Planetes (Manga series)

Planetes is a manga series published in Japan from 2001-2004. Written and illustrated by Makoto Yukimura, it is set in 2074 and is the story of the crew of the debris collection ship Toy Box: Hachirota “Hachimaki” Hoshino, Yuri Mikailkov, Fee Carmichael, and later, Tanabe Ai. Distinguished by its remarkably realistic depiction of space exploration in the near-future and its character-driven storyline, it was adapted into an anime TV series in 2003. That same year, TOKYOPOP began releasing the manga in North America. That version is now out of print, but in 2015 the series was re-released by Dark Horse Comics.