Planetarian

Lately I haven't been writing significant posts, particularly reviews on anime and other related material. This is mainly due to the fact that I had to take Writing 340 over the summer which resulted in me not feeling like writing up anything. This is not necessarily due to the fact that I haven't been watching any (decent) anime (on the contrary, Sola was a very good anime that I would suggest to others, but have not yet written a review yet). However, presently I have just... (Played? Watched? Read? insert appropriate verb here) Planetarian, the Reverie of a Little Planet, and, like any otaku fan that knows of Key, the work was spectacular.

I have to admit, similar to how when I first watch Haruhi and AIR, the work seems to be pure eyecandy. I can't deny that I enjoyed most of the visual novel because of how cute the Planetarian girl looked, because personality wise I (until the very VERY end) did not find her any more exciting than an AIM bot dressed nicely. VERY nicely. In fact this makes me worry, in the event that in the future people will design advertising bots just like her and possibly warp the minds of many into this monopolistic world of fantasy... but I digress. This visual novel isn't, of course, about the mindnumbing cuteness of the main heroine and it's theoretical possibility of brainwashing poor fools into buying things just because they're cute. It is an entertaining story, sometimes fun, sometimes sad, overall very moving and heavily touching.

Following this point there will be spoilers.

The part where she is attacked and begins "dying", so to speak, was not particularly moving in that she got shot and is dying. This the authors (ie, Key?) probably realized, even though, yes, the death of a cute character like her is indeed sad. What made the entire scene so touching was her memories that she recalled. What's moreso about it is how throughout the entire visual novel, she mentions the concept of memory here and there, and at the very beginning only briefly mentions her holographic replay feature. It almost hits like a brick when they finally reveal the emotional link of her memories to her character. Yes, admittedly, when that part came, I had tears. I was not crying, but it could not be watched without some emotional movement within yourself. But alas, this is probably what makes the novel so great.

The little charm music, of course, helped. In fact, music was done VERY nicely to portray an appropriate mood in Planetarian. This novel is, indeed, a masterpiece as many have already said many times before, therefore, I need to blab you no further on it.

Instead I should be telling you about Sola, which is also a good anime, but for the time being I must finish up this obsession over planetarian.