Beyond Ledo's character development, Gargantia also offers a surprising amount of world building and character exploration for a 13-episode series. The series explores the differing factions and governing structures existing within the world of its series that explore positive and negative social structures that exist among the factions and established governments seen throughout the series. In addition, a number of other side characters have their fleshing out and roles to fulfill as some have their own issues they are trying to overcome or serve to aid Ledo in dealing with integrating with the Gargantia fleet. The OVA bonus episodes released after the TV anime's run add some expansion on aspects to plot and characters within the series such as some back story on Ridget and how Ledo's commanding officer established the cult-like society seen in the second half of Gargantia. The only issues I have with the series as a whole are some subpar attempts at comedy during the anime's first half.
Visually, Gargantia was easily one of 2013's better animated titles with large amounts of visual detail put into the designs of characters, scenery and mecha designs. CG animation is used rather frequently throughout the series in the rendering of mecha, the ships and the endless waters traveled by the crew of the Gargantia. The CG animation used for these is nicely rendered, but does stick out like a sore thumb compared to the regular animation. The series is nicely animated with fluid movement throughout its run with a variety of movement conveyed such as flying via gliders, swimming and aerial fighting as seen during the final battle in the series.
Overall, Gargantia was a solid sci-fi/ action title that delved into Ledo's social integration with the Gargantia fleet and a surprising amount of focus on world building and side characters within its fairly short run time. This is a title definitely worth a look if you are looking for a sci-fi title that is a bit out of the ordinary with what it has to offer up.
