Suisei no Gargantia

It is a common belief in fiction that the bigger and more explosive a story is, the better it becomes.

In the case of "Suisei no Gargantia", bigger is anything but better. What makes the first half of the anime so special, and so rewarding, is made irrelevant by the bloated mess that follows. And it's a shame- it had the potential to be one of the best anime of these past few years.

Despite being the latest work of the (in)famous Urobuchi Gen, Suisei no Gargantia depicts a much more down-to-earth story. There is no ruthless slaughtering of the characters (though some might deserve it ... at times), nor are there any plot twists until the last few episodes. Suisei no Gargantia is set in a distant future where the Earth has been flooded. And flooded entirely. What remains of human civilization live their days in fleets of antiquated ships, free from any worry but the rare threat of pirates.

Enter "Ledo", a teenage soldier from across the galaxy who somehow, conveniently enters a wormhole that drops him to the birthplace of humanity-- Earth.

The most interesting aspect of the series is how Ledo copes with (and eventually accepts) a society so distinctly different from his own. Where Ledo comes from, concepts such as peace do not exist. Humans are born and raised for the sole purpose of fighting their enemy, the Hideaze. And naturally there is no such thing as love or friendship.

What follows is a series of amusing, sometimes uncomfortable scenes of Ledo experiencing culture shock. What the heck is the purpose of money? ... to buy more weapons to shoot dudes with? He has no idea. Whenever he experiences something new, he and his AI companion ("Chambers") will inevitably draw some ridiculous contrast to their own society. In one scene, Ledo even asks the person beside him why an injured child is alive. I felt very bad for laughing at that.

Ledo also experiences a rapid period of growth as he becomes closer with the inhabitants of the Gargantia fleet. He learns to enjoy life, how to do ordinary things such as swimming or cooking, and what friendship means. He transforms from a cold, ruthless soldier into a normal human being, one that can feel emotion and remorse. The Ledo at the start of the story is not the Ledo at the end of the story, and this character development is something that deserves no shortage of praise.

Sadly, there's also everything else about the story.

If you enjoyed the relaxed and carefree nature of the first half, prepare to have everything you liked about the show flipped upside down in the second half. The character development slows to a crawl. The comedy becomes nonexistent. What is hammered in its place is a joyless disaster, devoid of anything even remotely interesting.

Where to begin? I suppose the moronic characterization would be a start. While the first half showed signs of the side characters breaking away from their stereotype, the second half seeks instead to bury them in that shell. The only character aside from Ledo who even receives any notable growth is Pinion, but his backstory is so contrived and heavy-handed that there's little reason to care about his suffering.

Even worse are the minor characters who populate the Gargantia fleet. They are insufferably stupid. There is one scene where Ledo is reprimanded by the fleet's commanders for protecting them from a pirate attack, which would have inevitably led to looting and violence. Are you kidding me?

It makes one wonder why this screen time wasn't handed to Amy instead. Aside from Ledo, she is the only character in the show with sense in her brain. She is the one who changed Ledo, who taught him that life is worth living, and yet she is merely relegated to the role of a cheer leader by the end. She deserved much more than that.

Sure, Ledo is plenty developed, but he is just as much a victim as anybody else. The change that the first half had building for him is simply used as a tool to force in cheesy dialogue about the power of friendship. During the climax, he changes his mind over an important decision simply because Amy came flying by on a kite to yell at him. Can I puke now?

This would be bad enough on its own, but the plot itself fares no better. Plot twists and ridiculous contrivances are the name of the game. Everything is somehow tied to Ledo and his own people, and the 'twists' (especially regarding the antagonist) are so cliched that they almost feel as if the writer was playing a joke. And then there's not even a proper ending to wrap all of this mess up! It ends abruptly with little to no context, begging you to follow through with the sequel OVA for answers. There is absolutely no reason why the audience should have to watch a sequel in order to have a proper conclusion to a story that they already invested their time in. That is silly.

On a more positive note, the artwork is generally decent. The characters are modeled consistently while the oceans are rendered with grandeur, effectively making the post-apocalyptic Earth seem more like a paradise. However, the quality plummets in the 11th episode, where entire scenes have crowds of characters drawn as blobs. Literal blobs.

The soundtrack is also one of the better points of the anime. There's nothing here that will stay in your mind for eternity (though the ending song is sure as heck relaxing), but each of the lighthearted tracks do a solid job of conveying the feelings of relaxation and hope which pervade the first half. It's an atmospheric anime when it tries to be, which makes the second half all the more lamentable.

Suisei no Gargantia is an anime with an identity crisis. Is it a dramatic story about the dark secrets of humanity, or is it simply a lighthearted tale about a young man finding his place in life? Who really knows. I don't think it does either.

It didn't have to turn out this way.

This review entails some spoilers and, potentially, offensive regards to anime.
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So. The two problems this anime faces are characterization and plot. The two key components of what make a good story. I'm just going to condense it down for ease and simplicity.

Gargantia had a lot of potential in the first few episodes. We're introduced to Ledo, a young man who lives among a space-colonized community of humans. However, all he and his fellow kin know is war against cephalopod(octopi, squids) aliens. Piloting highly advanced and durable AI, Ledo isn't accustomed to much outside of his mecha, "Chamber". As given by the summary, we pretty ... much know the basics of everything else. When landing upon Earth, the very foundation of his life is put into question and he must battle his ruthless dogma with the mercy-based morality of the Earthen humans.

Now, to just get straight to what I want to address, I'm going to talk characters and keep it as short and to-the-point as possible of me. Apologies for the poor construction ahead.

Ledo is, truthfully, one of the extremely few characters that was carrying this show, with Chamber being his only rival as such. Bevel and Oldham had their moments, but their screen-time was little and as such, isn't really much of a basis to go off from. Anyways, Ledo(as we see in the first episode) is very logical, analytic and precise, something that was likely learned from his constant interaction with a robot. He seeks constant guidance from Chamber and the two work together to figure out what they're dealing with, being aided by a girl named Amy. He is, however, open to change and thinks on a deeper level, attempting(constantly) to understand the ways of the people of Earth when they weren't doing the same in turn. There are some very good moments where Ledo expresses his horror, confusion and irritation toward truths of his mission and the mannerisms of his new commune. There are also terrible moments where his entire character is goofed up for the sake of a smile or small giggle.

Now, Amy would have been a fine character... except for the fact that her friends and a portion of other characters nearly share the exact same archetype. Carefree, loved, sweet, and lively. There is very little depth to her, and she's your typical sweethearted heroine. Amy serves as a catalyst for Ledo's position in the society of Gargantia, and is a key component in his moral struggles, but that's pretty much it. There's very little exploration of who she is as a person and why she does what she does or why she is the way she is. Her only role in the anime is to be Ledo's guiding light, and she doesn't do a particularly fantastic job at it... unless just throwing him at people to talk to was her only purpose. Then she did great.

Pinion is a mess. The character initially hates Ledo with every fiber of his being and suddenly just becomes best bro's with the kid when seeing him, Ledo, down in the dumps over personal conflict. Pinion just randomly offers a hand to Ledo after continually trying to make the head of the ship get rid of him, and treats him like a brother very early on in the series. Again, there was no explanation for this change of character. It was like Pin was meant to be a rival and after a few episodes in, they just completely scrapped that idea. His history was passed over briefly and the character is pretty much an idiot and comedy relief. He has one or two truly mature moments in the entire thirteen episodes. A comic character isn't bad... but like I said, Pinion is a messy character. He is severely lacking in structure.

Chamber, on the other hand, is quite deep for being an artificial creation. As we expect, he's intelligent and can do all that cool robot-y stuff like scanning and predicting the future through complex analyzing to blowing crap up, but he himself has his inbuilt information challenged with knowledge learned throughout the show and ends up being more of a human than the human characters. And what I mean by that is he was given a developed personality... despite being a machine. Out of all the characters to choose from, they give the second most development of character to a hunk of freaking metal. I'm wont complain, anyways. At least they didn't give the entire mantle to a 16 year-old boy.

Bevel(an intelligent young boy) and Oldham(the only doctor of Gargantia?), like I said, didn't get much view time and had little spotlight. However, Bevel is very much a reason for Ledo's inner conflicts and Oldham is that "wise old sage" type that is suppose to balance out the immaturity of the rest of the cast, but can't because it's so overwhelming here with his sparse appearances. I'd try to be more explanatory, but it's difficult to do without giving spoilers. The few moments they appear are fairly important to Ledo, so you'd just have to watch for yourself.

Miscellaneous characters. I'm not going to name them because I truthfully cannot even remember that much. There's a redheaded woman and another with black hair and glasses who leads the ship. Characters that seem to hold an important role, but are given no real depth and very little background. The pirate princess, who comes to their aid in the end of the series-- after being their enemy and a major threat to the lives just about everyone(the relationship was beneficial, but for whatever reason she comes to share a random friendship towards Pinion that has no development at all), is just a mess of a character again. Her intentions aren't remotely clear nor ever explained.

As for the plot... it's very weak and typical. This anime would have been far better off just exploring the psychological aspects of a child bred for war, taught "survival of the strong" ideals and merciless killing with having to question themselves against what it actually means to be human and what freedom of choice is. Ledo's growth as a character was good, but could have been phenomenal in the right hands. With the contrived plot and ending, this anime was just mistreated. The vast majority of the cast is shallowly written, every episode past seven is just an awkward clutter of poor development-- with few shining moments(all involving Ledo), and it's just another typical hurriedly-written anime that just can't deliver something more.

I would recommend this for the average anime viewer because it's something that appeals to the masses. It's simple and very lighthearted, which to me, was a pitfall. Comedy isn't a bad thing, by any means, but anime anymore just focuses too much on goofy situations that don't have any sort of place in the story. Gargantia, unfortunately, is plagued by quite a bit of that.

It's not a terrible show, but it's not amazing, either. If you're looking to waste a few hours, or a day, then this wouldn't be a bad anime to do that with. It's short and easy to understand.

"We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch, we are going back from whence we came."

The ocean is a grand, mysterious, and beautiful thing. At times the ocean is calm and soothing; at other times it is chaotic and disastrous. While the ocean can bring us many memorable spectacles and experiences, it can also be seen as tedious and tiresome.

Suisei no Gargantia began with a lot of potential. Boasting action, mecha, sci-fi genres, beautiful animation, a gorgeous ocean scenery, and a strong pilot episode, one can’t help but anticipate ... what this series has in store for its audience. Despite some interesting elements SnG had to offer, the show came short of meeting the standards it had originally set.

The story of SnG revolves around Ledo, our main character. As a soldier of the Galactic Alliance all Ledo has known since childhood is how to fight against an evolved species of space alien called the Hideauze. When he unintentionally gets sent to Earth due to an unfortunate chain of events and subsequently salvaged by Gargantia, he is bewildered by this sudden new environment. Earth is shrouded in vast amounts of water, capable of life without advanced technology, and full of mystery. He must then learn to adapt to this new place and befriend the people there if he hopes to survive. His struggle to fit in with his new acquaintances felt peaceful, fun, and overall fairly entertaining. It felt like a slice of life. Thematically, SnG does a good job at addressing key issues like faults with human nature, violence, morality, and struggles with self-identity.

What SnG really struggles with story-wise is pacing. More than half of the series is Ledo attempting to fit in with the people of Gargantia and make friends; however, the final few episodes try to incorporate a darker atmosphere and falls short on leaving a lasting impression. There are a couple plot twists here and there that are supposed to surprise the audience but, for the most part, felt predictable; there were several instances where I found myself saying, "I saw that coming." They added more Sci-Fi elements around the end, which I found to be somewhat intriguing, and attempted a sort of natural selection type concept. While I appreciate the idea the series tried to incorporate, it felt much too constricted time-wise to be of much enjoyment. If a certain beach equivalent fan service episode had been replaced with a different episode expanding on the story, SnG may have turned out better.

As I have said before, the Art/Animation of SnG is visually enticing. Production I.G. typically does a great job at making sure their productions look superb and it shows in Suisei no Gargantia. Colors are very vibrant, the scenery is great, and the animation is fluid; I have no qualms here. Transitioning to the sound portion, I say that overall this section was decent. The OP and ED aren't bad, but there's nothing that stands out too much in them. Sound effects and voice acting are also fair. Something I found commendable was how the show tried something fresh with the language barrier between Ledo and the people of Gargantia.

Ledo is the protagonist of the series, and like all main characters he expectantly is subjected to the most character development over the span of the series. He’s puts off the vibe of being a quiet, serious guy that takes his job as a soldier very seriously. He struggles to understand the nature of normal social interactions and picks things up along the way while living on Gargantia. The problem I had here is that Ledo is basically the only one who really gets any development.

One of the most disappointing aspects of SnG is that the rest of the characters besides Ledo are left in the dust in terms of development and depth. While Amy is supposed to be the main female lead, she seems more like a pretty supporting side character whose only goal is to be a cheerleader and moral support for Ledo. Development-wise I’m not really even quite sure how she developed such an attachment to Ledo because it really isn’t shown in much detail. It seems that she simply is attracted to Ledo because he’s the main character and is apparently a good looking fella. Overall she’s a pretty cliché female lead. Chamber, though simply a pilot survival A.I., was probably my favorite 'character' of this series; his witty robotic comments and confusion with human rationale on board Gargantia were consistently entertaining. There was one other character that got a bit of development towards the end, but it just so happened to be Pinion, a mechanic of Gargantia, and possibly the most irritating character of the entire series. When I say irritating, I mean filling ‘the fool’ character trope and more. He is constantly yelling, rude to nearly everyone, exploits people to satiate his own greedy ambitions, and seems to lack intelligent thought.

Suisei no Gargantia embarked on its journey sailing smoothly, but slowly began treading in rocky waters in regards to plot and character quality. The only redeeming factor in the second half of the series is that the ending was surprisingly good; it’s a happy ending for the most part and concludes the series well. The beginning and ending are exceptional but the series will leave you scratching your head wondering what happened in between. I wouldn't recommend anyone to jump on board and put this series in the number one position for 'Plan to Watch', but I also don't think the show warrants anyone to abandon ship.

Suisei no Gargantia voyeurs off into something different, from what it originally suggests from the first episode. A vast collection of ideas are collaborated, but bringing together such an abundant amount of concepts in a short frame of time, doesn't do itself justice. Consequently the anime is left unrefined and falls into a continuous decline, squandering its uncharted potential. But in the end, it still remains a decent anime.

It is apparent that Suisei no Gargantia had alot of potential, from just the first few episodes. Beginning in space, fighting against the alien race, only to be shifted into an opposing world, of conflicting ideals. The ... situation brings out promising character development in which the cast of characters must follow their own ethics. And the first half of the series achieves this extremely well. Ledo, the main protagonist, is constrained to the lifestyle of the Earthlings which can only create a change character. Having previously been living a life of nothing but fighting for the sake of fighting, adapting can only prove difficult to such an unfamiliar habitat.

Other characters do not go under such serious characterization but are given a chance to understand the unknown universe from Ledo. Amy, the female protagonist, is more or less like an accomplice, acting as a catalyst to hasten the change of Ledo's character. She does so by inflicting her own ideals, onto Ledo. Despite Amy meaning to be a main character, her character lacks in many areas, only to make her appear as a guide to Ledo. Similarly, majority of the rest of the cast seems as if they're purpose is to either advance the plot or assist Ledo's change in character. Which is disappointing since it feels like Chamber is the only character achieving more than the other characters. Chamber advances the series, and breaches the limitations of human nature to explore and understand the unknown.

But suddenly the development becomes passive and Suisei no Gargantia flips upside down and starts declining. The light-hearted atmosphere disperses with the introduction of the main complication. While the storyline remains intact, for the time-being, the characters show minimal development. Secondary characters, do move away from the shadows of Ledo and into the light temporarily, but they lack empathy. In the end the camera is fixated on Ledo and Chamber, from start to end.

Artistically, it is beautiful from the start. The contrasting worlds are both equally portrayed. The galactic universe is gloomy, dark and vast, showing that the universe is grander than we could grasp. Meanwhile the world of Gargantia is floating on a layer of shimmering water, which only strengthens the feeling of serenity and peacefulness. The environment is greater than the character models, to an extent. Not to say it is lacking, but it's not outstanding. Individual primary characters look well, notably the eyes. The eyes had something about them which really leaped out from the rest of character, which is a rarity. The emotions of the characters can be felt, especially of the primary characters. But the effect dims down towards the end as there was a noticeable drop in quality.

The soundtrack enhances the atmosphere by focusing on the use instrumental pieces. The relaxing music only builds the tranquillity and peace suiting the situation. At the halfway mark there is an abrupt change in styles, which instead aims to build tension and drama. Although it is satisfying, you can't help but feel disappointed by the change, when becoming accustom to it.

Overall it's not bad, and it has done a good job of not feeling rushed despite being only 13 episodes in length. This is probably due to a fair bit of the potential storyline being left out, which could of expanded the plot and concepts of humanity. It was disappointing that it didn't reach its capability, but Suisei no Gargantia still has its charms.

I personally see Suisei no Gargantia about the difficulties a character faces to fit into society, but there a more than one viewpoints.

I’m going to avoid arbitrary numbers, because they only distract you from understanding what I’m saying. Suisei no Gargantia (Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet is too damn long) is a series I wish I’d have picked up during its season. You like mechs? It’s got that. You like skimpily dressed underage girls? It’s got that too. You like the open sea? Well, you're in luck! On the surface I couldn’t seem to find any redeeming qualities about it and I put it down for a couple months. CG in mecha anime is something I’ve grown to hate (having grown up watching mecha anime) and it ... was no different this time, but I sort of became desensitized to it so it stopped mattering after 5 or so episodes, but some of you may view it as unforgivable. One amazing thing about the series is its ability to tell such a big story in such a short amount of time, so major props there Gen Urobuchi, you surprised me with another one of your works.

Gargantia is far from perfect, but it handles its human (and not so human) characters really well (some of them) and its action is ok (when it’s all CG) and despite the flaws it still manages to be charming. The history and mythos of the story is handled in such a way that you don’t really know everything and you’re learning as you go along, which is nice. You get to experience the discoveries with the people involved. The characters don’t feel like cut and paste clichés (despite what I initially thought) and they actually grow as a result of the events in series. Overall it’s an alright watch for 13 episodes. Something to pick up in your spare time if you’re between series.

I will say though, the CG may turn off any of you purists out there. If that’s enough to scare you off it’s not worth it.

Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet is a bittersweet show. The world it sets up and the different ideas thrown in are fantastic, but the characters and plot are pretty uninteresting and the anime takes a while before it finally gets to a place where you actually care to watch the story progress. Gargantia is not a bad anime though, just very shallow in depth and lackluster in execution.

Ledo is the pilot of a giant robot. He comes from a utopian world in space where he was conscripted to fight against the Hideauze, giant squid creatures that fly around wreaking havoc. During a battle he gets ... sucked into a black hole and taken to what had once been Earth, a planet now completely covered in water that is home to floating cities built on fleets of battleships linked together. The one he ends up on is called Gargantia. He finds himself learning a new language, meeting new people, enjoying new customs, and eventually learning a devastating secret about the Hideauze.

The first half of the series is slow, plodding, uninteresting, and just plain boring. It’s pretty enough and I love the idea of the giant fleets of ships being like a floating continent, but its otherwise nothing special. The characters are all boring, even Ledo. There’s a focus on a female protagonist, Amy, who is just…annoying. Her character is nonexistent and all she seems to be good for is wearing very little clothes. In fact, most of the women in this show wear very little clothes. I can understand that it’s hot but the fan service is too bountiful with this harvest. Especially on the festival episode which forces us to watch Amy and her friends dance like gypsies. And this festival comes right after another festival. And then there’s an episode where everyone sits around eating barbecue and gives the female characters an excuse to wear skimpy bikinis.

And that’s the biggest problem with the show is this middle slump of uninspired fan service, boring dialogue, very little character development, and no plot development. A show like this with the very serious tone of the ending could maintain that seriousness throughout and be an especially good anime with an emphasis on perhaps the politics of maintaining the fleet or dealing with more pirates or other fleets of humans. Instead it’s exactly what you’d expect from a lazy show; failed attempts at humor, unneeded and out of place fan service, and nary a reason to exist to be found.

And you can argue that these episodes develop the “romance” between Ledo and Amy. But it’s all thinly veiled, generically played out, and uninteresting. As you can probably tell by a lot of my reviews, I want the romance to happen. I love romance in anything because that’s just how I am. It develops characters, it makes the story more relatable, and it leaves you with a good feeling in the end when everything comes out right. But Gargantia’s “romance” is as thin as they come and inconsequential either way. The end plays up Ledo’s devotion to Amy, but it just as well could be the fact he likes Gargantia and the people there just as much as Amy. Even if the ending does show them walking together it really doesn’t establish anything, and even if they kissed it wouldn’t exactly be heartwarming because their characters were never developed enough nor given enough time to gel for it to really work. It’s all forced.

Gen the Butcher wrote this so you’d expect a lot more depressing and unhappy philosophy, and you get that toward the end. It does take a mild turn for the worse and a few strange things happen but overall, it’s fairly tame. As I said, toward the end the story picks up and gets good but not because of the characters. It’s all because of the world that is created. Revealing the truth behind the Hideauze, the fact that the people living on the fleets are scavenging stuff from the sea floor to learn more about old humanity, a fleet of people revering a robot as a god. It’s all really compelling ideas that are there but everything else happening plot-wise isn’t exciting. There was never one suspenseful moment in the show because I just didn’t care.

Maybe with a longer series I would have grown to love this show a lot more than I do. With better character development and better plots that gave me a reason to relate to Ledo, a reason to care for the romance with Amy, a reason to want to see Gargantia win its battles, I might have cared more for the series. But as it stands, it’s super shallow with very little in regards to characters, development, or plot. The end has its moments but it ultimately is nothing memorable And I hate to say that because I love the ideas behind the series so much!

But in the end, it’s just a slightly above average adventure that may not even be worth taking.

Is predictable, I couldn't even concentrate on the plot because it has no interest, I really tried to go with it but I could follow.

So a kid battling creatures in space for human race, crash on whats left of the planet earth and between the long long process of being stuck there he fight with a whole nest of squids thinking they are the same creatures he had to fight in space and blah blah blah I don't even need to finish this thing.

It doesn't even had great action scenes which you expect in a mecha anime, even the music is nothing especial it definitively ... lack so many things that I won't even bother to write them it was a waste of time for me and I wouldn't recommend it.

You may disagree but that's my opinion there are anime that are slow at first but the get so much interesting along the way but this is not to case, like I said is a big waste of time. Jā ne!

First off, I really love the soundtrack. It’s just beautiful. There’s also two lines in the last episode that are really hilarious and honestly, this should get a point for each of those lines making it into a show.

The art on this looks very polished in a kind of typical modern anime way. That being said, the art style itself is kind of bad. Faces look overly cartoony in a way that’s cringey to watch, the women’s clothing is frequently stupid (I guess all the guys can wear normal clothes, but the women all elect to wear ever more ridiculous versions of “bikini” and short ... shorts combinations by and large). And the mechs are just ugly. Because of how the mechs are designed, they’re rather static, so most of the time when you look at them, you’re staring at what’s clearly a 3D model on a 2D show that just doesn’t move beyond maybe the eyes flashing or when the mech kneels, and a battle during the climax. The big head (cockpit) combined with the floating gravity orb(?) thing is also just… strange-looking.

The story itself is a bit of a mess, and about 2/3rds of the way through the series, everyone starts taking their stupid pills in large quantities. Pinion takes the spotlight and does some nonsensical stuff that’s just dumber than everything else he’s done, somehow. Other characters - basically anyone who isn’t Amy or Ledo - are static, and largely uninteresting. Ridget’s character arc seems to be… “Responsibility is hard, but oh yeah, I was trained for this. But it’s HARD, though! Mostly because I’m the one woman in charge in a fleet apparently chock full of entirely male commanders.” Which is just as gripping as you can imagine.

Sure is fascinating that the series basically only uses women as eye candy, and the women in charge are so objectified it’s ridiculous. I took a break on this one and when I came back, the second shot was Ridget in her frilly lingerie, with her boobs taking up most of the foreground. Bellows wanders around in a tube top and short shorts, like Amy and her friends, and Lukkage and her girlfriends are wearing… whatever the heck it is they’re wearing. There is one female character who comes in during the climax who’s wearing a normal shirt, but she’s still almost comically running around in short shorts while working on an otherwise all-male crew of guys just wearing normal clothes. But, well, I didn’t have too high hopes for a series that practically starts with Ledo patting Amy’s ass in slow-mo after kidnapping her. Which is shortly followed by pirates attempting to sexually assault three of the other female cast members. And I almost forgot about where it’s revealed there’s a section of Gargantia which appears to be where the LGBTQAI+ folks live, and it’s “dangerous”, and it’s implied that Ledo gets sexually assaulted multiple times while passing through it, because I guess what this show really needed was a message about how terrible gay people are and how sexual assault of male characters is a “great” joke.

It would be easier to ignore how objectified the women are if there were like… more of them. Crowd shots of crew are frequently all guys. During a funeral, when Ridget speaks to the crowd, Bellows is not only the only other named female cast member in the crowd shot, but she also appears to be the only female character in the shot, and all the people who speak up in support of Ridget are guys.

Maybe this got explained and I just forgot, but what happens when they run out of like… metal to work with? You can’t just keep re-purposing stuff. It weakens. The ocean’s gonna run out of things to salvage, too. I’m guessing the hope is their greenhouses and gardens don’t ever die because their medicine stocks will be screwed, otherwise. And what do they make clothes out of? Is there some giant greenhouse somewhere providing enough product for food AND clothing AND paper? Do they have silkworms for Ridget’s lacy bra?

Honestly I was just bored with this series after a while. I stopped caring about any of the characters pretty early on. The story itself was silly, but not enjoyably so. The art is functional but stylistically ugly and rather sexist. Part of the problem might be that I don’t tend to like post-apocalyptic narratives, but I was drawn to the at-a-glance-pretty art and nice music and sometimes decent Ledo angst.

It’s not the worst mecha series I’ve watched (hello, “08th MS Team”), but it’s definitely not one I’d recommend, either. At least “Macross Frontier” had a decent story and characters and art amidst the boobs (and music too, but that’s beside the point).

If you want a good mecha story… I mean “Macross Frontier” has a load of issues, but the series and the second film are pretty good, and they’ve got even better music than this. “Gankutsuou” actually has a mecha subplot that’s… well it’s not better than this, but that anime’s story is better so if you want a story with mechas and idiots and good art, pick that one. “Promare” is also stupid as all get out, but it’s way more enjoyable than this, and the art is way better.

Alright let's get to it. Gargantia as I called it, is far from the best series this season or this year and the only real reason anyone says it's such is mainly because of the ending. Give a series a great ending and all of a sudden that makes up for the rest. It's impossible for me to think that way. Gargantia certainly had a great beginning and a great ending but the bridge in between the two cliffs was pretty damn shaky. If anything the series was only good during it's first two episodes and it's last three episodes, everything in between those episodes ... can be summed up as "meh." The story of a soldier stuck on a foreign planet, attempting to coexist with the natives makes for an interesting premise.

No doubt, this series had a lot of potential but it went downhill after the beginning but managed to make its way back up near the end. Suisei no Gargantia focuses on two major pieces, Ledo attempting to integrate into Gargantia society and the raging war between the Hideauze and the Galactic Alliance, whose battle originated on Earth. At first one would think we would actually see a lot going on between the Avalon (Galactic Alliance HQ) and the Hideauze but actually, they seem to be nothing more than set up or backdrop in how Ledo was shaped as a character and how he will integrate into the Gargantian lifestyle. So we can say that the Hideauze add to story but are not the most important piece to this series, what's important is how everyone will come together in a hippy-dippy friendship at the end. That's pretty much what this show is all about, getting involved with new people and forming friendships even with your former enemies.

This show doesn't really deliver on character development and most of them make a lot of stupid decisions that just doesn't make sense and sometimes seem counter productive. Besides the first two episodes and the last three, Gargantia is pretty much filled with half naked, belly dancing girls in which one of them, the female lead Amy is infatuated with the main character Ledo. The series isn't short on fan service but it doesn't really throw it in your face (well except for the belly dancing and beach party episodes). Worst of all, Amy isn't really of much importance despite being the female lead and she could easily be forgotten but every episode, we're given a small reminder that she exist. The characters are incredible hypocrites for no apparent reason what so ever. In the beginning, they're worried about killing other people even if those people were attempting to kill them but in the last episode, the Gargantia is seen killing hundreds of people like it was an extermination. Ledo kills the Hideauze without a second thought but when he learns the truth, he all of sudden is shocked about what he has done but when you think about it, you wonder why does it even matter what the Hideauze truly are?

All in all, this show isn't completely dead, the action is worth watching and Ledo's moments of inner conflict are interesting to see but the overall story seems to have taken an arrow to the knee. I recommend watching it as it seems a lot of people have taken great joy in watching this series but I am left unsatisfied with how things played out. I like the beginning and the ending but not much of what was in between. Most of the time, the shear shock value is what kept me watching which isn't a good thing btw.

***This is a somewhat spoiler free review***

Suisei no Gargantia starts out guns blazing with its interesting premise and superb animation but soon falls on its feet before it even gets to third base.

Story: 5/10

Out of all the shows this season (maybe aside from Attack on Titan which I dropped in order to follow the manga instead), Suisei no Gargantia had in my honest opinion the best start. The story starts out with Ledo heading into battle against a threat to humanity. In the aftermaths of the battle though, Ledo is transported to a strange world. Little did he know that he is where humanity started; ... planet Earth.

The show pulled out ahead compared to the rest with its interesting premise and beautiful animation but when the show hit its midway point, I had started to notice that my anticipation for each new episode was starting to drop. Don’t get me wrong the show overall is pretty enjoyable; it’s just for some reason the studio just decided to turn the “interesting” factor down for a lengthy couple of episodes. During this boring phase, Ledo was trying to adjust to the life style on the ship compared to what he was used to in the army/whatever. In this time though, we had a bunch of unneeded fanservice flashed into our faces and a bunch of uninteresting squabble between characters that didn’t prove to be worth a damn. The show tries to make the relationship between Amy and Ledo important to the overall flow but what really happens is we learn that Amy (and her friends) are pole dancing mailmen (err women) and that Ledo wants a private showing. The affection Amy had for Ledo just did not translate well for me as I didn’t really care what happened between them even when the show ended.

What’s worse is when the show finally starts to get back on its feet, it ends. While the final arc’s episodes were extremely interesting to watch due to the nature of the society Ledo finds himself in, the show simply rushes through it. The conflict within the new society sparks way too soon and all the character build up is wasted due to a rush to the final conflict. While the ending is very good, it feels like it could of crescendo even more.

The premise for the plot was extremely interesting and fresh but fresh can only get you so far if you have a boring second act.

Animation: 8.2/10

The animation is pretty dang good in this 2013 anime. Lighting effects, color selection, and overall animation quality (especially during the fight scenes) was done very well. Character models are another story; in most instances they look great however during some scenes proportions really get out of whack and to be honest the quality just doesn’t seem equal throughout every episode. When watching the show I could very easily point out the certain points in episodes where the quality just seems to drop off randomly.

There are however without a doubt some really beautiful scenes within this anime. In one of the earlier episodes, there is a moment when the fleet is sailing across the many light bug thingies in the ocean. The lighting effects and overall quality of the animation during this scene completely blew me away. It’s just a shame the quality drops off in later episodes.

Sound: 6.5/10

While the orchestral arrangements are very much welcome in my book, they really did not bring any punch when needed. The score (soundtrack) was very nice but I just found that it did not amplify what was being visually presented. The voice actors did a pretty good job as well but like with the score I just didn’t feel “wowed” by their performance. Not bad but not great.

Characters: 4/10

This is where the anime really fell on its face. With such an interesting premise and great sparks of animation, I was so ready to fall in love with the characters and be driven into a great story. This does not happen as each character is as deep as a glass of water. I simply did not care at all for any of the characters in this show because they just did not give me any reason to do so. Both Amy and Bellows come off as lifeless characters that just happen to throw their err features out there whenever needed. The other mailwomen are uninteresting and boring and while Pinion was at first an interesting character, he soon loses any affection after what he does to get the small fleet in danger in the later part of the show.

There just was no reason to like any character in this show. The elder doctor and Amy’s brother were nice additions but their role was so small that they could not possibly add anything to the overall spectrum of the show.

Overall: 5.9/10

This show as a whole barely passes for what I would call an “ok” anime. While it had such an amazing introduction and short but satisfying ending, it was completely destroyed by its structural pillars. Characters are the life blood for any show/movie and you cannot expect it to thrive if the viewer doesn’t give a f#$@ about who is on the screen. All I can say is if you end up liking the characters early on then stick with the show. Just understand that while there is a build up to the end, it is short lived. While this is by no means a disappointment on the scale of Sword Art Online, Suisei no Gargantia really let me down.

Enjoyment: 5/10

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Sincerely,
Awesome Drummer

Let's list the things I liked; the character designs, and the story of this soldier lost in a peaceful world. I liked how the explained why his super robot was far superior to the local mecha. Plenty of cute girls, a slice of life story involving mecha. Then comes the second half of this series and it couldn't be any more predictable. The second Ledo pulls a gun on a steamed squid, you know the whale squid are Hedeauce. The second the offer to leave Gargantia you know Ledo is going to leave too. The second his commander shows up you know he's evil and ... a duel must ensue. These are not spoilers these are easily predictable facts. The show inevitably goes in these directions. BUT it's beautifully done, and seven episodes of different with very likable characters, even Chamber is likable. But the second half is stretches a very predictable story. Bonus points for not having to invent a reason for the swimsuit episode.

This anime seemed like it had a pretty good story line to it. Mankind living in a utopia in space was pretty cool enough to me - but finding out that there's another world of humankind that's on Earth? That's something else. I had high hopes for this one, but it wasn't as great as I was expecting.

I wish there were more character developments throughout the anime. It seemed to me that Ledo, an outcast, who was trying to fit in, just kept trying to do that. It wasn't until something really happened that the humans on the earth (or at least Ledo himself) discovered ... what really happened in the past and revealed why humans lived in two different places. The plot didn't really start moving until towards the last couple of episodes - and everything sort of just happened and came together. There was so much to question that was left unanswered and it frustrated me.

There was so much that could have happened with how the story was, but it just never progressed. I wasn't really impressed with it.

If it were possible to watch episodes 1-3ish, then episodes 9-finale, it would be a 7 or an 8. Some of Urobuchi's best work thematically. The problem is that he bailed out of the middle portions of the series, making it a real uneven mess that takes a turn away from the actual interesting part of the story to do some kinda vapid fanservicey stuff. Unfortunately you can't really skip over it because there needs to be character development to move the hero from the great opening to the great ending.

Still worth a watch, just barrel through the middle.

**I wrote the first part of this after watching the first episode to give a sense of how this series comes across to those well versed in the mecha genre and the rest of the review is written after watching episode 10**

*Also note, I tried to avoid explicit spoilers writing this (all explicit plot spoilers are in footnotes), but there still are some in it because it wouldn't be possible to write a detailed review without talking about some major plot points. The TL;DR version of my opinions on this series so far is: Don't bother watching this yet if you've seen/read a lot of ... sci-fi. I say yet because it may get better. If you're new to the scifi/mecha genre, this is probably a great show to jump in on since it introduces a lot of standard sci-fi fare in an easy to digest manner.

Breakdown:

Extremely stereotypical scifi/mecha anime with main characters so archetypal that I was able to determine their personalities after the first episode, except 1. Only 10 episodes so far, so it may be too early to judge, but there has been only very little character development.

The plot is nothing special if you have seen any decent mecha anime (especially if you have seen Eureka 7). There has been 1 (maybe 2) major plot twist(s) so far and I called out both of them by the second episode because they were so painfully obvious.

Art and sound are great, but not exceptional. Colors are vibrant, but sometimes too vibrant. Music in the show is pretty average, nothing amazing/wowing/beautiful as of yet.


>First Episode Impressions

The first episode starts off as archetypal and cliche as a sci-fi/space/mecha show can begin. The background is introduced and the human alliance is proudly declared as humanity's last hope against the alien menace. Despite the pomp and circumstance of this message, a more sinister undertone is revealed soon after (spoiler 1).

After this introduction ends, the main character is introduced and their mission is about to begin (spoiler 2). The main character is the archetypal stoic, duty-bound soldier. As the army of mecha and spaceships head into battle, the show cuts away to the title screen of the first episode (spoiler 3). The battle rages on and whatever the result is, it is entirely inconsequential, as explained in spoiler 3.

Through whatever scifi mechanism as explained in the show, our protagonist's mecha ends up in a hangar somewhere after the events of the battle and the mecha is being investigated by the people in the hangar, who are obviously completely oblivious to what it is as they seem to be much more primitive (spoiler 4). Several new characters are introduced here and within minutes I am certain of their personalities:

* The younger girl with the brown hair is the carefree, happy-go-lucky love interest who will be torn between trying to understand the protagonist and protecting her friends and family.
*The blonde guy is the gun-ho guy who thinks he can do anything with just their primitive technology and willpower and he has no use for the fancy pants technology. Protagonist will have to learn to cope with doing things by hand in this primitive society and will eventually prove himself to blonde guy.
*The older girl with red hair is the gun-ho female character who will teach our protagonist about the ways of their people. Probably will have some sort of love relationship with the blonde guy.
*Girl in glasses is some sort of duty and honor bound commander who initially distrusts the protagonist, but once he helps them out will reluctantly accept him.

A chase scene ensues and when that is over, it is revealed that we are now on a planet and the primitive society here has no space faring capabilities, meaning there will be a lot of time for the protagonist to grow on this planet as the story develops (spoiler 5). The first episode then ends

>End First Episode Impressions

Even though I felt this show was going to be extremely formulaic and predictable, I decided to give it a chance and watched all the remaining episodes that had been released at the time (Episode 10) and below are my final cumulative thoughts on the show (heavy spoilers)

>Overall Opinion

So I was right about the protagonist going native and so far it seems my prediction for the supporting cast of characters was dead on with the exception of Pinion (the blonde guy). The First plot twist prediction was also pretty much dead on now that it's pretty much confirmed the aliens are/were actually humans and it's going to be the job of our protagonist to somehow broker a peace between the two sides of the war, perhaps with help of the whalesquids.

When the pirates were introduced and then destroyed in episode 2, I predicted that there would probably be some kind of "pirate king" who was actually also a soldier from the Galactic Alliance, ruling the pirates through the use of high tech weapons/mechas. I predicted that the interaction between the protagonist and this other GA soldier will most likely be antagonistic. This other soldier may be corrupted and trying to become the ruler of Earth or perhaps he is trying to exploit the primitive Earth natives and return to space and the protagonist will oppose him on philosophical grounds. By the end of episode 10, we find out Commander Kulge's mecha is indeed on Earth, but whether the man is here is another question. I will assume he is on Earth (why else would what seems to be a primitive cult project the silhouette of a mecha into the clouds other than to try and attract the attention of other stranded GA soldiers?). I assume Kulge also arrived on Earth via wormhole/tear in space-time like our protagonist, but it is very likely that he arrived much, much earlier than our protagonist (decades earlier) since they did not travel through the rip in spacetime in tandem and minutes/seconds of separation when entering the rip may result in much longer time differences when exiting. How Kulge and his cult will interact with our protagonist is hard to say, but since it seems like the two had a close relationship in the GA, it will probably be friendly and Kulge (who probably also knows the truth about the aliens) may serve as a mentor to our protagonist. However, it is very possible that Kulge has turned evil or perhaps he became so disillusioned with the GA that he now wants to fight for the aliens/evolvers. The writers have a great opportunity to make this series more interesting by making how this relationship develops completely unpredictable and that's what I'm hoping for and why I'm still watching this show.

*****SPOILERS FOOTNOTES BELOW ******

(spoiler 1): the narration is actually recurring brainwashing propaganda forced into the soldiers' minds during sleep.

(spoiler 2): the soldiers are told that this missions is a do or die mission - that either they succeed in destroying their target or else all of humanity is doomed. Such finality in the VERY FIRST EPISODE of an anime leaves very few choices for what will happen, either they succeed and the rest of the anime is about the soldiers continuing with their missions as they face challenges, OR they fail and the show is about the protagonist fighting for survival against an impossible enemy, OR something happens during the mission that fundamentally changes the setting/storyline currently laid out.

(spoiler 3): "Castaway". Immediately this makes it clear that what happens in this "do or die mission" is inconsequential. The protagonist has been introduced and "castaway" will most likely refer to him. He becomes a castaway soldier and the anime will follow him and not the Alliance he fights for. The only question now is to where/whom will he be castaway to? The alien enemies? An unknown third neutral party like space pirates/cowboys?

(spoiler 4): So now we find out that none of my guesses in spoiler 3 were correct and the protagonist has actually be stranded on some primitive planet and that should immediately bring to mind stories/plots a la Dances with Wolves or The Last Samurai or Avatar. The protagonist is going to go native as a result of either spending a lot of time with the primitives or some as of yet unseen plot point.

(spoiler 5): My guess is that a substantial part (50% or more) of this show will take place on Earth and so, assuming that is true, I asked myself "What significance does the long lost planet of Earth play in this story?" Drawing upon my previous experiences with scifi (such as Eureka Seven and the "Foundation" series of novels by Asimov), I suspect there will be a plot twist involving some sort of "origin story" between Earth, humanity, and the aliens. Perhaps we are all descended from the aliens, perhaps the aliens are/were part of Earth, perhaps humanity's fate is somehow tied with the aliens'. I'm not 100% sure of the reason, but I predict that after his time on Earth, the protagonist will realize we must not kill the aliens, but rather coexist peacefully with them.

Setting:

Suisei no Gargantia is set in a futuristic world where humanity survives in space, locked in an all-out war with an alien species called the Hidiazu, deadly squid-like aliens. Without a home planet of their own, and as the war has become increasingly more desperate, civilization has transformed into a militaristic society that eschews personal luxuries in favor of utmost efficiency, naming itself the Galactic Alliance of Humankind. "Liabilities," such as disabled persons, are euthanized; human reproduction is allowed only under government permission; families are separated at birth and contact never reestablished; and support of an organized military hierarchy given utmost emphasis. ... Total efficiency and removal of elements of lifestyle deemed unnecessary for basic human survival is a common theme in this series.

When one of the interstellar soldiers, our main character Ledo, crashes through a wormhole to land on Earth, this ideal of absolute efficiency becomes called into question. With Ledo stranded in a foreign world with no apparent quick prospect of returning home, he is forced to come to terms with the current residents of Earth, who live a lifestyle completely opposite to that of the Galactic Alliance of Humankind. They strain themselves only as much as they need to survive and spend the rest of their time doing whatever pastime they find most enjoyable; none of their day is under organized supervision. They function in large communities of interlocked naval ships, as this futuristic Earth has become a planet completely covered in Ocean. The citizens of this world have no knowledge of their space brethren or any extent of their own history, and this lost knowledge has resulted in a technology very primitive in comparison to the Galactic Alliance's. (It's more in line with our technology as we know it today, albeit their world is still completely different than our own--there are no cars, for example, because they live on the ocean).

My Opinion:

For the viewer, we are presented two contrasting lifestyles, developed through the perspective of the main character as he tries to find value in an inefficient lifestyle while simultaneously learning to critique his own upbringing. Because Ledo is a newcomer into society, the transition of explaining the world feels very natural, as we viewers are able to discover this futuristic Earth along with Ledo. Although a common theme is this debate between the merits of absolute efficiency or enjoying the pleasures of an impractical lifestyle, don't get your hopes up for a deep philosophical journey. The anime's focus feels more about telling a story rather than hammering home a meaningful lesson.

It's first few episodes foreshadow a darker side to the anime, but much of the early episodes are spent on this story-telling, and the anime feels very much like a slice-of-life, where not much happens except for dialogue to present the characters. Despite this, the anime changes pace in the second half, and we are left only really having established strong development with the main character. I felt the merits in the anime were the interesting setting and story, and I had little connection to anyone besides the main character.

As the story unfolds, we begin to explore the nature of the conflict with the Hidiazu and reasons for the Galactic Alliance's existence. This provokes some thoughtful questions for the viewer about our own course of action with developing technologies today or in the near-future. Unfortunately, this development stops short of providing some sort of didactic or thoughtful message for the viewer, which left me feeling a little disappointed. It almost felt like the anime ran out of time to be able to go further into this aspect.

Finally, the "feel" of the anime was a little divided to me, which I touched upon in the last two paragraphs. The first half of the anime has a very slice-of-life feel, and character development takes place at the expense of plot development. The second half of the anime delves into plot development, but it rotates in new characters at the same time--so the character development from before is largely no longer relevant! Admittedly, this may have still worked out fine had the anime been longer than 13 episodes, but when supporting characters are only becoming apparent or relevant halfway through 13 episodes, it's hard to find time to really build any cohesion between the character cast. Ultimately, this division of styles felt mismanaged to me. It's like the pacing was set for a 26 episode anime, as so many aspects feel quite underdeveloped after 13 episodes.

In summary: Suisei no Gargantia has an interesting story, changes its genre rapidly from slice-of-life to very serious and has ambiguous character development.

Art:

I'm not a good judge for art, so I won't put my opinion here.

Music:

The music had a nice track. The broad nature of the anime meant that it had the opportunity to show its versatility for a variety of situations, from frustrated tears of friendship, to epic battles, anguish over a sad past and embarking on an adventure. I felt its implementation was rather obtuse, namely in that it was a little over dramatic for whatever scene it was trying to portray. Still, building a scene is more than just music, so it's not fair to place all of the fault on the music for that. I felt the music by itself was enjoyable and appropriate.

Overall: 6

Suisei no Gargantia as some moments of highs that feel very good. It opens some interesting questions through its refreshing and unique plot. Besides this strong backstory, there's not a whole lot to talk about. Its presentation and pacing weren't very conducive to a 13-episode anime. It stops short of really exploring the potential for a meaningful message; at the same time, it also suffers from underdeveloped characters. It felt like the anime couldn't decide whether it wanted to be a meaningful, deep anime or if it wanted to go with slice-of-life, so it gave a half-job of both. If you like both styles of anime, then you may enjoy Suisei no Gargantia very much; otherwise, be prepared to find half of the episodes boring. From a more optimistic perspective, if you've got nothing better to do with your time, you are likely to find half of the episodes quite entertaining.

I think this is an anime that would stand to benefit very much from a second season, so it could have more time to explore the huge space for potential it has, which could go a long way to shoring up the all-too-brief development it's presented over 13 episodes.

First three episodes are looking pretty good. Space stuff, mecha goes bang-bang, crash on unknown planet and first contact with natives. MC (Guy with mecha) showed this monkeys that he can obliterate anyone and anything, take control of any resources he could ever need.

Then somehow from 4th episode it went into idiocy spiral. They use him for moving shipment containers, give him invoice for damage he caused and use him on other blue collar/manual jobs. Using an electronic microscope to hammer in nails would be more effective and sane than that. Their leadership is shown on another higher plane of stupidity.

Story doesn't care much ... about making believable concept of civilization living on oceanic planet. Metallurgy, metalworking, energy generation and storage, ammunition production and production of goods in general are ignored. Worldbuilding does not go well here to say the least.

There is not much of comedy or fanservice. Although 1-3 episodes are packed with action and mecha battle, after that I fail to see any entertainment value in this work.