I like Suisei no Gargantia. The thematic explorations are woven into character dialogue, and wrapped up in a fantasy setting. Scriptwriter Urobuchi Gen is not a particularly subtle composer. What I don’t understand is how people can love a show that feels so above average. The first episode of Suisei no Gargantia caught my eye in a heartbeat because it’s Urobuchi Gen in space, but now the most grandiose thing to happen is a bunch of Somalian pirates showing up.

I hated the preachy scene where Bellows goes back and forth with Led about justice or whenever it is that everyone is mad at Led about. It feels so much like an artificial way to introduce a conflict. I don’t feel any of the complexity that Psycho-pass emitted – Suisei no Gargantia feels elementry, almost gimmicky. Led is a bit of an asshole, Amy is dumb, and all the humans on the ship are lame as balls. When did this show become Turn A Gundam crossed with and the classic Kevin Costner film Waterworld?

Rackage. Now here’s a cool character. She even is rocking her harem swag.

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A few weeks ago, I was supposedly on FAPcast to talk about previewing this season. Presumably because my internet eviscerated itself early in the recording process, I did not get the chance to talk about most of the shows I was looking forward to. If I had, you would have know that I was pretty hyped for Suisei no Gargantia. Here comes Urobuchi Gen, who has garnered my love with Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica, Fate/Zero, and Psycho-Pass, and presents me with a show that is pretty much Macross Frontier meets Waterworld. I’m sold already.

Let’s talk about the space battle in the first half of the episode though. While it is your first indication that the show is utterly gorgeous, I thought the action itself was rather lackluster. Supposedly it’s a last push by all the forces the Galactic Alliance and the stakes are so high, they might as well be in Andromeda. I felt none of the urgency or tension that should have saturated the scenario, but that might just be because the director doesn’t have very much experience outside the Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood movie (which I never saw). I’ll just chalk it up to the fact that our main character hella boring. I mean, he’s given the incentive that he can return to Avalon, the home ship, to sleep, eat, and reproduce while on leave and he doesn’t seem to care too much. Most soldiers are thrilled to go home, let alone have sex, what’s your damage?

Sex drivers come preloaded, broski

The good thing is that this leaves quite a bit of room for character development, as it’s implied that the lieutenant has literally no life or experience outside of combat and training. In fact, it seems like he was born and bred just to fight since they mention at the beginning of the episode that he’s coming out of “sleep development time” and that he just gained the rights of a citizen. Either this is subtle world building or I’m just reading too far into shallow jargon.

– Spoilers and whatnot – 
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