Notes of Gatchaman Crowds Episode 7

Posted on the 26 August 2013 by Kaminomi @OrganizationASG

Declarations of happiness like this give homicidal aliens a bad name, Berg

  • Last week, Hajime was discovered to be a Gatchaman by the media. She also met Rui, who told her that his ideal world has no need for Gatchaman.
  • Summary: Picking up from last week, Hajime, Utsu-tsu, and Rui are all returning from their meeting, when suddenly Rui finds the pink haired alien (whose name is revealed to be Berg-Katze). Fed up with Berg-Katze’s antics, Rui attempts to intimidate it by summoning the CROWDS. This plan backfires, as Berg-Katze attacks them and destroys them all. Berg-Katze then proceeds to brutally attack Rui. Joe and Sugane witness this, and Joe attempts to stop Berg-Katze by himself, but suffers mortal wounds in the process without even landing an attack on Berg-Katze. As Joe is being attacked, Sugane rescues Rui and brings him to safety after suffering non life-threatening injuries. While this is happening, the rest of the team waits for JJ’s orders, yet he never gives any. This forces Hajime, Paiman, and Utsu-tsu to help Joe themselves. Once they reach Joe, Utsu-tsu uses her powers to aid Joe while Hajime talks to Berg-Katze about why it’s doing these horrible things.

Well, maybe if you squint your eyes real hard and imagine a frog… wait, I see it!

  • My Take: Wow. Such a great deal of content stuffed into an episode which seems to take place all within a couple of hours! It has the right action, the right dialogue, and the right exposition. Unlike some other episodes that try to pack a lot of content into an episode, episode seven of Gatchaman Crowds pulled it off beautifully.
  • At the start of the episode, Rui seemed to be becoming a paranoid leader with the CROWDS, almost in a Stalinist way. Any member of the CROWDS who didn’t follow his vision of the perfect society were basically blacklisted here. And speaking of CROWDS, I love how they finally explained what these entities are. Apparently they are a group of 100 hand-selected GALAX users who were given an app that allowed them to become part of the CROWDS team (or something like that). Nevertheless, it was great to finally get an explanation for them.
  • One of the most interesting aspects of the show right now is seeing all the forms of each of the team members. This week, we see what Paiman transforms into, and it’s absolutely glorious. The best aspect of his transformation is how it looks extremely intimidating, and he initially intends to do a lot of damage with it. But halfway to the battle, he realizes that he doesn’t have any plan for defeating Berg-Katze, so he just runs away! It’s hilarious how this is the leader of the team, yet he is the most unconfident member of the team.
  • So far, this is my favorite episode in the series. It showcased a great deal of everything that makes Gatchaman Crowds an enjoyable show. Out of all the great scenes to choose from here, I’d have to say that my favorite was when Hajime just tries to talk to Berg-Katze. Joe is literally dying a couple of feet away from her, and she decides to be diplomatic instead of using brute force. Any way you look at it, it shows the great deal of courage Hajime possesses.

When Paiman started to transform, I didn’t know what to expect. I can safely say that this wasn’t what I imagined

  • Slight disregard from the last episode in terms of Hajime becoming a celebrity. Although, yeah, I know that this episode is happening the night after she was discovered, so it would make sense that this plot isn’t presented. I can just see it hurting the team later on, and I can’t wait to see how they cope with it.
  • I loved this episode. I love how every week, they reveal just a little bit more about this world, thus building up their situation more and more. Even with O.D, they are building up what his backstory is, and I literally can’t wait to see how he aids the team.