Gatchaman Crowds – 11
Ahhh yes, let us sunbathe in the WHITE HOT FLAMES OF GATCHAMAN FURY
 |
If for some reason you clicked through the jump and haven’t watched the episode yet, let me provide you with some advice. You can just skip the first half of the episode, because it is just a big recap of all the character development that has been going on. It’s an interesting change from recapping purely the events from a neutral perspective, but that doesn’t make it any less of a rehash. The only new info here is that OD is hella old. It’s probably too late for most of you to get that lost time back, but at least I tried (sort of) to warn you. |
The recap was lame not because it was poorly done, but simply because I just can’t stand to sit through the same thing twice. Once you get over that (nothing a little fast forwarding can’t fix for those of you not blogging it and therefore not obliged to watch every single second) then the second half is smooth sailing. But really, I have no clue why they had time for a 10-minute recap considering the show is only 12 episodes long. I guess that means we won’t have a rushed ending. My assumption is they had so much extra time that they decided to pad the length with some insight from the Gatcha crew. I’m a little bummed that this episode is so short (in terms of new content) but ah well..what can you do? At least they didn’t try and squish a FULL EPISODE OF RECAPPING in there.
BK cares about the little things…like using his “tail” as a stylish obi for his yukata dress.
Recaps aside, oh man, things are really moving along now. Berg Katze loses some of his high ground and seemingly regains it within milliseconds. By losing control over X, I thought he would be permanently barred from tinkering with GALAX since only Rui has admin privileges. Instead of being set back, he manages to gain an even bigger advantage by transferring the CROWDS ability to everyone with enough dexterity and tenacity to push a button. He really is a genius. Now he can pit the humans against each other and hope they tear each other to shreds. Without a proper understanding of their powers, they could be sending hundreds of thousands of other people into comas. Since they think they’re just attacking a bulbous, TV-headed gremlin, they don’t realize another person is connected to it. There’s also the danger of these new users having a selfish streak and joining the riot. Furthermore, with all of this chaos, now GALAX can’t keep track of which CROWDS avatars should be attacked. It’s really the worst case scenario, since tons of people are gonna push the buttons and try to be heroes.
The best part about this sudden turn of events is that it immediately follows a heart-pumping, feel-good rise to the top. The Gatchaman are churning out cubes, people are getting free smart phones, X returns, and the Prime Minister even has a surprisingly touching change of heart. Just when everything is going right, Berg Katze ruins it. He totally takes advantage of Suga-yan’s sudden rise to fame by sending out a fake message telling people to use CROWDS. The drama is further emphasized by Rui, who screams at the top of his lungs when he realizes what is happening. Having Rui in the cast is an excellent way to balance out Hajime’s perpetual cheerfulness. Hajime would likely have reacted – at most – with a look of shock and a dumbfounded “ehhhhhHHHHH?!”. Rui is just dripping with angst and drama, so he’s always the one who cries to the heavens in the middle of a road to really let us know just how far up shit creek without a paddle we really are. I’m finally feeling the weight behind Berg Katze’s evil schemes.
So although Rui befriending X again may not really have solved all the world’s problems, it was still a cute reunion. It’s sweet the way he tells Hajime he managed to get his “friend” back. Even though Rui has made a whole new host of Gatcha-buddies, he still hasn’t forgotten X. I kind of missed X’s adorable voice sweetly asking people to help others as well. It was also the perfect set-up for getting the Prime Minister back in gear to do something only he could do. Sure, BK screwed it all up moments later, but at least Suga-yan is no longer sulking. I really loved his Gatchannel segment where he progressively gets more and more angry as he reads the live comments on his streaming video. There’s no such thing as bad press, right? It was a quick and effective way to turn the Prime Minister around from a guy who did nothing and got no feedback to someone reacting to millions of live commentors and suddenly feeling empowered. You can tell he’s a good guy, but he got burnt out by never seeing his actions have any effect on his surroundings at a scale he could really understand or feel.
There was nice contrast between the fighting (which suddenly became more intense and satisfying compared to last week’s kiddie fest. Jou’s phoenix explosion that blasted at least a few blocks in each direction was particularly brutal) and Berg Katze pulling an ace out of his sleeve at the last second. It’s a good cliffhanger to end on before the finale. Now, let’s see if OD pulls a Madoka and transforms in the last episode to save the world in a flurry of pink sparkles.
They look more prepared for a rave party than saving the world, but we’ll find out next week!
About Overcooled
A neuroscience graduate, black belt, and all-around nerd. You'll either find me in my lab or curled up in my rilakkuma kigurumi watching anime.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I knew it was a ‘recap’, but watched it anyway. It was more hagiography for Hajime, but I didn’t mind that that much. It’s true that she’s changed the way people think.
Other than that, the show’s just going. This was just a continuation of the end ‘battle’, with the ebb and flow going both directions. I do wonder if BK will get overwhelmed trying to keep up with how many people the ‘good guys’ can mobilize: Gatchaman, the PM, the military, the fire and police, the people who stick with them. And not all of the new people using Crowds will use them for ‘bad’, although it will be hard to tell.
It’ll be fun to see what happens.
POWUH: iLurker with 5 comments
It’s Hajime’s plan…. I think.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
There’s still a huge opening for the good guys to win, but BK definitely has the upper hand. I’m curious to see just how bad having more CROWDS members will be. It mostly just makes things more hectic instead of landing a final blow to destroy the planet.
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
Now, if not for that ending, this would have been the worst episode of the entire series, however, once again Berg Katze saves the episode!
I had to struggle through half the episode as everyone decided to sing the praises of the god-like, perfect plot device that is Hajime and then watch flashbacks at the same time! I almost couldn’t take it. We all know Hajime will live through this, so why put us through this memory lane bullcrap? Did they run out of their budget or something? That would explain a lot regarding these last few episodes.
Anyway, the ending half of the battle was better than last time, but still awfully silly. You are telling me that they gave the entire population free smartphones?! And why does everyone need to be on GALAX? Do you not as a city have a emergency alert system? And how do you want there to be an evacuation, and yet not want people to leave the city?
However, it was all worth it in the end when we see that it was all part of BK’s plan. That is one smart psychopath. He not only had poor Rui get everyone in the city on the GALAX network, but then he somehow knew the Prime Minister would be there, took his form and had everyone fall into his trap. Now, everyone is being connected to CROWDS, to Rui’s utter horror.
We are getting to the end now, and we only have the finally to go. How will this end? Will we get to see an epic ending, or will this ending just be your average schmaltz given to us via the ever-present, ever-faultless Hajime. I hope it’s more than that. But I am hoping for the best.
Also, if OD is 300+ years or older and also half-human, half-alien, then he was born somewhere around the early to mid 18th Century. I guess that explains why he lived most of his life in Space.I don’t know if someone as exotic looking as him would be welcome in Edo Period Japan, and definitely not the western world.
I have to take away major points for the first half, but the last few seconds really brought it back up. I give this a 7/10.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Thank goodness the remaining half made up for the lame recap. I really don’t know why they had to resort to it when they could have used the screentime for an epilogue or just extended scenes from other parts of the show. Use all your time to entertain us! Come on!
I guess their emergency evacuation system isn’t as advanced as GALAX. Furthermore, the new generation sometimes doesn’t even watch the news to stay up to date – they get it off Twitter and Tumblr and God knows where else. It’s still ridiculous that they managed to give smart phones to EVERYONE as a solution though! How did they even have that many?
I’m actually not very confident the ending will be that good…:/ I want the best, but I dunno if we’ll actually GET the best.
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
The thing is that using the Emergency Alert System would help in cases of things like natural disasters because a lot of the time those things take out power plants and people will lose many of their valuables including their wireless and internet devices. It also might be near impossible to charge these things when they go out. This would be the same case if a city suddenly found itself becoming a battleground like here. So it would make more sense for the government to use the emergency system since not only is it already in place and people who are trained with what to do in exactly this sort of situation, but they don’t have to worry about miscommunication and faulty and conflicting information that would run rampant across the internet and would ultimately cost lives for those who don’t know what to do or who were told the wrong thing. Also, with over-usage, cellphone usage will eventually stop, and even some internet servers may shut down.
And how can they afford to give smartphones to an entire populace of thousands? And where would they get that many phones? Even if they emptied out every cell phone store, Apple store, and anywhere else that sells smartphones, there would STILL not be enough for the entire population of my city.
POWUH: iLurker with 5 comments
@OVERCOOLED!THE RECAP WASN’T A CRAP! TAKE THAT BACK!
If you removed the visual and listen to what they say, it’s actually meaningful.
It talks about how the Gatchaman members view of Hajime(this kinda raises a death-flag for Hajime though since she also said in one episode “If I die, would you guys be sad?“).
If it wasn’t for that recap, we wouldn’t have know how Gatchaman members felt. Thus a good recap insert in the episode.
For Rui, his reaction might be like “WTF” but I think Hajime planned this for the very start.
I got this hint when:
-Hajime knew that Bertz Katze would attack the city.
-Hajime ask a favor to the Prime Minister to do a Live broadcast on Gatchannel and distribute SMART phones all over the place.
-OD said to Hajime when she finished talking to the Prime Minister “That part. You want me to take care of it, right.”
If Bertz Katze won’t stop what he is doing like an addict then Hajime won’t stop being a HERO as an addict.
That’s all.
BONUS PIC:
【New Gatchaman in old Gatchaman anime costume】
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
How could we NOT know how the Gatchaman felt about her? It’s not like we had 10 other episodes to see them react and change and develop based on their interactions with her. Oh, wait…
This is Basic Storytelling 101: Show, don’t tell. Well with that recap they decided to both show AND tell.
I actually sat there watching the start of this episode and was like “Okay, we’re getting OD’s perspective, maybe this is more foreshadowing to his imminent sacrifice. Oh wait, now we have Utsutsu? Okay…well she’s close to OD, so that make sense.” And then they got to Pai-Pai, and I sat there in stunned horror that they were literally going to go through each member of Gatchaman and have them talk about how Hajime has touched their lives. I fast-forwarded as fast as I could.
Even if I actually liked Hajime as a character (I honestly don’t even think of her as a “character” really), this is the penultimate episode of the series. Did the writers really have so little planned that they had to fill up half the episode with stuff we’ve already seen and everyone whose followed the show knows already? If you’re going to pad out your episode, at least do it with stuff we haven’t seen before (Both Free! and Shingeki have done this), don’t fill it with redundant clips.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Agreeing with Irenesharda here. I know how every member feels without the recap, so it was just re-iterating character development that we’ve already seen unfold. It’s nothing new at all. I’m glad someone enjoyed it though.
As for Hajime planning all this…I wouldn’t put it past her since she’s a smart cookies and OD seems to have some sort of job to carry out.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
When I was watching the part where the Gatchaman were talking about how Hajime affected them I thought that was the kind of thing you get when someone is lying gravely injured in a hospital or after they’ve been killed. Maybe the death flag has been raised for Hajime, though I think not. I think they were just teasing us with the possibility to add some tension for the last episode. Killing off Hajime would be a major shock. It could happen, but I think OD’s death is more likely.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Yeah, I was wondering if Hajime died and I had somehow skipped an episode. It was like an eulogy or something. It was very death flag-like, but this show tends to shy away from actually killing people so I’m not too worried. I’m only slightly worried about OD.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I hate recaps. Even the short recaps at the beginning of Attack on Titan episodes make me mad.
I don’t know how they’re going to wrap everything up next week but if they had time to show us old footage then it shouldn’t be rushed. Hopefully.
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 318 comments
I actually liked the beginning of the episode. I know some people might have already guessed the Gatchaman’s feelings for Hajime and thought of it meaningless to add such monologs, but me, I’m terrible with understanding people. My 6th sense usually works instead of that(Please don’t think of me as a “Cold-hearted Robot”, I’m actually pretty sensitive and take people’s problems like my own). I didn’t know that Utsutsu-chan thought about Hajime, I was pretty surprised to hear it. Thought personally to me, it looked, no, I imagined like all of them are standing near Hajime’s grave and saying these words at a funeral O_o.
Sad to know that the next episode will be the last one.
Bonus: I also found O.D.’s Gatchaman design, if anyone cares to see.
http://flamingo-chan.tumblr.com/post/60301815167/o-ds-gatchaman-suit
Funny fact, It’s strange I didn’t remember this earlier, Sawashiro Miyuki-san(Celty) calls Ono Daisuke-san(Shizuo) “O.D.”
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
It’s okay, different people catch different things. Besides, understanding people in real life is different from characters in anime. Especially with someone as out there as Hajime as the target subject…Anyways, I also thought the monologues sounded like an eulogy for a dead Hajime. It was very, very odd.
OD’s design is the best…So sleek and powerful!
POWUH: 700-799 and Parkouring Fanboy with 776 comments
I disagree; the recap was bad because it was badly done, not just because it was the same stuff again. It’s like the writers weren’t confident enough that they had properly conveyed the influence of Hajime on the others naturally through the story – the way it’s supposed to be done – and so they stuck this piece in here to blast to the audience, “YOU SHOULD FEEL THIS WAY ABOUT THESE CHARACTERS’ RELATIONSHIPS WITH HAJIME.” Lazy, lazy storytelling.
I thought the PM was definitely the highlight of the episode. His reaction to internet trolling was hilarious and pretty much right on the mark for a member of the old guard who just doesn’t “get” the internet and its social networks. I’ve seen plenty of people in recent days with the same clueless reaction. Especially relevant now when UK is having some hubbub over Twitter trolling.
And yeah, it’s great that everything got reversed at the end. It’s the best when everything seems hopeless and winning seems impossible going into the climax. Overcoming such odds is what makes for a satisfying story.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Agreed on all counts.
“I’mma gonna trace yer IP!”
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I liked it more than a traditional recap because in terms of capturing my interest, I prefer more character info than a summary of factual events. It’s slightly less boring, therefore better.
In terms of story-telling and the purpose of the recap…yeah, it’s a terrible decision. If you have to literally tell us in a painfully, spelled-out fashion how each character has changed then you either did a terrible job developing them or you’re not confident in your story-telling skills.
I thought the PM was a dumb insert to tie up some loose ends with Paiman, but he really shined in that Gatchannel segment. I loved how he got so riled up over comments – something he’s likely never done before. I’ll have to look up what you mean about UK and twitter trolling though. Sounds cool.
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Ack! they’re getting through!
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Given how many we’ve had, it’s amazing there’s only been a couple.