Space, the final frontier. The vast unknown, the only realm that still remains mostly unexplored by modern man is a popular subject for various aspects of popular culture. Space is a popular subject, and the setting is ingrained in television and movies from the famous Star Trek and Star Wars franchises to slews of TV shows ranging from obscure to slightly less obscure in today’s popular culture.
Anime is certainly no exception as the science fiction/space setting pervades the medium. Whether space plays a small part in the story or is actually the focus of a show, it is a well ingratiated setting. Take Cowboy Bebop and Outlaw Star for example. While these shows are mostly about the episodic exploits of their motley crews, they both involve planet hopping across the universe on their adventures.
Space opera is no stranger to space as its name suggests, but the foundation for that genre is a focus on politics and militaristic themes. And you know what? It’s actually more interesting than it sounds.
Mecha shows generally favor the space setting, the most prominent franchises being Gundam and Macross. Mecha and space are familiar bedfellows and go together like peanut butter and jelly. We really don’t think twice that space is usually the setting of choice as angst ridden teens continually find new ways to hop into the military’s finest mecha to do battle with masked ace pilots, massive alien threats, their brainwashed father/brother/mentor/hairdresser, or whatever it is the writers choose for them to fight for one reason or another. In fact I think you’d be more hard pressed to find mecha shows that take place solely on Earth with no space travel. It just seems more natural for mecha to be in space.
Perhaps space is such a popular setting because it’s mysterious. There’s nothing left on Earth to truly explore except the ocean, and to be honest, there’s nothing appealing about that unless you’re a marine biologist. We already know what’s there; Fish, coral reefs, a lot of volcanos and a whole bunch of boring. On the other hand, the ocean of stars has fascinated mankind since ancient times because of its mystery and majesty. There lies the possibility for infinite exploration and creative imagination. Space usually lends its services to serious shows like mecha and space opera among other things, but it can also be used for comedies like this season’s thus far unintentionally(?) comedic Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo.
I would bet my Star Wars action figure collection, except for Boba Fett, that wish fulfillment also plays a big part in why space is so popular. We will never conceivably leave the Earth in our lifetime, but it is inevitable that humans will eventually want to colonize other systems for a variety of reasons. Adventure and the desire to explore mankind’s final frontier is an obvious reason for wanting to go to space. Another popular reason is that we all know in the back of our minds that the Earth can’t sustain our exponentially growing population forever, and we may leave the Earth to expand our pool of resources — Worst case scenario is that the Earth becomes totally unlivable for one reason or another. I digress though, this is not an environmentalist article, and I’ll try to curb my inherent pessimism. Just as humans have always wished to fly, getting to explore space would be just as exciting if not more so.
Of course more often than not in shows that take place in space, colonies and terraformed planets have already been established, and there isn’t much left to explore. Interplanetary travel often becomes an ordinary, almost mundane, occurrence. Traveling from point A to point B in space becomes much akin to taking an airline flight to another country. Among the anime I’ve watched, there aren’t a whole lot of shows based on pure exploration of the galaxy ala Star Trek. Most space anime tend to be more action oriented ala Star Wars with a focus on fighting in an already established universe. I’d actually prefer more space shows to be like Star Trek with an emphasis on exploration and colonizing, but that would be much too slow for today’s ADHD youth that crave explosions and condemn slow pacing.
The space setting is very much a blank canvas, and every writer has their own take on what it could be like. You can have “realistic” space shows like Cowboy Bebop, Gundam, Macross, Tytania and Legend of Galactic Heroes. On the flip side you can suspend realism in favor of absurdity with shows like Kiddy Grade, Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo and Outlaw Star among others. That’s not to say absurdity is bad, it’s just that the absurd shows aren’t realistic. Space truly is an interesting setting if you take a step back and look at the sheer amount of anime that take place in space. There are far too many to name off the top of my head. It has a consistent presence in an assortment of shows, and we get to experience what it might be like to travel among the stars and see worlds much different than our own.
tl;dr version: Space is cool.
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Besides the problem of resources, I think there’s actually a positive expectation that we will eventually expand into space – an expectation largely created by consuming sf stories – so if you set a story in the future without action in space you might have to explain its absence. Good point about the blank canvas, too: space is possibility.
If I recall correctly, Cuchlann (writes Scathbad’s Training and for Super Fanicom) is keen on space, and might have some more theoretically backed-up explanations to add.
IKnights last blog post…Varying Degrees of Whut
Space is cool. I would read this in more detail but I spent the entire night and then some without sleep at my friend’s wake. I do agree space is an empty canvas, and outward exploration from our planet seems the best possibility open to us in order to avoid restricting ourselves to the danger of living on just one planet, and overpopulation, as well as disaster from a direct hit by a large space object.
Our obsession with space’s many mysteries as well fuels the drive into the next frontier, and this frontier will hopefully be seen as one that should not be conquered, but rather to be discovered and to live alongside.
Panthers last blog post…When One Passes On…
Space is indeed cool.
Still, I must present the minority argument for the awesomeness of the ocean. The deep sea is still largely unexplored with many species of marine life still undiscovered. Combined with the phenomenon known as deep sea gigantism and the overall mystique of the ocean, I must express the wish that more anime and other forms of entertainment make use of the deep sea as a setting.
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Space is cool, but I’m more of a down-to-earth person, in both the literal and not-so-literal ways. Still, space is limitless, and so are the possibilities that come with it. I’d like to see more non-mecha, less action-oriented stuff too.
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@IKnight: For me the prospect of space’s is more about the journey than the destination, in this case the adventure itself is the most exciting thing about space. I’d like to see how we as a species might someday settle into space, but that’s certainly a millenia or two off.
@Panther: Pfft. Space was meant to be conquered. Why else would it be there? In this situation you must ask yourself, “What would Tytania do?”. Well they would conquer it!
@Snark: The ocean doesn’t hold the same romance as space, but it does hold plenty of mysteries too. There isn’t a large enough anime sample to draw from, but it can be an interesting setting if done properly. For starters, the door to the entire pirate genre is wide open. More pirate anime would be freakin’ awesome. My memory of Blue Submarine No. 6 is fuzzy, but I remember that being interesting too.
@Zeroblade: We should sign a petetion for more space anime like Star Trek, Babylon 5 and Battlestar Galactica. For great justice!
To me, the fact that space is completely unknown is the main reason why I find it appealing. It gives the story – whatever story it may be – more freedom to be creative and delve into things that science can’t bind. That’s one of the reasons why I enjoy writing and reading fantasy/sci-fi more than the historical stuff: there’s a lot more room for originality.
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