Based on the Japanese folktale The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter in which a girl is discovered to be the princess of the moon, the story focuses on a teenager named Kaguya, who is prophesied to save only one of the nine parallel worlds, and her quest to bring peace to a warring universe while finding her true identity.

The series focuses on Kaguya Haruyama, a teenager who has lived with a Japanese foster family since she was found as an abandoned, amnesiac four-year-old.

Shiina and Waseda, a Tokyo University student trapped in the body of a giant rooster, join her and Gold in traveling across Telene.

After learning that Seeu watched his people die from an incurable virus spread around Asu, Kaguya decides to change the fate of the worlds by confronting Kura, Geo's indulgent emperor who ordered her kidnapping.

Instead, while en route to Geo, Gold brings her to Seeu's floating castle in Asu and Kura captures and recruits Shiina into his army.

[3] Planet Ladder was based on the Japanese folktale The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, which focuses on a girl named Kaguya-Hime who is discovered to be the princess of the moon.

[5] After discovering that a North American version of Planet Ladder was being simultaneously released, Narushima designed the cover of volume 6 to be "export friendly", describing it as "like Japanese style, but slightly off".

[15] As a result, it was displayed in a case with the eight other "unflopped" manga—Chobits, Dragon Knights, Marmalade Boy, GTO, Real Bout High School, The Skull Man, Mars and Cowboy Bebop—and heavily advertised in anime magazines and on fan sites.

[1] While stating that Planet Ladder is a "difficult title to warm to, since it feels like we're in the middle of the story, rather than the beginning", Mike Dungan of Mania Entertainment considered the effort "worthy", and wrote that it made Kaguya more sympathetic at the cost of the other characters.

Dungan enjoyed the "pleasant though not especially unique" art, the "attractively designed and well-drawn" characters, the occasional humor, and the overall adaptation, especially the "natural sounding dialogue".