GASARAKI Ep. 15, "The Threshold" (Takahashi Ryousuke, 1998-1999)

Source

Gasaraki art from the laserdisc artbook, found on the net.

Ryusuke Takahashi characters

Gasaraki ep 2 thoughts

Well we have a bit more of a leg on whats going to be the conflict driving the plot, and suiting of the shows very self serious real robot identity its a military conflict between a made up middle eastern nation (Belgistan I think?), and "nato forces". Though realistically our main Japanese cast, who are selling nato on their mechs, here called Tactical Armors (TAs), will be our primary fighting force we follow.

Show is still being very cryptic about a lot of things, but we did at least get confirmation that both the TAs, and the ritual dancing summoning some kind of power in the first ep, are also tools/powers in some form on the "enemy" side as well, giving us our power balance.

I could probably go on a while about the TA design, very very utilitarian and militaristic. I like how they went out of their way to address that bipedal weapons platforms are (or were, in the shows case) extremely infeasible, so they could then explain how/why their machines get over this hurdle and really do operate as effectively as human soldiers, on a larger scale. A combat test to convince some nato suits shows the TAs outrunning the latest, fastest tanks, then performing in urban warfare, using a visually unique movement technique of a grappling hook and wall kicking to easily climb over buildings, while also hiding in alleyways. Exactly the sorts of things tanks and jets cannot do. A good design (and interesting explanation of why the bipedal nature works) if you like your real robots to be as very real and metaphorically low to the ground as possible.

T̴̰̟͑͘h̶͕̺̺̥̭̔͛̈́̅͆͝ê̷͓̗͒͋̚ ̶̳́͑̀̋̾v̷͇͈͆͋ơ̷̢̡̬̣͉͈̲̓͌̑̑̍į̶͇̎͆̓̍̈́̌̕c̷̡͔̝̪͇̀è̷͖̰̞͇̟͍̈́̋ ̸̝͔͉͎͉̾̊ô̸͉̊f̵̡̤̠̟̪̰͖͊͋̾ ̷̛̳͈̗̇̆̐w̷̧̜̣̤̮̫̍̆͋̋̈͝i̷̛͓͌s̷̨̹͈̦̟͖͒͊́̕̕ḓ̷̡̻͍̰͕̐́̀̍̽̎o̴̞͗̽̒͑̚m̵̲̞̹̜͂̈́̃ ̶̭̺̠͇̼̿̋͘͝i̸̞͚̒s̷̰̆ ̵̧͉͔̤̤̆́͐͂̆̚͝ḷ̴̥́̍̓͘i̴̹̽͌̑͗k̷̦̣̟̇͒͐e̸͗̈́́͐͜ͅ ̶͓͊̕͝ͅạ̶̪̱̄́ ̷̧̹͈͒͗͊̀́̔̒͜d̷͈̪̟̤̝͋̉̃e̸͙͇̔̓̀͛̓͌m̴͚̪̗̯̰̦̺̂̓ȯ̸̳̘̖̩̺͊̓̀ñ̶̖̼́!̵̛̝̤̱̈́̇̒͒̍̇ͅ

Gasaraki - Final Thoughts

For a show that other reviewers and viewers say is a flagrant ripoff of Neon Genesis Evangelion. No.

Yeah, they have a bunch of similar beats and maybe it went to production because of the popularity of Neon Genesis Evangelion. Whereas NGE is a deliberate middle-finger to the mech genre, Gasaraki is not typical to anime in general.

It's a lot more philosophical and introspective on motives, geopolitics, and globalization. And for a show that came out in 1999, oddly prescient about what actually happened globally after 9/11.

Honestly, if you substitute China for Japan, you pretty much have 66% of the current geopolitical competition.

My actual problems are the pacing after episode 5 to about episode 15 is slow at times, and not because of the discussion between characters about what to do, why things are being done, and why society sucks. It's actually because of what Yusiro is doing. Second problem is this show could have easily used double the amount of episodes because it needed points where we needed to breathe or get deeper insight as to what was going on because it was doing about 4 different things with the story. Third, Miharu being a Rei Ayanami expy, she becomes entirely too passive for about 5 episodes.

But overall? Well, anyone that knows me probably isn't surprised that I really liked this. It has a relatively low score on MyAnimeList, but I gave it an 8.

More Gasaraki Settai from on the net