Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
Kranst
Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet thoughtfully delivers an expansively grandiose narrative that flows seamlessly into a more relaxed atmosphere while maintaining its depth. It front-loads its plot into the first episode before quickly winding down into a slice of life. The adventure and core ideas are still present, although different, and deliberately build into the overarching story. The intricate worldbuilding and satisfying explanations make this setting interesting, but the diverse cast of characters and cultural differences make it compelling. As an original work, some pacing and writing decisions could have been refined, but overall its identity and conclusion is solid despite effectively tackling multiple themes.
Read at the sourcePro-Anime-Review
The way I would describe this show is that it’s a true gem in a pure form. I saw some clips of this show online and decided to give it a chance. After watching the first episode, I was hooked on the premise right away. The direction that the show was going in was definitely unexpected, and that just showed how amazing the writing and storytelling were. The animation was stunning, and the pictures were absolutely beautiful, which helped with attention-grabbing, not that it even needed it! The negativity that I see calling it a mess and such must’ve not watched the same show the same way I did, with an open mind that’s clear to understand the type of storytelling that it had conveyed.
The world-building and the setup are very developed and well-done, though, which might fly over some people…
Read at the sourceJoshzgx
Had really fond memories watching this anime many years back. Just rewatched it and confirmed that it’s one of my favourite anime of all time.
The mix of adventure, twists and turns in a story full of lovable characters and careful attention to the world building while exploring the themes of what it means to be human — without being too heavy — I think Suisei no Gargantia deserves its spot up there in how it accomplished so much just within 13 episodes.
I love the originality and creativity of the setting, all the tools and technologies used (yes especially the windsurfer glider) were weaved seamlessly into the story, and every character made me want to root for them.
Lastly, this anime manages to convey simple joys in wonderful ways, precisely because the world seems so intricately b…
Read at the sourceEleiyas
I am over a decade late to the party at this point, but after having YouTube shorts randomly spam me with clips from EP1-2 of this show, I decided to finally take a gander.
Honestly, I'm glad I did watch this show, as it was quite nostalgic watching what could be called, in 2025, an "old anime". It was also refreshing watching something that wasn't this year's 50th re-hash of "OP MC kills the Demon Lord", although I only have myself to blame for watching those types of shows to begin with, make no mistake.
Now, after watching the first 5 or 6 episodes (in a row), and being hooked with the story, I decided to check out what people had said in their reviews from all those years ago, as I do like checking them out. Needless to say, I was quite curious as to what exactly was going to happen…
Read at the sourceTurtezin
It’s hard to say if this anime is simply good or bad in just a few words. Sometimes the story develops in a logical and interesting way, but other times it feels like the anime creates things out of nowhere, with explanations that don’t quite hold up—even within its own world. That’s my main issue with Suisei no Gargantia: it feels shallow and deep at the same time. You want more detail about certain topics, yet the things that do get explained often end up feeling a bit illogical or unbelievable.
That said, when it comes to genre elements, it’s on point. There’s action, sci-fi, adventure, and mecha, all delivered in good balance. If you’re into those, you won’t leave empty-handed.
Visually, you can tell it’s an older show, but for something that aired back in 2013, the art and animation…
Read at the sourceComet_Official
I binged this anime in a matter of hours and I must say although at first I wasn't all that interested in the story, after episode 4 I was hooked! This series started way bigger than I expected with humanity fighting "alien squid" in outer space. It was here I had no general interest in the story as the MC was a typical soldier with no emotions who just lived to kill in a society where your worth was determined by your fighting capabilities. The weak were eliminated and unfortunately this overall story made for a very weak first couple of episodes. After our MC was separated from this society and found his way to his humanity I must say the story significantly improved. What made the story so compelling moving forward was the fact we got to see the MC grow as a character realizing what it…
Read at the sourceRian_Rahmat
I'm not very good at putting words together, but in essence I recommend this anime to watch!
I think this anime has a simple story, the beginning of a war and getting lost in another dimension (Earth) then living life there, but not only that, MC always tries to rejoin the alliance he left.
I think the character design, sound, visuals and graphics are all good, maybe the robot design is not so good in my opinion, it looks different from the robots I often see.
Everything is neatly arranged, there are no gaps that give the audience a bored effect, The tension and curiosity of the audience about the next story makes anime very suitable to continue watching.
Unlike other bad anime, placing comedy and even parody at the wrong time actually makes me sick.
The storyline is quite relaxed, but…
Read at the sourceLoonaticLovlies
I loved Ledo and Chamber, but all of the other characters were just lacking and left much to be desired. That's the only reason this gets a 9/10.
The story was very good and unique, I don't know what i was expecting going in, but it definitely wasn't what I got coming out.
I loved the artstyle, not sure if it suited or not but it was very pretty.
Many of the characters were lacking.
Ledo reacted to situations in a way that made sense for him, i hated that the other characters would get mad at him for reactions he had and actions he took when no one told him anything about how their world worked and simply expected him to know already.
I think others will enjoy the story and the world, it was very good and had very good twists.
Read at the sourceWyattWordWeaver
You have to respect the ambition of this story. It begins as a grand space epic and ends with a young man changing how he sees humanity. The core narrative arc makes sense and it's tied to a powerful metaphor about beauty being an alternative to war.
The whole thing is glued together by some inventive world building and decent visuals but it's the mid part of the story that drags it down into mediocrity.
After a fascinating start with a thrilling sci fi premise Gargantia settles in to some much more chill, slice of life episodes. This would be fine if we were investing in our characters but said characters are heavily uneven. Some are deep and involved and others have no place to grow and nothing to do. The love interest is especially bland, having no character arc and little to do other…
Read at the sourceGonzyChan
When there is beauty in life, a utopia lies beyond the horizon.
The utopia in question would be Gargantia, the setting in the show Suisei no Gargantia is centered. We are thrust into a world with no boundaries, no territories, and no international law anymore. It's just the endless sight of oceanic currents and the clear blue sky. It's not often we get a mecha anime with this amount of ambiance or majestic atmosphere that could almost be as close to Aria quality to a bit degree. Going into this show to form my opinion of a positive or negative nature is still hard to express because the anime is excellent in quality, but it could have been a masterpiece in the grand scheme of things.
Gargantia opens us up with a galactic conflict that involves Ledo, who gets miraculously teleported out o…
Read at the sourceTactician
Suisei no Gargantia while starts off seeming to go in one direction quickly breaks and makes a sharp turn. Not for the worse personally, just more unexpected. I was expecting more Mech esq. space or robot battle type stuff but it turns out to be much more slice of life oriented than anything else for the vast majority
The show centers more on the everyday of the people of Gargantia which Ledo now finds himself apart of a not so pleasant encounter in space. Ledo being the "Alien" in this case leads to some real difficulties for everyone involved but over time things get better
Ledo, while adjusting to the mostly peaceful life afforded to the earthlings of Gargantia does still struggle with some of his past. I can't say I blame him though since he was raised to be something completely diff…
Read at the sourcecozyhouse
Quite good and enjoyable more so in the first half or so but it stays enjoyable throughout the entire show. The worldbuilding is really cool and unique, if you watch the first episode, please stay with the show it's a little misleading as to what the show is truly about.
The almost slice-of-life parts when the two main characters are on the floating ship gargantia are the best parts of the show and are 10/10 enjoyment.
it's a must-watch anime for everyone IMO. Very unique show definitely not just another mecha, I would go so far to say as its more slice of life than sci fi/mecha. Getting to see the character live in this water world on the floating raft is very soothing. also the robot is baller.
Read at the sourcemoose_man
If it were possible to watch episodes 1-3ish, then episodes 9-finale, it would be a 7 or an 8. Some of Urobuchi's best work thematically. The problem is that he bailed out of the middle portions of the series, making it a real uneven mess that takes a turn away from the actual interesting part of the story to do some kinda vapid fanservicey stuff. Unfortunately you can't really skip over it because there needs to be character development to move the hero from the great opening to the great ending.
Still worth a watch, just barrel through the middle.
Read at the sourceAnimaniac2020
Suisei no Gargantia has a very unique concept with unusual pacing that may not meet everyone's expectations. For maximum enjoyment, just let go and follow the story where it leads you. Episode 1 starts off with a huge sci-fi space battle but the rest of the story takes place on a Waterworld Earth with primitive technology.
If I were in my 20's, thirsting for non-stop action, I might not have enjoyed the series as much. But the idea of a man bred for war being thrust into a tropical paradise with no war to fight and searching for a purpose is very intriguing. The first half of the series is "slice of life" but then the plot takes a turn halfway through with far more conflict. It can be jarring if you enjoyed the slice of life - or a welcome acceleration if you like more action.
The girl…
Read at the sourceDoubleminor20
When I first started this, I had my doubts.
The first episode didn't exactly fill you in completely, and you sort of had to learn as you go. But I thought that this was a charming anime all the same.
The story was sort of all over the place, but visually its looks very good. The music has some highlights, especially a flute piece about halfway through the show that is killer and really brings out the beauty in the show itself.
Recommend for those looking for an easy watch and something you can view casually. It is one of those shows that is a good watch, but probably not something that you will jump to return to.
Read at the sourceWdaCdaShdaDid
First off, I really love the soundtrack. It’s just beautiful. There’s also two lines in the last episode that are really hilarious and honestly, this should get a point for each of those lines making it into a show.
The art on this looks very polished in a kind of typical modern anime way. That being said, the art style itself is kind of bad. Faces look overly cartoony in a way that’s cringey to watch, the women’s clothing is frequently stupid (I guess all the guys can wear normal clothes, but the women all elect to wear ever more ridiculous versions of “bikini” and short shorts combinations by and large). And the mechs are just ugly. Because of how the mechs are designed, they’re rather static, so most of the time when you look at them, you’re staring at what’s clearly a 3D model on a 2D…
Read at the sourceSamimito
The whole mecha genre is like a staple food, you can pair it/ include it in alot of dishes and it comes out tasting different and better depending on what you have it with. In this case, this anime did a great job of pairing the mecha theme with a deep and interesting story.
The whole concept of the hideauze and humans is genuinely interesting, and finding out more and more through the anime left me with more and more questions- an indication of a good anime. The writers did a great job at assigning the characters with their role and well... character! Even the MC Mech, Chamber, was more of an older brother to the MC than just some pile of metal. This is thanks to the sensible pacing and use of character development which the anime absolutely nailed.
Animation was decent, lots and lots o…
Read at the sourceBlueEmbers
There's great things that keep the series afloat where otherwise, in my opinion it should've sank.
Foremost, the characters lack depth and originality becoming borderline cliche- ranking as side-girlfriend, the soldier boy, the pirate queen, and so on. They live in their archetypes and it consequently makes none of them memorable. I see it also as a consequence for including too many characters, and instead of making greater central characters and good supporting characters, all characters instead suffer for lacking depth. Lastly in terms of plot, this comes across as a little version of Macross; packing mechs, man vs. alien-bugs, and deep space/tech concepts.
Converse to the points above, the beautiful character design and world makes for great eye candy. Most obvious is the colorful t…
Read at the sourceTevishSzat
Gargantia is the Anime I didn't know I wanted to see. I put it that way in part because, other than that, it's not actually easily to define what it is. The show starts out with a battle between mecha-driving humans and the damn dirty aliens that have hunted them across the stars. Sounds familiar, right? But it takes only a cursory look at the pitch for the series to know that's not the story we're getting. Ledo, a survivor of the opening space battle is, along with his big robot Chamber, stranded on a distant planet, among a strange people, and has to learn to adapt to their ways and lifestyle, which is worlds different (pun intended) from his own.
So this is a Slice of Life story against a science fiction backdrop, right? Well, that's not quite correct either. There's still a main plot…
Read at the sourceMoomochi
Out of 100 Nobles watching...
85 Nobles were impressed
5 didn't like the CG
10 thought the plot got slow or weakened at times
For year's I've seen screenshots of Gargantia posted all over the place and up until I watched it in 2017 I had thought it was going to be some Monster Hunter/Final Fantasy 10 style future tribal setting and that prospect is what drew me to this Anime, but much to my surprise the show was actually an anime adaptation of the movie Water World!
All jokes aside I started this anime surprised because the majority of the first episode established the plot as an extremely generic mecha anime, and then WHAM! we're in Spira... I mean Water World... wait that's not it! I mean Gargantia... yeah! that's the one...
The story was a roller-coaster and the inhabitants of the…
Read at the source
