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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Buy | 9 | 9 | 9 | 6 | 9 | 8 |
 Ggultra2764
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[series:2711#1552] |
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Gargantia is a sort of social sci-fi/ action series focusing on our male lead Ledo trying to integrate himself with the Earth fleet of Gargantia in a post-apocalyptic future after Ledo finds himself isolated from the militaristic space fleet he had been raised with to battle a seemingly alien threat. A good chunk of the series is focused around Ledo slowly mellowing out of the militaristic mentality he had been brought up on with the Galactic Empire as he comes to understand social concepts such as individual worth, understanding of others and moral ramifications in terms of how the instilled mentality he was brought up on would affect others. He does slowly change throughout the course of the series as he understands more of the language on Earth and begins understanding proper social interaction beyond the militarized mentality he had been brought up on, especially as these changes become tested in later episodes when confronted with some shocking realities over the supposed war he was fighting with the aliens. Beyond Ledo's character development, Gargantia also offers a surprising amount of world building and character exploration for a 13-episode series. The series explores the differing factions and governing structures existing within the world of its series that explore positive and negative social structures that exist among the factions and established governments seen throughout the series. In addition, a number of other side characters have their fleshing out and roles to fulfill as some have their own issues they are trying to overcome or serve to aid Ledo in dealing with integrating with the Gargantia fleet. The OVA bonus episodes released after the TV anime's run add some expansion on aspects to plot and characters within the series such as some back story on Ridget and how Ledo's commanding officer established the cult-like society seen in the second half of Gargantia. The only issues I have with the series as a whole are some subpar attempts at comedy during the anime's first half. Visually, Gargantia was easily one of 2013's better animated titles with large amounts of visual detail put into the designs of characters, scenery and mecha designs. CG animation is used rather frequently throughout the series in the rendering of mecha, the ships and the endless waters traveled by the crew of the Gargantia. The CG animation used for these is nicely rendered, but does stick out like a sore thumb compared to the regular animation. The series is nicely animated with fluid movement throughout its run with a variety of movement conveyed such as flying via gliders, swimming and aerial fighting as seen during the final battle in the series. Overall, Gargantia was a solid sci-fi/ action title that delved into Ledo's social integration with the Gargantia fleet and a surprising amount of focus on world building and side characters within its fairly short run time. This is a title definitely worth a look if you are looking for a sci-fi title that is a bit out of the ordinary with what it has to offer up. Last updated Sunday, December 21 2014. Created Sunday, December 21 2014. | ||||||||
| Unevaluated |
 Stretch
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[series:2711#628] | ||||||
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(Two episodes watched): The first half of the first episode reminded me of Gunbuster, what with a desperate battle against a frightening alien menace. This seemed fairly cool to me, and I was eager to see what would become of Leno. However, the second half was a complete change, as it Immediately took on a nowhere near as serious tone, and the new one set off a vague alarm in my head. I recognized this as something that I had seen numerous times before: people who I am supposed to sympathize with, because they are relatively poor yet proud and self-reliant; a chipper girl as their main character, who is 'cool' because of how gymnastic she is; a cute animal as her pet and joke opportunity. Basically, characters whose personalities consist of what they look like and what they do rather than what they think and say. Still, I am curious to see where things will go now that Leno has arrived. Will the Hideauze aliens come this way, and only Leno can save them? The way 'Chamber', the computer system in Leno's mobile suit, translated the comments made by a certain human was amusing (the fact that Leno doesn't miraculously already speak the language of these people is encouraging). This could be a shallow re-hash of an old genre, or something original and interesting. Judgement on this series will have to wait for another episode or so. Well, the impression I get from episode two is of an attempt to wow us with fancy gadgets like backpack hang gliders and pirates riding wetbikes. The concept of everyone living aboard ships is hard to take seriously (where do they get their fuel? How is there enough water in the world to submerge everything?); it reminds me of that old flop movie Waterworld. But while a plot tries to take off, the characters are left far behind. It seems that little attempt is being made to flesh them out; indeed, Chamber is probably more interesting than any human character in this show. The nasty pirates appear and Leno and Chamber swiftly deal with them--it was startling how casually that matter was handled. This seems like a corny morality play. I would rather have interesting characters and relatively unexceptional action than wild action but cardboard characters. I think I will quit Gargantia. Last updated Tuesday, October 15 2013. Created Wednesday, April 17 2013. | ||||||||
