otter space

What happens when you combine Dances With Wolves with Waterworld (both, oddly enough, 90s Kevin Cosner movies) and throw it together with a good ol’ anime coming-of-age story? Well, you get Suisei no Gargantia, one of the few shows from the past season to have caught my attention immediately from episode one, a rare occurrence these days given the quality of recent anime.

The story – alien boy and big mecha robot (Ledo and Chamber) lands in technologically inferior world, clashes with the native civilization but ultimately falls in love with native girl (Amy) and ultimately turns on his own (authoritarian and creepy) civilization – is not new. In fact, given the number of movies which share this exact same plot structure (cough Avatar cough), Gargantia‘s is trite. But there is nothing wrong with an effective retelling of an old tale.

With that said, Production I.G. renders post-apocalyptic Earth a vibrant and colorful ocean paradise. While animation quality is steady through the first half of the 13-episode series, I was rather disappointed by Gargantia‘s declining animation quality in its final half as faces inevitably fall apart into incoherent lopsided blobs.

Though I should be grateful that the show was spared a Urobutcher ending and that Chamber became the most epic Pilot Support Enlightenment Interface System ever (more on that later), its biggest problem may have been its length – there simply were not enough episodes to fully explore the show’s themes and characters.

Crammed into its the last couple of episodes, Gargantia‘s ending charges so quickly through all of its twists and turns that I never felt like the characters or the audience for that matter had enough time to take in everything. Ledo finds out that his life’s purpose to eliminate the so-called Hideazue enemy is a fabrication, meets literally the only other person on Earth from his world, betrays him to save Gargantia, almost dies, watches Chamber, his robot companion, sacrifice himself, AND….everything is totally okay when the credits roll! The series really needs maybe an episode or two to allow its characters to come to terms with the ending and its consequences. They obliterated another fleet and destroyed a religion for the love of God!

Emotionally satisfying and visually appealing, Gargantia lacks that “special something” for a lack of better words to take it to greater heights. But, seriously, I am just glad Ledo and Amy are alive, together, and living happily ever after with everyone else on Gargantia. It could have ended a lot worse (see: Puella Magi Madoka Magica).

In the end, Zeyphr over at Random Curiosity may have said it best: While I can nod after the credits roll and say, “Gee, this was a pretty good show,” I cannot say that Gargantia was a masterpiece.

Side note: Pinon with his hair down actually looks tolerably attractive and a Bellows-Pinon-Lukkage love triangle makes my fangirl senses tingle.

Obligatory Chamber Appreciation Section

How can you not love an AI with a convoluted title like “Pilot Support Enlightenment Interface System”? He translates foreign languages, helps out around the fleet, and – oh yeah – conveniently blows himself up so his human pilot can live happily ever after with the love of his life. And, to top it all off, how can you not love his ingenious up-yours to Striker, “Go to hell, tin can!”? Best character of the series.

But to be honest, Chamber’s persistent logic in the earlier episodes seriously creeped me the fuck out, especially during the end of episode 9 when Chamber crushes the Hideazue creature without batting so much as an robot eyelash on its robot eye. At that point, Chamber seemed on the verge of overriding Ledo’s affection for the people of Gargantia and pulling a Striker God-complex on everyone so I was really surprised when he sacrificed himself so that Ledo may live.

Why does everyone look like they walked out of TTGL?!

I would like to say that Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and Gargantia are completely different shows but I had doubts after making this chart out of my own curiosity. Bellows and Pinon reminded me too much of Yoko and Kittan for me NOT to make this chart. And what about Adiane and Lukkage? Badass females with badass mechas? Am I reaching here? Am I?? The Ridget/Kinon one is the weakest look-a-like but it just goes to show how similar the character design of these two shows were. And again, it is not as if these similarities really subtract from my thorough enjoyment of Gargantia.