Dramatic title, eh? But for this show it’s surprisingly appropriate. Gatchaman Crowds is the most ambitious show of the summer, and quite possibly the most ambitious show of the year. But does it succeed in its ambitions? Well, if I tell you that right now, why would you read the rest of this?
I’m just kidding it succeeds this show is sweet let’s talk about it anyway.
This season has apparently been designed specifically to torture me, considering the release times of this and Kyoukai no Kanata. But that’s cool. Wait’s over. The Gainax Second Wave’s long-awaited full-length creation is upon us. Let’s have some stupid, glorious fun.
I am seriously steaming in anticipation here, and I’ve had to wait six freaking hours to get off work and watch this, but let’s just take the briefest of moments to cover what we’ve got here.
And so the summer ends. I really couldn’t be more burnt out on talking about anime, considering I just finished three 8+ page essays on TWGOK, Uchouten Kazoku, and Gatchaman Crowds, but I’ll at least wave my hand in the direction of final impressions.
Initially, I wasn’t really sure if there was a point to reviewing this one. I mean, it’s the third season of a self-aware harem comedy/parody. If you’re watching it, you know what you’re getting, and if you’re not, you know why you’re not. What would be the audience for a piece like that?
But the more I thought about it, the more I realized this season basically makes the show. Sure, it’s always been funny. Sure, it’s always taken pointed but lighthearted jabs at harem scenarios and anime character writing. But this season takes the gloves off. This season makes a point.
Alright, I’m gonna use one of my least favorite words here. Normally, I think it’s both misapplied and meaningless, but for once, it just might be appropriate.
TWGOK S3 completes the show’s arc as a deconstruction of harem comedies.
Last Uchouten Kazoku. If I said I didn’t want it to end, that’d be kind of missing the point, right? Well, good, because I’m actually perfectly comfortable with it ending. Uchouten Kazoku has lived well – offering us many beautiful glimpses of a fantastically realized world, sharing a variety of well-written and relentlessly human (loaded word, but we’ll go with it) characters, and telling a sharp, perfectly composed story of life, family and duty. I’m not sad it’s ending, I’m happy it’s ending so well. I think Sou would approve.
Hey guys it’s me. All caught up, just in time for this freakin’ finale. I’m excited. You guys excited? I guess everybody’s excited.
These last couple episodes have easily been my favorites of the series. Though Eren’s development still lags, I’m loving how they’re putting Armin and Jean’s character growth into practice, and the side characters of the Survey Corps are just extremely fun to see in action. Things are moving fairly quickly, they’re burning animation budget like nobody’s business, they’re bouncing effectively between flashbacks and action setpieces… just lots to love at the moment. I hope it finishes strong.
This weekend is gonna kill me you guys. I have written so many words. I have so many words left to write. C3-bu. TWGOK. Gatchaman. Uchouten. Titan. Why am I doing this to myself?!?
Alright, that’s not Monogatari’s fault. In fact, Monogatari’s the nice show, the one that isn’t piling on the mountain of reviews I’ve foolishly assigned myself. So let’s take it easy, Monogatari. Maybe just have an episode of pretty backgrounds I can cap and say “hey look at this pretty background” to. Please don’t get thematically dense on me here.
That seems pretty unlikely, though – between the snake and Ougi, this arc has already firmly declared it will be about the Fallacy of Victimhood, and how Nadeko uses her alleged helplessness as a defense mechanism even as she pursues selfish and potentially damaging ends. Given her desire to direct dissatisfaction outwards and minimal ability to express herself, Nadeko is possibly our most unreliable narrator yet, which in the context of Monogatari is really saying something. Let’s get to it.
ERMAHGERD THERE’S A TITAN IN THE CITY WHAT THE FUCK.
Alright, I’m sure the army has some kind of backup plan here. And last episode managed the excellent trick of being an extremely entertaining twenty minutes without spending absurd amounts of animation budget. So I’m quite excited to see where they go with this – frankly, the fact that the army went so completely all-in on their Annie hypothesis (putting the words of Erwin and Armin into action) is by itself quite exciting, and demonstrates the overall military apparatus being both more intelligent and more decisive than we’ve seen previously. Does this mean we get more Pixis? Possibly a spirited brofist between Pixis and Erwin? A boy can dream.
And here we are. No idea how they’re gonna tie up all these loose ends – obviously there are a number of ways they could resolve the overt plot, but that was never really the point with this one. Can the show even take a coherent stance on all the issues it’s raised? Hajime’s philosophy of transparency and “if the internet’s being a jerk, just turn it off” sort of works… until you actually need the internet, in which case you hand out smartphones to everyone, and then Berg Katze gives everybody Crowds and you’re screwed all over again. Fortunately, the actual character journeys are pretty much done at this point – last episode cleared out any doubts of that. At this point, it’s pretty purely ideology versus ideology, so I guess we’ll just have to see what stands when the dust clears.
