Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet : Macross meets Waterworld, but with less Kevin Costner in it (thank goodness).
As a longtime fan of science fiction and fantasy, the prolific story of the time traveller or alien from a high society finding himself in the past or on a less advanced society and having to adapt or overcome the local inhabitants is one I am well acquainted with already. So when this trope decided to take a leap into the anime medium, the particulars of it didn't come as much of a surprise, even if this time the character it happened to was not so much Ash Williams and more Sousuke Sagara and the plot and characters have a distinct Japanese bent to them.
Yet another brainchild of the now rather prolific writer Gen Urobochi (whom I personally consider to be diet-brand Mohiroh Kitoh at best), Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet (“Verdurous” meaning “has lots of shrubberies in it”) or Shusei no Gargantia in its original moonspeak, is a 2013 spring anime animated by Production I.G. Based on an original story, Urobochi has in interviews explained that this story is him in “happy” mode and supposed to “inspire hope” when compared to his earlier Fate/Zero, Puella Magica Madoka and Psycho-Pass, which by comparison are about as extreme as an average Fist of the North Star episode and therefore very dark and edgy by today's standards (I lived through the eighties! Your “dark and dramatic” does not frighten me!).
How well is Gargantia as a lovely little happy tale of drama and stuck in a strange land? Well, read on if you're interested. Or just look at the final score to the right and then complain at me in the comments. Either works.
Animation and Visuals: 8/10 –– Lovely scenery and battle animation, slightly generic characters.
The opening scene of Gargantiais a wonderful sci-fi battle that is as confusing as it is brightly coloured, fast-paced, and distinctively good-looking with robots and alien squid fighting each other in a visual feast.
After expecting the show to have blown all its money on that explosionfest it was therefore a positive surprise to learn the show had more than that up its sleeve in the graphics department: Gargantialooks positively lovely in its worldbuilding and backgrounds department, from the titular ship itself to the ocean shots and the underwater scenes. The colours are impressively rich and the animation rock-solid.
My main gripe with Gargantiais the somewhat generic character design: Although it serves for making practically every character you're supposed to remember memorable and not mistakable for anyone else, the generic 'cuteness' is strong in this show and there's not much variance in facial structure. I also consider making all the “cuter” characters automatically the most morally pure, right and innocent a blatant emotive-manipulative statement.
Audio: 6/10 –– Good voices. Meh but workable music.
Audio is perhaps one of Gargantia's less inspiring and memorable pieces, which considering it still does above-average in it means it's still solid. The soundtrack is not unlike that of any modern Hollywood feature film in its use of dramatic pomp and violins, and the voice acting is decently provided by a staple of voice actors where the only voice job I can reliably identify is Katsuyuki “Kamina” Konishi as jerk-with-a-heart-of-gold mechanic Pinion and Tomokazu Seki attempting a Takehito Koyasu impression as Ledo's AI partner Chamber. Without excelling in any particular way (I won't be hunting for this soundtrack on CD any time soon), the work is suitable and I can live with handing out a decent grade for the whole shebang.
Story: 6/10 –– “All right you primitive screwheads, listen up. See this? This... Is my BOOMSTICK! It's a twelve gauge double barrelled Remington, S-Mart's top-of-the-line. You can find this in the sporting goods department. That's right, this sweet baby was made in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Retails for about $109.95. It's got a walnut stock, cobalt blue steel and a hair trigger. That's right. Shop Smart. Shop S-Mart. YA GOT THAT!?”
Mmmmm... Bruce Campbell's pecs... Oh, right, review. Where was I? Story, that was it. As I already hinted at in my opening statement, Gargantia is a tale of Ledo, a member of an organization called Grand Galactic Alliance whose society and circumstances comes right out of Robert Henlein's Starship Troopers. After a battle against the Alliance's hated foe, the squid-like Hideauze, goes horribly wrong Ledo is caught in a Swirly Space Thingy and sent hurling through space. He wakes up six months later aboard the Gargantia, a giant city-sized ship in a primitive human society on a planet untouched by the Alliance or its war. In this new environment, Ledo only has his sidearm, his space suit and his highly advanced and intelligent combat mecha called Chamber for company, and over 13 episodes we follow him as he has to adapt to life on the strange planet (which to the surprise of absolutely nobody turns out to be humanity's “lost” birthplace, Earth), aided by local ray of sunshine and about-as-subtle-as-a-brick-to-the-face love interest Amy.
Gargantia cannot claim to get any particular brownie points for originality in its storytelling: As a classical (Joseph) Campbell's heroes journey (which does not involve The Chin in any way, sadly), Ledo starts out in a familiar environs, gets a call to adventure through Space Thingy, goes through the trials and temptations of living life in Gargantia's society, encounters a terrible revelation that reinvents his character and faces off against a foe that his character development has brought him into conflict with. Although the story hooks are decently told, they're not always particularly engaging and a lot of time near the middle is spent on trivialties that I would call “world building” if I honestly felt it had been written more proficiently: As it is, I most of it seems a bit ham-fisted (say what you want about Urobochi, but he's no Nahoko Uehashi in ability to make everyday life feel alive and engaging).
After a spot of slow pacing, coming to a head in episode 7, the story finally decides it wants to move on and go into drama territory again. At which point the obligatory dramatic revelation it unleashes upon us turns out to be a classic twist of the sort that, to put it simply, lacks some of the gravitas of similar twists such as, say, Planet of the Apes. Worse than that is that said twist feels like it has very little bearing on the plot itself and the world, and all the difference it makes is pretty much to make the protagonist question himself.
And there we come somewhat to the crux of the issue: The entire story feels somewhat like it exists entirely for the sake of Ledo and his development. I cannot help but feel a sense of lack of perspective in building this entire narrative. Sure, there are things going on outside of Ledo's perspective and I cannot deny that, but ultimately I still feel like with such a vibrant and rich world to explore the personalised nature of the final stretch is kind of disappointing: The seeming lack of context for much of the outside world, apart from on some other named characters, feels like such a wasteful, singular focus. Even during the final epic battle, the narrative feels like it's unduly focusing on Ledo's mental condition rather than the context of what this battle means for the sake of the world. And especially since you know all this epic space opera war is happening in the background, but is of no consequence any longer. It's like if someone decided to put the plot of FLCL inside an arc of Legend of Galactic Heroes... Or just the plot of FLCL, period (oh, right. Spoiler warning for the plot of FLCL), minus the mind-altering drugs and symbolic genitals.
Characters: 6/10 –– They may not be the greatest of characters or the most rational of actors, but they're at least *believable*.
Despite its focus on its main character, Gargantiadoes have a pretty fair character gallery, most of whom get sufficient time to showcase some of their personality, background and hopes and ideals. Even if, in the end, they're supporting cast, most of them are well-fleshed out that you feel with them as human beings and you understand the choices they do and the actions they take as a result of their personalities and their situation, even if they're not always agreeable or rational.
That said, some of the characters are bit stereotypical, and some side characters seem more introduced for novelty's sake than for having much purpose in the story, amongst them that lady pirate I didn't see much point in apart from being needless smug fanservice. For the most part, however, there is some decent character exploration and there's even a few non-Ledo character arcs...
The mention of character arcs, however, must bring forth the greatest black mark of this show, one I cannot overlook. Go look at the poster for Gargantia. No, go ahead, I'll be right here while you do it.
Back? Good. Notice the poster? Which characters are more prominent? Of the three (well, four if you want to be technical) characters in Gargantia that get character arcs, Amy, that girl on the left in the prominent centre position, is not one of them. Amy is a virtual non-entity, a cute perky little ball of sunshine who's obviously interested in Ledo and... That's it. Like every classical Manic Pixie Dream Girl, Amy has absolutely no character development and practically no existence in the show outside of her interactions with Ledo. We are talking about a main character who, really, has no character.
This comes in contrast to my favourite character in the show: Chamber, the AI in Ledo's giant robot. The contrast comes because Chamber is a character who by his own admission exists only to support Ledo: He is Ledo's companion AI and is there to help his survival and development, and indeed spends most of the entire show doing just that... But even so, he has more plot-relevant interactions with other characters and has more individual development as a character than Amy does. The irony in that a character who's a satellite entity with no free will in-universe has more independent action than a character who's supposed to be a fully realised human being is one that underscores this issue.
Value: 6/10 –– That the “advanced civilization survivor stranded as fish on land in primitive society” plot hasn't been done that much in anime doesn't really help this.
As I've already intimated above, what originality and spirit Gargantia shows is mostly in the world design and the thought it has made into the society on the flooded earth, which I must admit was somewhat interesting to watch as a novelty. Other than that, the plot is standard, the characters are fairly well-done but nothing original, and overall this anime isn't standout in much any other way apart from being one of the better-made shows of the 2013 summer.
If you liked Gargantia, I would probably suggest the older Fullmetal Panic!, a show about a career soldier with a giant robot who falls in love and has to integrate into civilian society. The setting brings to mind other post-apocalyptic shows like Nausicaa. If you're more into the space combat stuff, I would recommend the Macross series and (if you get desperate), Strain: Armoured Infantry. And, of course, Legend of Galactic Heroes and FLCL because, hey, why not.
Enjoyment: 7/10 –– A fair showing, but not without some noticeable flaws.
Despite it somewhat standing on formula, I find I enjoyed Gargantia well enough on a weekly basis. The characters were generally sympathetic or of the “like to dislike” type, such as jerks like Pinion, and the characters who get development generally do so in an organic fashion. The plot could have benefited from a boost in certain places in my opinion, there could be less “the cute person is always right”, music could have been more noticeable and Amy could have used being a character of her own instead of a flat archetype codependent on Ledo to actualise, but they led to less irritation than I'd expected.
Total: 6.5/10 –– It exists to, hopefully, guide the director to do greater things next time. Not that this time around was that bad.
When it comes down to it Gargantia does far more things 'right' than it does 'wrong, and where things go wrong it's mostly in minor hiccups than actual large let-downs. “Inoffensive” is a good word for this show: Above-average on most parts but not truly excelling anywhere except for in the world design and backgrounds. As for the story taking a more happy bent, I don't really mind, I just sort of wish they'd taken a slightly more creative route in getting there.
Urobochi said that this show is supposed to inspire hope. And where my 'hope' that the anime industry continues to provide me with worthwhile entertainment is concerned, Gargantia certainly is that. Even with the high expectations from its director and animation studio the end result swims more than it sinks, and in many ways that's as much as we could ask for.
