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← darkroomCapsule Review
Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet
Originally written on 14-feb-2015. Edited for links, formatting and punctuation.
4/10
Gargantia: Capsule Review 4/10
Gargantia’s opening fight sequence in space is dazzling - despite lack of investment, as we have only just met our archetypical characters – unfortunately the animation goes downhill from there and our investment grows only slightly.
Once we reach Earth a majority of the action is in the water and Gargantia suffers in comparison to the similarly water-based anime, Free! released in the same year, who’s animation of the water is beautifully realised. The sense of scale is also absent, its bizarre because I’m not quite sure what’s wrong with it, but the depth of the Earth now covered in water, or the magnitude of battles between fleets is not felt. In terms of artwork, there are nice touches in the character details, one example being the tanned and slightly sunburned shoulders and cheeks of Amy.
Gargantia’s strength is in its concept, but is poorly explored after it is introduced in the first few episodes. In the spirit of great sci-fi, the anime speculates on interesting themes, but the questions raised are immediately answered by an A.I logic-based mecha, Chamber. Our fish out of water, Ledo, doesn’t learn anything, he accepts Chamber’s dictations and deductions. With themes undebated and efficiently dealt with, Gargantia sustains itself on periodically delivered twists, which make for a watchable but ultimately unsatisfying experience.
The variety in the ensemble cast makes up for the bland-by-design lead and supports the theme of team-work. The community is celebrated and frequently threatened but presented as a sort of charming, idealistic, ‘everyone does their bit!’ utopia.
Gargantia has a lot to offer in its concept, variety of themes and genre-combining. Yet these things are only introduced and poorly executed with the show surviving on twists, an ensemble cast and attempts at speculative sci-fi.
Well everyone has different opinion i personally fucking loved it. The first episode with the space thing going on was boring i would have dropped it but then the real story began on the ship. I really liked how our mc who basically grew up in a place where human interaction and emotion is non existent basically learns all the basic human interactions and their everyday life. Obvious it acted as a gateway for him to devolop himself so he could save the day in the 2nd half of the show which was more of a philosophical side of the anime overall really enjoyed it
I mostly agree with you ( @graze) although i haven't and won't finish it. Suisei no Gargantia is way too much of a Slice of Life Take for a show that first started with a climatic war between Humandkind and an alien race. I don't dislike the change of Scene after the Battle which is the anime's true nature, but sadly it doesn't really focus on anything after that and seems loose. Every Character is shallow, mostly stupid and we never get to know their (inner) thoughts. I think the theme of the anime is the Rehabilitaion of Ledo into a real humane culture and sourrunding, after he only knew the survival of the fittest for all of his life. During this Character Development the different cultural Ideals should have had a way bigger Clash as he is going to increasingly question the nature of the galactical human alliance. Sadly not any of the big Theme's is getting explored nor does any of Ledo's Development "Hit Home". Another problem is the pacing and the consistency of plot. After the first two episodes everything slowed down to a pace where you can see light moving and the plot vanished from existence. (And for real now, why was there your typical "beach" episode?) Unfortunately the show fails to compensate for this with wholesome or captivating scenes between the main cast.
Suisei no Gargantia is by no means a bad show but it is nothing special either since it neglected its unique potential and setting.
Dude its only slico of life for 6 eps after that plot twists happen and the story starts to develop and there is character development u should give it a try
thanks to this series for being a huge inspiration for titanfall 2