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「追憶の笛」 (Tsuioku no Fue)
“Flute of Recollection”
The controversy from last episode aside, it’s another week of Suisei no Gargantia—and we get quite the treat this week in the form of a rather nice, relaxing, happy-go-lucky episode. Suffice to say, I was admittedly somewhat surprised at how smoothly—well, in the respect that there wasn’t any explosions—things ended up this week, but I guess it’s just a testament to how this just might be the series that bucks the UroButcher trend. Of course, it’s still entirely possible this episode’s just here to set us up for some epic heartbreak, but if there’s one series that ever felt like it’d be “an exception to the rule” so to speak, it definitely feels like it’d be Suisei no Gargantia. And let’s just say if it does end up being that exception, it’d likely be in no small part due to director Murata Kazuya, whose prior work on Xam’d and Eureka Seven really seems to be carrying over in the form of the Gargantian cast…
…the latter of which plays a major part in this week’s episode, as we’re given even more glimpses into their daily lives. More importantly though, we’re given even more examples of the differences between life on Earth and Ledo’s Galactic Alliance life—something that not only contrasts brilliantly, but gives us a lot of commentary about the importance of having perspective, and the big—but not absolute—part one’s developmental environment plays into that. Indeed, all those discussions about the value of a life—especially those that are frail and unable to contribute to society—and about organization versus freedom are all things that play into how different the perspectives are between Ledo and the Gargantians and why they’re so different. It’s something that’s just nice to watch develop from a story standpoint—as who wouldn’t smile if they saw two strangers awkwardly interacting with each other at first, then becoming the best of friends?—and something that also has potentially deeper connotations to it regarding society in general.
Adding further to the concepts from above though, it’s also interesting to note how there seems to be some additional commentary about the value of individuality as well—as Ledo’s inability to decide what he should be doing and whether or not what he’s been doing has any value really highlight his inability to assign values to things based on his own personal scale. Again, it’s not surprising at all that he is how he is, but the point is that there’s an emphasis on his almost in-human/robotic mindset, and I feel like there’s a lot here about individuality in addition to bits regarding the importance of perspective. Notably though, that’s not the only additional thing we have here either, because it also feels like Ledo’s flashback/crying at the end was also quite symbolic. What it represents (if anything at all) is up for grabs, but to me, it feels like it’s saying both that “everyone has value even if they’re frail or disabled” (like Bebel) and “Look, it doesn’t matter whether you grew up a soldier or like the Gargantians. No matter who you are or what situation you end up going through, the fact is you’re still human, and as such, you’ll always have a bit of that humanity—of hope—left within you.” So yeah, there’s definitely a lot of things being done in the background—at least, I feel so—but at the same time, it’s a nice heartwarming story too if you decide you just want to take things more literally…
…especially so when you consider the presence of Amy, who continues to really make an impression on me. I mean, her happy-go-lucky, outgoing personality isn’t particularly novel… but when you contrast her with Ledo and have the set up that Suisei no Gargantia gives, it just comes together to really make her shine, and she’s fast becoming one of my favorite characters. And heck, why not? She has a squirrel for a pet, has flying skills that’ll make anyone envious, and makes priceless comments like “WHAT, HE’S LIVING HERE!? BUT IT’S A DUMP!” (let’s not forget the comment from episode one either) to boot too. She’s just really powering the series along side Ledo—whose attempts to speak the language are priceless by the way—and there are just some superb dynamics between the two (how bout that, here, you can have this moment?).
Overall though, it’s just another nice episode this week, and it’s safe to say that Suisei no Gargantia’s meeting most of the expectations placed upon it prior to the season—though to some, last week’s episode might’ve knocked it down a notch. Either way though, there’s definitely some kind of event brewing on the horizon, and it makes me wonder if Amy receiving the Hideazue’s tooth from Ledo could be signifying something more…
**EDIT: Due to personal reasons, I have asked Kairi (thanks!) to cover Suisei 05, so it’s likely that the post will release at a different time than normal. I may or may not be back to cover 06, but will definitely be back for 07 at the latest.
GENBUTCHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
https://randomc.net/image/Suisei%20no%20Gargantia/Suisei%20no%20Gargantia%20-%2004%20-%20Large%2037.jpg
I reinstalled my gif creator application to create:
HOW DO GENBUTCHER PROCESS MOE WITH DISABILITY?
Why do people think Urobuchi is writing this? He’s only ddoing the first and last episodes.
It is true that he is only doing the actual scripts for the first and last episode BUT he is in charge of the series composition which basically sets out the main plot and it’s progression. So yeah .. it’s his and the directors baby
Like how they are handling Ledo transition to speaking their language. It’s still rough and he needs help from chamber from time to time which makes great.
I want a Chamber Application Software for foreign translation software.
I would rather use that than Google Translator.
It’s nice that they did incorporate that but I think they did a somewhat bad job at it. Ledo. Speaks. Like. This. That’s a broken robot, not a human (and even though he rationalizes like a robot that’s a different matter). Having actually been to Japan myself and not being fluent in the language, the struggle was in the vocabulary and forming sentences from ideas, not putting two words together.
His grammar was impeccable for example which would mean he got formal lessons. Ledo actually jumping to his language at times made more sense than uttering words with weird pauses. The only thing that would explain the pauses is if he was reading his replies off his translator hologram and he had difficulty with the syllables (or deciphering the kanji/kana like I do!)…
Well there’s no definite indication that the language the earthlings spoke were Japanese. If you refer to episode one, Amy sounded like she was speaking gibberish from Ledo’s perspective. So it may be safer to assume that they have been ‘dubbed’ over with Japanese for convenience, just like when Ledo communicates with Chamber.
I think Ledo is speaking slow broken sentences because he can’t think of the words to use off the top of his head. Or he might not be use to pronouncing them. Or he could be reading them from Chamber’s holoscreen.
I’m surprised I hadn’t thought of it before but especially after that talk with Bebel I’m really wondering if the true problem beyond everything else is the Galactic Alliance itself.
“Humans only exist to fight the enemy” “The enemy has always been there fighting against the Alliance” “The weak are killed” and the fact that Ledo was probably brainwashed to forget his family. It all stinks of a powerful group dominating humanity rather than a utopia.
I would hope it’s a system forced on everyone, that was collectively decided upon when humanity encountered the Hideauze and realized they couldn’t hope to survive without fully dedicating themselves, no matter what sacrifices had to be made.
I’m dead tired and sick of “dystopias” driven by a person or a group of people that go kekeke. For me it isn’t a dystopia if it’s driven by people who are exempt from the system—it should have everyone under its auspices, and it should be driven by the adults who know everything about it, despite any potentially horrible sacrifices they know have to be made.
Anything less is a dictatorship in my book, not a dystopia.
Really? Amy seems pretty insignificant so far in my opinion. Don’t see her contributing much.
You have to realize that Amy’s the first one who met Ledo “face to face”. That and she’s the first one who’s willing to negotiate with him.
^ Pretty much that. Amy for the most part is the link that brings Gargantia and Ledo together, and it’s something I feel has played a big part in really getting this series rolling, and something likely to play a big part in future developments as well (especially if something ends up happening to her).
It was actually Amy who first suggested to communicate with Ledo even though she was sexually harassed in the first place.
If Amy wasn’t their to suggest, the people might have go with great lengths to take out Ledo to obtain Chamber. Though the results are already on Ledo’s powerful Mecha, Chamber which would result to TOTAL ANNIHILATION of Gargantia.
@ Croos – shame you didn’t notice my stealth joke…So I dropped in the appropriate pic for it here.
Doesn’t contribute much? She brought him carcasses of a marine life to him…
Amy is the primary reason why Ledo hasn’t laser-raped the entire everybody.
So Amy is useless? You really are acting like Galactic alliance here.
I can definitely see where Rukia is coming from. Perhaps insignificance was the wrong word used here; One cannot deny the central role played by Amy as the link between Ledo and the Gargantia, and the prospects that it entails.
But as has been repeatedly shown in the last two episodes, it’s the supporting characters -like Bebel, Bellows, and Orhman here- that are truly the ones in the position to carry out the meaningful dialogues, pushing Ledo’s character development -and by extension the narrative’s themes- into the truly noteworthy area.
Well, time to get the lead character to be assimilated into the “ordinary” life-styles on Gargantia.
a few things that I noted:
For one, that’s one hefty bill for Ledo/Chamber to pay off; for another, why is Chamber kept to its “mini black hole” lifter twice for his default movements, cause it did not end well either of the two times it used it…the third time was not the charm either…
btw, is anyone wonder if Chamber is following “The three laws of Robotics”? 😀
Well, he did just kill a whole bunch of people during episode 2, so I assume no.
Chamber has unquestionable loyalty to his pilot. I assume that is the same for all other Chambers in the other Machine Calibers.
Loyalty to his pilot, or to the Alliance?
I sight tears from Ledo… Urobutcher Alert…..I repeat Urobutcher Alert
I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but those tears man.
I like Bellows. But I think her conversation with Ledo was just an attempt to give her something to do this week. Think about it. What purpose did it serve? Anyone could have had that conversation with him.
Anyone could have had the conversation- might as well make it a character that’s supposed to have some importance/people give a shit about.
Yeah, I can see the (director’s) darkness starting to show. Ledo’s humanity is inhumane;
his whole point in the war is not to return to flowers and green pastures under blue skys.
They’ve been beat so much, they can’t see any winnable outcome. So Ledo responds to Amy’s
“What will you do after the war?” the only way he knows – wait to be told what to do next.
Amy tries to re-phrase it as “you’ll live (and enjoy)” life, but he has no dreams beyond the war.
It seems that the Galactic Alliance has lost so much of their humanity trying to save it that
when he’s confronted with it on Earth, it has almost no affect on him. It is completely outside
of his understanding.
A good episode. Funny how Chamber is more adept then Ledo is, but Ledo’s still a kid near Amy’s age.
Now, he has to work off that ¥150,000,000 debt being Amy’s butler (oh wait, that sounds familiar)
for putting that hole in the roof.
But you gotta hand it to Amy, 4 episodes in and she’s got his pants off (but it’s not like that)!!
Wikipedia says there are a bunch of short stories on the official Gargantia website that ‘further expand on the Gargantia universe’,http://gargantia.jp/#novel
After asking for help on the Animesuki forums, user roxybudgy kindly translated the short story, which I now share with you all today. All credit goes to roxybudgy post #1189 on Animesuki:http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=116617&page=60
Enjoy!
***
The freshly harvested grass and the human-sized fork was thrown into the bag the size of a Yunboro.
Ledo uses Chamber to carry away these bags.
When that’s done, they move on to packing at the marine farm.
“How’re you feelin’?”
“I guess good-looking guys look good no matter what they do~”
The voices came from Saaya and Melty whom came to watch.
“No problem, work is going well.”
“Is that so~ …Ugh”
A laughing Melty has a look of disgust.
“Ledo, doesn’t sweat stink?”
“Yeah, it does smell… a little”
“What is ‘smell’?”
A communications unit blinks above Ledo’s chest, whom has his pilot suit exposed at the top.
“The scent particles emitted by your body exceeds standard levels.”
“You mean I stink…?”
He sniffs his chest.
“The result is consistent with your prolonged use of this vessel’s life support system.”
“I see…”
“Well… think if it as a the mark of a working man.”
Said Saaya in an attempt to calm things down, Melty smiles.
“Well then! Let’s all take a bath together!”
“But, what about work?”
“There’s a good bath house nearby~”
Ignorning the confused-looking Ledo, the supervisor tell them that they can borrow Ledo for a while.
“W-wait!”
“Return to standard levels recommended.”
“Chamber! No you too!”
With hands pushing on his back and beckoning him along, this is how Ledo came to experience the “relaxation of the working man”.
***
Good to know Gargantians still prioritize cleanliness and hygiene ;D
And thus leading to this part(WARNING! SPOILERS and NSFW)
My favorite episode thus far. The question Ledo has of what he should do now reminds me of something I read in an interview with Urobuchi. He said he wanted to make this show for young people who are just entering society and are feeling lost. This episode definitely follows this theme of trying to find a purpose for yourself, which in Ledo’s case is a purpose in the absence of war. I can also relate to this theme (and I think others as well) as someone who’s almost done with her schooling (for me it’s wrapping up graduate school) and are wondering “what now?”, “what should I do next?” Given this, I hope Urobochi will give us an uplifting story, one that inspires hope and promise not just in the characters but in us, the viewers, as well.
Yeah, it goes back to the comment from Will right below yours. There’s a lot of natural, human development here, and it really resonates with a lot of people around like the 18-25 age group these days (considering the things we’re going through in the world).
And yeah, I agree with you completely, because I can relate as well (as someone who’s wrapping up college myself). Spent quite a long time pondering what I wanted to do before settling on my current choice, and it’s something that really makes me identify with this series. It doesn’t quite have as much action as say, Shingeki, but it makes it up by really appealing to personal experience, and it’s something that makes me like this series quite a bit as a result.
Ultimately though, it’s why I said “his just might be the series that bucks the UroButcher trend”—not only because it seems like it’s trending that way, but because I’m hoping that it’ll end up that way myself. In times like this, people really could use an uplifting story like the one Gargantia could offer, and it’d do nicely toward dispelling the assumption that all UroGen does is butcher people too.
What I love about this series is it’s about the development of the protagonist in a very natural and human way vs a cast of extreme sterotypes, or a bunch of forced plot twists, or liberal use of Deus-ex-machina to drive the story. In many ways Ledo is the complete opposite of your cliche sci-fi series protagonist.
Really, any character who reminds me of Hero yuy is doing a awesome job in my book.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=eQZh7tvMsY4#t=54s
Heero Yuy at his best.
So Ledo has to payback millions of whatever currency this Earth uses with his body and Chamber’s.Notice how Ledo is wearing a muscle shirt now duhuhu.
https://randomc.net/image/Suisei%20no%20Gargantia/Suisei%20no%20Gargantia%20-%2004%20-%2026.jpg
Better what out for these predators Ledo.
I’ll assume that the lady in Ledo’s flashback was his mom.Now I’m reminded of Eureka and Ao.
I’m starting to like Bebel more, that kid is smart.His discussion with Ledo was good and better than the one between Ledo and Dr.Oldham.
Even though nothing important was revealed about Earth or the Galactic Alliance.
I wonder if Ledo and that young boy could be brothers or in fact clones?
But besides from that, in overall, a great episode, I enjoyed the developments, especially when the atmosphere changed to accommodate the change in mood (like the gradual loss of light for the rain or the music that was introduced with the flashback) and I hope to see how Ledo sees the fleet as his stay lingers.
Seems like it should definitely be one or the other. I could see them mass cloning people with certain geno/phenotypes in order to produce the strongest soldiers… but at the same time, it wouldn’t make sense for Ledo to react that way if it wasn’t someone he knew closer… so I’m leaning more toward brother. Makes more sense when you also link the fact he’s remembering this when talking to Bebel as well, seeing how he’s Amy’s brother.
I can understand why you’d believe that the child in the pod was his brother, but that contradicts with his understanding, or lack thereof, of the concept of family. Unless his memories of ever having blood relations or his comprehension of such a concept were erased and somehow replaced with other information, I can’t really believe that the child in the pod was his brother.
His reaction wasn’t exactly convincing either. He’s shown that he doesn’t understand the concept of a little brother, so if that really was his little brother that he had just recollected in his memories, I’d have expected it to weigh a lot more on his mind, but he seemed to brushed the image in his flashback aside in a manner a bit too composed for it to be concerning a person he knows personally.
It’s really nice to see that gargantia has no plans on not being a great series. Ledo’s “soul searching” throughout the gargantia this episode was very well done. I like how they are handling Amy and Ledo’s relationship; her, bebel, and Ledo already seem like one happy family. We can see by the end of this episode that Ledo is starting to become a little attached to the gargantia and planet earth in general what with is little comment to chamber about investing more time to learn more about the planet. Though Chamber’s comment at the end seems to be subtle foreshadowing for what’s to come.
Felt some intense Sakamichi no Apollon vibes with Red standing in the rain, similar to Kaoru in the first episode.
“After all, the rain felt better than I imagined.” I think the line is.
I thought scene that was really great, and although experienced before I thought this episode brought out some really raw emotion that I haven’t really experienced in anime..since maybe last season actually. (with Sakamichi and Tsuritama probably) I’ll include Red crying in there too. This series is just absolutely beautiful so far.
Indeed. Beautiful is the only real word to describe it (especially this episode). I gotta say though, the OP/ED are really appropriate when you think about it as well.
Surely saving Gargantia last time could have helped pay off some of his debt. They’re just being churlish.
<__> … Urobuchi’s totally gonna kill everyone, by the way.
…And if he doesn’t I’m toally going to flip out and demand to know why he didn’t turn over this new leaf the first time I encountered one of his series, rather than waiting until now.
Is it just me or, is there a resemblance to the movie Equilibrium from Suisei?
I don’t have a word in my vocabulary to describe this episode but, if any word could come close to describe it. It’d be: BEAUTIFUL. A truly beautiful episode. It gives us so much to think about.
Best series this season so far. Hands down.
Even though Bebel is disable he can comprehend more than what people doesn’t see.
+10 points
Well, it’s not his brain that is disabled, and he had a lot of time to think.
Pixiv says its currently holding a Gargantia Anime Character Design contest.
It runs until May 12th, and submitted artwork will be judged by the director and animators themselves.
The winner gets Gargantia merchandise and their character will appear in the final Gargantia episode.
Will anyone be joining?
I actually would if pixiv wasn’t like, the hardest website to navigate ever especially since I can’t read Japanese.
I want to see more Melty and Saya in the future… =3 Also Zephyr, is there any chance you can start posting the end card picture as well? Random request I know, but it would be awesome if you are able to! 😀
i was already going to take this to be a somewhat happy series, but when Amy started talking about Bevel’s “chest disease” i knew right away that Urobutcher is bound to do to do his thing thing sooner or later. so prepare yourself for some pretty depressing heartbreakers folks >:)
Oh, sorry. I press a down vote accidentally -_-
I spot Ledo clones!
Ledo, Ledo, every where
and all he did was think
Ledo Ledo every where
that boy should see a shrink
This episode is basically my favorite part of any Sci-Fi: World Building. It was nice to see how the flotilla wrks, especially when they were collecting rain. It nice to see how happy and peaceful Gargantia is even when they do important things like gathering fresh water.
Bevel is very insightful for someone his age. I got a feeling that he and Bellows will serve as Ledo’s guidance for getting integrated into Gargantia. And speaking of Ledo the Flute-tooth may be an the most interesting thing about him. The fact that he feels compelled to make one implies that he retains some memory of something sentimental. This is at odds with how the Galactic Alliance Darwinist society is portrayed but its clearly an event that has affected him.
I almost feel sorry for the Alliance people, if only for the circumstances that drove them to become the society depicted in the series thus far.
Their ancestors escaped Earth and fled across the stars in search of a new home, but found no refuge within the darkness of space, only the cold, neverending blackness, and the ravenous incursions of a monstrous alien species(assuming no other intelligent life was encountered).
I mean, it just seems rather sad they had to adapt themselves into that sort of society. I could sympathise with the Alliance on those grounds, but could not support the type of actions they do to maintain that society.
What does everyone else think?
In Space every Plant that support Food, count. Every resource that is not important for survive is not necessary. So with time, only the strongest survive, because it dont cost to much resources. really sad way they took. Only ready for Battle counts
I dunno. But i think even the Persons after active duty are needed to educate the children’s. And if they are not needed anymore (Age) they get disposed. Because the resources they need will be used for new soldiers. So thats why i think this Avalon is just a Fake
is Ledo a manufactured clone?
Well, in Episode 1. Why is there the right, to reproducing? Or this rights after military Duties are just Fakes, to easy the Soldiers mind. Dunno what here is right or wrong
Hard to say, but I’m thinking that’s true to some extent. The opening scene shows the soldiers at an assembly, and while they have hair of different length and styles, they’re all still of the same gray as that of Ledo’s hair. They are also all of similar stature. Along with the scene in this episode where we see some sort of flashback into Ledo’s past and how there seems to be more than one character that looks like Ledo (other than himself, of course), there’s definitely a possibility that the Galactic Alliance uses some sort of cloning technology to mass-produces soldiers. Considering the number of troops that were lost in that pewpew skirmish in episode one, and how they seemed relatively unfazed by that fact kinda hints that they have an abundant “source” of manpower as well.
Well they all have similiar haircolors (grey with tints going to bluish and purpleish) but I thought that was just because they were “space people”.
If they are clones, I guess the Alliance at least tries to keep genetic diversity, wich could also mean that these “rights of reproduction” might not be fake. I mean, when you can clone soldiers and just have them killed off in battles, you don’t really need different genders and we see (or rather hear) that there are women serving besides Ledo.
I’d be happy to live in space if it means my hair will turn an awesome silver, but I don’t think it works that way. =D
Yeah, that’s probably the only thing that still has me doubting if they are in fact clones. If I were to come up with an argument for it, I’d say that the creation of clones with different characteristic and features results from an “imperfect” mass-cloning method. In a micro-scale experimental environment, the conditions for producing the clone can be closely monitored and the outcome can be controlled to be almost exactly the same as that of a previous experiment of the same design. But on a production scale, such conditions can’t be closely regulated without investing considerable amounts of time, money and energy. So instead of dealing with this issue, the Alliance may have just left it alone, considering the “imperfections” of these clones as “side-effects” or “faults”.
I don’t think the Alliance is allowing “genetic diversity” in clones on purpose, but you might be right though, and in which case, we’ll having something new to wonder about.
In the worst case, it might not even be revealed if they are clones or not.
They could leave the workings of the Alliance totally ambiguous and just focus on Ledo’s growth without explaining much. >_>
I’m wondering what will happen when the Earthlings meet the Alliances. That will be an interaction worth waiting for ^_^
As Ledo said, the Earthlings would be culled.
I knew the flute would be important!!! A good episode it was nice to see how Ledo and Chamber interact with people on a normal day on Gargantia.
On a side note next episode is a swimming/beach(?) episode. During the end song there is a projection on the sail of the boat and it shows the next episode’s previews, and I saw swimsuits so time for some fan-service, if Bellows puts on a swimsuit that is 😉
Is it wrong that im hoping for the hideazous and Galactic Alliance smear these happy go clueless fools with murder and sci-fi gore?
*to
Sure, but I can see where you are coming from.
It’s feel good philosophy that won’t end well when matters really do come to a head. With UroButcher on board, there’s a good chance their naïveté will be plastered about liberally ..
I hope the blonde guy who’s always talking about sinking ledo is the first to get killed. He’s such an asshole.
Losers like that are protected by plot armor. I call it now, not only will he live but he will hook up with Amy’s hot sister.
Amy’s sister? Are you talking about Bellows? If you are I don’t think bellows is Amy’s sister.
https://randomc.net/image/Suisei%20no%20Gargantia/Suisei%20no%20Gargantia%20-%2004%20-%20Large%2026.jpg
he is probably talking about them.
I don’t believe they’re sisters. More like friends from the job.
Gen Urobushi has really created something here. The concept of this anime is beyond anything that has been coming out in the recent years. Up to this point, it’s serving Urobuchi’s purpose to show the young people, the generation that is coming into contact with society, that society is not what they imagine it to be. Society is created by human nature; we strive to succeed, therefore, at times, we will abandon what we believe is a burden, however no matter what we become, we are still human, and there is humanity left somewhere within us. The Galactic Alliance and Gargantia are the two faces on the same coin representing our world.
The true brilliance in this story is not just that they take familiar anime concepts such as space battle and forgotten civilization and add in great action scenes, but also through the visual presentation that animes in general provide, the story is able to reflect real life and enlighten the viewers.
This sort of story writing can be deemed as an art. I dire to say it reflects the dying animation industry. Far too many anime’s these days depend on the use of fan service, for example some of the anime in this season that has no need for such methods story wise, Majestic Prince and Valvrave, for it’s third or fourth episode to attract viewers and popularity. This anime IS Gargantia itself; even at the current state we are in, there is a pearl lying somewhere deep in it.
There are many things that I want to talk about this anime, but it’s only episode 4, so it’s a bit too early to give a full opinion on it. I just hope this anime will turn out to what these couple of episode has set it up to be.
Ledo speaking to the citizens, still transitioning into their language is so cute to me. Oh man. Ledo!!! Lol.
I really want to know the back story for Ledo! Why was he crying?! How is he even at Gargantia anyway?! No concept of family?! Did he have friends?! Did he live in a period where there was only war?! So many questions, so little time to answer in 13 episodes!
This is one of the best world/character building episodes I’ve seen in a while.
Oh well, this show has makings of one of the best of the season. Lets talk about the culture clash, again.
On one side we have relatively free and chaotic Gargantia side, with Amy as a great heroine in style of Miyazaki – come on, dont her flying skills and squirrel pet remind you of someoene?
On another, we have Ledo as a representative of space-faring civilization in state of FOREVER WAR, reducing humans to ultimate soldiers, embracing the Spartan ways in both training the young without traditional family system and disposing of the disabled and not fit for military service. He values discipline, obedience and organisation, yet finds himself stranded when without of chain of command to follow and forced – for the first time in his life? – to think and make decisions for himself.
Urobutchi is again asking difficult questions – at what price victory? in a war where mere survival forces such harsh methods, is there any meaningful victory to be taken? And what would they do if they lost their enemy, their only purpose?
Now waiting for Ledo to play the Song of Healing for the Hideazue.
Somewhat in response to something Zephyr said, but more like me rambling. Caution, wall of text ahead.
Show Spoiler ▼
Damn, I lost myself writing this.
What makes this episode brilliant, and immensely different from the previous episodes, is that the entire episode is constructed in the form of a psychoanalytical ‘assessment’. By clashing Ledo’s views with the everyday life of Gargantians, and forcing Ledo into self-reflection, it brings out his repressed emotions.
These emotions not only give us a glimpse of the values of the Galactic Alliance and how the Alliance operates macroscopically, but it also enables us to explore the conflict between society and the self.
This might be reflective of our society as well – as someone mentioned above that the series is meant to guide ‘lost’ young people. Are we all supposed to senselessly abide by social norms, going to school, working, and ultimately die? Or is life something more and that to truly ‘live’ is to experience all that is around us?
In the current economic climate, it perhaps also questions whether our lives are merely for a senseless pursuit of wealth, done only for self-gratification, or whether everyone lives for a purpose.
I would say that this is aimed particularly at those who aren’t the most gifted of people entering the working class, the potential salaryman who’ll have to struggle just to get a mediocre job while the talented sail smoothly through their twenties. To the under-achiever in society, there’s barely any sense to make of living when it seems like the world has no room for it, let alone having the luxury to redefine your own life according to how you want to live it. It’s likely a similar feeling of helplessness that Ledo is going through when he observes Chamber and the crew on Gargantia operating in fact better than when he was trying to help out. Like Ledo, you can’t help but wonder if there’s any need for your presence when there’s someone out there who’ll do your job better than you can, and it makes you think if trying is even worth it at all.
I’m with you there. I wouldn’t mind if the whole series ends up being like this episode, and contribute to stop making people think any show Urobuchi Gen works on will turn into a massacre.
Chambers is pretty much Arbalest’s AI since episode one, but now we also get to see Ledo act just like Sagara would.
The rain scene was really beautiful. I see two things there. Ledo experiencing rain for the first time and Ledo surprised at how fast everyone get into action considering how disorganized he thought the earthlings were.
I didn’t think it could get better. But it did! SNG is hands down the best anime this season. Nothing else comes close to its characterization and world building. Not to mention the high quality thought provoking writing.
I think the flashback scene was definitely between Ledo and his ‘younger brother’. Possibly Ledo’s ‘younger brother’ also had a ‘defect’ and had to be culled and this presents a tragic contrast against the relationship of Amy and her own ill brother.
that one unusual way to treat a hero, money always come first regardless what good deed u done, if u damage the place while saving other, u need to pay for the damage , and whats more they even plan to charge him for freight tax, what the F*#k , they even own space and sky? i dont see that gargantia having their own flight unit rather than some glider, and yet they can charge Ledo flight payload tax , what logic is this are they really money profit organization ?
Ledo is the typical life-soldier. Bored when not in battle, unsure of what to do when a superior officer is not telling him what to do. Adjusting to civilian life is going to be the theme here, I hope, with no aliens or too many pirates.
But Ledo was bored with his life before. In the first episode, Chamber informs him that he has 4 weeks of R&R coming and Ledo doesn’t even skip a beat. (R&R meaning Relaxation and Reproduction, in this case.)
The challenge is going to be paying off that bill (!) and not having knee-jerk reactions as a soldier to issues. Pirates harassing the flotilla? Annihilate them. The captain and his staff have to keep Ledo and Chamber pacified from overreacting to cultural issues.
And thus it truly starts….
I believe….
By far the best episode in the series IMO at the moment. Though the theme of what do soldiers do after all the fight have been concluded gets thrown around a lot, I love the feel it gives off here with Ledo’s conversation with Bebel. Ledo’s confusion with the organizational structure of the Gargantia and his sudden feel of emotion when it rained was just gold. Ledo did not have any experiences beside being a soldier, this leaves a lot of room for him to develop into another personality by the end of this series.
Flute scene was nicely executed, was kinda moved by it.
Though I have a question of whether there are people on the Avalon who are not soldiers? People that just live by without worrying about space battles. These “elites” may become an opposing force for Ledo later on if the fleet were to arrive at Earth and fight over the right to live on it. Anyways looking forward for great things to come!
For some reason I still cannot trust Ledo’s AI partner.
Me neither. It’s clear that on a day-to-day basis Ledo commands Chamber, but we see also that Chamber is looking out for changes in Ledo and probably has some sort of built-in oversight function. I wouldn’t put it beyond Chamber to terminate Ledo on the spot if his “usefulness rating” to the Galactic Alliance fell below a certain threshold.
Next week is some sort of swimsuit episode from the looks of it. If you want to see a preview of next’s weeks show it’s on the sail of a passing ship in the end credits each week.
I was thinking: When I think of a swimsuit episode, the first thing that comes to mind is fanservice. But why would the Urobutcher resort to using fanservice? What purpose would it serve?
And then it hit me. Ledo probably doesn’t comprehend what fanservice or even sexuality means. At least not yet. But with the rapid development of his knowledge of human beings, I’m sure there’ll come a point where he realizes that human beings aren’t just large pieces of asexual moving meat made for conquest, but are actually made up of men and women.
In other words, we aren’t going to be seeing just a beach/filler episode next week. We’ll actually be seeing some more epic character development and world-building. Can’t fool me, UroGen.
this was my favorite episode so far, this episode was so simple and yet so moving, I love amy’s brother he’s an amazing character
Really like the tone of this episode. It’s beautiful really. I definitely wouldn’t mind Ledo not going back to space if it means more of this happens. The rain scene is pretty great too.
I wonder if the last arc is actually Ledo going against chamber as exposing earth’s existence will lead to the end of their current lifestyle. It would only be efficient for the galactic alliance for earth to be conquered (if any resistance to the idea of being inducted into the alliance is put up) and used as a major base/manufacturing facility
The wormhole opens up again and Hideaus start attacking the Galgantian ship with extreme prejudice, therefore Ledo overloads Chamber’s energy output to force them back into the wormhole and saying goodbye to Amy in tears. Ledo then becomes commander of the Empire in Space and returns to Amy, and finds out it has been 500 years since he left, but his ancestors have a large fleet of fleets. He retires and dies alone happily.
Magnificent bastard Urobuchi™
By the way, it’s not too important–but does anyone know what the books in the doctor’s office were titled? They looked like they were in Thai/Sanskrit buuut maybe not-
The whole thing with where Ledo came from seriously reminded me of Communism and Gindam Seed Destiny’s Destiny Plan. Is this A foreshadow of things and tragedies to come? because seriously, I am not convinced this show will end well. It’s an Urobucher show after all.
Let’s hope that it won’t. It’s the only thing we can do, anyway.
Just a heads up guys,
Due to personal reasons, I have asked Kairi (thanks!) to cover Suisei 05, so the post may release at a different time than the norm. I may or may not be back to cover 06, but will definitely be back for 07 at the latest.
Noooooo!!
Anyway hope things work out. Waiting for your return.
Same as in Shingeki ok now I feel like a stalker ..
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