Planetarian - General Discussion

Like a fine bottle of scotch whiskey, planetarian ages quite well, and the experience gets better with each sip

After having finished planetarian a fourth time, this time on Switch, this is the best way to state my thoughts on this. The more that I read this VN, the more that I appreciate what it has to give.

Seeing Yumemi’s actions in the planetarium feel like a dream; it’s as if every re-read I have is a reincarnation of her. I just can’t take out of my mind the sacrifice and love she had for the world at the end, and seeing her childlike innocence once again just melts my heart. With every silly quirk she shows, I can feel my heart being ripped apart, knowing full well the destiny in store for her.

The message of the novel also ages quite well. It’s about loving humanity, and about getting past our differences and working towards the unreachable cosmos. This is very much my dream in life, and it saddens me every time I see people arguing over politics and society. Why can’t we all just understand each other? Why can’t we all love each other? Why can’t we all work together and reach our hands to the stars? It is these questions I lament as I read this VN.

After all is said and done, this is all just fiction. But if people can learn from this story; learn to love and understand each other; that alone could make this world a better place. That is my reverie.

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First of all – general impressions. This is probably the best kinetic novel I’ve ever read. All of the Narcissu vns are fantastic, but this is something else. I can’t think of a vn that communicates so much in so short a time - it’s honestly really impressive. Yumemi is the best - she’s thoughtful, caring and so precious, and her death made me scream in sadness when I first read it. Interestingly I believe this is one of the few times in a Key vn where you cry out of sadness. While there are many scenarios in Key works that cause you to cry (such as the projection scene), generally the events that are happening aren’t fundamentally sad. Yumemi’s death is. It’s heart wrenching. Just initially seeing her body half destroyed is like taking an arrow through the heart. But even then, Yumemi is still happy that she could fulfil her duty, so it’s not entirely sad. The premise is also such a contrast to the majority of Key’s other novels (especially at the time it was written), but it still manages to stand up as one of Key’s greatest works. It’s also really approachable – every time I meet someone who likes anime or anything along those lines I tell them to watch/read planetarian as it’s so easy to get into and despite being released almost 15 years ago - it holds up extraordinarily well. I also believes that it manages to communicate what I believe is the essence of Key – hope. More specifically, I believe planetarian presents the idea that you have faith or religion then you will always have hope. Yumemi maintaining faith in humanity despite the events that have happened is just one example of that.

Next up – analysis. This isn’t the main thing I wanted to discuss with planetarian, but it’s something I feel should be pointed out. I’m still writing up my proper analysis.

@MagusVerborum has already been touched on how orange is a really effectively used colour that emphasises the themes and symbolism of planetarian due to its natural association with hope (among other things), but I thought I should draw attention to the others colours used to a similar extent. The main colours I want to cover are blue, red, green and grey.

First of all, let’s look at Yumemi’s design, which mainly consists of the colour blue with some elements of red. Blue has several possible meanings, darker blues are generally thought of as a colour of intellect, while lighter blues are generally quite calming colours. Since Yumemi’s hair is a light blue and her outfit is dark blue, she communicates both of these elements. Due to the way the colours are distributed in her design, Yumemi herself could be considered the calming figure, while her intellect could be representative of her knowledge of the stars. However, I believe the concept of her being a calming figure is more important. The use of light blue is really good design considering Yumemi’s role working in the planetarium - she’s meant to be an approachable figure, so it only makes sense that she’d calm people, but it’s also really good design when you consider planetarian’s religious elements. In Iconography, blue signifies concepts such as heaven, and the kingdom of God, which is really significant when you consider how she asks the God of robots to ‘not divide heaven in two’. Blue and red are also the two key colours that Jesus is generally referred to as wearing, so the fact that her design consists of those two base colours only furthers the idea that she’s the robot Christ. Now let’s discuss the significance the colour red on Yumemi. Red is typically associated with strong emotions, which I think is really important when you consider Yumemi’s nature as a machine. While she may be a robot, there’s no doubt in saying that she has very strong emotions and beliefs, which she expresses throughout the novel. One really nice detail about this is the fact the star on her skirt is red, and I think this is also the logo of the planetarium. It emphasises her strong love towards her job and the stars as well as Yumemi’s faith in humanity, which is something that Yumemi constantly comes back to refer to.

Next I want to discuss Yumemi’s ribbons. Her ribbons vary between orange, blue, red and green, with the most common colour being orange, but let’s consider the others as orange has already been discussed. The most prominent case of Yumemi’s ribbons being blue is during the projection scene. I find this really interesting since that scene emphasises the themes of hope represented in planetarian, especially considering she says lines such as ‘Mankind will be able to solve all of its problems…’ – so you might expect her lights to be orange to emphasise that sense of hope. I believe they’re blue to help convey Yumemi’s faith. While society may crumble and humanity may start to die, the stars will always be there, and will always be beautiful. That is one of the messages I believe the projection scene is trying to convey. I think the fact that blue is an incredibly prominent colour in that scene emphasises that message in general. It makes the Junker and the reader feel calm despite everything that’s happened in the world of planetarian. The contrast of a beauty that will never disappear and a world that is on the brink of death is what causes the Junker to have faith in the stars and become the star-teller. Blue is used to emphasise that stability and help to strengthen that faith. I also want to point out how Yumemi’s ribbons turn blue after the Junker tells her that the projector is repaired, just before rehearsing her ‘Why don’t you come to the planetarium’ speech. Every other time she’s done this, the colour of her ribbon is green. I believe this is the case because she now has a sense of calmness and relief which is not normally there when she’s practising.

Red appears when Yumemi is apologising or showing concern for the Junker, which emphasises her regret and worry due to the previously mentioned reasons. One of my favourite uses of this is when the Junker is about to leave and he mentions he might not make it back alive - her ribbons instantly turn red without even saying anything and it just conveys the concept that these ribbons represent her feelings so well. There are a lot of subtleties about Yumemi that are conveyed when considering this and it was really interesting skimming through the vn just looking for changes in colour at certain points.

Green is generally associated with concepts such as nature, tranquillity and good luck. There is also evidence to support that the sight of the colour green can relieve stress. Yumemi’s ribbons usually turn this colour when she’s doing something extremely simple or rehearsed (such as standing out in the rain rehearsing her lines, attempting to recommended/sell goods or answering simple questions). The only significant exception to this as far as I can tell is when there’s a projection happening. I think this can be considered Yumemi’s ‘neutral’ colour. Anytime this appears she’s doing something so natural that it doesn’t contain that much emotion. Not to say that these things aren’t important to her and that she doesn’t care about her basic everyday tasks, because she obviously does, but it’s more about the idea that she’s done these things countless times, so it comes naturally to her. I believe that green is used to emphasise the natural state that Yumemi is in while preforming those tasks, but I also think in terms of the context of her working at the planetarium it makes the most sense for that to be her normal colour. This is because similarly to blue, green is a colour that helps aid people and sends a reassuring message to anyone who sees it. It also serves to emphasise the fact that Yumemi hasn’t accepted the world in its current state. Since green is also associated with nature, it naturally contrasts with the ruined city, which Yumemi is not used to seeing. So despite the world she’s use to seeing being destroyed, she still acts natural, as shown by both her green ribbons and her overall character traits. I think it’s really clever how this single colour was used to merge so many different concepts - it really is a testament to the amount of detail in planetarian.

Now onto the final colour that I want to discuss - grey. Grey is quite a contrast to all these colours – grey objects are generally thought of as emotionless. Now when you look at every scene outside of the planetarium, everything is grey. The streets are grey, the city is grey even the sky is grey. It emphasises a world that has lost all emotion which serves in stark contrast to the world which Yumemi presents in the planetarium. It even emphasises the concept that the Fiddler Crab is a robot devoid of feeling, unlike Yumemi. This is quite a simple thing to do, but it is still very effectively used in my opinion.

In general, colour is skilfully used to emphasise feelings. The one other thing that I also considered when looking at all the use of colour in all the designs is the Junkers lack of a design. Since the symbolism of colour is so prominent, I can’t help but wonder if the Junker was not given a design because it might create a contrast between what the reader is feeling and what the Junker’s design makes you think you’re supposed to be feeling. This actually follows quite nicely into to the use of names in planetarian.

I think the Junker isn’t named for a similar reason to why he has no design, so he can be a blank slate for the reader to interpret. Names hold quite a lot of importance in planetarian. An example of this is ‘Jena’, which has a meaning a long the lines of ‘patience’ and ‘endurance’ in Sanskirt, which is significant considering Yumemi states that there was a 15 year period between Jena being used, so there’s a clear connection there. There’s the also the obvious case of ‘Hoshino Yumemi’ – Hoshino means ‘star’ and Yumemi means ‘having a dream’ (I can’t speak Japanease so please feel free to correct me), so it’s very appropriate Yumemi got that name. So if the Junker were to be given a name, he would lose that blank slate, he would have some meaning, which again could cause issues with how the reader perceives him. The anime can get away with this because events unfold through mostly a 3rd person perspective, so there’s less association with the character (unlike the visual novel which maintains a 1st person perspective throughout the majority of it). So basically, the vn has so many significant subtleties that it can’t superimpose anything onto the Junker (and thus onto the reader) except the basic scenario because otherwise there would be meaning behind it, which is what planetarian is trying to avoid with the junker specifically, or at least that’s what I believe.

Wow this turned out longer than I expected. :wtf:

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It happens :yahaha:

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A thing I picked up on immediately was the red, or rather, when I looked at it, I understood it as more of a pink. See, Yumemi can’t blush or the like since she’s a robot, but something on her oughta turn pink so we know when she’s flustered. What does, but her ribbons?

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That point about Yumemi blushing is really good, and I definitely think it plays into how the ribbons represent her emotions at specific points in the story.

As for whether you consider the ribbons red or pink at certain a time - I don’t think matters too much since the meanings of red and pink are very similar (because they’re similar colours), however, from what I can tell, pink is more associated with forms of love, while red isn’t specific to an emotion. It’s because of this why I personally consider red more fitting, since her ribbons change to that colour in very different situations (being flustered by the Junker, being concerned for the Junker etc…), so she’s expressing multiple different feeling with that colour. Although similarly to blue, pink is a calming colour, so that might play into why it’s used as well. But there are definitely arguments to be made for both colours.

So as I promised I’m writing another part to my analysis of Christian themes in planetarian. If you want to see the first one, it’s here. Of course, since this is religious stuff, I’m talking about my own beliefs as a Christian. So with out further ado, let’s get on with part two.


I’ve been thinking about Yumemi’s invitation a lot recently and how this is reflective of the Bible. JDC explored these concepts generally before but I want to be a little deeper with this and focus on some keywords. I originally was going to focus on one, but I eventually figured that these two relate deeply with the story of planetarian together. The two words are grace and faith.

The other day in my Japanese class we got to learn a bit about how to do calligraphy and because it was one of the available options, I chose to write this.


So this is grace (megumi) but I didn’t get to write faith. But anyways, in the Christian context, grace refers to something that is not deserved yet freely given. So this mostly, but not exclusively used to describe the salvation that we believe in because God gives it to us even though we didn’t deserve it because of our sin. The second part is faith which of course is basically just trusting, where in the Christian context it means to trust that God exists and has power to do the things he promised. One easy connector between the two ideas is from Ephesians 2:8-9, which says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Basically, it means that salvation is only attained by faith in Jesus, not by our own actions. Another way to put it is that God extended an invitation to us that if we take it and trust in it, we will be saved from sin.

So Yumemi throughout the story continues to invite people to the planetarium. As much as I would like to type it all out it probably isn’t necessary; you get the point. (Sidenote: Yumemi recites a full invitation seven times, which is God’s number. Don’t know if this is actually intentional but I also found that the number of tracks in each drama CD is also seven so hey…) Interestingly, the invitation is never directed at the Junker in particular but rather to anyone who is willing to listen. This is similar to how the salvation is extended to all in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

However, that’s only one aspect of grace present within the story. A much more fascinating part to me is how the Junker is counted as a special 2,500,000th customer when he really isn’t. While grace often refers to salvation, it also can refer to other gifts given from God because nothing good is really deserved by sinners except death, as shown in Romans 6:23, which says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” So getting back to the Junker’s special treatment, it really reminds me of a story Jesus tells in Luke 15:4-7. In this story, Jesus talks about a man who has 100 sheep who upon realizing one is lost, leaves the 99 to search for the lost one. After he finds the sheep, the man urges his friends to celebrate with him because he found his lost sheep. Jesus ends by saying that there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over the 99 righteous people who didn’t need it. In this same way, Yumemi doesn’t treat the previous visitors to the planetarium exactly specially. No others did she make a bouquet for or require a commemoration speech from. And heck, he wasn’t even the 2,500,000th customer yet he was still honored and celebrated as though he was.

Just as interesting, is the Junker’s response to all these examples of grace. In the beginning, the Junker is obviously irritated. He doesn’t even care about the difference of being the 2,500,000th customer. But in chapter 3, The Junker’s Reverie 1, his attitude starts to change little by little. As he intends on leaving, he thinks, “Although I said it gently so she would understand, I did not have the tolerance to stand her for much longer.” A little later the thinks, “These robots, without a scrap of malice in them, were treasures that had been destroyed along with the old world.” Finally, the chapter ends with Yumemi saying, “I will be awaiting your return with all my heart…” At which point the next chapter comedically begins with him back in the projection room. So he might not really have a particularly strong faith, he has to believe that there is something worth staying for.

So the way the Junker is transformed in faith is probably one of my favorite things in this story. The projection scene as we all know is pretty dang great. But once the commemorative projection starts, the power goes out. Yumemi doesn’t really know what to do but the Junker says, “Continue the projection. Your voice will be enough… If it is about the stars, then I will be able to see everything. Just from you speaking, I will know all of what it is that you want to show me.” Yumemi responds by saying, “You must really love the stars, Mr. Customer. I am truly honored to have you as a customer of our humble establishment.” This exchange is definitely one of my favorite interactions in the story. The Junker demonstrates his faith and trust in Yumemi. He is by this point completely accepting the gifts of grace he was given before, the first being in the planetarium itself and the second being the commemorative projection. And he is only able to do this by faith. He even thinks, “All of this coming from my mouth was nonsense. Even I didn’t understand why I was saying these things.” He acknowledges that realistically, it doesn’t make sense, but that’s not going to hold him back. While this faith may look blind, he truly does see what needs to be seen. Yumemi’s response reminds me of what Jesus says in John 20:25 where he says, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed,” in reference to his resurrection.

There’s finally one more instances of the Junker being transformed by his beliefs and faith. Right after Yumemi dies, the Junker has these thoughts in his mind. This entire final monologue is another of my favorite quotes from this story too. “I looked up at the sky that was stormy without end. And then, I dropped my grenade launcher into a puddle. I would not need such a thing, not where I was going. The Rain was still falling, even now. Her heart was secure next to mine. I began to walk. Where were the stars now? Where would I have to go in order to see them? I walked forth into this fractured world, yet my thoughts were forever of the sky.” The Junker doesn’t need to see the stars because he knows in his heart they’re there. He no longer needs a weapon because he doesn’t live merely to survive but to seek and tell of the stars. He continues to have faith in everything that Yumemi said and seeks to fulfill what she wanted to do. Again, his actions to an outsider, or maybe even to his past self, make absolutely no sense. But to him, who has seen what is truly out there, this is what needs to be done.

So I’ll end this with yet another passage that I think is really fitting, at least for me. Romans 8:24-25 says, “For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”

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For those of you who cant remember planetarian who want a recap of planetarian here it is:

Welcome to the Planetarian where you meet your new waifu, Yumemi. As all cute waifus do, nonsense is being said such as “Yes I am a little broken, uguu and a bunch of embarrassing lines from Yoshino himself.” After been given a beautifully made bouquet of flowers, you (the Junker) finally gets feed up from being told a spoiler from Summer Pockets resulting in a deal that if you fix Ms. Jena, Yumemi will call in people for the planetarian, thus avoiding conversation with her and resulting in less headaches.
Once your done you are rewarded with being branded an alcoholic and are given a docters cure being watching the presentation for the 25,000,000th person to arrive at the planetarian (this presentation being on Little Buster Memes.)
After this presentation its time to head to the Junkers Tesla Vehicle. Although the Junker can walk at a solid pace, your Robot Friend can’t walk faster than a Km/hr because if she does the bees will fly out from the bouquet of flowers.
Because Yumemi is so slow an enemy stand appears. This stand is the “Yumemi Killer 2000 Tears 2.0” and its ability is to make the reader cry everytime this scene happens. Because nobody wants to cry the reader combats the tears with “ORA ORA ORA” But you lose to the enemy stand shouting, Muda Muda MUDA!!!"
Suddenly before the reader starts to cry Yumemi uses her stand ability “Self Sacrifice” and her final lines are said, “Omae wa Mou Shinderu.” The enemy stand only has the ability to say, “NANI?!!” before the “Yumemi Killer 2000 Tears 2.0” gets shot to pieces. Thus the enemy stand does not make you cry.
In the end both you (the Junker) and Yumemi get a happily ever after eating a picnic next to the car in the RAIN

On a more serious Note:

Have any of you managed to finish planetaian without crying at the end?
Hopefully you enjoyed my recap of the story plantarian even if it wasnt true at all.

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All the same, there’s something to be said for how she replicates interacting with a human being to the point of having visual indicators for biological functions she doesn’t have, especially if a theme of Planetarian is humanity, and the humanity that a machine can have even in a very inhumane world.

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I was looking for some insight into anthropomorphism and found this:

Anthropomorphism ( https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/basics/anthropomorphism )
…Extreme examples of this type of behavior, however, are also linked to psychological issues and social concerns, such as an anxious attachment to objects that leads to hoarding, forcing wild animals to behave in unnatural ways for the sake of human entertainment, and social acceptance of androids (robots) that undermines the unique qualities and value of humans.

Well that’s an interesting view, considering that what we see in planetarian is a post apocalyptic world where human life and civilisation has been treated by humans as something only to be destroyed en masse and all but eradicated. I think the question of whether making or attempting to make robots as appealing and human-like as tech allows has the unintended consequence of devaluing human life is not one that Key were intending with this work, but nonetheless it does raise the interesting issue of whether anthropomorphism of robots is actually a desirable goal.

Of course, the dangerous robots in planetarian are distinctly non humanoid, strictly functional and without any regard or limitation to the “Three Laws of Robotics” unlike Yumemi.

So…on the other hand does anthropomorphism enable us to treat robots/AI with the same respect as we expect in purely human interactions, and maybe prevent the usual sci-fi nightmare scenario of runaway AI outpacing our ability to control it and seeking our destruction?

Well, we can otherwise just enjoy it as a wonderful short story!

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My interpretation was she did that because the Junker was the only person she’d seen in years, so to her it was a significant event, so she prepared everything she could to try and make the Junker tell other people about the planetarium and the stars after he left (and in many ways, that worked considering later events). In this case, I consider Yumemi’s grace as a means to build the Junkers faith - it’s those continuous acts of grace done by Yumemi that causes the Junker to gain faith in Yumemi, the stars and humanity despite everything he’s been through. It also emphasises how despite how cynical you are about the state of the world, or how doubtful you are about what might happen, you can still have faith in something. Examples of this are the previously mentioned case of the Junker gaining faith, but there’s also the case of Yumemi having faith in humanity despite everything around her.

Now this is something I’m quite curious about - If Yumemi has faith, which in a religious context means to believe in God and his actions, then which God is she having faith in? Because she mentions the God of robots on several occasions, generally asking him to not divide heaven in two, so one might consider that, but if she believes in humanity so much, then maybe her faith is in the God of humans and his power to allow humanity to redeem themselves. To be honest, I think it’s a bit of both - since she asks that heaven is not divided in two, then she must believe in both humanity and robots, so I think it naturally follows that she believes in both the relative Gods.

Only by using the skip button.

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It reminds me of something I always do when I depict robots in the things I work on:

A point I hit really hard is that AI and robots of that kind are, essentially, humanity’s children. Parents always want their children to be them, but better - they should know better, be more successful, not make the same mistakes, and always strive to go beyond what their parents were able to do.

In that regard, anthropomorphization of technology in the form of androids would make an effective statement of robots being humanity’s children, and it’s their hope that they could see future man through to a better life for the both of them, which of course, never panned out in Planetarian proper, but there’s the hope, that mankind could grow in concert with ever more advanced technology.

The dangerous robots being non-humanoid works with that too, y’know, if you consider those robots as being purely made for warfighting and thus are maybe only constructed to safeguard the future, not really to guide it or grow with it. They’re honed to a singular purpose, warfare, and drop anything that has nothing to do with that.

They come out as especially tragic viewed through this lens, too, since the apocalypse robbed even the war robots of their purpose if you think about it. With no future to safeguard and nothing to fight for, there’s nothing left but the fighting itself, so they’ll do it. Man failed machine, and so too can machine only fail man.

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So I have a bit of a strange answer to the question of who Yumemi is praying to. Now although we can basically see that Yumemi is supposed to essentially be a representation of Jesus, it’s not going to be fully accurate nor is it supposed to. So it can still be just that she prays to the God of robots because that’s just what she believes in. I would say that even though there isn’t exactly theological evidence for this, I believe that even in the real world the God of the Bible as well as the God of robots can be one in the same. My line of reasoning is that if I believe that God is the God of all creation, he is also the God of all knowledge and therefore all individual subjects. Then I can conclude that he’s also the God of robots, God of mathematics, accounting, biology, or whatever, as long as that is not his limitation. He created those things before humans discovered what those things actually were. So I guess I’d agree with you though I don’t think it’s in the same way haha.


@42Megabytings you brought up an interesting point. I was thinking specifically about how the Junker talks about the war robots as game that humans created to hunt. It’s distinctly different from humanoid robots like Yumemi who can be viewed more as human. Instead these war robots are just creatures and I mean, the point is that we shouldn’t actually need to care too much about them. Interestingly though, Yumemi does care for it in that she tried to communicate with it before it finally kills her. Although I guess, what else was she going to do?

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Another argument that could be made about that is that humanity is becoming more roboticized because of those efforts for improvement and perfection. If robots are used to symbolise the hope of humanity and it’s development then it follows that while robots become more human, humans become more robotic, until the balance between those two elements become blurred.

If we consider the Junker in the beginning of planetarian, he’s incredibly cold and tactical, similarly to how the Fidder Crab is shown at the end. He does everything he does all of this because of a basic urge to survive - he even came to the sarcophagus city to find more resources to survive. Because of the world the Junker lives in, he has lost a lot of his humanity to become robotic, because that’s what’s needed to survive against the robots, so I would say that Yumemi’s humanity is juxtaposed by the Junkers robotic nature, and throughout the novel Yumemi slowly returns it too him. A good example of the Junker’s humanity returning is during the end when he’s trying to destroy the Fiddler crab. During the beginning of the novel he emphasises how difficult it was to get into the city and describes everything he has to fend off. So it shows that the Junker was skilled enough to get through what for many others was a deadly situation. However, during that situation he had nothing to lose except his own life. However during the fight against the Fiddler Crab, he fails to take it out, fair enough he says it’s a 50/50 chance of hitting or missing, but in that scenario the most logical thing to do would be find another route. He doesn’t do that because his humanity makes him care about Yumemi, which leads him to go into combat with the Fiddler Crab. So in that regard, it could be said that faith restores humanity.

@cjlim2007 One of my original thoughts on the matter was that the God of Humanity created the God of Robots - as man created robot it would be only natural for the God of Humanity to create the God of Robots, so Yumemi might believe in the God of Humanity, thus allowing for belief in the God of Robots, but I do also like the case that you make. Considering that planetarian references Christianity specifically, and not another religion, it makes sense that as the Bible says there is only one God, then in the world of planetarian there is only one God as well, so your argument holds a lot of ground.

Also, while yes it’s not possible for Yumemi to be a fully accurate representation of Jesus, we could consider what aspect of her allowed her to become that figure. If there are two Gods, and Jesus is the son of the God of humanity, then it makes sense for Yumemi to be the daughter of the God of robots - but if there is only one God, then why does Yumemi symbolise Jesus? I mean yes there’s so much evidence which supports the idea of Yumemi being a Jesus figure, but in terms of the actual story, what made her like that? I would argue that considering her strong love and faith in humanity, it naturally follows that she would work to become as perfect as possible for humanity. Now whether you argue Jesus as a perfect figure or not is a different conversation entirely, but he’s still considered a figure that humanity should aim towards and should try to have the same values and beliefs as, so I think it naturally follows that if Yumemi only wants to help humanity and make them happy, then she would aim to gain those same values.

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See, me being non-religious I have a different take on this: that Yumemi is simply behaving with a childlike innocence and purity whereby she is not even able to recognise evil or the evil that men do because it hasn’t been programmed in. Just like a very young child can’t understand why an adult is trying to hurt them.

My suggestion of evidence is the lack of understanding Yumemi has about what’s happened to the city and the lack of people in it. Whereas in Abrahamic religion at least the recognition of and fight against sin in an effort to create an ideal order is fundamental to its existence.

When Yumemi confronts confronts the Fiddler Crab she’s treating it as a broken machine, not an evil entity. She tries to “turn it off”. So for me the religious subtext in planetarian is more allegoric than literal.

Of course I haven’t yet read the side stories so perhaps something there will instruct me why Yumemi philosophises about heaven. Naturally I also recognise that sci-fi is full of religious allegory from Star Wars and StarTrek to Bladerunner to the Battlestar Galactica Re-imagining.

It’s an interesting question to consider if AI can develop its own sense of ethics or something that has to be inbuilt by its creators, this to be considered from the Terminator series, in this case The Sarah Connor Chronicles:

https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1198&context=facsch_papers

The parallels between the case of trying to bring up a child, and to “bring up” an artificial intelligence, are in plain view in the series, “Sometimes they go bad. No one knows why,” could also be said of human children. And the creator of Skynet attributes the apocalypse that unfolds to the fact that his creation was insecure and frightened, and despite his efforts, he was unable to reassure it. As the story progresses, religion is brought into the picture explicitly: the machines, as they exist at that time, are said to be unable to appreciate art or commune with God. But the possibility is raised that these things can be learned.

If this can be accomplished, it is suggested, then the machines will not have to destroy us. “They will be us.”

Alright, just finished reading Planetarian on Switch.

To briefly outline my history with the novel, I read it initially with the old fan translation back in 2012-13, and then read it again when it released on Steam, and I now I finished my third read with the Switch version.

I took notes as I was reading so to make this easier for myself I’m going to provide a tl;dr, followed by longer explanations under 2 subheadings to segment my key points.

tl;dr Planetarian is great, don’t read it on the Switch.

  1. User-Interface (UI) and narrative integration.
    The standard PC version of Planetarian (PC Planetarian) is the version that I would recommend to anyone reading Planetarian for any given playthrough first time or not, and this mainly has to do with the UI changes in the Switch version (Switch Planetarian).

    I say this because the UI of PC Planetarian is an important part of the experience. What made PC Planetarian compelling from the get-go is it’s unique presentation of the dialogue and the scope in which you view the world. It challenges your expectations immediately by letting you know it is not a normal ‘visual novel’ experience. You view the world through an enclosed rectangle which you quickly find is significant because it reflects the main character’s view making you think he is probably wearing some kind of visor or goggles which is telling of the situation he finds himself in. In other words its not entirely safe for him to be walking around normally unprotected. It impacts his peripheral and overall vision. I liked this because it was clearly an intentional artistic choice for displaying the story through, it tells the reader plenty without having to explain through dialogue what is going on and why we have an unorthodox point of view (POV).

    While Switch Planetarian does maintain the same rectangular POV it takes up most of the screen and the purpose of the smaller enclosed view becomes much less apparent. Therefore I would make the argument that the original design choice became blurred in the transition to a new display format. It’s not a huge big deal, but I feel like the original UI was a clear artistic choice which is reinforced by the dialogue box.

    Moreover, the dialogue box in Switch Planetarian has been changed to accommodate the widescreen display of the tablet/TV screens. PC Planetarian opted for a large rectangular box which provided a constant stream of dialogue as the text played out with a smaller POV. Switch Planetarian keeps the dialogue within a smaller rectangle at the bottom of the screen much like a normal VN with a larger POV. Now I want to reiterate this is not a huge big deal but it once again shares the same hiccups as the change to the POV, in that it opts for a large field of view to give the reader more to look at. At first glance its not so bad, since the artwork of Planetarian is quite nice to look at, but I feel that this takes away from the purpose that its PC counterpart established. Specifically having a larger text-box using up most of the screen created the impression that the dialogue was more “diary-entry” like, and reinforced the more limited POV emphasising the view of the main character. This is particularly noticeable when you get the projection scene and the field of view drastically opens up when the Junker is using his imagination to vividly “see” the night sky in his head. I feel that this particular section was supposed to reiterate the limited view point to send a clear message to the reader how evocative the projection feels to the Junker.

    Essentially, Switch Planetarian gives you the same story, but PC Planetarian incorporates some deliberate artistic design choices which I feel is important to the narrative experience.

  2. Preservation of the Past
    I wanted to add more to the discourse with input that has not been extensively discussed yet, but so much ground has already been covered so instead of delving into the content of the story, I want to give my input on a particular theme that I enjoyed from reading this novel again for the third time.

    Consider that that one thing that Yumemi provides to the Junker as a parting gift is a memory card.

    I feel that this is an interesting point to dive into because it emphasises the importance of preserving the past in order to learn from it without allowing things to be destroyed. Often in the present day we find instances of things we experience in the past either being no longer accessible or completely extinct. This is because they were recorded on degradable material which are eventually lost with the passing of time.

    These are things which tend to disappoint us deeply because we want to pass it on to the next generation but do not have ways to preserve things we once had. Some examples of this can be seen with things such as old video tapes on VHS with movies (Famously Star Wars), and copies of old video games no longer in print, or even with closing of online servers making content on the internet permanently inaccessible.

    I feel like preservation of the past plays an integral role in the story of Planetarian. Yumemi very much represented to me the desire to preserve the once good things we had in the past in order to pass it on to the next generation or as many people as possible. People or in this case, the Junker may forget the joys of things such as the night sky, but if there exists something to remind us that these things did exist then its enough to bring a sense of intrinsic joy. It’s easy for us to make mistakes and feel like everything sucks because the current climate of our life is troublesome, but the past teaches you that there is is a silver lining. Destruction brings despair, but your memories of times gone by are often the only thing that gives you solace in life during hard times.

The moral of the story is: Save often, and hold on to your memory card.

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So Yumemi’s model number is SCR5000Si/FLCapelⅡ. This stands for:

S - references to the company/factory where she was made
Companion
Robot
type 5000
Standalone intelligence
/Female Little
CapelⅡ - Capel is a name derived from Karel Čapek, the Czech writer known for popularizing the word ‘robot’

Source Tweet


Suzumoto has actually thrown out a ton of stuff on Twitter in the last two years (pretty funny as he was completely off the grid for several years prior to 2016) so I might as well go over some more.

He’s talked about how Yumemi is quite heavy, as one might expect a metal human to be. This is why the Junker can’t really to help her up when she falls over. https://twitter.com/SuzumotoYuuichi/status/784634711750676480

I couldn’t find the tweet for this one, but I remember him talking about how Yumemi is mostly built with her upper body in mind, and her lower body is pretty shit. She’s only intended to move short distances on a flat floor and similar.

He points out that Yumemi’s ribbon turns yellow when she’s trying to access the main database. She has multiple different yellow ribbons though, so I think it’s only referring to the one with the barcode going around. https://twitter.com/SuzumotoYuuichi/status/784620993570570244

Here he makes a brief remark on how a robot under the rule of the three laws can be seen as a slave, but also a perfect human. Extra Credit talked about this too, and it’s not an uncommon idea. Someone who puts others ahead of themself like a robot does might just be a good, selfless person.

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Okay here’s my main post that I was planning on doing from the start:

planetarian may be short, but it has so much meaning with the amount of subtle details it implements. The themes of hope through religion are prominent throughout this story and it’s amazing how subtly it’s woven in. One thing that I don’t think people generally realise is how well the music is crafted in the novel. Not just from the perspective of it suiting the mood of its relative scene or being nice to listen to, but from a thematic and symbolic point of view as well. While yes there are quite apparent cases of planetarian’s music being quite thematic to the story (such as the use of Hoshi No Sekai and the motif used in Hoshi Meguri no Uta), but those are far from the only cases. Every piece in planetarian has meaning, and is constructed to emphasise certain plot points and concepts. In that regard, it’s probably one of the best visual novel soundtracks ever. I’m going to be covering each track used in the vn in order:

Hoshi No Sekai: This piece has the obvious religious symbolism due to the piece’s melody originating from ‘We have a friend in Jesus’. So with that said, let’s consider the instrumentation. This uses bell like sounds for both lines within the piece. This sound is often associated with stars due to its very clear sound, but this type of sound is also associated with other feelings such as hope. Many visual novels usually contain a music box version of the theme using this type of instrumentation, such as Rewrite which has a music box version of ‘Philosophiz’, or Air which has music box version of ‘Tori no Uta’ called ‘Hane’. These versions are usually used to emphasise dramatic, significant or thematic moments of visual novels. If we consider this piece the ‘music box’ theme of planetarian, then this emphasises the importance of Yumemi’s opening and how her asking people to come to the planetarium plays into a very significant theme of the visual novel. Obviously this is clear throughout, but this opening foreshadows this immediately due to the ‘music box factor’, which when combined with the melody of ‘We have a friend in Jesus’ only causes the themes of faith and religion to become emphasised. Now one could argue that music box pieces are usually based of vocal tracks, and aren’t usually as high pitched as this piece, which is valid, but I believe the generally principle still holds due to the bell like instrumentation. Another aspect of the music box element is the mechanical nature of it. While in turn a music box is a piece of technology, it also produces a natural sound – it’s not synthesised or anything along those lines, but the instrument is still very mechanical, and very fragile. This is a really interesting thing to note when considering Yumemi and how she acts as a robot, but I’ll talk a bit more about this later. There’s also the contrast with the other pieces. This high pitched bell like instrumentation is only used in two other pieces, A Winter’s Tale and Itsukushimi Fukaki. I’ll discuss the significance of this later when approaching these pieces, but this instrumentation is very thematic and helps to emphasise certain elements and concepts later. I also want to mention how it’s reasons like this that I believe the original planetarian OST is better than the anime’s, because while the anime focuses on a theme and variation of this piece and Hoshi Meguri no Uta, it doesn’t use instrumentation to its advantage too much. Take the animes opening scene – it uses a very techno sounding synth instead of this track, and while yes it does emphasise that Yumemi is a robot, it doesn’t convey anything about the hopeful themes in planetarian, and there’s not much in the anime that does that, which is my biggest issue with its soundtrack.

Hoshi Meguri no Uta (Honkey Tonk): One thing to note about this piece is how certain notes change in pitch after being played, causing them to be a tiny bit out of tune, hence the subtitle ‘Honky Tonk’, which refers to a Honky Tonk Piano. Now what’s interesting about this is how you consider the creation of a Honky tonk piano. Honky tonks can be created by either having a normal piano naturally go out of tune over time, or by taking a normal piano and making it go out of tune by force. This has the clear relation to Yumemi and how she’s ‘a little broken’ and infers two potential things. 1. She naturally broke down over time, or 2. She chose to be broken. Personally, I think Yumemi suffered a bit of both of these things. I believe that with no-one visiting the planetarium for years caused her to mentally break down as she couldn’t accept that people wouldn’t come and see her. As a coping mechanism, she chose to believe that there was something wrong with how she was processing information, and thus denying the reality around her. She chose to be broken to avoid the harsh true around her. This piece also acts to contrast the situation when the Junker first meets Yumemi, where he almost kills her – it acts as comedic relief to show that the situation isn’t as dire as it could be originally perceived. Another thing to note is how this is the first piece you hear when the Junker meets Yumemi, so it naturally follows that this is how the Junker initially perceives Yumemi during their first encounter. This is also the first piece where the melody of Hoshi Meguri no Uta is presented to the listener, so it introduces the motif used in many other pieces.

Hoshi Meguri no Uta (Metronome): This piece is used in quite generic scenes where the Junker and Yumemi are conversing. I believe the use of the subtitle ‘Metronome’ refers to ones awareness of the constant passing of time. This could be referring to how the Junker is aware of the amount of time that he’s losing due to not having enough rations to keep staying with Yumemi, but it could also refer to the passing of time with knowledge that Yumemi is soon going to lose all power. Either way, this emphasises how both Yumemi and the Junker have a limit to the amount of time they can stay in the city.

Ame to Robot/Rain and Robot: Unlike most of the other pieces used around Yumemi, this piece doesn’t contain the motif in Hoshi Meguri no Uta. One potential reason for this is during all the other times the motif is used, the Junker and Yumemi are inside the planetarium, while this plays while they converse at the entrance of the planetarium. Unfortunately ‘A Winter’s Tale’ plays later when Yumemi is walking with Junker outside in the rain, so that theory doesn’t hold through the entire novel. Now onto the actual piece: The instruments presented at the start are constantly changing in pitch. There are two parts, one part holds long notes in the bass (which has subtle changes in pitch at random intervals), and another part has lots of high notes (that change pitch during fixed intervals of time). I believe these represent the forces or the wind and rain respectively. This is due to the name of the piece (Rain and Robot) making the context to that representation fit, and also the scenario. This piece only plays when the Junker is at the entrance of the planetarium and not in it, so this music is used to emphasise the conditions of the world outside of the planetarium.

Hoshi Meguri no Uta (Winters Tale): First of all, bit of an interesting fact about this piece for all you musicians out there – this piece has a time signature of 5/4. Now, onto the actual significance of this piece. First of all let’s consider the subtitle, ‘Winter’s Tale’. Why does this piece have this title? It’s never clear when in the year the visual novel takes place so it might be hinting at that. But if we consider potential religious symbolism again, then it might be referring to the birth of Christ, which is typically told as a winter’s tale due to Christmas Holidays. Let’s consider when this piece is used. When this piece is first used, Yumemi discusses her praying to the God of Robots and the concept of heaven. The second time it’s used, Yumemi has finished her projection and the Junker is reminiscing about the time her spent in a refugee camp. One thing to note is how during that scene he says ‘I think it was on a late midwinter’ – so there’s one potential title link. The third time, she’s walking with the Junker outside in the rain, and she mentions praying to God again and that heaven should not be divided in two. In terms of the subtitle, one could easily say it’s called ‘Winters Tale’ because of the Junkers memories, however, I don’t think that’s entirely it. As shown in Ame to Robot, the placement of music in planetarian is very specific, so why not use another track for when Yumemi is talking about God and heaven? I have two potential reasons for this, both of which feed into one another. The first is that this music is used to convey Yumemi’s beliefs. The naturally holds for the case where she’s talking about God and heaven, but it also holds when you consider that it’s also used straight after the projection scene. At this point, the Junker is reminiscing about his past and his mother looking up at the sky and the stars. This is quite a happy memory, which contrasts all the other memories the Junker has had in the novel. This emphasises that Yumemi’s beliefs about humanity and the world have reached him, and so the music is used to convey that. Some of the techniques in this piece reflect that as well. The bells imitate the main melodic part, which can be interpreted as the melody echoing into the distance, or someone gaining the properties of the melody (in this case, the Junker gaining Yumemi’s beliefs. Now for the actual name – if we consider all these things, the ‘Winter’s Tale’ could refer to the tale of how the stargazer began to exist, and the moments this piece is used in represents the pivotal moments that starts to put that seed of thought into his mind. Plus the bells once again emphasise the idea of the stars and hope, which is what the star teller wants to show the world.

Gentle Jena: Oh this piece. This piece. Originally when looking at Gentle Jena, there wasn’t much I had to consider. It’s a simple, nice, beautiful piece with instrumentation that emphasises the beauty of the world and stars. It’s simple, quite minimal in parts, and has a singable melody line. It’s used to convey Yumemi’s beliefs similarly to A Winter’s Tale but in the context of the stars. Then I tried playing a reduced version of this for fun on a piano (with chords instead of a moving bass line), and I realised something really obvious. This piece essentially acts as planetarians hymn. Unlike Hoshi No Sekai, which is based on a literal hymn, Gentle Jena is a unique composition, but it has a lot of hymn styled properties. The chord progressions are very classically written - the melody line has quite a bit of classical ornamentation, there are very classically prepared dissonances which also resolve as they should, and the melody is very memorable and singable. I honestly wish I had access to an organ just to see how much of a hymn this piece truly feels like. Now if we consider the context of how this piece is used, that has several implications. Hymns were originally written to convey and strengthen beliefs, so the entire projection scene conveys Yumemi’s belief in the stars and humanity, so it very much is used in the same context as a hymn. I also believe this is one of the main reasons why this theme is commonly used when representing planetarian, and not ‘Hoshi Meguri no Uta’. It is a song that is meant to make others believe, and thus is naturally used a lot to spread that belief. Why is this used in the title screen and not Hoshi No Sekai or a piece with the motif? Because the VN wants you to remember the projection scene. I think many of us can agree that the projection scene is one, if not the most memorable scene in planetarian, and that’s the only time this piece is used, so every time you listen to this track, you will naturally associate it with the projection scene and the beliefs and hopes Yumemi presented in it. In that respect, this is probably the most important track in planetarian because not only does it represent Yumemi conveying concepts of hope to the Junker, but also the reader – it’s trying to make the reader believe in humanity and the stars – and it’s absolutely fantastic.

Human Warrior: This piece contrasts the previous pieces a lot due to instrumentation. While isn’t used in the VN, it is used in the anime during the fight against the Fiddler Crab. When I mentioned the music box back in Hoshi No Sekai, I mentioned how it’s significant to Yumemi, and it’s because of the nature of what the different sounds are trying to achieve in planetarian. For the most part, planetarians soundtrack is comprised of synthesised instruments that try to replicate a natural instrument. However this piece is in a completely electronic style – there aren’t any conventional instruments that can make equivalent sounds to what this piece is producing. I believe this use of instruments symbolises the contrast in emotion of the robots. Yumemi has a wide variety of expressions and can convey many feelings, which is expressed through all the different instruments. The Fiddler Crab can’t, it is programmed to kill and nothing else, and this piece of music is stylised to emphasise that concept. This piece also contrasts the rest of the soundtrack significantly. It isn’t written to convey a ‘good’ feeling either, unlike the rest of the soundtrack. It’s written to make you feel tense, to remind you of what the world is like and how there will always be something to fear. The title could also refer to the Junker since he’s having to fight off a lot of machine, and the electronic style could emphasise his cold tactical nature.This could be one of the reasons it was left out of the VN, because as I mentioned in a previous post, during the fight against the fiddler crab, the Junker has something to live for, causing him to be less tactical than what he previously was, all because of Yumemi.

Mattaki Hito/Perfect Human: This plays when Yumemi dies and we start bawling our eyes out in tears. This is also the one time where we truly see Yumemi as a machine due to her entire lower body being basically torn off. This is significant because of the way the different parts are written. There isn’t much of a melody, it’s mainly different harmonies changing, but there are very sparse moments where a few short high notes are played. These sparse lines are symbolic of Yumemi being broken/of her slowly dying, as they can be interpreted as the sparks of electricity leaving her as she starts to fail. The long held notes are akin to what you find in a requiem mass, and it once again has very classical chord progressions – this is Yumemi’s death song, it’s written so that the reader can mourn over her, which only makes it so that the next piece has a greater impact on the reader. Now as for the title, ‘Perfect Human’ – this title is quite a strange one given the context of the situation. The only thing I think it could be referring to how Yumemi is perceived throughout her life, because while she may be a robot, she was very human – so despite that contrast in nature, she still behaved like a human in many ways, and I think it’s the idea that she was able to maintain that identity until her death. Again, this piece is written so you can mourn over Yumemi, so it makes sense that the title is reflective of how Yumemi is perceived as a person.

Itsukushimi Fukaki/Deep Affection: This is the ‘reprise’ of Hoshi No Sekai. Now, here’s one of the biggest things to consider with this piece. Is it a sad piece? All the chords fit with the traditional version of this piece, so it should be no sadder with the exception of instrumentation. It’s by no means ‘happy’ either. What it is, is hopeful. Let’s consider when this piece starts playing, it’s when Yumemi is talking about the stars, and heaven and humanity. Obviously the clear relation to the opening is a good enough reason to bring it back, but it’s more than that. While similarly to Perfect Human, this piece uses long sustained notes, and is used in the context of a death, the notes generally ascend in pitch, which could be representing Yumemi’s ascending to heaven to live and help humanity. This piece symbolises that even in death there is hope. Personally, when I listen to this piece, I believe that everything is going to be okay. This is significant when you consider the original material. The title, ‘Deep Affection’ emphasises that even in death, Yumemi still holds onto all of her beliefs and faith. This piece, and it’s entire scenario emphasises the concept of faith, more specifically, the faith in life that Yumemi believes in, and the novel aims to convey that to the reader by using this piece.

Hoshi Meguri no Uta/The Star Circling Song: This piece was originally composed by Kenji Miyazawa in the early 1900’s and has been used in a lot of works. The entire piece (lyrics, melody and chord progressions) are taken directly from the original version of the piece. I think the fact that both the motifs used in the VN are taken from very old pieces is something to note. It could represent how one should not forget the past despite how much the world may have changed, which is something also presented by Yumemi, since she is essentially stuck in the past - not acknowledging how the world has changed. The lyrics of this piece focus on describing the different constellations in the sky. This piece is also used in the credits to signify the end of the story, however it’s possible that this song actually foreshadows some of the later events in the world of planetarian. One could naturally think that it’s Yumemi singing this song, given how it’s describing the stars and how that was one of the focuses in the story, however, there is the possibility that what we’re hearing is the Junker, after he becomes the stargazer. If we consider the fact that in terms of story, it makes no sense that what we’re hearing is Yumemi, since she is shown dead at the end of the story. While it could just be symbolic of how Yumemi’s beliefs are echoing through the Junkers head at the end of the novel, it’s entirely possible that this theme becomes the theme of the Junker post planetarian. So what does this mean for all the other pieces that use this theme? Well what they symbolise doesn’t actually change that much, it’s just the context which is affected. Honky Tonk could refer to the Junker originally being confused about the nature of Yumemi, or the Junker himself being a bit broken due to the loss of his humanity, Metronome could still refer to the Junker knowing how time is running out for him and Yumemi, and a Winters Tale symbolises the star tellers tale beginning, most of which were mentioned in their relative section. So the motif used in this piece can be interpreted as either representing elements of Yumemi, the Junker, or even both. All in all though, this piece emphasises the hope which Planetarian presents throughout since similarly to the last two piece, even though Yumemi has died, her hopes and dreams are still persevered.

So that covers all of the tracks used in the visual novel and anime. But there’s still one more piece I want to address…

Gentle Jena Extended: While not actually appearing in the VN, this piece actually has a lot of connotations. Normally what would happen is you read the VN, find the soundtrack and realise ‘there’s an extended version of Gentle Jena?! I need to listen to this!’ By this point you would have finished the VN. If we consider all these points, this piece can be considered an epilogue of the VN. So how is this significant or symbolic? Well for starters, in contrast to the original gentle Jena, which is a very minimalistic piece in terms of texture, this version is much grander. It has a lot of instrumentation, the most in the entire soundtrack actually. I think this is symbolic of more people believing in Yumemi’s dreams. Again, if we consider Gentle Jena a hymn, it makes sense to believe that as more people sing the hymn, the parts change, or more parts are introduced, and if this piece is an epilogue to planetarian, and the junker becomes a stargazer, it naturally follows that more people start to sing the hymn of the stars. There’s also the context of how this piece is labelled within the soundtrack. Most unused pieces in a visual novel usually get labelled as ‘Unused track’, or they have a specific label attached to them (e.g. Little Busters Jumper Vers), but this piece is called the extended version, while in reality the feel of the piece as well as instruments used are so different that it’s weird that it’s called that. It could have been labelled something else besides extended, so why was it labelled that? To me, it’s called extended because it’s what the Gentle Jena grows into, it adds more voices into each verse to represent the idea that Yumemi’s beliefs are being passed on, and this is actually symbolic of the reader. If you looked up planetarian’s soundtrack, you must have liked it a lot, and considering that the entire story mainly focuses on Yumemi, it only makes sense that if one liked it a lot, one would want to share her beliefs, so by looking up the soundtrack you’re actually become a part of what this song represents, a collective group of people that want Yumemi’s dreams to become reality. So even though she may be dead, that message is continuously passed on after the novel ends, and it will keep on being passed on so long as there are people who love planetarian and Yumemi.

So that’s every single piece in planetarian – I was only able to look at the music this in depth because of the main thing I was working on for this bookclub – a planetarian arrangement album. For more details go and check out my post in Key Music Fan Covers

EDIT 1: cjlim’s reply made me think more about this and I’ve added more to the ‘Human Warrior section’

EDIT 2: Forgot to hide a minor Hoshi no Hito spoiler

EDIT 3: Added some more details in regard to stuff talked about on the podcast, and I also did a similar analysis on the Planetarian - Hoshi no Hito Discussion

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Wow… just… dang. This is such a good post. I super agree with you that there is just so much to gain from analyzing the music and I’m glad you could do that because I don’t know who else actually can. I want to point out one more thing to supplement your analysis which is that the soundtrack never plays if Yumemi isn’t there… with one exception, but we’ll get to that later. Yumemi has to be present for the soundtrack to play. When the Junker first enters, there is no music before he opens the door. When Yumemi is practicing her invitation while the Junker is repairing the projector, there is no music. No music plays when the Junker talks about entering the city or in his dreams, nor does music play as he readies his grenade launcher for the mech or during the actual battle. Finally at the very end, we get the last few tracks and Itsukushimi Fukaki plays as she recites her final invitation to the planetarium. When Yumemi dies, the track still plays. This is the only exception which may not be an exception if we consider that Yumemi is still alive and still present in the Junker’s heart.

Actually now that I’m thinking about it… this is reminding me a little bit about Jesus’ Great Commission at the end of the gospel of Matthew. I’ll probably talk about this more later but here’s just one thing I’ll say about it. Matthew 28:18-20 says the following, “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’” The first and last part of the quotation is sometimes kinda ignored but I think those are super important, especially the last part. As Yumemi tells the Junker to take her memory card, it’s like she’s emphasizing that she will always be along side him. She may not be charging him to go and tell of the stars but it seems as though he fully intends on doing so anyways. And the reason I think this is because of the music and how it continues despite her body being powered off.

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Yep, yep, absolutely agree with you there, it emphasises the contrast between the colourless, destroyed world and the world of faith and hope that Yumemi presents, which is full of expression and emotion. I think the use of music at the very end is also representative of the Junker finally being able to maintain that expression without Yumemi anymore, as well as symbolic of how Yumemi is still in the Junker’s heart.

If I have bad grammar at sections apologies, its 12:54 at night at the moment for me and I am a slow writer and have been writing this for 2 hours now after a 9 hour day at Uni (3 hours break in there,) Enjoy.

Not so much discussion material but though I might as well mention why planetarian is so important to me.
So for years (at least 5 years) i have been wanting to get good at things like drawing and other things but motivation was always an issue. I would spend 30 minutes drawing something or trying to practice a piece that was not for my music exams for 20 minutes and within those times i would generally always give up. There were exceptions but were very seldom. Anyway this was happening for a very long period of time and i would just spend my free time playing videos games or reading manga just anything to fill the time. I wasn’t doing it because I was depressed or anything its just because it was stuff I liked doing. Think of me as Tomoya as that described me pretty well.

Anyway around 9 months ago I got Clannad during the steam summer sales. (Clannad [Anime] actually being the 1st or 2nd most important media that changed my personality, planetarian being the other 1st or 2nd, maybe ill mention why in the future.) I got Clannad on sale that i had been wanting for a considerable amount of time but never got because until that year I only got around $300AUD a year (from Christmas and Birthdays around $200USD) and couldn’t justify the $80AUDish that it would cost as that would be nearly a third of my yearly income until last year. Anyway I got Clannad and that got me into reading reading visual novels and thus I bought every key visual novel on steam at once (except Little Busters whcih I got later.) The first out of those visual novels I played was planetarian.

If you exclude Doki Doki Literature Club, which I didn’t like, planetarian would be the first visual novel I had read without knowing what the story was as i had already seen the Clannad Anime and thus that wasn’t really new. On top of the fact that planetarian was the “first” visual novel I had played it also had some really old windows 98 like interface which was the operating system from my first computer which gave back lots of nostalgic memories. These two things are just the beginning impressions I had of the game.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the Atmosphere of the game at the beginning with the friendly banter between the Junker and Yumemi and even the interesting war backstory but it was only good nothing exceptional, at least until chapter 4.

Just for a recap of the begging of chapter 4 its where Yumemi is standing in the office room exit/entrance door calling for people to come to the planetarian. What really impressed me was how this scene was executed. The only thing you see at the beginning was the office room and the rain outside with the sound of rain. After just a few bits of dialogue, Yumemi shows up on screen and at the same time “Rain and the Robot” starts to play. This is when i thought that this game may end up in the masterpiece category. As Idiology mentioned earlier, I had the same thoughts about how the timbre used represents the force and wind which sound quite a lot like raindrops falling on the metal roofs for all the high pitchs and the even the echo on some of the lower notes which is how big pieces of metal react to rain. Also the high pitches are a lot more common and with slightly different pitches which symbolises the randomness of raindrops but the variation in the pitchs for the lower notes are much less random as you would expect as they are lower down and have more shelter. However in stead of just using timbre really close to what you would expect for water falling on metal it has a more of a xylophone sound. It still sounds like water hitting metal but it also sounds like “hmm” falling stars maybe? This is a nice symbolic of how Yumemi’s presence changes the atmosphere towards the stars. When does this music come in effect? That’s right as soon as Yumemi appears on the screen and her presence is known. THIS SCENE IS EXPERTLY EXECUTED. This scene was so good my impression of the story flipped from, Meh to Masterpiece. The golden takufumi award has been given.

Next of course is the entire repairing Jena and the projection but ill do my analysis of that when I type my religious thoughts of planetarian so ill just skip to my reaction to the scene after the build up. So as I mentioned at the very beginning i had motivation problems however the entire time Jena was being repaired it somehow felt like i was the one repairing Jena. I can’t explain a logical reason why it felt like that for me but i can say props to the writer. Either way once the projection started the work which i felt like i did, had such an impact that the payoff was insanely worth it. Either way since then I have had motivation to spend all this time on study on not mandatory work and have even drawn over 12 hours in a single day which before was impossible. If anytime I start losing motivation I just boot up planetarian the “Gentle Gena” sound plays and suddenly i have motivation pretty cool.

The next major scene is the one which is what causes floods inside your house and I have read planetarian 3 times now (My second play-through was the first game I played as soon as I got a good computer [Surface Book 2] and my third was at 1 in the morning for the switch release.) No matter how many times I read this last scene tears result and I am someone who does not get emotional about anything as it is insanely rare to get me to cry but this scene hits you hard.
Yumemi who you have spent your last few days with is pretty much the only selfless person you have probably experienced in your life, who also showed you the stars and has does not judge you but rather thinks she is wrong not someone else, goes and sacrificed herself for just the purpose of saving you from harm, humans own creation to cause others harm. I’ll ignore the religious stuff here as most of it is really easy to understand but ill mention a few things. If you kill someone, you’ll have inner turmoil at your actions and if you keep sinning you end up completely warping your soul, resulting in psychopaths who don’t even feel emotions from killing and have closed themselves off to reason and away from God. If the start of the war is sin the later punishment that ensued being the rain, as the rain closes off reason it thus obstructs the truth. The truth about what? The truth about the stars.

Either-way all the reasons listed above, including more reasons such as; environmental, religious, etc, on top of only being a 3 hour read (4:20 if on auto) has so many things packed that this game must be a masterpiece. As someone who things about this game daily which has only ever happened for over 6 months three other times really makes this game special, along with how this game has given me the skill of perseverance and motivates me really makes this game special.

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