the Junker stumbles into her world and becomes her first and only customer who she names, Mr. Customer. She sacrifices herself to save Mr. Customer and in her disconnect death, as her batteries run out, she explains how she is only a robot who feels no pain, but she is instead connected to the infinity of the Universe. Her only desire is to help others in whatever way she can. This has been the overriding rule of her entire existence.
Man of the Stars (Planetarian: Storyteller of the Stars) – ~30 years after the ONA story world, mankind is almost extinct. The Junker is saved by a small group of non-breeding humans, and its implied that mankind will soon be extinct. Ending is very confusing. The Nun from Jerusalem appears but for what purpose?
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