Gatchaman Crowds Insight: "Inbound"

It's 20 June 2015 and time for more Gatchaman Crowds.

After a two-year hiatus Gatchaman Crowds has returned to Japanese television with a second season, subtitled Insight. It has been launched with this special half-length prologue episode, "Inbound". This episode was made available online rather than broadcast, but does a decent job of setting the series up for new viewers.

So the series in a nutshell: the Earth is defended from alien invaders by a group of individuals known as the Gatchaman. They were each selected by a mysterious alien named J.J. who gifted each of them with a NOTE, a notebook with which they can transform into a super-powered mechanical hero. The Gatchaman team's latest recruit is Rui, a trans woman who used alien technology to invent CROWDS, a social media service that allows users to temporarily manifest elsewhere in the world as spherical-headed powerful entities. In short, anyone in the world can join the CROWDS for good or ill, and the Gatchaman remain to keep the piece and protect the world from serious threats.

Gatchaman Crowds: "Collage"

It's the final episode of Gatchaman Crowds. The Crowds have overrun Tachikawa. Berg Katze seems impossible to defeat. The Gatchaman are not strong enough to push back the tide of destruction. It's time for the final showdown - and so on and so forth.

The series concludes on a high note. That's the first and foremost thought on my mind. There's always a risk with a serial narrative of screwing up the climax, and it's fantastic to see just how effective and satisfying this conclusion is. It's dramatic, thrilling, funny and more than a little sad. It boasts multiple pay-offs for the audience, and even a couple of surprises.

The first thing that happens is that OD, the playful androgynous Gatchaman who never transforms, challenges Katze to a duel and not only transforms but damn near defeats Katze all by himself. It's a stunning, cataclysmic battle that pretty much destroys Gatchaman headquarters in the process.

Gatchaman Crowds: "Gamification"

It's the penultimate episode of Gatchaman Crowds. Rui finally manages to reconnect with X, giving the people of Tachikawa hope in defeating the Crowds. Hajime convinces Prime Minister Sugiyama to go on the Internet Gatchachannel and plead with the people of the city to reconnect with Galax and fight against the Crowds and Katze.

That doesn't seem like quite enough plot to sustain an entire 25 episode - and there's a reason for that. The story cited above fills about 12 minutes, and forms the second half of the episode. The first half consists of 12 minutes of clips from the previous 10 episodes, as the Gatchaman team take turns in reminiscing over their experiences since Hajime joined the team in episode 1.

Now I am very much aware that anime is an expensive art form, and that costs often overrun and must be clawed back in some fashion. An episode comprising clips of pre-existing footage is sometimes a necessary evil for producers, and while I'm often bored by these episodes I understand the reason why they exist.

Gatchaman Crowds: "Crowds"

In episode 10 of Gatchaman Crowds Katze sends the Crowds after Japan's Prime Minister, forcing the Gatchaman team to return to action to prevent mass casualties as the Crowds tear Tachikawa apart. It's basically the episode I expected last time, with climactic action sequences, high stakes and a real push forwards in terms of story.

It's great action too, as we finally get the entire Gatchaman team together and transformed, and engaging in the sort of pitched battle most of the audience expected from episode one. Even Joe is back, in one of the episode's strongest moments as words of encouragement from Sugane finally prompt him to have more faith in himself and to return to duty. Also back in action is Paiman, who's provoked into fighting when the kindergarten from a few episodes back in threatened with harm. These sorts of character moments act as wonderful pay-offs for some of the series' more quiet episodes, and it's hard not to get swept up in the enthusiasm.

Gatchaman Crowds: "Forgery"

Hajime takes Rui to her apartment to get healed by Utsutsu. Together they broadcast over the Internet to apologise for Rui's use of the CROWDS and to promise that the Gatchaman will defeat Katze. Katze, meanwhile, gives Galax's most dangerous users full access to CROWDS and sends them on a destructive rampage through Tokyo's government buildings. Sugane confronts JJ, and with the rest of the Gatchaman behind him informs their one-time leader that his prophecies will no longer be required.

Episode nine of Gatchaman Crowds is messy, unfocused, and for the most part a relatively boring affair. It's as if a certain amount of plot needed to be progressed, and so rather than create a single streamlined story the episode simply pushes a couple of separate elements forward one by one. After the strong momentum of recent episodes it's a remarkable disappointment.

Gatchaman Crowds: "Genuine"

It's episode #8 of Gatchaman Crowds. Rui, still recovering from his injuries, is tormented by Katze - who manages to copy his identity and take control of the Galax network. Meanwhile Hajime forces the Gatchaman to announce their presence to the world, using a kindergarten as the venue.

Last episode was an earth-shaking action climax, so it's understandable that this episode is about the aftermath. While the bulk of the episode seems quite breezy and positive, with Hajime enthusiastically introducing the Gatchaman to the Japanese media, there's a very dark undercurrent running through it for many of the characters. This gives the episode some depth that takes it beyond being a passable episode to being an excellent one. When the episode begins Paiman is drinking himself into a stupor out of the shame of fleeing from last episode's battle. Joe seems to have given up on being a Gatchaman altogether. Then there's OD, making strange ominous comments every time no one can hear him.

Gatchaman Crowds: "Abjection"

In episode #7 of Gatchaman Crowds, Rui decides to use the Crowds to destroy Berg Katse - with catastrophic results. Sugane and Joe rush to help, but even they may not be strong enough to defeat Katse. Will Paiman authorise the rest of the Gatchaman team to assist?

Thanks to the careful groundwork laid in earlier episodes, "Abjection" winds up the best installment of Gatchaman Crowds to date. It has plenty of action, great character work, a few surprises and some laugh-out-loud moments thrown in as well.

Rui's initial attempt to attack Katse is jaw-dropping to watch. It's not that the Crowds cannot match Katse's powers; dramatically speaking, that was to be expected. It's that the fight is so horrifyingly one-sided. Katse doesn't just drive back the Crowds. They're massacred. Katse then descends upon a defenceless Rui with an unexpected brutality. This is really quite confronting stuff given the tone of earlier episodes, and makes a huge impact as a result.

Gatchaman Crowds: "Originality"

Time for the sixth episode of Gatchman Crowds. In the tunnel collapse, Utsutsu risks her life to heal the injured motorists, while Hajime reveals her identity to Rui - and, by accident, the entire city via news coverage of the disaster. It all leads up to two important questions: why should the Gatchaman continue to hide in secret, and with the advent of GALAX is there a need for Gatchaman at all?

A core conflict that was hinted at last episode comes to the forefront in episode 6. On the one hand, the world is defended from alien incursion by the elusive Gatchaman. At the same time Rui's volunteer army Crowds, developed with GALAX, appears to be doing as good as job with saving people from harm - if not even better. So why should the world bother with both of them?

Gatchaman Crowds: "Collaboration"

Hajime struggles to understand why the Gatchaman team have to operate in secret. At the same time Rui struggles to keep a control over the Hundred, with one of his appointed participants wanting to use their power to change the world in violent ways. Rui also struggles to keep his composure while being taunted by Berg Katse, the shapeshifting murderous alien that granted him the power to create Galax and the Hundred in the first place. At a tunnel collapse in rural Japan, the Gatchaman and the Hundred finally come face to face in the race to save the lives of those trapped beneath the rubble.

This is one of those critical episodes where the three seemingly disparate threads of the series finally come together and begin to make a lot more sense. For one thing it's been weird for the first four episodes to see Gatchaman doing their thing, and Rui doing his: with this episode it's become abundantly clear that they're linked, and it will be interesting to see how that connection develops over the next seven episodes.

Gatchaman Crowds: "Kitsch"

As a cable car looks set to collapse, killing the passengers inside, Rui activates the Crowds: strange, alien creatures seemingly controlled by GALAX users, who save the day and keep things together until help arrives. Meanwhile Joe has a violent encounter with Berg Katse, a smiling alien with the ability to kiss a human, assume its identity and go on a violent rampage.

One of the weirder things about Gatchaman Crowds has been how tenuously it has been connected to the original Science Ninja Team Gatchaman with which it shares a title. This episode drops another connection into the frame with the addition of Berg Katse, a new alien villain who shares a name with the original Gatchaman's antagonist (viewers of Battle of the Planets will know the character as Zoltar). Beyond the name and the androgyny there doesn't seem to be anything connecting the two characters, but it ties in with the other soft connections that the series has been gradually forming.

Gatchaman Crowds: "Futurism"

After a prolonged break (I honestly don't intentionally watch anime episodes months apart from one another) I returned to watch the third episode of Gatchaman Crowds. This is a maddeningly strange anime to get a handle on: the first episode was all about transformation sequences and fights against aliens, the second was all about domestic comedy and collage clubs, and now the third is largely dedicated to crowd-sourcing as an alternative to superheroes.

The bulk of the episode is focused on Rui Ninomiya, a quiet and elusive young transsexual who invented the GALAX social network that has taken Japan by storm. The episode doesn't make it entirely clear whether Rui is a transvestite man or if she is identifying as female. I'm leaning towards the latter, but to be honest it's only the Wikipedia entry on the series that made it clear that she was transsexual at all. This actually resonates a little with the original Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, since that series' villain Berg (Zoltar in the American Battle of the Planets dub) was a hermaphrodite. Non-binary gender identity is clearly a running theme for the franchise.

Gatchaman Crowds: "Asymmetry"

The second episode of Gatchaman Crowds is much stronger than the first; this time around things are deliberately slowed down, so that the audience finally gets the time to understand the concept and get to know the characters. It's almost a little self-contained domestic sitcom, with the straight-laced and rigorously disciplined Sugane stuck with the impulsive and overt new recruit Hajime. Episode #1 featured super-powered swordfights with alien entities. Episode #2 features a collage club. That's one hell of a right turn, but it improves the series immeasurably.

In many ways I think this series would make a better impression if the viewer watched the first two episodes in a row, as if they were a double-length premiere. That way the action is demonstrated, but the characters are fleshed out as well. There's also quite a big mystery going on: the Gatchaman team have been tasked with tracking down and eliminating a mysterious entity named MESS, but when Hajime interrogates this mission no one seems to be able to tell her why it is they have to destroy it.

Gatchaman Crowds: "Avant-Garde"

I'm not sure what to make of Gatchaman Crowds. It's the fifth iteration of the popular Science Ninja Team Gatchaman anime, which was popularised in the West as Battle of the Planets. Aside from the title and the logo I'm not entirely sure of this new series' connection to the original. It premiered in Japan last month and currently streams on Crunchyroll.

Hajime Ichinose is a high school student with an obsession for stationary - particularly daily planners. When she is selected by the mysterious Lord JJ to join the Gatchaman, she finds herself enveloped by a secret world of pixellated monsters and super-powered heroes. Using a magical notebook she transforms into a scissor-wielding robot girl with pigtails. Her partner is a mechanical samurai. Their boss is a super-deformed alien that looks like a panda but who also hates pandas.

Is it just me? Do I just randomly pick the strangest anime to try out? I thought AKB0048 was weird. This is another level of strangeness altogether.