Let's start with the story, the basis of any anime. Ledo is a young man who finds himself in a ship fleet, called Gargantia, after falling into a black hole of some sort during a battle against space-squids called the Hideaazu. (And no, this is not a hentai, don't let the artist fool you) After a chain of events triggered by his awakening, Ledo begins to try and understand the societal structure of Gargantia. In this process, the author ignored nothing in detailing how Ledo goes about this. From learning the native language, to getting used to local cuisine, and even to how the inhabitants obtain fresh water, no rock was left unturned.
Now, before you go thinking I'm saying the story is perfect, it's not. Allow me to work backwards first, as that's where a the biggest flaw in the story actually lies. I found that the story lacked in its explaining how people survived on Earth for so long. In the end, it was said one faction of mankind abandoned the Earth because the sun was about to give out. That said, A) How did people who stayed on Earth survive the sun's destruction, and B) Why is there a sun now? On this one point, they neglect to explain it very well and leave it open to interpretation. Now, back to the beginning of the story. After the first few episodes, the story progresses very slowly in the beginning and makes you wait. A lot. This got on my nerves quite a bit, especially since I know the author's better works and I grew very anxious waiting for the story to actually kick in. Which brings me to the late-story. As I said, I know the author, so I often tried to make predictions of what to expect from the story with friends. However, neither I nor my friends could predict the turn the story took in the latter half of the show. From there, I didn't really know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised and for the first time in a while, I didn't even try to predict what was going to happen in the next episodes. Needless to say, I enjoyed what came next, but it didn't quite cover up that the earlier episodes were more or less unneeded.
Now onto character development. In the beginning, Ledo is a emotionless, unwavering soldier with a giant, futuristic robot that can talk. Yep, this is a mech anime. Ledo usually relies on Amy, a resident of Gargantia who serves as somewhat of a delivery girl, to teach him the ways of the fleet which are almost polar opposites compared to where he lived. Ledo's assimilation is slow and not without blunders, both comical and serious. However, he changes quite considerably from Alliance soldier to Gargantian resident. His mech, Chamber, however, isn't so quick to change. In fact, up until the end of the series, he remains a static character and even hinders Ledo in his assimilation. Notice, I said, "Up until the end". The fact that an AI in a show changes at all is interesting, but this was a complete 180 in terms of personality. As for other characters... Meh, not a whole lot to say. For a twelve episode series, the other characters received about as much development as possible.
And finally the action component. What so great, you may ask. Here's my response. In every other mech anime, aside from a select few, the battles have never met my expectations. It just like watching people fight, except they occasionally have rockets and 12 different machine guns. So what? There isn't really a lot there that humans couldn't do. We can run, we can shoot guns, we can kick, etc. After that, what is there really, in most mech anime, that robots have. Here, in later Suisei, we have flying fighting robots. Okay? So? They have lasers. *Yawn* Alright, here, watch this. The futuristic mechs in Suisei fights are created in ways that I've witnessed in only a few other anime. The art, sound, and animation all flow in perfect harmony to make the battle scenes absolutely amazing. That's something I feel I've seen very few times in mech anime and something that should be a standard for the genre.
I'm going to touch on art and sound only briefly because I feel I've addressed them pretty well in just the last paragraph. The art is easily the best aspect of the show and probably the biggest contributor to the amazing battle scenes. Battle scenes aside, character art and scenery a detailed down to the last spec of light reflected off the ocean's surface. Sound, however, would be the least impressive aspect of the show. Don't get me wrong, it's still good. The soundtrack compliments situations nicely, special effects are well done, but there are many other shows that do it a lot better.
Overall, Suisei no Gargantia is a very good take on a futuristic genre and it's easy to see why it's spoken of highly. I would certainly encourage anyone to watch it, and I myself would watch it again.
