The only way to indulge...

I'd watched the front half of the series back in the day, but this is the first time I got through the end of it. Some random thoughts...

The show's aesthetic is overdone and silly, to be sure. But in a lot of ways, I enjoyed it much more than, say, the new Mazinger. It's shamelessly indulgent, but with a point back in there somewhere, instead of "the director is reliving his glory days, back when things weren't expected to make any sense".

One of the key themes of GL is male virtue. Not just "the traditional male virtues", yadda yadda, but a real focus on a man's role. (Not that the show tries to argue that women can't exhibit the same virtues - Yoko doesn't give an inch to anyone there, but still remains feminine - just that it's not the point or the focus of the show.)

But the most interesting character in that respect is Rossiu. He's there to comment that, no, you can't run a society off of balls and recklessness alone; at some point you need an accountant, someone with the patience and attention to detail to do the paperwork. But at the same time, the show uses him to illustrate the limitations of that kind of thinking. Rossiu is fundamentally risk-averse, and so that limits his thinking; he'll settle for a sure tragedy over a possible victory, every time. What's worse, though, is that he keeps trying to take charge; by his lights he's obligated to, because the idiots who keep winning battles keep almost losing them.

For a show that's about giant head-robots recklessly combining with everything possible, it's got surprising depth.

Maybe not a work for the ages, but hey, it'll do, it'll do. Also notable for being a Gainax show that doesn't totally come apart at the end...

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at 12:36 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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