GASARAKI

DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA DramaGasaraki

REVIEWS

• 

  AkaiShitoHat

  75/100
  Between mysticism and folklore – with a touch of political intrigue – Gasaraki manages to truly surprise the viewer...

  Obviously there will be spoilers within this improvised review, therefore if you intend to watch the series do not proceed any further.

  **Between mysticism and folklore — with a touch of political intrigue — Gasaraki manages to truly surprise the viewer, both for better and for worse...**

  Never before quite like this had I perceived such conflicting feelings regarding what I had just watched. I’ll start by saying that I had difficulty figuring it out from the very beginning, also because the series contains several anime within itself, presenting genres that are very different from one another: the first part set in Belgistan, inspired by the Gulf War, reminded me a lot of what we would later see in Full Metal Panic (and therefore the war setting with frontline operations). Then the story powerfully proceeds along the tracks of the mystical/folkloristic subplot – which reaches its climax in the episodes dedicated to the flashback of the Watanabe clan –, only to then deviate, in my view inexplicably, into a geopolitical thriller focusing on the international tension between the USA and Japan.

  What feels off in this tripartition is precisely the last subplot mentioned which, although coherent and not completely out of nowhere – in the sense that it still develops elements already present in the story, therefore not being a totally foreign component to it – I find to be an unnecessary stretch that takes away precious time from the other developments of the plot. The mystical component has been present since the very first episode and, after the developments culminating in its respective flashback, I expected it to be further explored. Instead, the story takes the liberty of dedicating a good 7/8 episodes to the “Risk board game war” between the USA and Japan. **Why?**

  Regarding the combination between the sci-fi/mecha thriller genre and the folkloristic one, I was initially a bit puzzled, because I have reason to believe that an entire series could have easily come out by focusing solely on the historical/mystical genre. But, in the end, it worked fairly well. More than anything else, I ended up greatly appreciating the latter, which I found very fascinating.

  

  Gasaraki probably has a somewhat slow narrative pace (supported by a direction that seems to excessively stretch certain moments a bit too much), but its biggest problem is the screenplay and, consequently, the distribution of its elements. As anticipated, there are far too many anime coexisting within it; there is too much, way too much for a 25-episode series. It’s almost like an identity crisis: what do you want to be among all these things? A mecha/sci-fi thriller, a supernatural/folkloristic story, or a political fantasy thriller? Do you realize the sheer amount of stuff being condensed into 25 episodes? The consequence is its lack of homogeneity.

  And then, the screenplay in the strict sense, which already indulges itself in some somewhat filler-ish parts (for example the human experimentation, certainly interesting but dragged out a bit too much). I reiterate, demanding explanations for the direction towards the political fantasy thriller during those damned 7/8 episodes. It is not a foreign body within the work because it is coherent with the themes developed beforehand, but it is a section stretched to unbelievable lengths, occupying important space that could have been devoted to much more. Furthermore, due to the economic nature of the conflict, things happen but in an almost imperceptible way – since we are talking about dynamics tied to economics and the global balance of power –. The result is a section that is at times stagnant, with episodes packed with dialogue, briefings, international tensions but boring – for long stretches –, and with little action. In the long run, it becomes truly nerve-racking because it is literally time thrown down the toilet.

  Why am I so furious? Well because all the information regarding the lore of the series – apparently vast and prosperous and which I happily read on the Japanese Wikipedia page – gets completely excluded and silenced. But let’s take a step back: already the idea of setting aside the mystical subplot for several episodes – present since the very beginning and which should be the true soul of this work – is wrong. After the deviation into geopolitics, only the final episode (!!) resurrects the latter; furthermore said episode revolves around the protagonist’s sister, which on one hand pleased me (because this poor girl had been going back and forth throughout the story forever without ever truly finding her place in it; at least the narrative finally brings her character somewhere), while on the other hand it is an idea that feels somewhat sketched out and which would have needed previous episodes in order to be more properly developed. But guess what the narrative focuses on instead during the previous episodes? Fuck off.

  Portrait of the younger sister Misuzu Gowa, whose nature as a Kai is discovered in the last episode

  And therefore, all the lore of Gasaraki gets completely butchered. Of its true nature, of its origins (an alien supercomputer fusing together the consciousness of one billion individuals) and of its intentions (leaving its legacy to the young human race and hoping they will follow them into space), nothing is said except for… the clumsy and absolutely horrible attempt to condense everything into the final 24 minutes of the series and in the vain hope that the viewer may grasp all of it. How am I supposed to understand that Phantom – whose name is never even told to us throughout the entire series – is actually the CEO of Symbol (I deduced it anyway, apparently by sheer luck).

  Cheers to you, Dear Viewer!

  How am I supposed to know the alien nature of the Gasaraki with 100% certainty if it is never explicitly confirmed in the series? How am I supposed to know that its physical location is the far side of the Moon if it is never stated? They clumsily tried to cram everything into the final episode, failing miserably. There is a limit to the deductions that the viewer can make based on those clues – few and confused – put on screen. And there is a line separating deliberately leaving certain questions open and simply not explaining them or explaining them badly (Gasaraki falls into the latter category). This is where things definitively collapse, because if the screenplay already showed some cracks beforehand, with this issue it suffers a major downfall. _______

  Put like this it sounds as though I only got angry, and yet Gasaraki also has many positive aspects. The mystical component is truly beautiful and majestic: the Kugai, organic creatures comparable to oni, are beautiful and terrifying; the organic component could recall Neon Genesis Evangelion but I also saw a lot of The Vision of Escaflowne in it, especially in the “cockpits” and in the assimilation of the pilots within them. Beautiful are the concepts of the Kugai as precursors of the TA, as well as the concept of the “Kugutsu”, namely the “puppeteers” pulling the strings from the shadows.

  Even the aforementioned political fantasy section – so much the target of my criticism – ultimately has its payoff, with the decision of the President of the United States to cease hostilities and the words of the wise Nishida – I have never seen a more Japanese character than him –, who delivers a sentence with words that resonate now more than ever: **“It is far more difficult to decide to end a war, rather than [to decide] to begin one”**.

  It is a series permeated by a strongly Japanese spirit – of which we Westerners can only understand in a limited way – but which remains extremely fascinating and, in certain respects, praiseworthy. Nishida and his supporters embody the Japanese nationalist spirit; they feel deep love for their homeland and wish to restore to it that luster and importance now lost, in *a path toward purification of the soul, returning to the uncontaminated origins of the Japanese spirit.* The metaphor of the katana – with its clarity and brilliance – is perfectly fitting and very beautiful. As are the themes of the rottenness of modern society, the luxury and idleness deriving from capitalism, in societies characterized by rampant consumerism and in which elites acquire ever greater power (somewhat the portrait of what Japan was during the economic bubble of the 1980s). Finally, the great realism permeating this series from beginning to end – from the weapons employed, to the plausibility of the dynamics and the global geopolitical structures –.

  Hiraku Nishida

  The sci-fi framework, in the end, is The Sentinel/2001: A Space Odyssey 2.0 (Nadia, Evangelion). Classic alien civilization that, in order to escape extinction, entrusts its hopes to a newborn civilization – humanity – guiding and monitoring its evolutionary process (through actual tracers). What exactly the “passage” so desired by the eldest of the Gowa leads to we do not know – probably human transcendence – but from the little we see the Gasaraki is nothing more than a trap for the dissolution of the ego.

  Yushiro and Miharu in the ending do indeed obtain a resolution: they who throughout the entire story are treated as mere tools, here refuse to become tools of the Gasaraki, reaffirming their own existence and desiring to return to live in the real world as human beings. The ending is open – or if we want apparent, since the geopolitical situation continues to remain unstable – but hopeful. And, I would add, incredibly warm, manifested through the rising sun and its rays, which illuminate our protagonists. ______

  Another aspect I briefly wanted to discuss is the *coldness*. I think this is one of the coldest anime I have ever watched. The military context certainly does not help, being made up of rigid hierarchies, but the emotional component is almost entirely absent. It is literally impossible to feel any sort of emotion for the two protagonists, who are “ice pops” with the same emotionality as my mother when I came home after getting a bad grade and she was ready to beat me with a slipper. In this story made of political intrigues, conspiracies, international tensions, and Machiavellian and selfish characters who pursue their goals by any means necessary, there is not the slightest trace of human warmth. Allow me, then, to give thanks to it, because that component is one of the things that allows us to grow attached, to become emotionally involved in the story and not remain apathetic throughout its duration. For example, in Evangelion there is human warmth (there absolutely is), and just think about how much of a difference that makes.

  And, to conclude, I could not avoid dwelling on realism, specifically when applied to the machines, namely the TA. I’ll start from the end: if this is the maximum realism achievable within an animated series, under every point of view (design and piloting/operational mechanics), then I feel like saying that the latter is an enormous double-edged sword. If on one hand this component should undoubtedly be appreciated and praised, even just for the care and specificity of the designs as well as concepts such as the excessive accumulation of stress placed upon the pilot caused by operating the machine, on the other hand it is also heavily limiting, circumscribing too much, in my opinion, the use of such means within the story. Honestly, the TA as designs do not drive me crazy, because I find them far too cumbersome and limited, with the further consequence that the action scenes end up feeling even less action-oriented than they should be. These are obvious consequences deriving from the realistic approach, but precisely because of that it ends up becoming, in my opinion, far too restrictive a grip that limits even the narrative potential of the story. Literally, a double-edged sword.

  TA's (Tactical Armor) design

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