Planetes Omnibus vol. 1

I consider it the crown jewel of Tokyopop’s publishing efforts.  Fans of “Sailor Moon,” “Fruits Basket,” “Love Hina,” or their many CLAMP titles may disagree, but that’s how I roll.  (Can I get a shout-out for “STONe?”  Anyone… Anyone… Bueller…)  One of the rare manga published here that manages to combine hard science with serious character drama and development, it kicks off with a gripping sequence that beat “Gravity” to the punch by over a decade.  It shows the devastating effect that the smallest of space debris can have on a commercial spacecraft before jumping to the present day of the title and showing how one of its survivors, Yuri, deals with the fallout.  Most of the first part of this omnibus deals with how the crew of the Toy Box, basically an outer-Earth-orbit garbage scow, deals with the unglamorous-yet-dangerous work of trash collecting in space as well as the more mundane bits of day-to-day life and survival in this harshest of environments.  No, it doesn’t have the grab-you-by-the-throat drama of mangaka Makoto Yukimura’s “Vinland Saga,” but it is a showcase for his immense talent with character building and attention to detail.  Not many other mangaka would think to build a fate-of-the-Earth scenario out of one character’s desire to have a smoke in space, let alone pull it off in gripping dramatic fashion.

These kinds of stories are great, along with the arc that dominates this volume’s middle part.  That would be Hachirota “Hachimaki” Hoshino’s quest to get on the crew of the first manned mission to Jupiter and how terrorism and love complicate it in ways you wouldn’t expect.  Hachi’s odyssey effectively makes him this volume’s protagonist, and while he has the skills to make it happen the real question becomes whether or not his head is in the right place.  This makes for a captivating struggle when he’s pitted against individuals who can see right through him — either due to their commitment to a cause or love — yet less so when he’s left to puzzle things out for himself and confront his own indecision.  That’s where this volume leaves off on and I can imagine some readers not feeling that compelled to see where Hachi’s journey ultimately takes him.  My memory says that it’s still a worthwhile journey, though I had forgotten how existential this series gets.  I could go back and read my old Tokyopop copies to refresh my opinion, but the best parts of the story from this omnibus edition — complete with brand-new color pages — were good enough to convince me that this is the version that I’ll want to have on my bookshelf.