Or manga, it's originally a manga series before the 26-episode anime adaptation.
The anime actually diverges from the manga in the latter section, because it was started before the series had ended (the manga finished serialisation in January 2004, the anime finished airing in February of the same year… and it was a 26ep full-season thing), so viewing both can be interesting in more ways than the usual watching of filler and interest in cross-media adaptation:
> While the manga deals more with existential themes, and humanity's relationship with space, the anime further expands the political elements of the story.
The manga feels much more personal, by which I mean the author likes to put in moralistic side stories, but he's not very good at it and I couldn't figure out what the moral was supposed to be. Sometimes he also stops the story so everyone can stand around discussing Kenji Miyazawa novels.
Or manga, it's originally a manga series before the 26-episode anime adaptation.
The anime actually diverges from the manga in the latter section, because it was started before the series had ended (the manga finished serialisation in January 2004, the anime finished airing in February of the same year… and it was a 26ep full-season thing), so viewing both can be interesting in more ways than the usual watching of filler and interest in cross-media adaptation:
> While the manga deals more with existential themes, and humanity's relationship with space, the anime further expands the political elements of the story.