Gargantia has a pretty standard action/adventure plot. It's about a young soldier from a futuristic civilization that is engaged in an apocalyptic war with alien creatures, who finds himself marooned on a water planet whose inhabitants travel in large communal fleets, fishing and salvaging technology from their pre-flood civilization. (The fleet is the "Gargantia" of the title.) It's not long before he discovered that the planet is Earth—the long-lost birthplace of his civilization. That's the plot, but by the end you realize that what it is really about is about is what it means to be human—as an individual, as a society, and as a species. It's a brilliant and beautifully animated true science fiction story. It foes that through a masterful combination of story, plot, and characterization that is enhanced by the beautiful art.
