My Problem with Gargantia

I’ll be honest. At the beginning I had no intentions of watching Suisei no Gargantia.

Hazard prefers to keep his distance from Gen Urobochi. What can I say? I am a happy ending guy, which is not to say I can’t enjoy some dark stuff. Berserk is my favorite thing ever. Still, happy endings and upbeat stuff make me feel all warm.

I had no intentions of watching Gargantia, but things happen.

Like the guy in charge of design being very good at his job. I don’t care all that much about Amy and Melty, but Bellows and Saaya are hot. Damn hot. 

Which is not to say I am only watching it for the fanservice. I have enjoyed the story told. It's an interesting subject that has a lot of potential. Cultural clash is always fun. Gargantia is one of my favorite anime this season and I have really high hopes for it.

Hazard has just one problem with it.

You can probably guess what it is from the pic above. No, not the girls. Stare at them if you want. I know I do, but that’s not the issue. I'm talking about what Chamber is saying.

Co-existence and Co-Prosperity

Now, let’s get one thing out of the way. I don’t blame the Gargantians for not fighting. They were clearly outgunned against the pirates, and the situation is even worse against the whale-squids. Their combat power is low. Under those circumstances not fighting is smart, because you’re gonna get wrecked otherwise.

My problem is calling it Co-existence and Co-Prosperity.

I guess you can say it is coexistence in the sense that they are living in the same time and in the same place, place being defined as planet Earth. As for mutual prosperity… let’s look at the cases, shall we?

Pirates

The pirates are competitors at best and enemies every other time. Gargantia’s pirate strategy revolves around making the pirates think messing with them is just not worth it, by virtue of tough language, robots, and guns all while trying to not kill them for fear of repercussions.  

Let’s be honest here. It’s pretty much impossible for a Gargantian not to have killed a pirate in the past, but let's move past that to the results.

How does this work out? Well the pirates are still out there. They still attack the Gargantians. Being completely honest my impression is that Bellows would have been raped or taken prisoner had Ledo not interfered when he did.

Mutual Benefit… is not really found here. Some competitions can bring mutual benefit, not this one. Either the pirates benefit or the Gargantians benefit, but it's clear they aren't going to share the loot and go their merry ways.

Whale-Squids

Whale-Squids are totally sacred creatures.

Now, Ledo killed a whale-squid. That’s presumably the reason all the whale-squids suddenly appeared. Gargantia’s answer to that is to power down, hide, and not make a freaking sound.

Whale-Squids are sacred because everyone is scared of them. They know what would happen if they messed with them

Once again, I can agree with the strategy employed to a degree. Gargantians are laughably outgunned by the whale-squids.

As for co-existence, well there is apparently whale-squid territory and you’re an idiot if you go in there. Coexistence here means, keep your distance and with good reason.

Is there really mutual benefit here? This is not a beneficial relationship. This is not even an enmity. This is hiding under your bed and hoping the big bad monster doesn’t visit.

Ledo

Just about the most successful relationship Gargantia has. Gargantia provides food and shelter. In return, Ledo provides the services of his technologically advanced robot. Both sides benefit.

Funny thing, it was Ledo who suggested this relationship. He's also the one who tried to make this relationship work by trying to fit in and understanding Gargantia's culture.

Yep, coexistence and mutual benefit totally don’t exist in his language. Hazard laughs so hard at that.

Like I said in the beginning, I’m not going to say the way Gargantians do things are wrong. There are reasons for what they do, but it annoys me that the anime tries to make them out as more than what they are.

Coexistence and Co-Prosperity my ass.