Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet
- "Planetarian" redirects here, the word is also used to describe a member of the professional staff of a planetarium.
| Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet | |
 | |
| Genre | Sci-Fi, Drama |
|---|---|
| Video game | |
| Developer | Key |
| Publisher | Visual Art's, Kinetic Novel PROTOTYPE (Playstation 2) |
| Genre | Visual novel |
| Platform | Windows 98/Me/2000/XP Playstation 2 |
| Manga | |
| Written by | Yūichi Suzumoto |
| Published by | Visual Art's |
planetarian ~The Reverie of a Little Planet~ (planetarian ～ちいさなほしのゆめ～), is a post-apocalyptic visual novel. It was released on the internet in 2004 by Key, a Japanese software studio whose previous works include Kanon and AIR. It was later rereleased in April 28, 2006 on CD with full voice audio of the female lead. A limited edition version was sold for pre-orders and early buyers, in it included a 243-page book of short stories set in the world of planetarian and some included a bonus shitajiki. A Playstation 2 port, being published by PROTOTYPE, is also scheduled for July 2006.
Key defines planetarian as a "kinetic novel", since it offers no choices or alternate endings. Instead, the player only proceeds through the story just by reading. In that sense, planetarian, unlike Key's past works, is not a game.
planetarian is available on the Kinetic Novel website for download, which costs ¥1050. The CD version costs ¥2800. A group of fan translators translated the full work on the full download version, as well as a free trial, into English. No date on a updated patch for the CD version has been announced. A Chinese fan translation of the work is also available.
Plot summary
Template:Spoiler Due to the depletion of natural resources, overpopulation, and the failure of the Space Exploration Project, mankind has virtually eradicated itself through biological and nuclear warfare, turning a once prosperous civilization into complete ruin, cast in darkness and poisoned by constant rain from nuclear fallout. Thirty years later, machines manufactured during the war have taken over, continuing the bloodshed in a dystopic world, many of which are programmed to kill any remanent humans who trespass on their territory.
The protagonist is a middle-aged human soldier, living the life of a "Junker," scavenging useful items among the ruins to survive. He enters a derelict city searching for undamaged goods, and goes into hiding after fleeing from an encounter with mechs. Rather than retreat and resupply himself, he heads deeper into the ruins and enters an old abandoned planetarium. There, he meets a good-natured but extremely talkative female robot attendant named Reverie Planetarian (星野ゆめみ, "Hoshino Yumemi" in the original Japanese version), who offers to show him a special commemorative projection especially reserved for the 2,500,000th customer, although he is in fact the 2,497,290th customer. He learns that Reverie is slightly damaged and completely unaware of the changes that have occurred in the past thirty years, as all of the facilities and databases that she connects to all do not exist anymore. Therefore, she treats him like a regular guest by calling him "Okyaku-san" (Mr. Customer), speaks of the world as it was before the war, and fails to understand any information he tells her, other than things related to her job at the planetarium.
Despite his aggravation with her, he agrees to attend her show. However, the projector device, "Miss Jena," has broken down and is in need of repair. Curiously, he tries to repair it himself, and in the process, understands that the planetarium is not a military building but an amusement attraction, and that his arrival is of sheer coincidence, as the place runs on an old power generator somewhere in the city still giving minimal power, which is only enough to recharge Reverie to operate for just once a week every year. After Miss Jena was repaired enough to function mechanically, Reverie plugs herself in to start the show, and presents an amazing projection of the starry sky, something missing from the outside world because of the polluted skies. Unfortunately, the power finally goes out in the midst of the show, and Reverie proceeds through the rest of the event with no visuals.
Both of them eventually leave the planetarium, as Reverie insists on escorting her customer back to his vehicle outside the city walls. There, he spots a mech guarding the entrance in which he came from, and he tells Reverie to hide. Armed with only a handgun, he tries to take down the mech with armor piercing bullets, but is completely no match for the mech, breaking his right leg while evading its gunfire. Reverie dashes out and tries to block the mech from attacking, but before he can capitalize on the distraction and finish the mech off, Reverie is blown to pieces by its' machine guns. Irreperably damaged from the attack, she spends the last of her battery life replaying the past to him, praying to the stars and wishing to serve humans forever more before "dying" in front of him. Touched and completely shaken by the loss of the beautiful world she left in his mind, he throws away his gun and walks to his own demise.
The book
- "Constellations. Words. God. Robots. A collection of short stories in the key of these four themes."
- - from the frontmatter of the book
The book is a 243-page collection of four short stories set in the universe of planetarian, as well as a prologue and an epilogue. It was originally bundled with the limited edition of the CD version of planetarian, and is also being included in the limited edition of the Playstation 2 version of the same. Two of the stories presented fall before the events of the kinetic novel, and two of them happen in the aftermath.
Snow globe (雪圏球 (スノーグローブ))
This story occurs before the events of the Great War that brought the world to ruin; at this point, Reverie Planetarian has been working at the Flowercrest Department Store's rooftop planetarium for about 10 years. One day, Reverie begins to act strangely, culminating in her simply walking out and wandering around the town. All the staff of the planetarium are bewildered, and one of the workers — a woman named Satomi Kurahashi — is ordered to go follow Reverie and bring her back. Before long, Reverie begins to run out of battery power, and then...
Jerusalem (エルサレム)
This story occurs as the Great War reaches its height. The South American Unification Army receives reports of a rogue sniper operating deep in the jungles of Patagonia, and sends a platoon under the command of Master Sergeant Murdock to neutralize the threat. However, the entire platoon is killed off one by one by the sniper, until only Murdock is left. All alone, Murdock catches a glimpse of this mysterious sniper through his binoculars — and is shocked to find that he gazes upon the figure of a beautiful nun.
Homo Planetariens (星の人)
This story occurs some time after the events of the kinetic novel, as the human civilizations struggle in a losing battle against the poisonous rain. Three of the last inhabitants of a nearly-abandoned underground fallout shelter — named Levi, Ruth, and Job — find a quaint old man collapsed in the snow outside the bunker. When they bring him down, they are surprised to hear the adults of the shelter calling him "Homo Planetariens". The children grow quite interested about this strange nickname, as well as the fact that they have never seen a visitor from the outside world. The old man recovers a bit, and then has the children help him in putting together a certain device. It is only after this that the story that was begun in the kinetic novel comes full circle.
Tircis et Aminte (チルシスとアミント)
Tircis and Aminte, identical twins, study alone in a world all of their own. But then, suddenly, a thought comes to Tircis: "what am I studying for? How long will this go on?" This is the story of how the answer reveals itself to Tircis and Aminte.
Trivia
- planetarian is the first Key production not to use Itaru Hinoue as the artist.
- "Miss Jena" alludes to the Carl Zeiss company, a German manufacturer of optical instruments originally founded in Jena in 1846. More specifically, Miss Jena seems like a Zeiss Mk. 2 projector.
- The name "Hoshino Yumemi" itself is a pun — "hoshi" means star or planetary body; "no" is a possessive particle; "yume" is a dream or a reverie; "mi" means see.
- The Flowercrest Department Store, where Reverie works in, is based on the real Matsubishi Department Store of Hamamatsu, Shizuoka in Japan, though the planetarium on the rooftop is purely fictional.