So, what is it about? Well, it’s a difficult question to give a straightforward answer to, and it almost begs the cliched answer of “what is it NOT about?” Truthfully, I do think that you could make a convincing argument or at least five different things to be the one “it’s really about”. GC is so dense with plot points and theming that it’s hard to discuss it with an orthodox breakdown.
This is your usual spoiler warning. I won’t give a play-by-play of what happens in a given episode and I try to not give away too much in general, but I spoil the stuff I wouldn’t mind if someone spoiled me on, and I think I’m a bit more tolerant than average in that regard.
The show starts to subvert expectations from a very early point - if you know what the original Gatchaman is, then the first episode might trick you into thinking it’s just a modern retelling, a show about masked superheroes fighting against alien forces. But then the main character asks a question - why exactly are we combating them? Do we know their nature, their intentions? No one is able to give her a satisfying answer, so she searches for her own. The conflict gets resolved and pushed to the waysides, and by halfway through the show you’re excused to forget it was ever a thing.
So, is this then a story about a boy and a girl? He’s timid and rigid, a servant of Order who follows rules and expects others to do so as well. Meanwhile she’s seemingly Chaos personified, trampling on every convention and decisions established before she joined the group. Are they gonna grow together and learn from each other? But hold on a second - while all this is happening, we learn that in this world exists an omni-popular social media app which automatically issues requests for real-life volunteer work and gives out points for participating. A gamification utopia where a computer system matches up people’s abilities and needs? Simultaneously we get a study of leadership, how some people take it and others have it spurned on them, how one can be too self-conscious about being a leader while others may not even realise the position they’re in and thus what they’re responsible for.
Gatchaman Crowds presents a story that is not character-driven, but idea-driven. To understand why I say so you need to look no further than its main heroine. Hajime Ichinose is, quite frankly, a flawless character. You could argue she sounds like an airhead, is not the best at getting her point across, can be annoying at times and seems unconcerned with others. But truth is, in the context of the story, this persona of hers is often exactly what’s needed for a situation, by diffusing tension it or asking a seemingly ridiculous question that actually turns out to be really, really important. She doesn’t need to overcome any flaws, doesn’t go through a journey, she has no conflict. She’s a messianic figure, it’s the world that changes around her. She has all the answers and knows the right thing to do for any situation, as if she’s read the script already and everyone else is catching up. And aside from her, the story’s archvillain is quite overtly an embodiment of an idea. Most of the show isn’t exactly about dealing with them, but rather about comparing differing viewpoints on how to improve society and figuring out whether they can somehow cooperate, or at least coexist.
A good starting point for unwrapping the whole narrative is the fictional social media app called GALAX. It serves a similar role to Facebook, as people use it to share information, communicate and form groups. However, it’s worth noting that functionally it’s a little different - it’s like a Second Life, as each user has a customized avatar and can create spaces for themselves and their groups. Even if these avatars are just a simple visualization for text and voice chats allowing users to emote and gesture, their existence creates an avenue for people to express themselves with their designs, not to mention room for gamification with unlockable clothing and furniture you have to earn points for. While the latter isn’t explicitly stated in the show, it’s a natural conclusion to me when we consider app’s biggest point of narrative importance - the real-life tasks it offers. The service is run by an advanced AI which is able to use footage from microphones, security cameras, geo-localization, text posts and the news in order to estimate when people are in need of help. Maybe there’s a car accident and someone needs immediate help before authorities arrive, maybe a batch of spoiled food was accidentally delivered to a community kitchen and about to be prepared into a meal, maybe you’re in some legal trouble and don’t have money for a lawyer. The app will then figure out if there’s anyone who can solve this issue - and if so, then they will receive a notification asking them if they want to help. The task may be as simple as relaying the information to authorities and as complex as using specific technical knowledge to repair something before it can cause damage. The app always tries to figure out the capabilities of its users and asks them if they’re willing to help with something only they can do.
The brain behind the app is Rui Ninomiya, a prodigious developer with a mission. He wants to “update” the world, using technology to teach people to care for one another and solve issues together for the common sake. What might seem like a naive utopia for most people, to him is the next logical step in the progress of civilization which he wants to artificially hasten. This raises so many questions that once again I’m left wondering where to even begin. Why is he so confident in his vision? What if people don’t comply? How would the society go from helping for points in the app to true nationwide altruism? Isn’t it dangerous to give so much control of the society to an AI? Does he not realize that his own position as a secretive owner of the network is a contradiction to the society he claims to be building?
And the matters get even more complicated! For one, Rui is in contact with a mysterious alien being called Berg Katze. It appears capable of wreaking mass havoc while remaining undetected, and borderline unstoppable - but its motives are unclear and there’s no telling what it’ll do, nor when and how. Its existences puts Rui under constant stress of figuring out how to stop it, perhaps hoping that in his Updated World, Berg would have no power. However, he simultaneously makes use of a power which was given to him by Katze for an unknown reason. It’s an ability to project one’s life force into a being of energy called CROWDS, which has strength and endurance exceeding human body, and can be controlled remotely and anonymously. Rui is able to share this power through GALAX, giving people the capability to do more good. You can imagine how much easier it is to, say, save people from a burning building when you have superhuman strength and can’t be damaged with smoke or burns. However, it’s equally easy to imagine stalkers and trolls using it to physically abuse their targets, and I don’t even want to think what criminals and terrorists would do with it. While likening it to the gun law debate would be a little too hamfisted, the parallels are obvious and unavoidable, whether that’s intended or not. And while Rui eventually plans to give this power to everyone in his ideal, updated world, for now he individually grants this function to users who seem to be the best candidates based on their psychological profiles (made by an algorithm) and high scores in the volunteering system.
At this point you might be wondering, where does a team of superheroes factor into this equation? You wouldn’t be alone - they are not sure either. Veteran members are still dumbfounded by the revelation that an “enemy” they were fighting was not aggressive at all, and now struggle even more at deciphering their founder’s vague, mysterious messages. Hajime in a true socratesian fashion never stops asking questions, including “why aren’t we doing more good with our powers and position?” But in doing so, she ends up butting heads not only with her narrow-minded seniors, but also with Rui. In his vision of the world, there is no place for people privileged with supernatural powers, no place for idols or icons - it would be detrimental to the horizontal society he’s trying to create. He invites Hajime for a conversation in order to convince her that it would be best if Gatchaman stopped their activities entirely.
A viewer might expect her to share Rui’s vision, given how she’s shown to be a prominent GALAX user who herself advises people to take advantage of the app’s features, but that would be an incorrect read. Despite her cutesy-ditzy-airhead act, Hajime is driven purely by reason, not one to jump to conclusions or act based on a hunch. She’s adamant on judging things accurately, based on what they are, with no masks or proxies between them. And Rui’s vision isn’t just naive - it’s flawed. There are practical issues of building communities based on trust, respect and responsibility which he’s not trying to solve, but rather bypass with willpower, convincing himself that if he sticks with his plan long enough then those quirks will iron themselves out. And it’s not that he’s not self-aware, it’s just that when you have a plan of that scale, you can’t prepare individual solutions for every single case scenario. At some point you just hope that the systems you’re creating will create solutions on their own, you build them, and then you test it out to see if you were right. Ideally you’d experiment in a closed environment, but that’s pretty hard to do when we’re talking about changing the global society. Understanding that, Hajime doesn’t try to stop Rui, talk down to him or sabotage his efforts. But she does reject him and plans to take her own stance. In order to that, she proceeds to figure out her own answer to the question “how do Gatchaman fit into this current social situation” and convinces the team to come along on this journey of self-discovery.
Expecting Hajime to get on board with Rui’s vision wouldn’t come out of nowhere - as I’ve mentioned, she’s a character presented as someone all for radical change, trampling on ways of old to usher a way into a better world. It requires a more nuanced look to realize that it’s not as simple as “new = good”, and that all ideas and methods should be scrutinized and judged equally. Similarly, several times throughout the show, there’s situation where people might expect a certain stance or opinion from Hajime, and that expectation is likely shared by the viewer, only for Hajime to suprise us with her answer, often by showing a third option in what seemed like a binary choice.
For instance, let’s talk about Hajime’s relationship with the Internet. Early on she might give an impression of a stereotypically-phone-addicted teenager, constantly glued to the tiny screen. But as it turns out, big part of her online activity is organizing a group of crafts-and-arts enthusiasts who meet to work on their silly origamis and collages together. A group comprised of both children and adults that has somehow attracted prominent city figures such as the chief of police or the mayor. The scene that reveals it tells us a lot about how amazing of a person Hajime is - able to organize such a diverse group around a silly hobby of hers, with no awe for any of its members, treating everyone equally. Valuing the in-person connection over the virtual life, using the latter mostly as a supplement and a tool to enhance the former. Later she’s part of a conversation where someone asks rhetorically “Isn’t GALAX amazing?”, and she chimes in with a little comment “It’s amazing, but it’s not good”. Talk about rationality and putting things in perspective - as people fall into the trap of personifying and idolizing an app, Ichinose reminds us that it’s just a tool. An amazing, powerful tool, but it’s the users that actually make use of it to do good, and it’s in our best interest not to forget that. It can just as well be used for trolling, sending threats and doxxing, and while Hajime has advice for dealing with that (“turn your phone off”) the show doesn’t downplay negativity that increased webification can bring into people’s lives
In general Ichinose has this weirdly stoic but optimistic view towards life. Say there’s some unpleasant every day occurrence, like when someone bumps into you because they were hurrying, or when you see a youngster remain in their train seat when there are old folk without one. Now, the Gatchaman closest to Hajime’s age and experience is a boy named Sugane. He fancies himself a bit of a warrior of justice and as such the aforementioned events draw an ire from him, complaining about irresponsible people that don’t look where they walk or telling off the selfish assholes who won’t stand up even knowing that travelling while standing is much harder for the elderly. But Hajime points out to him that he’s being very presumptuous. Perhaps the person who ran past them was late for something important due to reasons outside of her control, like a train breakdown, or perhaps they just received notice or something very important, maybe they’re running to a hospital to see someone who’s life is in danger. Perhaps that middle-schooler sitting on the train is really tired after sports practice and also stressed out about something in his life, and this small amount of convenience is letting him have a tiniest bit of a relief. Are those scenarios particularly likely? No, not really. But they show the danger of being judgmental and assuming that all “evil” is intentional and caused by “bad” traits, like selfishness, laziness and irresponsibility. Besides, think about this - what’s more “fun” to think about? That you had an unpleasant collision with an inconsiderate punk? Or that you witnessed someone’s important life moment as something sudden caused them to break the social convention by running on the streets, accepting that they might inconvenience and irritate strangers in the process?
This mindset of hers extends to the approach she takes dealing with Berg Katze. Everyone else seems to be split into two camps - either see them as just another adversary that needs to be taken on, or are so terrified they’d rather just give up and let them ravage the Earth. At this point you can probably guess what our girl does - she tries talking to them. Figure out their nature by observation, conversations and thinking it through. And as I’ve mentioned, this whole conflict is a very thinly veiled metaphor for a debate about human nature, with Hajime and Berg in particular representing certain traits. I don’t wanna spoil the solution or lose the nuance by summarizing it here, but I want to mention my favorite idea presented within it. At one point the team discuss whether they should just hide from BK and hope that eventually they’ll get bored, or fulfilled, or fizzle out, and then Gatchaman can help heal the damage it’s done to society. But Hajime opposes this, believing that for Berg Katze, tormenting people is fun - and even if they can’t fully understand that being, she is pretty sure that if someone finds something to be fun, they won’t stop doing it. “Fun” is unfortunately a pretty loaded word as it implies childishness and a degree of laxness, but something like “satisfying” or “fulfilling” would go even further away from the meaning (at least as I understood it) so might as well stick with what Hajime said. In any case, this line of thinking shifts the perspective - instead of thinking of BK as a force of nature or an insane creature, they can see a semblance of reason in their behaviour. In a sense, every creature strives to do what’s “fun” for them, and you have to accept that everyone will find something else fun, and one of the challenges of society is to deal with that fact. It’s a worldview almost devoid of morals and ethics, of judging others and setting standards - and it’s exactly one I would expect Hajime to have.
In a similar vein, there was another scene where I was suprised by Ichinose’s point of view. The characters are wondering if they might get help from JJ - another enigmatic being with mysterious powers, who’s the one that chooses new people to join the Gatchaman and also sends ambiguous messages to the team which could contain advice or premonitions. Perhaps for once he will give Gatchaman a straight answer as to how to defeat their opponent, or even do that himself? Hajime doesn’t think so - she says “If JJ is like God, he probably won’t do anything”.
I wouldn’t say that the series’ pace is necessarily slow at any point, but majority of the first season might give the impression that we’ll largely stay in the realm of speculation, discussing positive and negative sides of different issues and opposing sides of them without really deciding which one is better. But at one point it turns out there was an actual fuse steadily burning down, and eventually an explosion occurs and things start accelerating rapidly. In the end we do explore one of the possible scenarios and see the consequences it brings down on the world. Interestingly, much of the season explores the challenges of being an authority and the hierarchical structures, but in the end when the Japanese Prime Minister ends up with a GALAX account, he gets a notification - “There’s a call for help only you can answer. Your abilities as a prime minister are required”. Never lacking the nuance, Gatchaman Crowds doesn’t offer easy answers - just infinite food for thought and theoretical models that could work, but they could also fail, depending on thousands of circumstances and things that are really untestable, such as - what really is the human nature like?
And all this I’ve talked about so far is contained within the show’s first of the two seasons. The second one functions as a side-switch of sorts - I never played BioShock 2, but the way it’s relation to 1 has been described to me sounded a lot like comparing the two GC seasons. In one way it’s a natural extension of the first one, as we deal with the consequences of events at the end of S1 and continue to explore the same ideas further down. But on the other hand, thanks to the introduction of few new characters, we now go to the far opposite side of every previously explored issue, philosophy and perspective and observe what’s there - both good and bad. It felt really obvious to me that this is what the show was doing, but I haven’t noticed how judgemental some of the portrayals were in signifying certain characters maturity or emotional intelligence until after I finished the whole thing. I think the writers have balanced the line really well here, as on one hand they try to represent both sides of all issues fairly, but they don’t completely shy away from making any points or statements - however, they are not preaching that “this is the truth and you’re other with us or wrong” but rather try to respect viewers’ opinions if they disagree. With the kind of touchy social and political subjects they tackle I’m really impressed by their ability to walk that tightrope and never really stumble. The second season was created two years after the first one and on one hand it feels like a proper sequel, but on the other it’s a very natural extension of the first entry - so you could say it succeeds on all fronts.
I don’t talk much about aesthetics but as you can tell from the screenshots throughout this post, the show features some really pretty colors, distinct character designs and is overall rather stylish. I like the motif of papercraft tied to Hajime’s character but also presented in the openings and endings. I love the songs themselves, particularly the two openings by White Ash. I also quite enjoyed the typography - the moving logo in the bumpers, websites, TV and app interface within the show itself, it all was properly eye-catchy. Animation is perfectly serviceable (although 3D haters will have to squint their eyes during the action scenes) and the cinematography can be quite brilliant at times, I’d actually say it’s one of the stronger aspects of the show.
If anything, I hope I conveyed that I really, really loved it. I was shocked at how relevant it felt, how fairly it represented issues related to modern media and technology. I loved all the difficult subjects it tackled with grace, always attempting to really understand what’s going on and what can be done about it. I loved how unique of a philosopher Hajime seemed, offering her own worldview that could help a lot of people in navigating modern life. Gatchaman Crowds is a brilliant, outstanding show that has so much to say about so many things and finds ample time for all of them. I can’t recommend it enough and I’m constantly looking out for stories that are as easy to follow and as smart and thought-provoking. Anyone care to recommend me something?
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