So it turns out that a "whale squid" is genetically identical to a "Hideauze", and Ledo's war has come to the Earth. Maybe.
What in hell is a combat mech doing with genetic analysis equipment, anyway? And the comfortable feeling I had with this series just got tossed in a basket. Maybe it'll be back, maybe not.
3
Did I miss the battlefield use of biowar weaponry? It doesn't have analysis gear onboard, but it does have a NBC defensive system built
Posted by: Wonderduck at May 19, 2013 08:50 PM (Axk8h)
4
I got the feeling that Chamber is a mass produced unit, which has scouting capabilities. It seems a little odd, but it's not something that takes too much hand waving to believe. Though it does seem a little strange.
...it DOES have NBC protective systems built in, just in case. Since we don't seem to be facing biowar attacks, and it's not like analysis gear is exactly small to date, the Abrams doesn't need to carry it.
Posted by: Wonderduck at May 19, 2013 08:53 PM (Axk8h)
6
Not totally beyond the pale, really. Can it travel through space? Can it land on a planet? If so, something onboard better be able to tell the pilot if he can breathe the air, drink the water, and metabolize the flora and fauna... and the last one of those three takes a pretty sophisticated sensor suite.
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at May 20, 2013 02:42 AM (GJQTS)
7
I haven't seen anything past the first episode yet (except the bountiful cheesecake...), but given the capabilities that Chamber displays there, I'm not surprised he's capable of genetic analysis. It's got to be easier than including a self-contained cold-sleep facility with hypnotic indoctrination capability.
Chamber doesn't make sense as a dedicated combat mech built to fight in a desperate war against an enemy that's well on the way to exterminating humanity. If anything in the propaganda video is true, then he's ridiculously overbuilt for front-line cannon fodder. And yet the carrier ships are specifically designed to deploy large numbers of them, and Ledo's been paired with Chamber for as long as he can remember. (side note: 145,000 hours of service? Is Chamber counting from birth, counting cold-sleep time, or is something even odder going on?)
-j
Posted by: J Greely at May 20, 2013 08:54 AM (+cEg2)
8
I suppose you could hand-wave
some sort of awesome replication technology which can duplicate pretty much anything rapidly and cheaply, and if you have that then there isn't any obvious cost to loading up the mechs with fancy gizmos. If they have that, then the limiting factor on their war is people.
I'm entertaining the possibility that the entire war is a hoax, an excuse for the people on top to maintain a police state. Not that I think there isn't any war, but I think the humans started it, and I think the bosses are deliberately not fighting it to their full ability. I think the bosses want a stalemate.
The problem with the 1984 setup is that Ledo appears to be genetically engineered in the first place, with Spartan-like ruthlessness in child selection. That seems like a strange way to keep a society working without some actual existential threat around.
If they have no problem with genetic engineering, culling "less than effective" humans and sleep-indoctrination systems, I really doubt the humans "in charge" would have much issue keeping their position with that Power already established.
A few people have suggested that Gargantia is, itself, an acclimation program for Avalon. That Ledo actually made it home and this is the system used to become less of a solider and more of a human. The problem with that thinking is that they've spent a lot of time on the side characters and world building, with a massive amount of independent action by characters. The series should be much more focused on Ledo than it is, if that was the case. The Gargantia itself is a bit too much of a character in the show for that to really work, other than for a big twist at the end.
I think, though, that we might have a sign of what the actual problem is with Avalon. The Computers are actually in charge. So they keep fighting against the Hideaze because that's what they're supposed to do. They're a life-like AI, not actually sentient. This is pretty much the "Terra e" construction.
Actually, no, this series almost IS "Terra e", which would imply that Chamber is both a problem and a solution.
Mostly plot exposition this time. And as with the other episodes, I have no urge to rewatch it. (On the other hand, I've rewatched Gargantia about five times. Is it Monday yet?)
3
Amy and her friends, and pretty much the Gargantia in general, feels quite "normal" for people. What a concept, a society filled with mostly decent people, though a bit more colorful for a fictional presentation.
I suddenly realized something last night: Chiaki is the only character in the entire series whose hair is pitch black.
Even in crowd shots, there are other people with very dark hair, but it never goes below a dark gray or a dark brown. None of them are ever as dark as hers.
She also has a hime cut and her uniform is old fashioned. She is very much the class rep / agent of stability there and is the most unambiguously Japanese.
Given who did the show, those things may also be intended as signifying a need to relax and think outside the box just a bit.
Chikaki does not lack in self discipline, but in whimsey and perhaps a bit of initiative. Becoming a fully formed adult for her meand loosening up a tad and not looking at life's choices as a flow chart or something. She and Marika actually compliment each other very well.
************
Boy that's a lot of text based on speculation, inference and cross cultural ignorance...I should go cut the grass.
Suisei no Gargantia -- you can't go wrong with dancing girls
I got curious about this one, so I just now downloaded the first six episodes. I wanted to see if its reputation for fan service was deserved, so I went through ep 6 (in which the above dancing girls can be found).
And, surprisingly enough, I got sucked into the story. So I just watched episode 1, and now I really am interested.
It has a mecha, but it isn't a mecha story. By which I mean, the mecha isn't the star of the story. Chamber is a character, not a gizmo, but it isn't the predominate character of the series. And Ledo, the castaway pilot, is surprisingly interesting.
...and Amy is a sweetie. (She's the one in the middle.)
The battle in the first half of the first episode was surprisingly long, but in narrative terms it was necessary in order to establish the characters of Ledo and Chamber so that we can truly understand how they could be so confused about where they finally end up.
There are a lot of good looking women, most (if not all) of whom are not bimbos, and that too is a pleasant surprise. And there are some men in the show who are not bastards. From ep 6 I see that Ledo is trying to fit in, and the people there understand that he's having a hard time and are willing to cut him some slack. So there's apparently a lot of love, too. And that's nice.
It's obvious that in the end there's going to be some tremendous danger, and Ledo and Chambers will cope with it and be heroes. Will they find their way home again? Unlikely. Prospects are that "home" no longer exists after what happened in episode 1.
UPDATE: End of ep 3, and so far it's great. I should mention that in general the art is very high quality. It's been a while since I've watched a show that looks so good.
Posted by: Wonderduck at May 15, 2013 07:10 PM (Axk8h)
4
The worry is that the end will be, well, Gen the Butcher in action. But, he's doing the composition. This isn't actually his original idea or his project. It's the director's and it's supposed to be a "going into the world" type of story.
And, yes, the girls are very pretty. Which isn't too surprising. It's well regarded Hentai Manga mangaka that's doing the character designs. And the End Cards are becoming something of a running joke, as the Character Designer has apparently enlisted all of his friends to do the End Cards.
This series has a LOT of thought put into it. Pretty much nothing that's been going on has lacked a purpose or been really quite stupid. With the possible exception of something in ep 5.
Two important plot thoughts, that I'll toss into spoilers:
Ep 1 thoughts/possibilities:
Ep 1's opening space battle had some really nice Gunbuster references, and probably a bit of Starship Troopers as well. It's important for two reasons: 1) The main writer is an excellent genre researcher, knowing the different genres he's in really, really well. 2) If it is something of a Gunbuster send-up, then we could easily have a massively displaced Time Line. Ledo could be years in the past or years in the future from when he made the jump.
I would not be surprised in the absolute least if that ends up being the case.
Ep 6 information drop:
Before the OP, Chamber said the "sea galaxy" effects were actually nanomachines. That was a huge chunk of information dropped there. It means a big chunk of nano-tech is still active on "Earth". It's hard to say where that goes, but it gives us massive amount of possibilities.
One of the big draws, early in, was actually the fact the series takes itself seriously in the proper way. Characters, even ones we see for just a scene and really only are there to serve 1 purpose, don't seem out of place plot movers. They seem like they should actually be there and we're just dropping in for one of their meetings. It shows a lot of thought was put into the writing and world building, especially for an anime original series.
Posted by: sqa at May 15, 2013 07:15 PM (rAozM)
5
The stated aim of this show is to encourage Japanese NEET on how to integrate themselves back into society. Ledo isn't a NEET, but he came from a society that's geared towards one and only one thing, the defeat of the alien threat. He has to serve in the war for a period of time to ear his citizenship, his limited right to procreate, and taking shore leave. Hell, all of that is kind of foreign to him.
Now take him out of that environment and throw him into a more civilized one where everything isn't actively trying to kill him and trying his best to fit in. He want to be useful to the fleet that has taken him in. He's also getting some basic economic lesson from Amy (the Alliance is so low on resource that if you're not of use to the war, you're recycled).
Posted by: BigFire at May 16, 2013 11:06 AM (PzKK9)
6
If that's true, it suggests it isn't going to have a disastrous ending. I guess we'll see.
1
She asks him to touch her. Looks like Photokano is going the Amagami route. The main girls story was six episodes and looks like the rest of the girls will get one episode each.
1
Well, that was brutal. And a well placed Steel Beam.
Accelerator is one scary dude.
Posted by: sqa at May 10, 2013 09:18 PM (dvTNf)
2
That wasn't a steel beam... that was a
railroad switcher engine.
Posted by: Wonderduck at May 10, 2013 10:09 PM (Za5eH)
3
I do have a couple problems with Accelerator's character, knowing what happens in the later Index arcs.
But I hope that the Railgun series can resolve those complaints. The world-building is more concise, such that the physical laws of espers are better tested and resolved.
It is fun to watch the SeaSlugsTeam bemoan the disrespect that Kuroko gets, as chief teleporter of the series. And I actually am somewhat convinced that they're right; that Kuroko really could dominate any situation, including Accelerator and the Railgun, if she had no morals, or love. But, as a marketing perspective, a series called "A Certain Scientific Lesbian Ghost" may not sell to the right audience.
Wait. How's "Toaru Kagaku no Yuri Ayakashi" sound? I've probably got that terribly phrased.
Posted by: wahsatchmo at May 10, 2013 10:09 PM (lsPts)
I meant the scene were 9982 was dragging herself, without one leg, along the ground.
As for Accelerator:
In some ways I had less a problem with redeeming his character due to his backstory and just basic setup. He's actually amazingly docile and otherwise observes the rules when... he has always had little reason to. He's a walking, talking WMD and everyone has mostly treated him as such for the entirety of his life. (He's pretty much like Kaoru from Zettai Karen Children, if you want another series reference)
For all intents and purposes, the kid should be a monster. But, he never really is. For all of his sins, he's less evil than pretty much everyone that he has to work with within the city. Which just goes to how vile and evil that place truly is. And it also explains why he attempts to form basic social relationships... with the Sisters he's there to terminate. At some level, he's just a guy that needed a friend, but he was always going to scare away anyone that tried. Along with the issues of just being so blatantly powerful.
Consider that Chamber (the robot) can act autonomously, has an unending power source, and its operator is a soldier akin to an unyielding automaton. Plus while the universe is horribly imperiled, he can dominate humanity on earth at a whim, if he so chose.
Valvrave needs stupid sort-of vampiric Haruto to operate, who decided to secede and create a third governmental entity at the whim of the girl he kind of likes.
I put this down primarily due to PEBCAK.
Posted by: wahsatchmo at May 09, 2013 10:00 PM (0y/+Z)
They're both running this season, and I though it interesting that there were two "mysterious mechs show up in a peaceful place" shows running at the same time.
4
Well, Valvrave is more of a standard Gundam setup, while Gargantia is definitely the inversion on it.
Valvrave is almost turning out more like season 1 of Railgun, oddly enough. But it's hard to see where precisely its going. Probably because the main writer for the series isn't called Gen the Butcher for nothing, yet it's been pretty straight forward (and amazingly logical) so far. Hopefully it keeps up.
Oh, and Gargantia will be good top rotation fodder.
Posted by: sqa at May 10, 2013 05:37 AM (dvTNf)
5
Gargantia. The character design is really beautiful. If you want screencap of pretty girls, there's plenty.
The space battle in the first half of episode 1 actually makes sense.
Posted by: BigFire at May 10, 2013 08:53 AM (LSx3v)
6
Episode 5 of Gargantia does have some decent eye candy.
Which should be compared with the insulting nature of Valvrave's fanservice episode, which is also 5. Not really any decent screencaps, except for a possible wet blouse over bra, a school swimsuit or two, etc. Not worth it. There must be some marketing research on the timing of fanservice episodes. But do we really need a 5 minute music video consisting of high school stupidity, Valvrave?
I'm guessing that Valvrave won't quite as much of a Guilty Crown trainwreck, but I suspect it'll be close.
Posted by: wahsatchmo at May 10, 2013 09:44 PM (SevuV)
7
Gen Urobuchi (Madoka Magica) is writing Gargantia, not Valvrave.
Peter Payne has been posting some fanserviceposters. It looks like Gargantia might be the replacement for Senran Kagura that you were looking for. Character designs were done by a hentai artist (Shoujo Material).
Posted by: muon at May 12, 2013 01:01 AM (jFJid)
8
And, with Gargantia, the end cards haven't been mentioned, either.
Remember the "Copyright Alert System" which the big ISPs were going to put into place? Has anyone heard of anything like this actually being enforced, and causing anyone problems?
When I made that post, Bakabt was "331,470 peers, 5452 anonymous, 317,415 seeds and 14,055 leeches." That was a Sunday.
Now, 316,176 peers, 3615 anonymous, 303,610 seeders, 16,566 leeches. That's essentially the same, considering that it's Wednesday afternoon as I write this.
So at the very least it seems they're ignoring anime.
1
No. They're just compiling their database and cross-referencing it against Facebook. When the end comes it will be swift, merciless and arrive wielding a very big net.
Mon ami, it is 'pour encourager les autres' if quoting Voltaire.
Trying to make an example of the Liberator blue prints or any other homebrew plans to discourage future downloaders will fail, given the intensity of feeling that has been whipped up. If they can not even stop the downloading of the old US Army FM for improvised munitions, trying to to firearms designs will be like Don Quixote charging the windmill.
Of course, this is the federal government we are talking about. Given their previous track record, they might just post some designs of their own on a department website because someone screwed up, similar to how the EPA once posted the confidential emergency/crisis action plans for every single industrial facility in the US (Detailing, among other things, all the known vulnerabilities of those plants.)...
Posted by: cxt217 at May 10, 2013 01:30 PM (qwV4n)
