is a Japanese
light novel
A light novel (, Hepburn: ''raito noberu'') is a style of young adult novel primarily targeting high school and middle school students. The term "light novel" is a '' wasei-eigo'', or a Japanese term formed from words in the English language ...
series, written by
Yuu Kamiya and Tsubaki Himana, and illustrated by Shino.
Kodansha has published four volumes since April 2, 2013, under their Kodansha Ranobe Bunko imprint. The story is set in a
clockpunk fantasy version of the world, in which the entire planet is run by
clockwork
Clockwork refers to the inner workings of either mechanical devices called clocks and watches (where it is also called the movement) or other mechanisms that work similarly, using a series of gears driven by a spring or weight.
A clockwork mec ...
. The main characters are five people (a machine
otaku
is a Japanese word that describes people with consuming interests, particularly in anime, manga, video games, or computers. Its contemporary use originated with a 1983 essay by Akio Nakamori in '' Manga Burikko''. may be used as a pejora ...
, two automata, a young technician and a bodyguard) who, after a month of meeting, become the world's most infamous terrorists.
A
manga
Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is use ...
adaptation illustrated by Kuro was serialized in Kodansha's
''shōnen'' manga magazine ''
Monthly Shōnen Sirius
is a Japanese monthly ''shōnen'' manga magazine published by Kodansha
is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazin ...
'' since 2013 and ended in August 2018.
It has been collected in ten ''
tankōbon
is the Japanese term for a book that is not part of an anthology or corpus. In modern Japanese, the term is most often used in reference to individual volumes of a manga series: most series first appear as individual chapters in a weekly or m ...
'' volumes. An
anime
is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...
television series adaptation by
Xebec
A xebec ( or ), also spelled zebec, was a Mediterranean sailing ship that was used mostly for trading. Xebecs had a long overhanging bowsprit and aft-set mizzen mast. The term can also refer to a small, fast vessel of the sixteenth to nineteenth ...
aired from April 6 to June 22, 2017.
Plot
At an unspecified point in time, Earth collapses. Despite it being almost inevitable that humankind would die out, a genius engineer known only as "Y" manages to rebuild Earth entirely with gears and clockwork mechanisms, renaming it "Clockwork Planet". 1,000 years later, original cities of Earth's countries are flourishing inside the planet's surface gears. Naoto Miura, a high school student living in Grid:
Kyoto
Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ...
who is in love with mechanics, is dragged into a world crisis when a mechanical crate crashes into his apartment. There, he meets RyuZU, a broken automaton who is part of the Initial-Y Series, a series of automaton created personally by Y himself. Using his superior sense of hearing, Naoto fixes her in three hours despite RyuZU having been broken for 206 years as nobody was able to revive her. Promising loyalty to him, the two are eventually found out by Dr. Marie Bell Breguet, a princess of a noble family and the youngest person to become a master engineer in an international separate government organization "Meister Guild", and her automaton bodyguard Vainney Halter. With the faulty Core Tower, a central tower in every Grid city that controls its gear functions, Naoto pinpoints the problem with his sense of hearing alone in ten minutes, fixing it along with other engineers of the Meister Guild and thwarting the government's attempts to purge the city and destroy lives. As the government's illegal technological experimentation is still at large, the pairs join forces to carry out justice and prevent further purges.
A month after their encounter, all four appear in
Akihabara
is a common name for the area around Akihabara Station in the Chiyoda ward of Tokyo, Japan. Administratively, the area called Akihabara mainly belongs to the and Kanda-Sakumachō districts in Chiyoda. There exists an administrative district c ...
,
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...
, having become the world's most infamous terrorists in their quest.
Characters
Main
;
:
:Naoto is a high school student and a machine otaku. He has a hearing ability better than other people, which is why he wears headphones with a noise-canceling ability. Naoto is not interested in human girls, but he is romantically attracted to RyuZU, who is an automaton.
;
:
:RyuZU is an automaton that "Y" left behind. She is Unit 1 of the "Initial-Y Series" and was manufactured about 1,000 years ago, but was broken 206 years ago and has been in a non-functional state ever since. After Naoto repaired the failure inside her that nobody could fix, she treats him like her own master. Contrary to her beautiful appearance, RyuZU has an incredibly sharp mouth. Her supreme command is
;
:
: Marie is the youngest president of Breguet company and a first-class clock technician. She is a self confident genius girl with a sharp mouth. After she and Naoto stopped the Kyoto purge, she faked her own death and decided to keeping the clockwork in the planet safe.
;
:
:Vainney is Marie's bodyguard and a former soldier. He specializes in fighting with a mechanized body of latest technology. He has been with and supported Marie for a long time.
;
:
:AnchoR is another automaton part of the "Initial-Y Series" that is listed as Unit 4, RyuZU's "younger sister". She was the only automaton that was manufactured as a weapon among the "Initial-Y Series", giving her the strongest combat ability. Her supreme command is and her special mode is Bloody Murder.
Others
;
:Y is a genius engineer who is said to have rebuilt the entire functions on Earth with gears. He also created a series of automatons called , but the blueprints of his creations have long been lost.
Media
Light novels
The first light novel volume was published on April 2, 2013, by
Kodansha under their Kodansha Ranobe Bunko imprint. As of December 29, 2015, four volumes have been published. North American online light novel publisher
J-Novel Club
J-Novel Club is a publishing company specializing in the translation of Japanese light novels into English. It streams light novels and manga in regular installments before publishing finalized e-books. As of August 2021, J-Novel Club has license ...
have licensed the light novel.
Seven Seas Entertainment
Seven Seas Entertainment is an American publishing company located in Los Angeles, California. It was originally dedicated to the publication of original English-language manga, but now publishes licensed manga and light novels from Japan, as w ...
has licensed the light novels in North America for print.
Manga
Anime
An
anime
is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...
adaptation of the light novel series was announced in December 2015, which was later confirmed to be an anime television series adaptation in December 2016.
The series was directed by Tsuyoshi Nagasawa and written by Kenji Sugihara, with animation by
Xebec
A xebec ( or ), also spelled zebec, was a Mediterranean sailing ship that was used mostly for trading. Xebecs had a long overhanging bowsprit and aft-set mizzen mast. The term can also refer to a small, fast vessel of the sixteenth to nineteenth ...
, character designs by Shuichi Shimamura and mechanical designs by Kenji Teraoka. The music was composed by Shū Kanematsu, Hanae Nakamura, Kaori Nakano and Satoshi Hōno. The opening theme titled "Clockwork Planet" is sung by
fripSide
fripSide is a Japanese pop and trance duo originally formed by composer Satoshi Yaginuma (Sat) and singer Nao in February 2002.
History
In a 2008 interview, Satoshi said that he was a fan of TM Network and its member Tetsuya Komuro in his ele ...
, while the ending theme titled is sung by After The Rain. It aired from April 6 to June 22, 2017, on
TBS and
BS-TBS
is a Japanese satellite broadcasting station headquartered in Akasaka Gochome, Minato, Tokyo. Its channel name is BS-TBS (formerly, BS-i). It is a member television station of Japan News Network.
Channels
*Television: BS-TBS is assigned BS16 ...
Crunchyroll licensed and streamed the series, and
Funimation
Crunchyroll, LLC, previously known as Funimation from 1994 to 2022, is an American entertainment company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex that specializ ...
dubbed the series and released it on home video in North America. The series ran for 12 episodes.
References
External links
*
Official anime website
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clockwork Planet
2017 anime television series debuts
2013 Japanese novels
Action anime and manga
Anime and manga based on light novels
Crunchyroll anime
Fantasy anime and manga
Funimation
J-Novel Club books
Japanese fantasy novels
Kodansha books
Kodansha manga
Kodansha Ranobe Bunko
Light novels
Seven Seas Entertainment titles
Shōnen manga
Xebec (studio)