Suisei no Gargantia - 13 [End]

"Legend of the Verdurous Planet"

It's been a while since I heard a good set of final words.

Seeing as this isn't the Overall Review yet, I'll hold off on any big, sweeping judgements about the series as a whole. However, to say that I didn't enjoy this episode would be a lie, and honestly it's been one of the few truly conclusive and satisfying endings of the season. It's definitely the Urobutcher's style but far less bloody than usual and I do believe he finally chooses to take a side in one of his legendary humanism debates. Chamber and Striker really do seem to be his mouthpieces (aside from Bevel, who I think was always a tad too optimistic to serve this role fully, fascinating a character though he is) here, especially when it comes to the debate over the role of the mecha and what it means to live happily as human beings.

What I didn't really feel satisfied with, however, were the characters besides Ledo. I'll get to him in a moment, but honestly I didn't feel like most anyone else had any real development in the second half, unless we count Pinion's bizarre jumps from antihero to villain and so forth. Even Amy, whom I've already voiced some concerns with, feels less like she's grown than she's that anchor to Ledo's budding humanity, and characters like Ridget don't quite feel as fulfilled as I think they should considering the circumstances. In the end I think this was very much Ledo's story after all, and while that's all well and good, I do feel some remorse for the characters that began so well and were somewhat abruptly left behind. Chamber is an exception too, since he develops at the end enough to think and act for himself ("Go to hell, Tin Can!" will forever bring a melancholy smile to my face) and ends up being the catalyst to really push Ledo toward his future, but as a whole, however interesting individual characters could be (such as Bellows or Lukkage), no one ever really got off their feet to become more than what they first seemed.

Ledo, however, underwent his bildungsroman quite believably. Yes, some of his development was curtailed by Urobuchi's tendencies (I do wonder if there will ever be an Urobuchi series I can hold off mentioning him in), but for the most part I found the depiction to be pretty successful. At the end of the day, Ledo learns from his experiences among the Gargantians, enough to realize that the Galactic Alliance, and he himself, have no place in their affairs. As a result, one of the more powerful moments of the finale is actually where he decides to fuse with Chamber at risk to his own life; that determination to die while saving the people who changed him is, at least for me, even more powerful than the moment when Amy flies in to encourage him. I do, however, like the epilogue. Bevel's presence is always welcome for one, and for another, I found the last scene satisfying; there's nothing overtly romantic about Amy and Ledo there (which I'm sure has left some of the shippers pining), but I think that's fitting considering Ledo's development throughout the series. It's a warm, simple, sort of message, seeing the two of them walk off side by side, finally coexisting in earnest, and that's the sort of emotional depth I wish this series had spent more time developing.

N.B.: Many thanks to Ivan for capping this series when I could no longer keep it up myself. You're the best!