G-G-GATCHAMAAAAAN… is back.
What They Say:
“Gatchaman” is the general term for warriors who wear special power suits called NOTE, which are manifestations of special spiritual powers possessed by living beings. The Gatchaman force on Earth consists of aliens who have been dispatched by a council and Earthlings who have been scouted for their latent abilities, all of whom work together to protect Earth’s people and resources from alien criminals who have invaded the planet in violation of the probation enforced by the council.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The original Gatchaman Crowds was a surprising, energetic, and contentious masterpiece that more or less abandoned all but the most tenuous connections to the classic Gatchaman and took a very different direction. The key to its passionate fans (of which I am one) and equally passionate detractors is the show trial it puts on for 2000’s superheroes like Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight, and V for Vendetta’s V- dark, vigilante anti-heroes who didn’t play by the old rules in a post-9/11 world where the old rules were outdated relics that were only going to get you killed. In their place, Gatchaman Crowds enshrined eternally genki, optimistic, irrepressible, and intuitive Hajime Ichinose, who did away with hierarchy, secrecy, and exclusivity in superheroism, and young genius Rui Ninomiya, queer technolibertarian savior converted by Hajime’s sheer Righteousness into trusting in people and saving the day. Of course, the deck is stacked clearly in Hajime’s favor, leading some to claims that she is a “Mary Sue” and Crowds’ ideological victory over its strawman enemies is hollow.
This is fair complaint: Crowds is a messy series, hurt by a chaotic production schedule, leaving us with half an episode spent recapping things the viewer already figured out about Hajime and her ideals, and an ending that didn’t quite make sense. A director’s cut final episode allowed all of the pieces to come together in a coherent whole, but Nakamura’s optimistic argument in favor of humanity’s innate heroism still comes across a little half-baked: Who, after all, can really live like Hajime?
Nakamura and his team are smart enough to know this, of course, and from the first moments of episode zero it’s clear he intends to take on many of these critiques of the original series. Of course, the deck will be stacked in Hajime’s favor once again (does anyone really expect Nakamura to back down and suggest Hajime was a fool?) but it will be interesting to see if anything insight attempts will convince its critics, or whether it will only be more preaching to the converted.
Events pick up seamlessly from where we left off two years ago: In episode zero (a mandatory watch- the material here is not rehashed in episode 1) the Prime Minister’s plane comes under attack from Red Crowds belonging to an organization called VAPE. VAPE stands for Violent APE, a terrorist group that believes the Crowds are far too dangerous to be left in just anyone’s hands, and who perform these stunts in an attempt to get Crowds shut down or regulated. Their leader is one Rizimu, another young tech-genius type who seems to hold a grudge against Rui though his exact motivations are as yet unclear.
Rui is concerned about the abuse of these Red Crowds, and using his position as new Gatchaman, assists Hajime and crew transport onto the PM’s plane and stop the attack. Unusually for Hajime and company, the group uses violence, destroying two expensive fighter jets much to the Prime Minister’s regret (My tax money!) The show accounts for this tonal inconsistency: We see that Berg Katze, trapped in Hajime’s mind (and, apparently, bosom), still communicates with her and urges her to kill her foes. Has the purity of Hajime’s methods been corrupted? Or the potential takeover of Hajime’s mind a threat yet to come? The Prime Minister is saved, and Hajime and her Gatchaman companions head off for a double mission for episode 1: A new Gatchaman is to be introduced, and an alien companion is to be met.
The new Gatchaman is one Tsubasa, a girl very similar to Hajime in temperament, although, quick to anger and filled with anxiety, she may be Hajime’s “human” version. She’s a girl who lives out in rural Niigata who wants to take over the family fireworks business and is completely surprised when a UFO lands in a nearby rice field. Out comes a little girl alien, one Gel Sadra, a childlike innocent who can somehow make people’s emotional state visible as a thought bubble above their head. Much like a child, she prefers conformity and happiness and prefers it when everyone is a smiling, happy, green, rather than when people are anxious or have disagreements. Her charm wins over the country folk, and so she is able to enjoy the tranquility of shared happiness, at least for the time being.
This doesn’t even begin to cover all of the new moving pieces in insight, however: Beyond VAPE, Tsubasa, Gel Sadra, and Hajime/Katze sharing a consciousness, the other Gatchaman have also integrated themselves into the sociopolitical sphere: Paiman is now a mature leader, speaking directly to the media, and treating JJ no longer as a god who is to be obeyed but a muse to be interpreted. OD has a place on a popular television show where he is able to help mold public opinion, especially on the increasing phenomenon of Red Crowds attacks from VAPE. Jo, from his government position, has a acquired a kind of realpolitik view of events that even the Prime Minister takes into consideration: It is Jo who seems to understand where Rizimu is coming from in his critique of GALAX’s utopianism. Finally, there is Sugane, who, while confident and popular, now seems to be driven by a kind of restlessness away from his female admirers.
On top of this all, there’s an upcoming election, and ballots will be able to be cast through GALAX itself. The times we live in!
In Summary:
The density of information in these two episodes is staggering, and Nakamura’s ambition is quite something to behold. VAPE, a new Gatchaman, Berg Katze influencing Hajime, Gel Sadra’s emotion powers, an upcoming election… any one of these stories would be sufficient for a second season, but somehow insight is going to attempt them all. It’s going to be fascinating seeing where insight is planning to go with all of this, and whether the series can answer the criticisms of its detractors. If nothing else, the production quality has improved this time around, and the OP is an absolute standout for the season. A must-watch series.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony VAIO 20″
