Look, amigo, you’re either Planet With me or without me. So which is it? 

— I always hate it when mediocre or bad shows skip the OP, ’cause it means I’ll have one or two minutes more of nonsense to suffer through.

— The Dragon jeers, “Do you think you can defeat me?” I mean, it’s been done before… so yeah, I think they do think they can.

— I don’t understand why Kogane needs such a ridiculous bodysuit when both Soya and Ginko can pilot their mecha in their everyday outfits. For the most part, Planet With‘s been good about not sexing up its characters. Kogane’s just the exception, I guess (and that brief nude scene with Benika).

— Wow, thanks for letting me know, buddy.

— As soon as the Dragon gets close to the giant cat spaceship, the latter suddenly spins and splits up into a bunch of tinier, animal-themed ships. Everyone then proceeds to grab onto the Dragon and guide it into a hole that leads to subspace. We’ll just banish him again! And uh, it’ll be for good this time, we swear! Y’see, it was a miracle that he survived last time, and miracles don’t happen twice.

— In a last ditch effort to continue its legacy of black-and-white justice, the Dragon forces Soya to relive the last moments of his home planet’s destruction. This is an attempt to reawaken the hate in the kid’s heart, I guess, and in doing so, the Dragon hopes that Soya will become the his heir? But it’s kinda silly, because Soya isn’t insane. You’d have to be in order to go from “Ugh, I hate you for destroying my planet” to “I’m going to carry out your twisted form of justice for the rest of my life!” This isn’t a tactic that even feels like it will remotely work.

— So Soya easily rejects the Dragon’s legacy and delivers the final punch that hurtles the giant space creature into subspace. It’s now time for everyone to escape safely, so you know what this means. Someone’s going to fall behind, so our hero’s gonna have to save them. As a result of his heroics, he’ll be trapped in subspace with the dragon. This stuff is so predictable that it writes itself.

— And true to form, the former members of the Grand Paladins prioritized everyone else’s escape, so they might not make it out of the hole by themselves. Soya takes one glance at both Ginko and Sensei and immediately jumps into action. The predictable happens, and everyone’s in tears. Oh no, we have three casualties! Look how torn up the dog is over its cat buddy. Of course, I suspect Nozomi will continue to believe in Soya no matter what, so she won’t think that he’s dead.

— Looking at the episode’s remaining runtime, there’s still over ten minutes left, so suffice it to say, our trio will be just fine.

— Trapped in subspace with the Dragon, Soya decides to head deep into the creature’s belly. After all, the Dragon part is really just an individual’s psychic armor.

— Eventually, they come upon what looks like an ancient city (probably the People of Paradise’s last home before they decided to shed their corporeal form), and in the middle of this lost, dead city sits the original Azrabarakura.

— Since this series is all about love and forgiveness, Ginko proceeds to thank Azrabarakura. Why? Because the Dragon did technically save her home planet all those years ago. I guess the idea here is that if you look hard enough, even evil individuals like the Dragon can have their good sides. In real life, however, I wouldn’t suggest you try looking too hard. With enough time effort on your side, I’m sure you could redeem even evil men like Hitler or Stalin, but we don’t really have that luxury. For some individuals, this takes far too much energy to be worthwhile. But for a happy-go-lucky anime series, knock yourself out! Sure, the Dragon has its good side! Mm-hmmm.

— Right before Azrabarakura accepts his inevitable demise (at least from his corporeal existence), he recalls a memory of his childhood spent on Earth. So, uh, I guess there’s that.

— With the mission finally accomplished, the People of Paradise show up one last time to hold up their end of the bargain. The guy will help Soya and company escape from subspace. Something about karma, because our hero is dumped right outside his home planet.

— It looks barren and all that, but our heroes happens to land at the exact right location to spot a tiny flower somehow managing to thrive despite the odds. Look, it’s all symbolic and shit, okay? If you try to think about it too much, it won’t make sense, but symbolically, it feels good. Just tell yourself that life finds a way.

— And thanks to Nozomi’s super-mega-duper telepathic powers, she was able to lead the rest of the gang straight to Soya. And… well, that’s it. No aftermath or anything. No “And then I married Nozomi and lived happily ever after on Earth.” The show just ends.

— So what did we learn from this series? Love and peace, I guess. Look, Planet With is a competently made show, but story-wise, it just doesn’t have anything all that compelling to offer. There isn’t much substance in the plot, and likewise, the ending doesn’t have much heft to it. For me, the series just came and went, leaving almost no impressions. It’s something I might accidentally stumble upon in a couple years when I randomly go through the blog’s archives and go, “Oh yeah, I did watch that show… wait, what was it about again?” Love and peace, man. And always forgive.

Final grade: C-