Suisei no Gargantia was pretty predictable for the most part by me, I can't recall how but subconciously I had seen this story before. After seeing the discussion about Gen Urobuchi doing this anime:
[QUOTE=BigBoss0327;88719]People are going to die in this anime?!?
I thought it was a happy-go-lucky anime that teaches valuables lessons like the importance of human life and family and stuff...[/QUOTE]
A rather interesting quote of myself while I was watching the series, little did I know that this is basically the whole reason of the anime! This is an anime about the meaning of life. Nonetheless, it was magnificently excecuted if I do say so myself, in fact, you could even say it was executed too well. By that, I mean that this anime was on the level of a MOVIE! Not sure if I was the only one who saw it that way, but this could have easily have been a 5-star anime movie. Something about the art, the plot, the characters.. everything! It was so... movie-like y'know what I mean?? Anyways, the point being that this is high-quality stuff we're dealing with here~ I remember when I saw the 1st episode when it aired I was totally blown away and got a tear in my eye, reminiscing that anime has come a long way to the point where we get quality like this. Well, I can't say much without spoiling, but if you read the summary above, you'll get a pretty accurate idea of this anime is all about ;D
Characters: 8/10
The characters in Suisei no Gargantia were very impressive IMO. The things about them that stood out to me the most were that they had feelings, and great voice actors~ Even the side/un-important characters had great famous/popular seiyuu! Though the only important ones were Ledo on Chamber through my percepective..
At the beginnign they introduced many of them, but it was pretty apparent that they disappear and become unimportant to the point where you wonder if there was a reason to introducing them at all. Take Amy for example (the female lead), it's weird and I'm not sure I've seen this in an anime before but the whole time it just felt like she was just "there" but she didn't need to be, almost as if they were forcing her character presense. Some sort of twisted and weird fanservice? No matter, it is but a trifling matter that simply irritated me. Also the other girl Bellows, she's introduced in the anime as if she's important or something but in the end even Amy's friend Melty becomes more impactful than her XD It's even arguable that the pirate queen "Rukkage" is even more important than her! My point in this rant being that, Bellows and Amy were sort of "hyped" in the anime but never really did anything and felt forced IMO. The good stuff though was that Ledo, Chamber and Pinion were excellent in every way.
Music: 10/10
Opening/Ending + OST were all very well-done, nothing felt weird or misplaced and like I said earlier.. I'm talking movie-quality. That's the one point I really have to emphasize about this anime. I find it difficult to even call this an anime. It's a movie. I mean, just look at these videos!!? Totally movie-style. Reminds me of one of them Ghibli movies.
[video=youtube;wSyJgxo3jSE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSyJgxo3jSE[/video]
[video=youtube;FAxHH4ofQMw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAxHH4ofQMw[/video]
Art: 10/10
All I have to repeat here is... Movie-like-quality. The blu-ray release of this will certainly be impressive~
Overall Enjoyment: 8/10
Going with MAL ratings, I'll have to give this anime an 8 (Very Good). I have a feeling that it won't be very memorable for me in the future, however if this was a movie, (like a 2/3/4 hour movie) I'd say hands down that it's one of the best I've ever seen. I admit that there were a couple times were I had no clue what was going to happen and that the anime could have taken many different course - but overall I'm pleased with what they did and it was the expected end result.
FINAL RATE: 45/50
I loved many anime that the Spring '13 lineup had to offer, though I'd have to say Suisei no Gargantia is one of the more forgettable ones out of the bunch. At the end of the day though, Gargantia is a great watch, packed with colorful animation, a well written story, and interesting characters. It might have been a bit better as a movie, but I came out of Gargantia very satisfied regardless.
Recommendations:
- Eureka Seven -
Out of everything, Suisei no Gargantia reminded me most of this. Setting aside difference between one another and learning about the wonders of life. If you're interested why not check out my review?~
- Mobile Suit Gundam 00 -
Following blind orders, being in the future, meaningless fighting amoung ourselves, and the order of power through a type of "feudalism". Both these anime are immensely similar in those ways. Find out more about Gundam 00 here.
