Recap: Pinion heads on the warpath with the weapons recovered from the seafloor as Ledo wrestles with the implications of what he’s done.

Iro’s Thoughts:
Man Pinion, chill out. Just because you pulled up a bunch of sweet lasers and such doesn’t mean you can start flipping off everyone else on the high seas. That’s just asking for trouble. As for Ledo, his stunned stupor for most the episode is done decently well, if melodramatically. The shot of him staring in horror at the gore covering Chamber is excellent, but the stumbling around alleyways as if in a fever dream was so cliche it was comical.

Urobuchi’s presence also reared its head this episode, with Chamber’s long speech about the philosophy of war and whatnot in the back half of the episode. I’m still not sure where they’re trying to get the audience to side at this point – Chamber’s logic is pretty much undeniable, despite the horror of murdering scores of humans only last week. Perhaps that’s the point, considering it’s Urobuchi we’re talking about. The crazy evil cult cliffhanger seems to be leading up to some dark stuff going down next episode, so I guess we’ll see.

Gee’s Thoughts:
I dunno about the rest of ya, but I’m just about this close to being sick of Gargantia. Once again the hypocritical ideology from earlier in the series rears its ugly head again, this time in the form of Ledo’s comical PTSD. You’re telling me that the same guy who had absolutely no qualms with murdering pirates who threatened the livelihood of others can’t handle the concept of killing genetic weirdo humans? The same genetic abominations that have been threatening the entire existence of his people?

It’s patently absurd and I was hoping Gargantia would be better than this. Throw in Pinion’s sudden descent into madness and villainy and you have a show that’s practically bashing you on the skull, shouting “HUMANS BAD, HIDEAUZE GOOD.” Then you have the cult showing up at the end with Ledo’s former commander showing up, in a twist I’m sure absolutely nobody was surprised by. I knew another human from Ledo’s own civilization would show up eventually, I just didn’t know it’d be done in such a clumsy manner.

Still, I’m 10 episodes into this show, so I guess dropping it would mean the last 4-5 hours of my life spent on this would be wasted. Chamber’s excellent argument about why the war most continue was the shining light of this episode and I still hope that such sentiments will win out in the end. I don’t expect it to be the case, but hey, it’s an Urobuchi Gen show, anything can happen.

Zigg’s thoughts:
This is a solid episode that nevertheless doesn’t ever quite manage to sparkle. In that sense it’s not disastrous to the flow of the story but does feel a little bit like a holding pattern after the big revelations of last week and what looks to be a pretty major move next week.

I think the most controversial aspect here will probably be Pinion’s repositioning from slightly oafish repair guy to EVIL MASTERMIND. OK, it’s not quite that extreme but nevertheless it marks a profoundly different path for his character than I was expecting. On the one hand, I’m pretty fond of this – villains in anime too often hide blatantly in plain sight and while I’m not implying Pinion will become a ‘villain’ per se it is quite nice to see someone who had been built up as a relatively stand-up guy begin dabbling in murky moral territory. It helps that his motivation is quite realistic and fits in well with his gregarious personality. Having said that, I do think this comes a little too fast, and casual disregard for human life springs somewhat out of nowhere. The idea is sound, but it probably could have been spread over a few more episodes.

The other plot thread is Ledo’s coming to terms with the identity of his enemy, which doesn’t really go anywhere. He mopes a bit (some of the reaction shots are incredibly melodramatic and border on goofy), we get some stock footage, and then surprisingly it’s Chamber who gets the episode’s big speech. In contrast to my expectations however this actually works pretty well – Chamber’s cold, mechanical tone and the unswerving logic of his arguments make a pretty decent case for the continuation of the war and it’s a well written and delivered chunk of dialogue, as talky as it may be. The cuts back to Gargantia are highly effective as well. brief though they are, the glimpses we get of Ridget, Bebel and Amy remind us of the other story which has driven the series, namely Ledo’s interaction with the people of this world and how he’s essentially abandoned that.

It’s a transitional episode then, but one which by and large manages to stay relevant, aided by the typically high standard of execution we’ve come to expect from Gargantia. The only real spine-tingler comes right at the end though, as it looks as if Ledo’s commander has set himself up as some sort of crazed cult leader in a classic ‘What if you used your power for evil?’ mirror image of our hero. With the show entering its final act this is a really solid twist that could go in some very interesting directions, and I eagerly await next week’s installment.