Recap: While out salvaging with Pinion, Ledo discovers the truth about the Hideauze.

Iro’s Thoughts:
The Hideauze are humans! Or created by humans as organic space suits? But then they evolved into their own species or something? One of those or maybe all of them, the show isn’t exactly clear. The point is that humans created the Hideauze somehow (as if that was not obvious from Episode 1) and Ledo is freaking out about it.

I didn’t like the twist much. There are only so many “twists” that can be done with this type of story, and while it was executed competently, I can’t help but be disappointed. I was hoping for something really earth-shattering, not just for Ledo but for the audience as well, and instead I got the by-the-numbers response. So what was supposed to be dramatic instead flipped between eye-rolling and hilarious, neither of which should have been my responses to the revelation. I guess we’ll see how Gargantia carries itself for the last few episodes.

Gee’s Thoughts:
AAAAHHHHHHHH, SOYLENT GREEN HIDEAUZE IS PEOPLE.

So yeah, pretty big tweest this time around, though anybody who remembers this was written by Urobuchi Gen probably saw something like this coming. Admittedly I expected a different kind of big twist, so the reveal, in all of its slow dread-filled horror, worked quite well in my opinion. While you already know what they’re gonna reveal halfway through, you keep watching because you can’t wait to see the horror of it in all its glory. Sure, it’s a cheap shot to use a little girl, but the rest of it was quite well done.

I suppose if I have any complaints, is more about the potential of where the story will go from here than the actual episode itself. I feel at this point, nothing could be worse than the utterly hamfisted message of “HIDEAUZE GOOD, HUMANITY BAD” and while I want to believe that Gargantia’s writers know better than to tread into this territory, I fear it may occur anyways. However, the relatively even handed presentation of both sides of the conflict gives me a little hope. That said though, the show has already done extensive work to portray Ledo in the wrong as much as possible so I have a feeling that’s going to reach its logical conclusion in a few episodes.

Still, between the methodical reveal, the inherent uneasy feeling that came from Ledo’s exploration of the Hideauze lair, and the perfectly brutal kill at the end, this episode of Gargantia managed to remind its audience that while Urobuchi Gen may not have written every episode of this series, his influence is undeniably here. Should be interesting to see where things go from this point.

On a side note. I’m totally surprised Pinion is still alive. That said, I’ll still be surprised if he manages to survive the entire series.

Zigg’s thoughts:
I liked this episode a lot, despite the relative obviousness of the twist. It’s been pretty clear since the first episode that there’s some sort of connection between humanity and the Hideauze and while ‘They’re the same!’ was not the number one twist I was predicting, I’d be lying if I said it was way down on the list either.

What makes this work though is that it seems the show doesn’t really expect it to be a stunning revelation either, at least to the audience. Instead we get a highly effective drip feed of tension and information, and a gradually growing sense that something is wrong. Ledo is ostensibly our hero, but watching him slaughter hundreds of borderline defenceless whalesquids it certainly doesn’t feel like it.  Similarly, Chamber’s dispassionate incineration of the beautiful Hideauze ‘nursery’ feels wrong in a spine-chilling sort of way. In fact, the brief journey to centre of the abandoned facility has a great slasher movie-esque vibe to it. As ever, Gargantia‘s incredible visuals really help sell the atmosphere of the scene.

As for the twist itself, it’s well handled and delivered about as effectively as one could expect, given it practically necessitates a massive infodump. The documentary-style presentation, with the jumping timeline, helps make all that plot much more interesting and unpredictable to follow. While there’s no real way you can make a man’s head sticking out from a squid’s body not look patently ridiculous the consistently serious tone means that I completely bought into it and it still retained some of that nasty body-horror edge. One other thing I like is the establishment of a consistent, far-reaching backstory for the Human/Hideauze conflict, giving a tragic angle to the ongoing war and sowing some seeds for when it returns to the centre stage.

Granted, the appearance of the little girl is blatant emotional manipulation, but the scene where she’s revealed as having been ‘squidded’ still chilled me a little. Her cameo at the end was impressively structured and though I was worried that she’d become some sort of ambassador or angel figure, Chamber’s instant kill was a perfect, brutal note to end on. I like the decision not to end with Ledo as well, but instead to cut to Bebel back on the Gargantia, his mournful tune a sombre reminder of the home Ledo chose to leave behind.