SUISEI NO GARGANTIA

DESCRIPTION

CAST

OVA ActionSuisei no Gargantia OVA
ONA ComedyPuchitto Gargantia
NOVEL ActionSuisei no Gargantia
MANGA ActionSuisei no Gargantia
NOVEL ActionSuisei no Gargantia Gaiden: Shounen to Kyojin
MANGA ActionSuisei no Gargantia: Mizuhana no Bellows
MANGA Comedy4-koma Suisei no Gargantia

REVIEWS

• 

  Ciaora39

  73/100
  Beautiful art and characters, however, the story slowly goes downhill later on

  When there is beauty in life, a utopia lies beyond the horizon.

  The utopia in question would be Gargantia, the setting in the show Suisei no Gargantia is centered. We are thrust into a world with no boundaries, no territories, and no international law anymore. It's just the endless sight of oceanic currents and the clear blue sky. It's not often we get a mecha anime with this amount of ambiance or majestic atmosphere that could almost be as close to Aria quality to a bit degree. Going into this show to form my opinion of a positive or negative nature is still hard to express because the anime is excellent in quality, but it could have been a masterpiece in the grand scheme of things.

  Gargantia opens us up with a galactic conflict that involves Ledo, who gets miraculously teleported out of it from a wormhole. However, it is never clear what it was, so don't take my word for it, and lands on Earth that are now engulfed in water with no dry land in sight. He is now put into a world where there is hardly any war besides the occasional pirate attacks on Gargantia. Still, it is nevertheless portrayed as a peaceful city with lively people on every corner. From here, he meets the heroine of the show Amy who he kidnaps to gain some information on where he is. Once he is accepted into the culture, he soon tries to examine the world he is now a part of and make sense of its ideology.

  How the show builds up Ledo into growing into Gargantia's society as he interacts with the people, seeing how he doesn't know what type of society everyone else is living, is the most vital point. You have the character Amy who is Ledo's guide in showing how Gargantia works in its resource management, and its overall world-building makes for a sensational character story. You can deeply feel Ledo's confusion and fascination just from his expressions and the fact that he was raised to fight in wars while the people here aren't. While it can be argued is a cop-out to build up a romantic interest, Amy is portrayed in a down-to-earth fashion rather than trying to make her seem like she's there just to put a cute girl into the mix. She's mentally and physically capable of handling herself, making her not a useless character, and she's written to have a lot of willpower in giving the show an excellent needed level of charm and sublime beauty. Ledo is no exception when it comes to excellent character writing. His development through the eventual twist near the halfway point in the show shows how he changes as soon as he is shown this whole new reality that he had never considered authentic.

  Do the rest of the characters have the same development as our two main leads? No, but then again, it's not needed to be given in context to the scale of the show. You have the sexy female character Bellows who has some degree of involvement in Ledo's development in how she shows him how fishes are the primary source of food for Gargantia. The other person who helps Ledo is Pinion, a sly, cocky sidekick character who does have some decent exposition about his past and how he has felt towards the whale-squids involved in his history. The rest of the surfaces come and go, but they don't carry much weight to the show, but considering how some of them eventually do become important figures in Gargantia in the latter half of the show can be forgiven. One example is Amy's close friends, who at first seem as though they are just there for sex appeal, but they do contribute to the plot so that they don't seem like filler characters.

  That is not to say that Gargantia doesn't have fan service since the show is set on an ocean and like you would've guessed, we get to see Amy and the rest of the females get into their swimsuits and play in the water and relax. However, if you look at how these people live and how their clothing represents how they go about their daily activities, it is not distracting or comes out of nowhere. With fan service you get from many shows these days that do them to arouse the audience, here in Gargantia, it seems natural to the setting and breathes all new life into it for everyone.

  Before I talk about the writing itself, it would be safe to state my position on Urobuchi's credibility as a writer and his recent popularity in the current mainstream of anime. I'm one of the few who is indifferent to the man. I never understood the love or hate this man gets each time he writes or produces a show. The man knows how to write a show with excellent action and psychological thriller aspects with really stylized flair in the characters, but he doesn't know how to write convincing meta-theories within his works when he tries to implement them. It's a situation where the man has the potential to write great stories on the one hand. But on the other, he needs to implement the themes in a better way that seems convincing. With the case of Gargantia, it can be safely said it's probably one of his better ones simply because of the way Gargantia handles its philosophical themes with less melodrama and is directed more subtle to add more clarity them rather than making them muddled or confused with itself. That is until it quickly isn't fully realized in the end.

  With all the compliments mentioned for Urobuchi's contribution, Gargantia falls into an unfocused narrative in the last act. Without spoiling the show for people who haven't seen it, it involves another group of people who are not a part of Gargantia or the pirates who aren't fully realized with their intentions or way of life. There is a brief explanation of how the people live, but it felt like Urobuchi just wanted to show a dark element to the story to remind us that we are watching a show written by him. Not that there is a problem introducing us to a darker side of the setting of Gargantia. But in this particular case, it doesn't work from how predictable and uninspired it was because they pulled off a "Heart of Darkness" sub-plot right out of nowhere that isn't very convincing or effective in the slightest bit. It does reach a nice climax involving Ledo's mecha Chamber, but not even that could have saved it from a poor narrative focus.

  Then there is the art and animation with lush colors and extraordinary effects. It's one of the most beautiful shows to grace the screen in a long time. It's not even the most technically impressive show concerning the high-budget shows of today. Still, given the amount of detail given to the water and how its reflections are drawn on, everything provides Gargantia with are very relaxing atmosphere and makes you feel like you're a part of this utopian society from the art alone. One scene involves an aurora borealis. Amy performing an elegant dance for Ledo makes for a memorable and beautiful scene based on the careful detail the animators put into making it. Or whenever you see the Hideauze swim underwater, and how they glow underneath the water is lovely from an ascetic point of view. While the animation may not be the most fluid in some places, it does its job exceptionally well in creating a beautiful atmosphere to make the city of Gargantia and the people living in it astounding to look at.

  The music, composed by Taro Iwashiro, not only contains standard orchestral instruments but also some New Age musical endeavors as well. Pan flutes can be heard in a few specific scenes that almost give off a Chrono Cross vibe that makes it seem very natural to the world of Gargantia. The OP, while catchy, isn't especially anything unique or memorable. However, the female singer of the Ending song sings a lovely melody backed up by some instruments that fit well into the show rather than your standard J-Pop song.

  Gargantia, while not the masterpiece that everyone was hoping for, is still a great show to watch regardless of its poorly written last arc. The show's first half alone should be well-regarded as brilliant with its relaxing slice of life aspect. Sure the previous act is quite disappointing in that it didn't live up to its expectations, but it's hard not to give the show a run for its premise. The characters and atmosphere make the show a splendid joy to watch; it might be evident that we might see a continuation of Gargantia shortly, not anytime soon, that's for sure. It can't be denied that the story could be more fleshed out that way. It can achieve what it wants to be in a better scenario. One can only hope.

  Grade: B+

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• 

  70ny

  100/100
  A unique Sci-Fi featuring a beautiful world, great characters, and a stellar OST.

  I will be up-front and say that I am probably incredibly biased in my opinion of Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet. You see, I'm a BIG Xenoblade fan and this anime had a lot of similar vibes going on. For those of you who haven't played a Xenoblade game (which I fear might be most people out there), it's a bit difficult to explain. I went to a good friend of mine who is also a massive fan. He provided a very brief summary of how the world in Xenoblade looks that I really liked:

  'Science fantasy' where there's futuristic tech in proximity to more traditional aesthetics and cultures. Something more down to earth, while having fucking crazy science.

  Hopefully you now have a better idea, even if it might be very vague. I will compare this anime to Xenoblade a few more times my review. But my goal is to illustrate my personal thoughts such that anyone can understand regardless.

  I will avoid spoilers in this review.

  ---

  # Story/World-building

  ---

  Imagine an isekai where the main protagonist (Ledo) has an OP mecha (Chamber), in a world where everyone has much cruder technology. In other words, a massive disparity in power. However, Ledo is still in a totally new world. Everything they once knew and believed isn't helpful and is constantly questioned. And to top it off, Ledo is forced to interact with a foreign group of people. The general story revolves around Ledo having to adapt to this new way of life.

  If you were going in expecting epic fights and action, then you might be disappointed. That isn't really the focus (not to say that there isn't any action). Rather, the focal point is the world-building, which I think is done incredibly well, in my personal opinion.

  I really liked how the world got established. We the audience, alongside Ledo, are trying to learn and understand this new world. Though for us, new might not be the right word, since there is technology that we might be familiar with. Even so, these people rely on salvaging to get a lot of the stuff they use. So even they themselves might not even fully understand the technology, since it can come from long before their time.

  Then there's just the whole premise of seeing how people might adapt to living on a planet seemingly covered entirely in water. I thought that the system shown was unique and interesting. It might've been borrowed or inspired by something else, but I couldn't think of anything. I've seen some people compare this to Waterworld, but I never saw it, so I can't personally comment. But for those of you who have, it might have a similar feel to that.

  

  Honestly, this all just reminded me a lot of the world in the different Xenoblade games. One of my friends who saw this said it felt like they fused the Argentum Guild (from Xenoblade 2) with the Blade Barracks (from Xenoblade X). I personally just felt a mix of the colony life from Xenoblade 1 and the salvaging aspect from 2. It felt strangely nostalgic and I loved it.

  I guess to more specifically point out what it was that I liked, it was this blend of technology that we might see today with that of the future. There was this cool environment of past (what was salvaged) and future (what came with Ledo) coming together to make something that works for the present. And the anime did a really good job at still showing the difference between the two (which I will talk more about in Art/Animation section).

  The story itself could probably be best described as feeling very much like a slice of life in the first half of the show. Tons of ambience and beautiful scenery to behold. For me, I found it to be unique and loved it. As for the latter half of the show, I think most who have seen this would agree that it was a bit rough around the edges. I won't go into much more detail, but I just wanted to acknowledge that there is a noticeable change in tone/direction that could potentially impact personal enjoyment (which depends on what one is hoping to get out of this).

  Additionally, throughout the story, there are a few plot-holes. I was able to look past them and didn't let it ruin my enjoyment. However, they were present and I wished that they got addressed. So if stuff like that bothers you, it could be an issue, but I don't think there were enough problems that made the show unwatchable or anything like that. There were just a few parts that had me scratching my head and that I wish had better explanation (or in some cases, got explained at all).

  I do think it's worth pointing out that this is an anime original. Meaning that it didn't have any source material to go off of. With that in consideration, I honestly think that even if the story got a bit shaky towards the end, it still stuck the landing for me.

  ---

  # Characters

  ---

  It is very clear from the start that the most attention is given to Ledo, Chamber, and Amy. There is still a pretty wide cast of supporting characters, but they don't have close to as much screen-time. So if you wanted to see development beyond the main characters, you will be disappointed. Not to say that the supporting cast doesn't get any development, but it isn't much, is only for a few of them, and is spread out.

  I don't really think there were any characters I hated. Nobody seemed overly annoying and I just loved each and every one of the crew. My favorite character overall would probably have to be Chamber. For an AI, I think he was written exceptionally well. It was weird, he didn't feel like a full-on robot, but wasn't human either (obviously). I got similar vibes to J.A.R.V.I.S. from Marvel.

  

  Moments like this are why I love Chamber.

  If you were looking for romance, this ain't the anime for you. There is zero romance and very minimal fan-service (only a few scenes and didn't seem too forced to me). For some, this might be a huge deal. For others, a breath of fresh air.

  To my surprise, there were some moments where philosophical questions got brought up. I suppose it made sense, since Ledo constantly had to reevaluate what he formerly believed. What was once accepted as truth and purpose became questioned. To avoid spoilers, I won't go into much more detail. But the show raises some interesting questions that I honestly never thought to ask. And while Ledo and some other characters do examine these questions and share some insight, it still felt as though it could've been explored more. I think that part of the issue stemmed from the show only being 13 episodes. But I still thought it was an interesting inclusion and that it didn't hurt my experience much, if at all.

  ---

  # Art/Animation

  ---

  This is a very beautiful anime. It's very colorful, it's vibrant, and the art was just really well-done in general.

  

  I mean come on, look at that water!

  As I've said before, this anime did an exceptional job at contrasting the two worlds. Ledo's technology was all black and/or just dull in colors. Conversely, everything else in this new world was full of color and life. But despite this obvious difference, it worked and looked great.

  As for the fights, I think it still looks fine. CGI is clearly used for any mecha/ships, which isn't all that surprising for me. Almost every other mecha I've seen up to now has done this. Since I am still new to anime and the mecha genre in general, I can't speak to how frequently it gets seen. All I'm trying to say is that I personally found no issue with its use. It didn't hinder my enjoyment or experience, but it is noticeable and definitely isn't the best. So if the use of any CGI is a turn-off for you, then you might not like it.

  #####The CGI ain't bad, but it's there.

  I don't think I have much else to say. I just really liked how this anime looked and didn't see much wrong outside of maybe some nitpicks with the CGI.

  ---

  # Audio/OST

  ---

  Holy shit. Where do I even start. I liked the OP for this show. It really fit the vibe (for the most part) and was just a bop. I can't comment on the ED; I would usually skip it to see the next episode as fast as I could.

  Then there's the OST, which is, in my opinion, one of the best I've heard in any anime up to now. Tarou Iwashiro did a fantastic job at bringing everything to life and setting the mood. Each scene had a track that felt appropriate. And once combined with the already beautiful visuals, really elevated my experience. Everything just worked for me.

  #####This sounds like a track out of a Xenoblade game.

  As for the audio, it generally seemed great to me. All in all, anything to do with sound was a 10/10 for me.

  ---

  # Conclusion

  ---

  

  Nothing is without its flaws. Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet might not be perfect. Despite that, I still enjoyed it a lot. I fell in love with the world and characters and was left wanting more. Unfortunately, we won't be seeing a season 2. However, there are a pair of specials and OVA that expand on the story. So if you liked this and wanted more, then you'll most likely like those too (I think, I know I did). I know that a lot of people who enjoyed this anime were really disappointed about the sequel not happening. I too was one of them. But now I'm not sure. It ends at a good spot (with a fairly "final" ending) and doesn't overstay its welcome. I don't know if I'd want a potentially bad sequel to mess anything up.

  I think I would honestly give this a 10/10. But what even is a 10/10 anyways? Is anything truly flawless in every aspect? After some introspection, I determined that for me, a 10/10 would be something that I found a lot of entertainment in. There might have been some bad parts, but ultimately, the positives outweighed the negatives so much that it didn't matter. I enjoyed it from start to finish and felt as though I had to nitpick to find anything I really didn't like. This is something I can see myself re-watching in the future. And most importantly, this is 100% something I would recommend to anyone else. It is sad this anime seems to be so underrated.

  I give Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet a 10/10.

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