Yea this is a bit late with the new season already in its second week, but whatever.
Suisei no Gargantia was one of my favourite shows of Spring 2013. What I enjoyed most was how the show didn't focus on explosions or crazy plot twists to carry my attention. What made Gargantia such a pleasure to watch, was how it focuses on each character's inner conflicts about their goals and finding meaning to their existence. Gargantia's main theme was a clash of cultures, adapting to new ways of life and comparing personal values against each other in order to determine the right path.
Ledo, a dutiful soldier who knows nothing but war, lives only to exterminate a threatening alien race. After a massive battle in space, Ledo is thrown into a worm hole and winds up on Earth, which was thought to be a frozen lifeless planet. Ledo finds himself on a peaceful planet where a melted ice-age period has left the Earth submerged underwater, where massive ship colonies house the human population. The ship Ledo finds himself on lives its days in peace and knows nothing of war. Impossible to re-join his army, Ledo has to figure out a means to "live", and tries to understand himself while on the giant ocean ship Gargantia.
Gargantia does a great job of growing it's characters over the course of the 13 episodes. The show has a slower pace that explores each character, rather than throwing a bunch of characteristics at you in a short span of time.
Now Suisei no Gargantia may not have a lot of action, but it definitely doesn't fall short of interesting and engaging. There are a few eye-popping events that occur, and ultimately everything comes down to a battle of wills. There are a few combat scenes, as well as one incredible final episode that reaches a conclusion to everyone's desires and personal decisions.
Suisei no Gargantia pulled out all the stops with an action packed ending, and managed to resolve all the main conflicts of the show. The final episode really captured the essence of the show, personal beliefs and struggles were mainly individual throughout the season, but in the end everyone is brought together in a clash that crushes some dreams, but ultimately has a happy ending.
There were quite a few characters, and thankfully we didn't need much information on them to understand their personalities. The main characters Ledo and Amy, and even some of the better supporting characters grew as the show went on. We were able to clearly see personal struggles with how each character wanted to live their lives and what decisions they took to chase their dreams. Unfortunately I thought Ledo and Amy could have used more progression with each other, but then again I don't know what could have been cut-out in order to make this happen. Overall Ledo, Chamber, and Pinion were the my favourites, I thoroughly enjoyed their progress and they were mainly the sole reasons why I enjoyed the show so much. Their conflicts and choices shaped the events of Gargantia.
Story:
Now that I think about it, the main "plot" to Suisei no Gargantia was about Ledo adapting to his new life. This was excellently done with the help of all the supporting characters as this clash of cultures created meaningful emotions between Ledo and his new home. The story gets really interesting as the show goes on, and it got better and better. The ending to Gargantia was one of the best I have ever seen, all of the conflicts between characters and ways of life comes into a glorious action packed finale that sees everything come to a great end.
Visual:
I really loved the art of the show, the ship Gargantia was breathtaking, and although I found the action scenes to be lacking a little, the character art was bright, colourful, and beautiful. The animation quality differed from time to time, but the visuals and bright colours made it enjoyable.
Sound:
I don't think anything particularly stood out, but I found the audio wonderfully conveyed the spaces portrayed in the show. The composition of sound and visual of Gargantia made me fall in love with the ship's setting, how I wish that city of ships were real.
Overall:
I loved this show, it wasn't perfect, but everything was well executed to show how Ledo progressed from being a galactic soldier who knew only of war, to becoming an integrated part of the Gargantia ship, he was reborn with more "soul" and an appreciation for experiencing life.
Caution! Spoilers below on the ending.
There were a few defining moments of the show that I loved.
The beginning of the series has Ledo waking up to a brand new world, a seemingly peaceful life on the ocean liner Gargantia. These beginning moments for Ledo define his sense of loss and confusion. Ledo's personality and the story writing excellently convey how Ledo feels in such a different world that he must adapt to.
The Hideauze truth about humanity was something that threw Ledo into a mental nightmare. Ledo's shock to the Hideauze being of human origin was excellently presented, and ironic as Ledo was ruthlessly massacring the lot prior to the truth. Up until this point Ledo was starting to adapt to his new life but still had strong ties to his militaristic past, he was at a crossroads, trying to find a path for himself. just as Ledo finally finds something to do with his life on Earth, he is thrown into disarray. Even Chamber's attitude to the killing of the Hideauze helped Ledo realize that he still has no place in this new start on life, and that he must come to understand where he stands and how to move forward in search of a reason to live.
Once Ledo and Pinion had joined up with Ledo's former commander, it ended up revealing just how wrong the galactic alliance's influence was. I loved Pinion's progress as he became obsessed with the relics and how it pushed Ledo to attack the Hideauze and fall back on his military history. Once the bodies of the sacrificed were thrown into the water, it was sudden and without warning. This realization woke Ledo and Pinion from their desires and helped them see the right path to take. I really loved that moment of terror, seeing people suddenly being sacrificed in large numbers was quite the scene. Ledo's sudden flashback of his brother and Bebel reminds him how horrible these religious sacrifices are.
Pinion was one character that really grew on me. He was blinded by revenge and greed of obtaining the treasure trove he and his brother sought out. No one could stop Pinion from his desires, and the only person who could sway a man like Pinion turned out to be the lobster pirate Lukkage.
Special consideration for Lukkage, I didn't think she would appear after her early battles but she makes an important return and helps pinion and Ledo end Strikers reign. Her sudden interest with Pinion was the only thing that saved him from becoming engrossed in his treasure.
Striker was an awesome villain, her warped logical reasoning saw humans as a means to server her. Through her guidance she would lead humanity to happiness, however that happiness only warped the minds of humans and took away all individuality, making them her loyal servants to replicate the galactic army. Her clever use of a fake hologram made it seem like her pilot was still alive in order to trick Ledo into serving her. Not only was she a great villain to Ledo, but even more so to Chamber, who had a different view on life and how he saw machines as tools to help guide people rather than force people down a path.
Chamber may have started out as a support mobile weapon system, but he eventually grows an individual identity with his own thoughts based on surrounding information. When it came time for Ledo to risk his life in order to kill Striker, he ejects Ledo in order to save him, even though his program should not let him act in such a way. Chamber easily became an awesome character after telling Ledo he should survive and explore, as well as telling off Striker "Go to hell tin can!". Chamber was my favourite character of the show and really drove home the battle of machine purposes against Strikers "I am god" logic.
I was surprised to learn why the ship was called Gargantia, and as it turns out the secret mega catapult cannon, while only being a portion of its original size, was able to direct deadly accurate ballistics across a great distance as a weapon of huge destructive potential. This weapon was pretty bad ass compared to all of the other weapons since it holds a huge range and power advantage.
This one goes down as one of my favourites.
~Djr7
