I finished the series PLANETES, by Bandai Entertainment. This series is unfortunately not available on Netflix at present, but a very cool librarian colleague helped me out. It seems one of our patrons checked out this title via ILL from Fort Worth Public Library and returned it to us well in advance of the due date. My colleague let me take home the DVDs "off the books", so I crammed in viewing the whole series over a few days and a long weekend.
Above pictured, main characters "Hachimaki" and Ai Tanabe, Hachi's eventual love interest. He is her Sempai (senior) at work originally, and at first they don't particularly like or understand each other, but they become attracted to one another over time. Ai is incredibly naive and idealistic, while Hatchi is pretty hardboiled and cynical. They both work for a strong chief named Fee, who is voiced by Wendy Lee, aka the voice of Faye Valentine from Cowboy Beebop.
This is a science fiction story, but it's set in the near future rather than far future. The space technologies used are believable extrapolations from existing technology. The story depicts outer space accurately, with no sound traveling in a vacuum, etc, only the communications chatter over the radio, etc, and the sounds of the astronauts' breathing inside their space suits.
The basic story behind PLANETES is that in the near future, Earth orbit becomes so clustered with space debris, i.e. junk, that the accumulated junk of the passing decades becomes a genuine hazard to space travel and space development, requiring removal and destruction by contracted, private clean-up crews, to which Hachi and Ai are both assigned. Space is regulated by a UN-like organization known as I.N.T.O. (pronounced "In-Tow"), or Inter-National Treaty Organization. I.N.T.O. behaves more aggressively and militaristically than the UN we know in our world.
PLANETES theorizes that humans will develop space as a way to replace diminishing fossil fuels; the Moon becomes an unexpected motherload of new energy resources and Moon bases and even a few Lunar cities are established, and there is a limited human presence on Mars as well. The next big leap into space will be a manned mission to Jupiter, again in search of further natural resources to exploit for human energy needs.
Like the fictional world of Firefly and Serenity, there are no space aliens, just us humans, exploring within our solar system (though in Firefly and Serenity there does seem to be FTL interstellar travel possible)...
PLANETES makes note that the division between rich and poor nations only gets worse with the expansion of Space exploration and development. Those nations with access to Outer Space gain the greatest economic benefits, while those that do not fall further and further behind. Japan and the United States are in the forefront, while more backward Middle Eastern and South American nations struggle to keep up.
Ai Tanabe and Hachi work in the Debris Section of the Technora corporation. They are treated with disrespect because other workers at Technora regard them as over-glorified "garbage men", but the reality is their job is vital to keeping space safe, especially after some very high profile accidents that claim many lives, including a space plane accident that killed the wife of Yuri Mikhailov, one of Hatchi's crewmates in Debris Section.
PLANETES is slow going at first and most of the action/tension centers on the inherent dangers of working in outer space, though later the terrorist threat, intertwined with the planned Jupiter mission become intertwined as the main drivers of the plot. Tanabe grows in skill as an astronaut and develops more fully as a person, thanks in part to Hatchi's efforts. In spite of his gruff nature, Tanabe starts to fall in love with Hatchi. Hatchi begins to see Tanabe in a new light as well, though he is often torn and at odds with himself. Torn between his ambitions as an astronaut and his desire for a romantic relationship with Tanabe. Besides being thoughtless and insensitive most of the time, later on he's sometimes outright cold and cruel to Tanabe, even after they start dating.
Most of what drives PLANETES is the characters and their life histories and inter-relationships with each other. A lot of the story is told in flashback, with past histories yielding light on present events. Ai Tanabe is at first a very annoying character, and one can almost sympathize with Hatchimaki's exasperation with her at first. Every character gets their moment in the sun as the focus of at least one episode, even the cool, seemingly apathetic temp worker Ms. Edel, who turns out to have a rather dark past that she struggled hard to overcome.
PLANETES is not for everyone. If you want a hard-hitting Space Mecha epic, this is not your story. If you want encounters with Space aliens, try one of Bandai's other titles, like STELLVIA.
If you have the patience for a slower but well-told anime story, and can feel empathy for these characters, your viewing efforts will be richly rewarded.