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Concept: Kazuya Murata, Gen Urobuchi
Director: Kazuya Murata (Fullmetal Alchemist Sacred Star of Milos)
Series Composition/Script: Gen Urobuchi (Puella Magi Madoka Magica)
Original Character Design: Hanaharu Naruko
Mecha Designer: Makoto Ishiwata
Music: Taro Iwashiro
Animation Production: Production I.G. (Ghost in the Shell)
Story
The story begins in the distant future in the far reaches of the galaxy. The Human Galactic Alliance has been constantly fighting for its survival against a grotesque race of beings. During an intense battle, the young lieutenant Red (played by Kaito Ishikawa) and his humanoid mobile weapon Chamber are swallowed up into a distortion of time and space.
Waking from his artificially induced hybernation, Red realizes that he has arrived on Earth, the long forgotten planet. On this planet that was completely flooded by the seas, people live in fleets of giant ships, salvaging relics from the seas' depths in order to survive.
Red arrives on one of the city fleets called Gargantia. With no knowledge of the planet's history or culture, he is forced to live alongside Amy (Hisako Kanemoto), a 15-year-old girl who serves as a messenger aboard the Gargantia fleet. To Red, who has lived a life where he knows nothing but fighting, these days of peace continue to surprise him.
With this project, manga artist Hanaharu Naruko (Shōjo Material, Kamichu!) is creating his first original character designs for an anime. Gen Urobuchi (Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Fate/Zero) of Nitroplus is supervising and writing the scripts. Taro Iwashiro (Red Cliff, Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos, live-action SHINOBI - Heart Under Blade and The Prince of Tennis) is scoring the music, and Kazuya Murata (Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos) is directing. (Murata and Urobuchi collaborated on the original concept of the anime.)
Actually there just isn't enough space. Besides, it seems he's barely writing this show aside from being the script supervisor and the first episode. There are a ton of other writers working on it, for the better imo.
First eleven minutes or so was so good. If only the whole anime could take place in space with all of Dimenstrium, Blossom Flowers, and cannons. It looked really good and quite explosive and intense, especially in fast paced motion. Second half was alright, Ledo is a great lead, need to see more of the cast there and what type of potential that opens for the plot
Stuck on Earth alone must be a bit scary though I wanted to know more of his backstory at least and how their society worked, since they were in the military just to become some sorts of citizens or whatever, and where they were/who they were fighting. Will Earth even be a part of that plot?
On the one hand I'm sort of intrigued at this sort of Xabungle by way of Ender's Game sort of situation.
On the other, I really hope this isn't leading to Gen sucker punching me and unleashing his thesis about life, the universe and everything. Got plenty of that in Madoka, thanks.
I love how colourful the space stuff was, the aliens (I also like the enemy aliens designs), the pilots, the uh spacey parts. The second half wasn't quite as good, but I think it just didn't have enough time so I'm really looking forward to the next episode.
I did groan a little when the pilot talked about never feeling fear or whatever, makes me fear it'll be one of those perfect soldiers try to live a civilian life thing.
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.
Either we both have feeble brains or it was really ugly. The battle definitely needed better framing in my opinion. Some better angles that showed where everything was relative to each other would've helped.
The battle at the beginning felt really weightless and inconsequential. There was no real action to speak of, just a bunch of lasers and badly rendered CG. And of course mutant space snails, everyone loves those. I guess it's hard to give it a sense of importance when there are no stakes at all and we need to get accustomed to the MC as well.
The whole second half was pretty good and a great introduction.
Either we both have feeble brains or it was really ugly. The battle definitely needed better framing in my opinion. Some better angles that showed where everything was relative to each other would've helped.
The battle clearly needed a little bit of polish.. but IMO they still nailed the basic principles properly.
-The all out plan
-The confusion during the retreat
-The helplessness of the pilot .
Looks like we're off to a very good start so far. This was beautiful, except for the 3DCG battle during the first half, but I guess the ugliness of space makes for a nice contrast with the setting where most of the action will actually take place. I can appreciate the grand scale and raw ambition of the general design work involved though, and the enemy did come across as a truly alien force against which humanity can barely stand.
Ledo still doesn't really have much of a personality, outside of taking everything seriously, but his interactions with the AI were simultaneously interesting and amusing. The same thing goes for his awkward token hostage stunt. Call me crazy, but I feel I'm going to enjoy that brand of humor more than most of the jokes in Majestic Prince. In any event, both shows are entertaining in their own ways.
Right now, this looks like it'll be one of the better series of the season as long as the creators don't get too full of themselves and aim too far beyond what they can handle.
The problem with the space battle was that a ton of the stuff was so bizarre that I don't know what the fuck is going on. A giant space corpse flower is fighting a spiral galaxy thing. Huh?
Honestly, I was apprehensive about Gargantia going into it. I've started to get used to getting burned by Production IG shows, and while I liked what I saw coming out of the PVs, the same could have been said for Psycho-Pass.
But you know, this wasn't bad. I'm not sure it was great, but it kept my interest - the second half, especially. If nothing else, I can sense promise.
If I wanted to be honest, I wasn't too enamored with the first eleven minutes. Beam massacres and light shows aside, it just wasn't that thrilling of an action sequence. It's compounded by the sheer lack of weight to everything that transpires during the sequence, as well. I don't mean dramatically (although I have a few problems with that), it's just that there's no sense of impact or feedback in how they move, how they shoot - if the strong score wasn't picking up the slack, I'd go so far as to call it rather sterile. I'd call the floatiness I experienced endemic to the nature of CG techniques, but I wouldn't even say that the blame rests entirely there. I think I'd find it all much more palpable with better sound design. While you have the eternal excuse that space is a vacuum, and thus, soundless, I think it's pretty clear that's not what they were going for. I think Attack on Titan may have spoiled me a bit in this regard, but I think I wouldn't have felt so detached from everything that was going on in the space battle if the mechs sounded like they were locked in battle, sounded like they were maneuvering. I decided to rewatch the battle again and that sheer lack of weight to any of the actions the mecha are taking really takes me out of it. It looks like a battlefield, but very much doesn't sound like one. Ultimately, it doesn't give you enough reasons to get invested in what's going on.
I also wasn't that impressed by the tone it was trying to set. I think the impression that I think they wanted to impress upon the viewer wasn't broadcast very well. Dialogue and events transpire to indicate that the
battle is lost despite humanity is throwing everything it has at these plant-like lifeforms
. The events clearly indicate a mood of hopeless desperation to the conflict, but there's not that much they actually show you to better sense that. They "
take out the main fleet
", but the establishing shots don't impress upon you the scale of it at all. It's impossible to tell what the 'main fleet' even is. You understand it's important because of the name, but only in the abstract sense. Furthermore, I think the sequence would have benefited from showing what was going on with more of the human element, as in, the other pilots. Red is apparently fearless, but the same cannot be said for what's surely hundreds, if not thousands of other pilots that are apparently fighting the battle with him. Not that I'd expect or even want the perspective to bounce around pilots we aren't expected to care about, but I think this is another area where the ambient sound design could have benefited the significance and tone they wanted to set a great deal. As it stands, it doesn't do an outstanding job of it.
If there were no real dialogue to this sequence, I think the most I'd be able to get out of it in its' place in the story would be that humanity has just fought against some aliens and
lost a battle
. This doesn't feel like it decided a war.
I guess it's hard to understand why I would say that I actually liked this episode given all that, but I honestly don't expect that a space battle I've spent way too long complaining about was anything more than a means to an end. That end being Earth. And the second half really did catch my interest where it was flagging. The characters all seem pretty lively, and I actually really like a lot of aspects of the production. I love the color design, especially. Everything is vibrant and sharp, and the way the characters animate all help give the show a nice, very light overtone in the second half. As well, I think I should really give credit where credit is due with regards to the music, though. During the battle, especially, it added punch to moments that otherwise might have felt even more flatfooted than they were.
I think, if nothing else, the premise and the execution thereof makes me hopeful, if not confident that this show is going to be fun.
Still, this show certainly has me. I just hope it'll keep me.
I don't think this is a very "ambitious" project in terms of scope. It's only 13 episodes, it's going to be mostly character-centric, and take place in Earth. Ep2 is a much better indication of what the majority of the series is going to be like.
For what it's worth, the entire series has already been written, and the final episodes are already in production. For once, Production IG seems to have a pretty good schedule for a TV series. Then again, Blood-C and Bunny Drop were fine too, and those were shorter series too. Maybe IG just sucks at long 26 episode shows!
There was a LOT of technobabble, so a good amount of that battle sort of flew over my head. I absolutely enjoyed it and the second half of the show though, and am interested in the further development of this world and the main character's. So far, it's my favorite premiere of the season.
I don't think this is a very "ambitious" project in terms of scope. It's only 13 episodes, it's going to be mostly character-centric, and take place in Earth. Ep2 is a much better indication of what the majority of the series is going to be like.
As long as the eventual battles with those pirates and stuff is better directed than the space battle, it'll be very good. Kameda's on board at least, and I know Murata has a good sense of action space and choreography. Hopefully they put the good schedule to use.
[...]
I also wasn't that impressed by the tone it was trying to set. I think the impression that I think they wanted to impress upon the viewer wasn't broadcast very well. Dialogue and events transpire to indicate that the
battle is lost despite humanity is throwing everything it has at these plant-like lifeforms
. The events clearly indicate a mood of hopeless desperation to the conflict, but there's not that much they actually show you to better sense that. They "
take out the main fleet
", but the establishing shots don't impress upon you the scale of it at all. It's impossible to tell what the 'main fleet' even is. You understand it's important because of the name, but only in the abstract sense. Furthermore, I think the sequence would have benefited from showing what was going on with more of the human element, as in, the other pilots. Red is apparently fearless, but the same cannot be said for what's surely hundreds, if not thousands of other pilots that are apparently fighting the battle with him. Not that I'd expect or even want the perspective to bounce around pilots we aren't expected to care about, but I think this is another area where the ambient sound design could have benefited the significance and tone they wanted to set a great deal. As it stands, it doesn't do an outstanding job of it.
[...]
I don't know if showing the other fighters would've helped too much. The battle was definitely more about Red than about the conflict or the human fleet. I don't think I would've cared whether some other pilots were scared or not. I think the important thing about the battle was to show Red in the war, and the sacrifices were to add drama to the battle. At least for me, the six-month hibernation left me wondering, "What happened to the war? Is it over? Did Red miss out on really important stuff?" In that aspect, I think it succeeded.
The battle was still ugly though :V. I agree that you never know where the main fleet is, but I really had a poor sense of where almost everything was, lol.
the battle sequence just felt like necessary exposition so we would know where Red came from. It felt rushed and incomplete.
Fortunately, the world he ended up on looks amazing and is filled with interesting folks.
I don't know if showing the other fighters would've helped too much. The battle was definitely more about Red than about the conflict or the human fleet. I don't think I would've cared whether some other pilots were scared or not. I think the important thing about the battle was to show Red in the war, and the sacrifices were to add drama to the battle. At least for me, the six-month hibernation left me wondering, "What happened to the war? Is it over? Did Red miss out on really important stuff?" In that aspect, I think it succeeded.
The battle was still ugly though :V. I agree that you never know where the main fleet is, but I really had a poor sense of where almost everything was, lol.
Yeah, maybe showing the other fighters might not have been the best way to go about things, but that's sorta where I was going with in regards to ambient sound design - I think that maybe if you heard background chatter from the pilots as the attack starts to go awry, it would've lent more gravity to the situation.
uckroll
