Interest
Planet With Creator Satoshi Mizukami Answers Fan Questions
posted on by Kim Morrissy
Manga artist Satoshi Mizukami participated in the “Planet With Conclusion Celebration Event” at the Shinjuku LOFT/PLUS ONE on November 3. He was joined by Sayaka Harada, the voice actor of Nozomi Takamagahara; Shiori Izawa, the voice actor of Ginko Kuroi; Shonengahosha editor Takehiro Sumi; and surprise guest Atsushi Abe, the voice actor of Soya Kuroi.
Note: Spoilers for episodes 1-12 below.
The group watched another version of the final episode of Planet With, which is different from the TV/streaming version in the sound direction (contained as a bonus feature in the 2nd volume of BluRay Box). and offered live commentary, highlighting their favorite moments as they happened.
As the footage played, Mizukami answered the voice actors' questions about finer details regarding the episode. He explained that the electricity shown inside the dragon when Soya and the others dive inside is psychic energy. He also explained that the dragon is one of the People of Paradise who chose not to throw away their own flesh and stayed there. Over a long period of time, it transformed into its current form through psychic powers. Mizukami later showed off concept art of what the dragon looked like pre-transformation.
Although it was not their first time watching the episode, the serious and dramatic moments appeared to make a strong impact on the guests. During those moments, everyone went quiet to appreciate what was happening. When the final scene played, everyone smiled in relief at the happy ending. After Nozomi manages to locate Soya across space and time, Shiori Izawa exclaimed, “Nozo-san is the ultimate girlfriend!”
After the episode finished, Mizukami answered some fan questions that were submitted to him.
Q. Why is Soya fluent in Japanese when he is an alien?
A. That's explained in the greater detail in the manga, which I drew as a reference for the anime production. However, the things that I was able to go into greater detail there had to be cut from the anime due to its limited length. Anyway, there's no big story behind Soya's Japanese fluency. He memorized the language through hypnopedia - that is, a sleep learning apparatus.
Q. Is Takashi Ryuzoji dead?
A. Yep.
Q. What are the ages of all the characters?
A. In the first part of the story, Soya-kun and Nozo-san are in their second year of high school. Both of them are small for their age. Miu and Harumi are in their second year of university, so they're around 19 or 20 years old. After the time-skip, they're in the workforce. Nezuya-senpai's around 19. Yosuke and Benika are both in their mid-to-late-twenties. Torai-san is in his thirties. Ginko and Shiraishi-san's ages are both unknown. Their appearances hardly change at all during the time-skip. Soya and his brother are about four or five years apart. Sensei and Generalissimo are a few hundred years old, but in terms of human age and maturity, Sensei is in his late forties, while the Generalissimo is in his early fifties. They're not far apart and they both respect each other.
Q. Why can the Generalissimo only be understood with an interpreter? Also, how are the levels for telepaths decided?
A. There's a long explanation behind all of this, but to put it simply: I have no idea. I just put that in because it was interesting.
Q. Did Torai end up marrying the person he talked about in episode 1?
A. They get married during the five years between episode 10 and 11.
Q. Why was Sensei looking up the skirt of the Samidare figure in episode 1?
A. Academic interest.
Q. Is the lolita outfit that Ginko wears a sign of her royalty or just a personal quirk?
A. It's probably just her hobby. She may be a princess, but she's the kind of person who works a job. But on her planet, the attire is not really that unusual.
Q. In part 1 of episode 1, how was Soya able to notice the invasion? Was it because of his budding telepathic powers?
A. Maybe. I wasn't really going for foreshadowing there. Call it “protagonist's intuition.”
Q. What were Soya-kun and Nozo-san doing during the time-skip up to the final battle against the dragon? Also, we want to know about the episode of Soya's university entrance exams!
A. The second volume of the Blu-ray box includes a name (a manga artist's rough draft) entitled “Episode 10.5: Soya and Nozomi A Year Later” that I drew for a bonus feature, which covers that time. You gotta buy the Blu-ray box! Then you could know the answer.
Mizukami concluded the event by saying that he'll continue working on the manga as usual. Although the anime may be over, the manga will continue for a long time to come, so his work will be cut out for him. In time, there may be people who pick up the manga first and watch the anime to find out what happens next, so he'll continue working hard for those people.
Planet With premiered on July 8 on Tokyo MX. The series is available to watch on Crunchyroll outside Asia with English (US), Spanish, French, Portuguese, Arabic, Italian, Dutch, and Russian subtitles. More English information on Planet With is posted on the Bandai Namco Arts Official English Facebook page.
