All of my colleagues are slowly leaving for vacation and here I am staring at my computer screen, waiting for people to come in and eating crisps with no hope of vacation in the next several months. Who needs vacations anyway?
Definitely not Ledo, the hero of Suisei no Gargantia. This young and promising young man was fighting humanity’s enemies, Hideauze, aboard his trusted mecha Chamber when things happen and he suddenly is sent back to a mysterious planet. There he meets a civilization he doesn’t know, they’re living on ship and having strange customs. What will become of Ledo?
I found this setting pretty interesting. I went into it thinking it was only a mecha anime with a bit of romance thrown in. Except I knew Urobuchi was somehow involved and, seriously, do you trust Urobuchi to ever be involved in something cute and fluffy? I sure don’t.
And that’s why I was a bit surprised that it managed to stay cute and fluffy for quite a long time, and even finish on a hopeful note. I’ll admit it did make me cry a bit when something I thought would happen actually happened but overall it was pretty joyful.
Or rather said, the joyful moments were the most interesting because they developed both the characters and the civilization. It was all very hopeful and Ledo trying to fit in was really adorable. So was Amy and well, pretty much everyone, even the fearful pirate Lukkage– no, especially the fearful pirate Lukkage.
I didn’t quite like the darker moments of Gargantia. It’s not that it wasn’t interesting, it was, especially interesting for character development and as a means to throw in some critiques about our actual society but I honestly could have done without it. A slice of life aboard the Gargantia would have been the course of action I’d have appreciated best. But obviously you can’t shape anime how you’d like them to be and in the end it was not bad, just less fun and a bit harder to get into than the first part of the anime.
As far as characters are concerned, I ‘d say that it’s one of the strengths of this anime. They’re easy to identify with, they’re easy to sympathize with, everyone has flaws and things going for them. It’s especially apparent in Pinion but everyone is like that. If I had to choose a favorite character I’d choose Ledo. It’s not something that happens often for me to like a main character best but Ledo was just too adorable. It was very interesting to discover him and how he goes from wary of these strangers to friendly and how he battles with his own self about the Hideauze he finds on Earth and their secrets. I really, really liked Ledo’s character development.
Not many characters were developed to such an extent though. Maybe Pinion, Lukkage too, even if she felt like she wasn’t important, the new captain of the Gargantia too, and Chamber as well, but Chamber is an AI so I’m not sure it counts, but it wasn’t even bothersome. Some people don’t change after all, they may learn new things and face new situations but they don’t undergo big changes in their personality.
In short, I strongly recommend Suisei no Gargantia.
