Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet (Japanese: ??????????, Hepburn: Suisei no Gargantia) is a Japanese anime television series produced by Production I.G and directed by Kazuya Murata, and aired between April and June 2013. A manga adaptation began serialization in Kadokawa Shoten's Newtype Ace magazine in January 2013.
Video Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet
Plot
In the distant future, mankind has taken to the stars and formed the Galactic Alliance of Humankind (??????, Jinrui Ginga D?mei). The Alliance is engaged in a perpetual war with a tentacled alien species known as the Hideauze (??????, Hidi?zu). Sixteen-year-old Ensign Ledo is a soldier in the Galactic Alliance, piloting a Machine Caliber (????????, Mashin Kyarib?), an artificial intelligence-automated, humanoid-shaped battle suit, which he refers to as "Chamber". After a failed attempt by the Alliance forces to destroy an enemy super-weapon, Ledo is knocked into a wormhole and loses consciousness. When he awakens, he learns from Chamber that he has been in cryo-stasis for six months while his wounds were healing. Ledo learns that he and Chamber have been "found" by a rag-tag band of "primitive" human scavengers. Ledo discovers that he is on board an ocean ship named the Gargantia, that is part of a massive fleet of ships on an ocean-covered planet. Chamber tells him that local star charts reveal the planet is Earth, the birthplace of humanity, a place that members of the Alliance were only familiar with from stories and believed was a myth.
Maps Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet
Characters
Main characters
- Ledo (??, Redo)
- Voiced by: Kaito Ishikawa (Japanese); Alan Lee (English)
- A 16-year-old Galactic Alliance ensign. Trained as a soldier since birth, Ledo finds himself shipwrecked on Earth following a failed attempt by the army to destroy the Hideauze's home planet. As he interacts with his new surroundings and gets used to the crew of the Gargantia, Ledo is exposed to some concepts of human society long forgotten by his civilization (or at least obscured from its soldiery) due to its permanent state of total war against the Hideauze, like entertainment, cooperation and tolerance. Ledo gradually grows attached to his new friends on Gargantia, particularly Amy, whom he later falls in love with.
- Amy (????, Eim?)
- Voiced by: Hisako Kanemoto (Japanese); Cassandra Lee Morris (English)
- A 15-year-old messenger who meets Ledo when he wakes up from hibernation and serves as his guide. She becomes Ledo's first and best friend, and from all the members of Gargantia, she is the one who gets closest to him, usually keeping him company and encouraging his efforts to fit himself into the fleet's environment. She eventually falls in love with him.
Gargantia
- Ridget (????, Rijitto)
- Voiced by: Sayaka Ohara (Japanese); Laura Post (English)
- A 22-year-old high rank officer at the Gargantia, she is Fleet Commander Fairlock's second in command and daughter of his predecessor, Chevron. Following Fairlock's death, she takes over as Fleet Commander, following his wish.
- Bellows (????, Ber?zu)
- Voiced by: Shizuka It? (Japanese); Julie Ann Taylor (English)
- The 18-year-old leader of the Gargantia's excavation team.
- Pinion (????, Pinion)
- Voiced by: Katsuyuki Konishi (Japanese); Patrick Seitz (English)
- The head of the Gargantia's repairmen. His older brother was killed by a whalesquid, and upon learning of Ledo's intention to exterminate them due to their connection to the Hideauze, he decides to assist him with the pretense of exploring the whalesquid territory for salvage work. After Ledo clears the area of the whalesquids, Pinion clams the technology salvaged by his crew to establish his own fleet, which is later annexed to Kugel's fleet. In the occasion, Pinion is appointed to be chief technician of Kugel's fleet in charge of developing weapons for it.
- Bebel (???, Beberu)
- Voiced by: Yuka Terasaki (Japanese); Michelle Ruff (English)
- Amy's 10-year-old little brother with an illness that compromises his health, thus he is usually bedridden, and only moves by a wheelchair. He befriends Ledo, who treats him as a younger brother.
- Fairlock (??????, Fearokku)
- Voiced by: Hideaki Tezuka (Japanese); Geoffery Chalmers (English)
- The fleet commander of the Gargantia, who despite being sick, refuses to relinquish his post. He appoints Ridget as his successor just before he passes away.
- Saaya (???, S?ya)
- Voiced by: Ai Kayano (Japanese); Natalie Hoover (English)
- Amy's friend and a reserved 15-year-old messenger.
- Melty (????, Meruti)
- Voiced by: Kana Asumi (Japanese); Janice Roman Roku (English)
- A hyper 14-year-old messenger who is also Amy's friend. She leaves Gargantia along with the many who decide to follow Pinion's plan.
- Reema (???, R?ma)
- Voiced by: Inori Minase
- A new character from the OVA series, she is a former member of Kugel's fleet who moves to the Gargantia and becomes the newest member of Amy's messenger team. She is later revealed as a spy for an unknown party, ordering a machine which resembles Chamber.
- Joe (???, J?)
- Voiced by: Y?ki Hayashi (Japanese); Sean Finkle (English)
- Grace (????, Gur?su)
- Voiced by: Ai Kayano (Japanese); Michelle Ruff (English)
- Amy's pet squirrel.
- Flange (????, Furanji)
- Voiced by: Eiz? Tsuda (Japanese); Doug Stone (English)
- A major shipleader in the Gargantia who agrees with Pinion's plan and secedes from the fleet to accompany his efforts to reclaim technology from ancient civilizations. Later he is forced to join Kugel's fleet along the rest of his crew.
- Oldham (????, Orudamu)
- Voiced by: Hideyuki Umezu (Japanese); Steve Mann (English)
- The resident doctor aboard Gargantia.
- Crown (????, Kuraun)
- Voiced by: Mitsuaki Hoshino (Japanese); Kyle Hebert (English)
- Mayta (???, Maita)
- Voiced by: Sora Tokui (Japanese); Caitlin Chang (English)
- A young repair-girl aboard Gargantia. She joins Pinion when he leads a group of the fleet away.
Machine Calibers
Highly advanced mech used by the Galactic Alliance of Humankind which was established when the humans in space joined forces against its common enemy; the Hideauze.
- K6821 Chamber (??????, Cheinb?)
- Voiced by: Tomokazu Sugita (Japanese); Matthew Mercer (English)
- Chamber is Ledo's mecha and artificial intelligence assistant; a mass produced robot used in great numbers by the Galactic Alliance of Humankind. Chamber describes itself as a program designed specifically to ensure that its pilot excels at his or her assigned task, which in the case of Ledo is a soldier. Upon meeting the people of the Gargantia, Chamber manages to analyze and decode their language to act as a translator between Ledo and the people on Gargantia.
- X3752 Striker (??????, Sutoraik?)
- Voiced by: Ayumi Fujimura (Japanese); Karen Strassman (English)
- A GAH robot designed for higher ranked soldiers used by Kugel. Originally believed to serve as Kugel's life support system, as he was somehow unable to leave his cockpit due to a disease, it is later revealed that it was Striker's AI who was ordering the fleet instead of him, as the real Kugel was long dead inside it.
Other characters
- Lukkage (????, Rak?ji)
- Voiced by: Ayumi Tsunematsu (Japanese); Johanna Luis (English)
- A pirate leader who launched an attack on the Gargantia after Ledo kills some of her men to protect Bellows and her crew. Some time after being defeated by the Gargantia's forces with Ledo's help, she reappears as part of Kugel's fleet. Yet she helps to rebel against it.
- Kugel (????, K?geru)
- Voiced by: Y?ki Ono (Japanese); Marc Diraison (English)
- Ledo's superior at the GAH, who disappears after he decides to stay behind to allow Ledo and the others to escape after their failed attack on the Hideauze. Ledo eventually is contacted by his Machine Caliber Striker and learns that just like him, he got stranded on Earth and joined a fleet, but unlike Ledo, he remained inside his machine caliber due to a disease that prevents him from leaving, seized control over the fleet that found him, and instated a totalitarian militarist regime in the name of improving its strength and efficiency. However, it is later revealed that Kugel was long dead and Striker was posing as him instead.
- Storia (?????, Sut?ria)
- Voiced by: Yui Horie (Japanese); Shelby Lindley (English)
- Ridget's childhood friend. She is gentle-hearted, but she is brisk and efficient when it comes to her nursing job. Seven years before, Storia left the Gargantia to live with Ritona.
- Ritona (????, Riton?)
- Voiced by: Yuichi Nakamura (Japanese); David Vincent (English)
- An old acquaintance of Ridget, he was chief mechanic of another fleet who went derelict after its main engine was damaged beyond repair. Before that he falls in love with Storia and takes her to live with him.
Production
Gen Urobuchi explained on the official website that the message of the story is aimed towards those in their teens and 20s, who are either about to enter into society or recently have, and is meant to cheer them on and to encourage them that "going out into the world isn't scary". He also said that the feeling of this work will be different from others he's been involved with.
Development of Gargantuan on the Verdurous Planet began around November 2010, according to producer Nao Hirasawa. Mechanical designer Makoto Ishiwata said that he began his design work about two months in, and that the mechanical designs were focused on bringing out aspects of the plot. The roundness of the Machine Caliber's design was meant to bring out a sense of gentleness and familiarity. The difference between the personalities of Chamber and Striker were to represent a sense of a child and a grown adult.
After about a half year's worth of production, Kazuya Murata was brought in as the series director. Murata had been harboring the desire to work on a story involving people living on ships atop a world of water about ten years before the series started. Some of the story had already been arranged, but he introduced the concept of people living on giant boats, and Urobuchi liked the idea a lot, and quickly worked it into the story. According to Urobuchi, as they revised the plot further, Murata tended to have a very good sense of judgement as to what to put in and what not to put in, and was clear about what he was looking for, so the organization went a lot more smoothly than he thought it might have. Urobuchi was put in charge of writing the first and last episodes once the green-light was given for a thirteen-episode series in order to set the theme for the other writers.
Some weeks after the series started airing, a character design contest related to the anime series was announced. It was hosted on Pixiv, and Murata and staff members of Production I.G judged the entries submitted until the deadline of May 12. Originally only one among the submitted designs would be chosen, however there were twelve entries which impressed the judges to the point of announcing all of them as winners. The twelve chosen characters made an appearance in the series finale on June 30, 2013.
Media
Novels
Starting a few months before the series aired, the official website began updating on a monthly basis to include short stories that further expand on the Gargantia universe. On April 3, 2015, at an event in Tokyo, Bandai Visual revealed that a sequel for the anime was planned, but due to "various circumstances", was scrapped. The material intended for the sequel was instead adapted into two novels, which were published on August 29, 2015 and March 30, 2016 in Japan.
Manga
Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet received a manga adaptation, drawn by Wataru Mitogawa. The series' serialization began in the 17th issue of Kadokawa Shoten's Newtype Ace magazine, released on January 10, 2013, and after the magazine's final issue, July 10, 2013, it continued in Niconico's Kadokawa Niconico Ace web magazine. The manga has also been collected in three tank?bon volumes, published between April 8, 2013, and March 7, 2014. A spin-off manga series, titled Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet: Mizuhana no Bellows (?????????? ???????, lit. "The Headwaters' Bellows"), drawn by Sh? with story assistance by Hiroki Uchida, began serialization in Enterbrain's Famitsu Comic Clear website on June 7, 2013. and ended on January 30, 2015. The series has been collected in two tank?bon volumes.
Anime
The anime was directed by Kazuya Murata and produced by Production I.G with character design by Hanaharu Naruko. Gen Urobuchi supervised and wrote the first and last episodes of the series. The anime aired on Tokyo MX from April 7 to June 30, 2013. It was streamed by Crunchyroll. A web short titled "Petit Gargantia" (Puchitto Gargantia) streamed on their official site for each episode. On March 30 and 31, 2013, at the Anime Contents Expo Bandai Visual's booth gave away 8000 copies of the first two episodes on Blu-ray Disc. The opening theme is Kono Sekai wa Bokura o Matte Ita (?????????????, "This World Has Been Waiting For Us") by Minori Chihara while the ending theme is Sora to Kimi no Message (??????????, "Sky and Your Message") by ChouCho. An OVA 14th episode was released along with first Blu-ray Disc box set on August 28, 2013, and another, 15th, was released with the third one on October 25, 2013. The sets also include subtitles in English. At Anime Expo 2013, Viz Media announced their license to the anime, as well as plans to stream the series on their website and Hulu and release it on DVD and Blu-ray Disc in 2014. A two-part OVA sequel, titled Suisei no Gargantia ~Meguru K?ro, Haruka~ (?????????? ~????????~), was released in the Fall 2014 and Spring 2015.
Episode list
Reception
In April 2014, the series was nominated for the Seiun Award.
References
External links
- Official website
- Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
Source of article : Wikipedia
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