Anime

Planet With Episode 6 Review: Origin of the Dragon and As Useful as This Clog

Quick Summary of Planet With Episode 6

In Planet With episode 6, “Paladin Break 2,” Souya Kuroi and Sensei finish their fight against the old man Takezou Ryuuzouji, who gracefully surrenders his dragon vial after his defeat. He also asks Souya to relay a message to his son. Meanwhile, his son Takashi Ryuuzouji continues to battle Kogane Shiraishi and the Generalissimo. The latter decides to punt the problem back to Sensei. That tactic puts Souya, Sensei, and Ginko Kuroi decidedly in harm’s way — along with the rest of the city. And the residents, including Nozomi Takamagahara, can only watch in terrified awe as the battle rages above them.

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

What’s in This Post

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"Sensei"actionFigure [Planet With] /

“Sensei”actionFigure [Planet With]

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3 Favorite Moments from Planet With Episode 6

Even as Kogane and the Generalissimo fought Takashi, the Generalissimo tried to figure out how Takashi had become the dragon — the dragon that had been a weapon of the Sealing Faction! Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.

Moment 1

The dragon was part of Nebula Sealing Faction’s forces (9:15)? Did you see that coming? I didn’t — I figured the dragon was an external force acting on its own. But no! It was a weapon that had been in the Sealing Faction’s arsenal. In the Generalissimo’s words, “Its own sense of justice compelled it to destroy the warlike Siriusian race without authorization…” Wow! Realizing the weapon was out of control, they tried to seal it away “via space time banishment.” But Takashi’s aura was just the same as his dragon, and every bit as indicative, his sense of justice was also identical. So somehow, the dragon that had been sealed away found a way out. Seems like the Sealing Faction is guilty of inter-galactic war crimes! 

So Sensei has to swallow Souya for him to board, but Ginko gets to just jump in gracefully? How is that fair to Souya? Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.

Moment 2

What do you get get when you fuse physical humor and overwhelming adorability? You get Ginko’s entry into the Sensei cockpit (12:08)! The tone as she said “Excuse me!” was just too cute! Souya’s surprise that two people could fit was a realistic touch. On one hand, I think he was grateful for Sensei’s idea of fighting with the energy of two people against the dragon. After all, it wasn’t too long ago that he fought Harumi Kumashiro in dragon form, and they barely won. Souya is well aware that Takashi is even stronger! On the other hand, I could almost hear him wondering why he had to let Sensei swallow him to board, while Ginkgo got to gracefully jump up and float down through the ceiling. Talk about unfair!

I don’t care how strong Takashi is. Getting pounded in the face with a steel clog would have to hurt! Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.

Moment 3

Souya’s fight against Takashi was one of the series’ highlights (at least so far!). The escalating wills and power levels were a delight to watch. It was among the most exciting mech battles I’ve had the privilege to see. The music, the animation, the voice acting, the characters, even the themes… everything just came to together! But as amazing as it was, it was Souya’s clog attack that rose to the level of favorite moment (19:46). When the camera showed Souya running with only one clog, I figured he’d lost it when Sensei crashed. Nope! He’d used it as brass knuckles for his newly christened “Clog Punch” that finally finished Takashi. Souya’s determination was so satisfying to see! His endurance wasn’t bad, either. That was a long fight!  

Thoughts about Planet With Episode 6

Kudos to the sound team — again — for an amazing episode. Excuse a moment of fanboi-ing here, but I thought everything about this episode was amazing! So for something like the sound to stick out as even more amazing? That’s just, well, amazing…

Time to hit the thesaurus, I guess!

This show… The narrative has a way of building momentum with small ideas, then unleashing them as emotional gut-punches. I admire that in a writer. It’s hard to do without being obvious (making it too clear what’s coming) or weak (not making it clear enough so the punch fails to land). I’d like to illustrate what I’m trying to say with two examples from this episode of Planet With.  

Here’s a dad who put himself in harm’s way, just so he could be there if his son needed him. As a dad, how can I not be affected by that? Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.

Remember in episode 5 when Takezou said he stayed with Grand Paladin just to support his son? That prepared the plot for Takezou’s request of Souya: “Take that power away from him. Without the power to force his justice on others, he might go back to being the kind boy he was. Being able to endure the unfairness of the world and still remain kind of a more noble thing than justice” (11:21).

Here was a father who put himself in the path of danger just so he’d be in position to help his son when the time came. That deepened our emotional attachment to the father/son pair. We can no longer just see Takashi as the leader of Grand Paladin or the chief wielder of the dragon power. We now see him as a son who used to be kind and who had stuck up for those weaker than he was.

I think you can probably see where this is going.

After the battle, Souya originally garbled Takezou’s message so badly that Takashi, flat on his back, complained that it was too vague. Souya tried again and said, “He says kindness is best.”

Takashi wore an astonished expression that dissolved into a sad smile (20:43). He said, “Maybe he’s right.” 

Takashi’s shock at his father’s reminder about the value of kindness gave way to a sad smile. He admitted his father was probably right — with his dying breath. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.

Souya tried to question Takashi, but the man was silent, his face ashen. Do you remember Souya’s expression when he saw that Takashi was dead (21:10)? The slow realization that he’d just killed someone played out over his face, and it was only in retrospect that I realized I’d held my breath. The scene was so beautifully rendered that it completely removed me from the time stream into an instant of pure suspended disbelief. The show had completely pulled me into a fictional moment. 

That’s the kind of impact art can have. That’s the reason I watch anime.

The only “problem” I have with this episode isn’t really a problem — it’s a reflection of the skill with which the writer (Satoshi Mizukami, I think?) has crafted the plot. I have no idea where the story’s going from here! But you know what? I have complete faith it’ll be somewhere interesting and satisfying.

What did you think of the ending? What were your favorite moments? Let me know in the comments!

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7 thoughts on “Planet With Episode 6 Review: Origin of the Dragon and As Useful as This Clog

    1. That’s my take on it, too. I think that’s why I like Planet With so much! Not that I dislike Gundam, especially the Witch from Mercury. But something like Planet With is more my style.

  1. This was a really good episode, especially for a fighting episode. I’m usually not on board with fighting shows, but this one is keeping it interesting by not just having fight after fight go the same way. And it’s also keeping it interesting by cutting out half the fights: Souya didn’t have to fight Benika or Yousuke at all, and the fight with Takezou took the form of just a one-strike samurai fight.

    The show is definitely setting up the Sealing Faction as the more morally ‘flexible’, thoughtless, and careless faction. The dragon was their fault. They “sealed” it into some other dimension, with a “Well, of course that’ll get rid of it.” (Like those shows where they discover a “New” source of limitless energy that is in reality depleting somewhere else). And then when they couldn’t handle the fight that they themselves set up, they punted it over to the Sensei crew. And in leaving the dirty work to them, they pushed the pain and shame of having killed someone to Souya.

    And well, Ginko can fly, Souya can’t, so of course she can do other things that Souya can’t do.

    1. I think you raise a good point about how the fights play out. Especially in longer running series, at least the ones I’ve seen, the fights do follow a formula and feels repetitious. Here, each fight’s played out, in part according to the skills and personality of whoever’s fighting. I’ve been enjoying that without really thinking about it. Thanks for pointing it out!

      “Like those shows where they discover a “New” source of limitless energy that is in reality depleting somewhere else”

      *cough* Stargate Atlantis *cough*

      I wasn’t kidding when I said I thought the Sealing Faction is guilty of war crimes. Where I come from, destroying an entire race and their civilization is strong frowned upon!

      I’m excited to see where the plot goes from here!

      1. “*cough* Stargate Atlantis *cough*”

        Or Darling in the FranXX
        or Vividred Operation
        or Cross Ange
        or Dimension W…

        And those are just the anime I’ve watched and can think of right now.

        1. Yeah, I probably should have gone with anime references. I was listening to Rush when I responded, and it put me in a nostalgic mood!

          The reveal in Cross Ange was really something!

Please let me know what you think!

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