Anime

Planet With Episode 3 Review: Are You Sirius and the Allure of Friendship

Quick Summary of Planet With Episode 3

In Planet With episode 3, “Avenger 1,” Souya Kuroi narrowly escapes with Sensei and Ginko Kuroi after Takashi Ryuuzouji himself, the leader of the Grand Paladin, nearly destroyed all three of them. Later, in a dream, he sees the leaders of the two Nebula factions arguing, and a suspicious character seems to be a confidant of the Sealing Faction’s leader — and that doesn’t bode well for our heroes! At Ginko’s urging, Souya goes back to school and becomes an unwilling member of the Occult Club, but he is surprised to find that he’s beginning to make friends. Then another Nebula weapon attacks and threatens the peace he’s begun to hope for!

Note: This post may include spoilers, so be cautious.

What’s in This Post

Interested in the Sensei mech?

"Sensei"actionFigure [Planet With] /

“Sensei”actionFigure [Planet With]

—> Don’t live in Japan? Here’re some tips on buying from CD Japan! <—

3 Favorite Moments from Planet With Episode 3

Souya has recovered most of his memories — and he remembers that those wielding the dragon’s power had destroyed his world! Now he’s out for revenge. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.

Moment 1

What did you think about Souya’s bold declaration regarding why he was determined to fight Grand Paladin (2:25)? Even though he was surrounded by all of the members of Grand Paladin, he stood his ground, declaring that he was no invader and that he would oppose anyone who “uses the power of the dragon that destroyed my planet…” The reference to the dragon seemed confuse the humans surrounding Souya, but did you notice the reaction from Takashi, the leader of the Grand Paladin? He was more confused by Souya claiming to be an avenger. That was an interesting reaction… Especially when Souya said later that he felt the dragon aura most strongly from Takashi (5:29)!

See her glasses just to Sensei’s left? What is she doing with the two Nebula factions? Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.

Moment 2

Remember the scene that that was framed as Souya’s dream? The scene where the leaders of the two Nebula factions were arguing over what to do next? Why is Kogane Shiraishi, Takashi’s secretary/administrative assistant, doing as the confidant of the Sealing Faction (8:49)? Unless I’m mistaken (which happens more than I care to admit!), she was the one who told the leader of the Sealing Faction that it was time to wrap up the meeting. Though the camera angle kept her in shadow, we get to see her rectangular eye-glasses reflecting the light (8:56). The Sealing Faction are creating the Nebula Weapons. Kogane is advising Grand Paladin on how to destroy the Nebula Weapons. The Sealing Faction wants the Pacifist Faction to give up on Earth… I sense complex politics afoot! Oh, and even in the dream, Souya doesn’t get to eat meat…

Souya seemed at a loss after Seigi Nezuya offered to be his friend. I think without realizing it, he had started feeling lonely! Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.

Moment 3

Remember how I live for little character moments? Well, as characters moments go, this one was subdued, but it was a bona fide character moment nonetheless! Nozomi Takamagahara had just introduced Souya to the Occult Club president and a graduated member of the club, Seigi Nezuya. You might have recognized the latter as a member of Grand Paladin. The scene strongly reinforced just how pleasant and supportive this little club is, and you could see Souya’s doubts about joining slow dissipating. Toward the end of the scene, after Seigi learned that Souya had suffered from amnesia, he offered to be Souya’s friend. Souya seemed genuinely touched and taken aback (16:05). After regaining his memories near the end of last episode, his entire focus had been on avenging his dead friends. Now, he seemed, if only for a moment, to remember that there was more to life that vengeance and violence. I think I actually caught a note of longing in his voice!  

Thoughts about Planet With Episode 3

We learned some important parts of Souya’s back story (7:14): He’s from the Sirius planetary system, which appears to have fallen to the dragon that Souya saw in his dreams in the first episode. He watched as not only his close friends died, but as his entire world fell. Sensei feels responsible because he had been fighting to keep Sirius’ inhabitants from being Sealed, but instead of evolving in the direction of love (as the Pacifist Faction had hoped), they had perished in a conflict.

We also learned a little more about Grand Paladin’s leader. It looks like Takashi is actually a human who’s learning to use the dragon’s power (whatever that is — but I’m confident Planet With will tell us when it’s the right time!). So, his eyes aren’t cat-eyes, they’re dragon eyes. His mech, too, looks dragon-like. I wonder if he will continue to transform as he uses the power? Does the same fate that befell Sirius await Earth if Sensei fails to confiscate all of the dragon power?  

If Takashi continues using the dragon’s power, will he trigger the same destruction that befell the Sirius system? Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.

Not only that, but we got a capsule summary of the leaders of the Sealing and the Pacifist Factions’ positions. They’re so diametrically opposed that you could say they fight like cats and dogs… Sorry, I couldn’t resist! (That will make a lot more sense if you saw the episode. At least, I hope it will!)

The disjointed facts that the first episode hurled at us have begun to come together into a complex story. We’re seeing a narrative involving multiple planetary systems, races with opposing agendas, and an unsuspecting Earth caught in the middle. And we’re only up to episode 3!

Best of all, though, are the characters, Souya in particular. He’s not just fanatically devoted to avenging his friends. He has moments of doubt, as we could see from his reaction when Seigi called him a friend. Even later when he was talking to Ginko, he indicated that after his revenge was complete, he would like to settle down on Earth. I just love that kind of depth of character, when you can see various desires at odds within a single person! Don’t you?

What do you think of Souya’s back story? What were your favorite moments? Let me know in the comments!

Other Posts about Planet With Episode 3

Other Anime Sites

This Site (Crow’s World of Anime!)

tcrow
Copyright 2022 Terrance A. Crow. All rights reserved.
https://www.crowsworldofanime.com

10 thoughts on “Planet With Episode 3 Review: Are You Sirius and the Allure of Friendship

  1. I somehow understood that Souya didn’t lose his memories; he just used amnesia as an excuse not to talk about his past.

    There is some very deep political commentary going on here. Many would cheer for the fire to go out of people’s eyes and for ambition to disappear. Many would cheer for having a strong man dictator leading us to do his bidding. These might seem opposite poles, but they are both expressions of individuals tiring of individuality and longing to have all the difficult decisions made for them.

    The end result could be 1984. Or alternatively, PsychoPass. Or Brave New World. Maybe the plantations of DarliFranxx – with or without Klaxosaurs and aliens.

    1. “are both expressions of individuals tiring of individuality…”

      I can’t count the number of times I’ve run into that lately. People I grew up with, whose parents I knew taught them better, throwing their lot in with someone… Well…

      Making decisions is hard. Processing facts is hard. Maybe the allure of story-time will be our downfall. Press the right cultural and tribal buttons to invoke the ancient APIs.

      I’ve spent a lifetime trying to learn how to learn; trying to understand how to understand. This is now where I thought we’d be!

      So instead of letting myself think too much about that, I’ll fixate on your mention of the aliens. And Darling in the FRANXX had been doing so well up to that point!

        1. It reminds me of takt op.Destiny in that way. A show moving from potential to actual — moving from what I see in my imagination that it could be to what the show actually does — is sometimes disappointing. I liked where this show ended up, but it wasn’t where I hoped it would. If that makes sense.

  2. I liked your Moment 2 as well, and think that we don’t really know what the Sealing faction is even trying to do. We know that they’re trying to make Earthlings stay on Earth, but we don’t know what the mechanism for that is. It’s possible that Shiraishi is with the Sealing faction and has given Takashi the power of the dragon so that the humans can prove that they’ll be power-hungry and untrustworthy, so that the Sealing Faction has the “evidence” they need to back up their actions.

    1. I think that theory has merit! It has a kinda Dune vibe to it — plans within plans. I’m really looking forward to how this plays out. It’s been awhile since a show generated this many questions — with the hope of getting real answers within the show!

    1. That’s one of the big reasons I’m enjoying this so much! The other reason? The craziness is actually making sense! The writer’s weaving a coherent story amid the insanity. How cool’s that?

Please let me know what you think!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.