Gargantia - Episode 1-2
That was pretty much what I expected from the show from the trailers, so there's nothing really surprising here. It's a fun and light-hearted (sort of) show with a heavy adventure feeling (like Grandia and Xam'd I guess).
Red starts out as a child soldier on the frontlines of a deadly space battle where humanity makes their last stand against a mysterious alien threat, but when he accidentally falls out of a wormhole during the escape process he finds himself on an unknown planet which he later learns is Earth - the birthplace of humanity, long forgotten by his people. He finds himself in a culture he doesn't understand, with people speaking a different language, and a totally different way of life than what he's familiar with.
The way it is directed is pretty nice though, since it doesn't really rely too much on the actual misunderstandings and stuff to move the story forward. The characters aren't stupid or annoying, and there's a sense of strength and resolve in each of them, along with a good amount of levelheadedness and rational thinking. While the situation is pretty generic for the opening act of this sort of stories, the execution makes it as enjoyable as it can be.
I really like the way the colors look in the show, and the music and character animation do a great job of making the show feel fun and energetic. Even though it's probably Urobuchi's most light hearted and down to Earth story so far, there are definitely signs of an underlying bleakness in the story, especially in terms of how Red perceives the world being a soldier, and his value of human life contrasting against those of people who mostly live in a peaceful era.
It's definitely going to be interesting to see how the rest of the series develops, but I think it's obvious that the arrival of Red and his robot is what unbalances the state of the world as it is, and will likely escalate tensions beyond what people are used to because of its overwhelming power. How this ties to the portion of humanity in space where Red came from, and the alien threat, will also be interesting aspects of the show.
