Souya Kuroi has dreams of people with superpowers fighting a massive dragon in the sky, but his real life is almost as weird. He’s had amnesia for about two weeks and been taken in by a maid and an anthropomorphic cat. When a UFO in the shape of a stuffed bear approaches Sorimasaka City and other metros around the world, he’s startled to see seven rainbow-sparkling heroes zoom out to confront it – just like in his dream. Even weirder, the maid wants him to leave his shelter to confront these heroes and take the source of their power. – ANN
Streaming: Crunchyroll
Episodes: TBA
Source: Original
Episode 1 Summary: Souya Kuroi is living with amnesia, but seems relatively unaffected by it. Though his family might be dead (maybe?) and he doesn’t really know who he is, he doesn’t have enough of a memory to realize that he should be upset. He was taken in by a maid (“Ginko”) and a giant cat (“Sensei”) after his accident, so he’s got a place to stay and food to eat (though he’d prefer if there were more meat). School is fine, too, though he still has some trouble remembering his class rep’s name, and she seems to be pretty invested in his life so that creates lots of opportunity for embarrassment on his part. One day while Souya is just sitting around in math class, there’s an announcement about a UFO approaching the mainland; it turns out that it’s one of many horrifying bear-shaped aircraft that have appeared all over the planet. The world watches as a troupe of seven “superheroes” arrive out of nowhere to dispatch the “enemy” but Souya is given specific instructions from Ginko to leave the school building and, eventually, fight against those heroes. When he finally confronts one of the seven individuals, he joins with Sensei to become a powerful and strange fighting unit that’s bigger and stronger than either of them. When he obtains a pendant from the defeated “hero,” Souya’s memories begin to come back to him and they suggest some horrifying things.
Impressions: If the summary you just read sounds confusing and full of strange twists, turns, and even perhaps multiple genres, well, you don’t know the half of it (unless you’ve actually watched the episode already!). I think a lot about the traits that define a fascinating first episode of an anime and it’s very difficult to nail down many specific qualities; much of the success comes down to how well the elements are managed rather than what they actually are. It’s very easy to tell when an episode falls flat, because it’s often offensive in some way or aims for flash without substance. It might be obtuse for the sake of cultivating a nonexistent “mystery,” or misleadingly complex due to multiple unaddressed plot threads. I think some of the better opening episodes are those that feature interesting ideas and appear to have a road map in place to best explore them. This episode of Planet With has a lot going on, and the compelling bits aren’t necessarily what one might expect, but there seems to be some purpose to its construction and that alone bumps it from disastrous to intriguing.
To be honest, I think what initially fascinated me the most is that Souya is the obvious protagonist of this series (or at least he is so far), but his actions pit him against the people who might fit the more typical heroic framework in other series. There’s the sense that the seven tokusatsu-esque fighters who appear seemingly out of nowhere to attack the unidentified objects could be the heroes of their own story, one taking place parallel to the one we’re watching. In a typical series, we’d be rooting for the super sentai group, not watching a random amnesiac steal their powers after being swallowed by a giant cat. I do get more than a vague sense that this isn’t going to be a typical series, though.
We get a precious few moments of insight into the people Souya is pitted against, and to be honest they don’t really come across as adversarial. The character who gets some focus (and who Souya battles at the end of the episode) is a man who, prior to getting involved with this group of magically-armored warriors, became a firefighter. As a child he watched as his mother was unable to escape a house fire, and this inspired him to achieve that goal. Firefighters and other individuals who make their living rescuing others are those who we most frequently look up to as real-life heroes, individuals who put their lives on the line for the good of the general public. Our cultures honor that sort of selflessness without questioning it. This series, however, seems to question it, or at least posits that people with the best, most pure motivations may still become involved in something that is not for the greater good or which works against the goals of someone else whose idea of “good” is drastically different from the perceived norm. It’s an interesting puzzler and I do like it when my default beliefs are challenged.
The teddy bear UFOs, whose origins and goals are complete unknowns at this point, also don’t seem particularly malevolent (though they’re absolutely creepy and not something I’d want see floating in the sky above my town). It saddens but doesn’t surprise me that the immediate response from multiple parties is to initiate weaponized attacks against them. First the military intervenes unsuccessfully (it’s difficult to launch an attack when the adversary can turn missiles into cotton balls, honestly), and then the aforementioned group of mysterious people arrives. Members of both groups are drawn into illusory world that seem to calm them and make them uninterested in being aggressive any longer. The firefighter is even presented with a scenario in which his mother is rescued from the house fire and he gets a chance to say goodbye to her. It’s not out of the question that the UFO may have produced these illusions to induce docility in its targets and to make a future takeover easier, but of all the bad things it could have done I feel like this was pretty low on the intensity scale. Also, the object visually attempts to indicate that it’s peaceful, and while that could be a lie why just assume that it is? It just gives me more reason to suspect that this anime is not aiming to be your typical “good guys against bad guys” sort of story, but instead will likely be as complicated as it is strange.
I had a bunch of trouble writing about this episode, because it’s not an episode that allows one to make very many solid presumptions about what’s happening and why. It’s a bit disorienting. But at this early stage it also gives the impression that it’s prodding the viewer to question their own assumptions about story construction and heroism and perhaps a host of other things that are yet to come. This show wasn’t on my radar going into the season, but it’s definitely on my “watch more” list now.
Pros: It takes your assumptions and causes you to question them. The protagonist isn’t a typical hero and the adversaries might very well just be heroes of a different sort.
Cons: The first episode is disorienting.
Grade: B