Posted on August 24, 2021

Planetes publishing

Japanese manga volumes, Kodansha

Vol. 1, Jan 2001

Vol. 2, Oct 2001

Vol. 3, Jan 2003

Vol. 4, Feb 2004

See the entire Japanese edition online at these two sources: Comic Days | Piccoma

The Challenge of Space in 2075:
Planetes Official Guide Book

2075年宇宙への挑戦プラネテス公式ガイドブック
B&W, 214 pages
Kodansha, Feb 2004

Published along with the final manga volume, this book offers a story summary, character guide, world & technology guide, real-world space history, fictional timeline, and more. The anime series was on TV at the time, but only gets 6 pages of coverage. Some of the material in this book was translated for the US manga edition by Tokyo Pop.

Planetes Companion

ふたごのプラネテス
Color and B&W, 152 pages
Kodansha, Dec 2004

Bundled with a DVD (containing Episode 7 with an audio commentary), this book is equally divided between the manga and anime series. The manga half includes tributes, a chapter reprint, and gag strips. The anime half includes an episode guide, model sheets, and tribute art.

US manga volumes, Tokyo Pop

Includes some color pages from the original edition

Vol. 1 (Chapters 1-5), Oct 2003

Vol. 2 (Chapters 6-11), Jan 2004

Vol. 3 (Chapters 12-16, plus an extra), June 2004

Vol. 4/1 (Chapters 17-21 & bonus material), Nov 2004

Vol. 4/2 (Chapters 22-26 & bonus material), Feb 2005

The Japanese edition of Vol. 4 was double-length, so it was split in half for the US edition and augmented with material from the Challenge of Space 20175 book.

US manga volumes, Dark Horse

Includes all color pages from the original edition, relettered with a modified translation

Vol. 1 (Chapters 1-12), Dec 2015
Order it from RightStuf here

Vol. 2 (Chapters 13-26, plus an extra), April 2016
Order it from RightStuf here

And it took them a while, but finally…

Planetes Technical File

Official description:

136 pages, black & white
Dainippon Kaiga, October 2023

After 20 years, a mechanical design book of the immortal anime Planetes has finally been published in one volume! This book was originally a series of articles that appeared in the model information magazine Model Graphix from 2004 to 2005, but was revised, expanded, and reorganized to coincide with the 2022 rebroadcast of Planetes. Further additions were made for this edition. Commentary on the concepts is provided by Shinya Ogura (concept design and settings archive) himself, making this the ultimate collection of production materials!

Order it here

Model Graphix magazine articles, 2004-05

Model Graphix is a long running, high-end hobby magazine published by Dainippon Kaiga. Beginning in February 2004, it became the only magazine to publish articles concurrent with the Planetes anime release on DVD. That entire series of articles is presented here.