“You’re not so foolish as to smile even after sacrificing someone, are you?”
With a whole planet made out of many tiny gears all connected to each other, this Spring 2017 season brought us the series based around this premise in Clockwork Planet. With the story mainly beginning after a black box crashes into our protagonist Miura Naoto house, he begins to fix the female automaton inside it. Unlocking this opens his path up in the world, to one filled with an abundance of questioning humanity and its existence in this mechanical world, political plots for power and the hidden secrets of those trying to fix and change the world.
Clockwork Planet brings with it quite a linear story line as Naoto is thrusted into the world that is made of different gears. This made the story throughout the season quite easy to follow, with little hints hear and there of the direction of where it wanted to go. This however, also came with a bunch of different roadblocks where it was up to Naoto and his comrades to fix the problem. A lot of this actually resulted in fighting, where the action scenes provided to be quite solid in the animation and spectacle.
Most of the other scenes focused around its characters, and their dialogue between each other. With Naoto’s comrades consisting of 4 automatons and a human genius (Marie Bell Breguet), it led to some intriguing moments behind their motives towards what they wanted. With Naoto and Marie mainly at the reigns it was nice too see the difference between types of geniuses, and their views towards what they wanted, as to what they received in trying to “change” or “affect” this mechanical world.
RyuZU Best Girl!
OP/ED: The OP was more of the standout here with fripSide taking the helm to start each episode. It was an energetic start with their eletronic tune and focus on animating the different characters in the story. The ED on the other hand focused on its energy within a rock based tune, and a focus in animations towards Naoto, Marie and the 2 automatons, RyuZu and AnchoR.
Clockwork Planet Was it Good?
There isn’t much to say when it comes down to it. Clockwork Planet isn’t a show for everyone, and doesn’t provide that “umph” factor to push it into the record books. However, it can be one of those small gems in a dozen which really does appeal to those who watch it. Filled with philosophical questions in a world based around man and machine, whilst being combined with a bit of action here and there, allowed for a solid anime series overall.
Recommendations: It’s hard to place where clockwork planet fits in comparison to other anime, on one side its has steam punk like elements, on the other futuristic. However, when it comes down to the overall pace, flow and genre’s (action) of the story, it does provide some highlights which match some already existing anime, thus I recommend the following:
- Machine-Doll wa Kizutsukanai
- Guilty Crown
- Toaru Kagaku no Railgun
Deirii Raifu 
Clockwork planet I reviewed weekly on my YouTube , was an experiment. I had my up and downs with the series in the end for me was not hole watch for me.
I agree this show is not for everyone, had a great premise for the story, loved the idea of a Steampunk feel the show was giving off. Just felt this series didn’t know what it was doing with itself. Episode 9 +10 were action packed a lot as well there was a good action presence throughout. But the rest of the time the rom com with naoto and ryuzu was used at the wrong moments. One minute we’re series then next moment we’re at the beach not worrying about the problem in front of us.
Clockwork planet had a good premise idea, fun engaging characters but felt like it was wasted a little the potential this series had. I’m going to read the light novel as that’s been recommended to me as being so different in little ways.
Agreed ryuzu best girl lol
Good review and like the recommendations 😊
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