[Music]

Gasaraki OST

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Gasaraki]

Yep, it’s that CD review that I was promising y’all for weeks.

Gasaraki was a series of great maturity, seriousness and sophistication; the accompanying soundtrack recreates these features accordingly, helped in no small part by the fact that the songwriting talent behind it was Kuniaki Haishima, who also worked on Monster and Spriggan. The album is bookended by the op and end themes, which is perhaps strangely not a pattern always observed in OST track listings. The op theme, Message #9, is a superb tune; arguably the reason why I became interested in the show in the first place. The vocal performance is reminiscent of Alison Goldfrapp or Portishead with samples of Noh performances and military-style snare drums that drift in along with the synthesised beats to give one of my all-time opening themes. The album version is even a longer edit than that used in the TV’s opening sequence too, which is a nice touch when watching successive episodes makes the shorter version somewhat overly-familiar. Love Song is an appropriately relaxing ending which is a good thing too considering some of the content on offer here. The snaking fretless bass blends well with the primeval-sounding percussion and Akino Arai (the voice behind Macross Plus’ Sharon Apple, no less!) on hand to provide the vocals that offer a really pleasant contrast.

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[Anime Reviews]

Gasaraki #8 (episodes 23-25) and Final Thoughts

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Gasaraki]

And so we reach the end of the epic Gasaraki. It’s taken a while with a false start or two but I’ve finally seen the whole series through to its conclusion - the battle lines are drawn between the USA and Japan, the Gasara is being called and Yushiro makes his last desperate attempt to bring back Miharu. The political side of things is wrapped up, giving us a superb sequence of TA combat scenes and the underlying themes are finally addressed. Only now has the true meaning of Gasaraki become clear: after all the mechinations, wars and allegiances it’s not about mecha development or wars over food supplies; it’s about something a lot less tangible and much more interesting.

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[Anime Reviews]

Gasaraki #7 (episodes 20-22)

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Gasaraki]

Things are falling into place as Miharu is captured by SYMBOL, Yushiro takes it upon himself to rescue her and the Gowas set their plans into action. After what has proved to be a slow but steadily-paced middle section, Gasaraki shifts into a higher gear as it enters its final phase, which is in the nick of time. While I can’t help but admire its realism and attention to detail, the imaginative escapism that animation usually offers has been somewhat absent from this show just lately.

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[Anime Reviews]

Gasaraki #6 (episodes 17-19)

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Gasaraki]

It’s back to the present day for Gasaraki, as Yushiro and Miharu hide out in the ‘Asian Veins’, the immigrant districts, away from the Gowas and Symbol. An act of kindness on Yushiro’s part grants them safe haven with the locals, but for how long? Meanwhile, the pieces are being moved into place as the Gowa clan’s plans begin to reach fruition.

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[Anime Reviews]

Gasaraki #5: episodes 14-16

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Gasaraki]

The balance of power has shifted in the Gowa household as the old man retires from his place at the top at the behest of his sons. The only one not involved in this - Yushiro - is instead accompanying Miharu on the paths of the Kai. It is at this point where they discover another Kugai, and a flashback to the old days of the Kai.

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[Anime Reviews]

Gasaraki episodes 11-13

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Gasaraki]

It’s another interesting instalment of Gasaraki, in which Yoshiro and Miharu set out on their journey of self-discovery. Meanwhile the Gowas are playing with fire when a TA test run goes horribly wrong, and they have to track down a wandering Yoshiro to help them minimise the potential damage. It doesn’t provide much in the way of explaining the background this time, although there are some great action scenes - it’s real edge-of-your-seat stuff, and makes a nice change from the exposition and mystery of the previous outing. Although I don’t agree with spreading the series across eight discs it means the individual volumes alternate between action and drama.

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[Anime Reviews]

Gasaraki episodes 8-10

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Gasaraki]

The task force returns from Belgistan as the dust from the conflict begins to settle. If the plans of the Gowas and Symbol are anything to go by though, this is just the beginning…meanwhile, Yoshiro begins to look for answers to his own questions after his encounter with Miharu. This is where the series begins to get really interesting!

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[Anime Reviews]

Gasaraki Episodes 5-7

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Gasaraki]

The opening act of Gasaraki presented a number of parallel plot threads but the second instalment opts for a surprisingly fast pacing (by the show’s own standards, at least) and edge-of-the-seat moments.

Firstly there’s the conflict in Belgistan which appears to be that of a small nation fighting its neighbours; the truth is that it’s a country-sized experiment for the technology being developed by Gowa and their rivals, now revealed to be an organisation known as Symbol. We see the Belgistanian dictator being ruthlessly used and ultimately abandoned by Symbol now that his country no longer serves a purpose to their plans, while the US and Japan see the incident as an advertisment for the revolutionary weaponry. Meanwhile, NATO launches an attempt to seize one of Symbol’s TAs, the Fakes, as Yoshiro seeks answers to his own questions.

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[Anime Reviews]

Gasaraki episodes 1-4

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Gasaraki]

It’s not often that a mecha show can be described as ‘realistic’ but that was the first thought I had with the opening episodes of Gasaraki. It’s a rarity on DVD these days too which is a shame because it appears to be something of an underrated series.

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