Satire

I was a bit hesitant at first to actually watch the Suisei no Gargantia specials due to the mediocrity of the series reflected by the 13 episode season. While Gargantia wasn't necessarily bad, the pacing, overall story, and character development are easily depicted as lacking, considering the potential this series innately had. These two specials essentially give background stories behind the story of Gargantia; they fulfill background information in two separate manners. Rather than lumping these two episodes together and calling them 'specials', they should have been split into their own separate OVAs. The first special covers Ridget, the new overseer and daughter of theprevious fleet commander and gives background information about her life and stress of fulfilling the role of acting fleet commander. The episode isn't heavy on drama, major themes, or any character development necessarily. It's more of some extra screen time dedicated to fleshing out Ridget's character a little more. It was a fair watch, but doesn't quite add much to the series. The second episode of the special is dedicated to showing how Kugel arose to the figure of a God and how the cult of his religious followers came to be. Although the episode is a dark one, I thought this particular episode was the best that Suisei no Gargantia had to offer as an animated series. There are strong themes apparent that showcase the many flaws in human nature. Human beings are greedy, manipulative, cunning, power-hungry, and selfish; Kugel's character development reflects these traits well. This episode reflects that well. It also showcases major fallacies depicted by the facade of Gods and religion. For being a special, this episode added a lot of quality material to the series. It feels as if it should have been a part of the actual season airing. It's a shame that it wasn't. Overall both specials combined were a decent watch. From my perspective the second special was far better than the first and actually felt like a necessity to understanding more about the story of the series.

joesatmoes

For many, the Gargantia series was a hit or miss. Personally, I really liked it, but it wasn't as good toward the end as it was at the beginning. I thought they could have done with a few more episodes, since it was the pacing that killed the end for most people. And now that we have 2 more episodes- both depicting backstories of characters who do kind of need development, so how are they? Ep 14: I thought this was a pretty okay episode, but kind of forgettable. It showed the backstory of Rigit, the captain of Gargantia. It was a bit sad but farfrom tearjerking, and it didn't really do much to flesh out her character. But it had a few funny moments and of course we get to see more of that gorgeous animation that I think everyone can agree is always a positive part of this anime. 7/10 Ep 15: I really liked this one. It gave more backstory to the main antagonists and you see how he goes from a pretty good guy to the dickbag you see in the main series. And there is quite a bit of darkness and emotion in this one. I'd give it a 9/10