Gatchaman Crowds Episode 11
What They Say
Episode 11: Gamification
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The best and worst thing about anime is that producers and commercially minded people tend to leave the artistic decisions up to the artists. Sometimes this pays off fantastically, like with Evangelion or Utena. Other times there are hiccups, like with Gargantia or the controversial end of Flowers of Evil. But what it means is the fan must be ever vigilant, as you can never be sure your favorite anime won’t turn to crap at any moment. With two episodes left, we were almost in the clear, but Gatchaman makes a flub. It’s not a fatal one, and it’s one that was most likely pressed on the production due to time and money limitations, but that doesn’t make it any more pleasant.
Horror of horrors: The first half of the episode is a recap. It’s not a bad recap, by any means. Every character discusses the difference Hajime has had on their lives, and traces the arc of their character development. Sometimes it’s moving coming out of the characters’ own mouths. Other times, it feels like heavy handed exposition pointing out developments that attentive fans had already figured out. With so much left to do, though, even the world’s best recap can’t compare to new material, and that’s just an incredible shame.
It’s also hard not to notice how over the top the narration gets in terms of praise of Hajime. Is the writer not trusting the audience to understand her specific virtues and contributions? In a way, that might be the best interpretation. Because the other interpretation is that all of the effusive praise is in fact a eulogy, and that somebody is going to die in the final episode.
It’s not a pleasant choice: new material couldn’t be funded due to time or money constraints, or they’re setting up Hajime to sacrifice herself. I’d honestly prefer neither.
With all of that out of the way, though, the second half does keep the Gatchaman CROWDS tradition of excellence going. Rui is able to capture the attention of Sousai X, and the computer system restores GALAX to its helpful state. X helps the police, firefighters, and self-defense forces locate the injured, put out fires, and keep the CROWDS under control. Hajime, being a big fan of D-I-Y, even gets the Prime Minister to tell people to register for GALAX so everyone can contribute to disaster relief. The course is set for a happy ending.
But of course Berg Katze is the master troll, and flips Hajime’s plan against our heroes. He intercepts and corrupts a transmission of the Prime Minister’s. Now that you’re all signed up for GALAX, he says, I’m giving you ALL the power of CROWDS. People, trusting the newly energized Prime Minsiter, all tap in, and a new wave of CROWDS is unleashed. It’s now impossible for the G-Team to tell good CROWDS from bad CROWDS, and not even individual CROWDS will know who is up to mischief, and who is trying to help.
The map that had located the remaining CROWDS left to neutralize fills up with hundreds of new targets, and a new wave of chaos is unleashed on Tachikawa City.
In Summary
There’s no way to get around the fact that the recap is a total momentum-killer. Even if it’s meant to set up Hajime as a martyr, it just comes at an awful place, and makes a too-short 12 episode series an even shorter 11 1/2 episode series. Sources all say that Nakamura’s scheduling on the show was too tight, and it’s likely that this is another casualty of the production process, much like episode 6′s horrible animation. What’s done is done, though: Gatchaman’s near-perfect run is tarnished, but it’s still the best show of the season, as far as I’m concerned. All I can do is hope now that the time and money saved by re-using clips for half of the episode means that the conclusion will take everyone’s breath away. Except for Hajime’s, because I am really not on board for that.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment: Sony VAIO 17″ HD screen
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