Talking Points: Suisei no Gargantia – Episode 6

If a beach episode wasn’t enough, please enjoy this weeks belly dancing. Surprisingly there was a lot of conversation about the fanservice in this episode. Lets take a look at one of those comments.

@suikodian: Am I the only one annoyed with amount of fanservice in #Gargantia?

I find ‘fanservice’ to be an ugly term. Often times its used to discredit a show from having any moral or ethical substance. Sure that can be said for shows like Queen’s Blade or Hagure Yuusha no Estetica, that strictly aim to titillate, but not for Suisei no Gargantia. Every piece of the show, from the dialogue to the artwork seems so purposefully crafted. There is a reason why anything exist or happens in Gargantia, so a bit of belly dancing should too, right?

People have already spoken about how our sexually repressed culture doesn’t apply to Gargantia, even if it takes place on Earth. But what if we looked at the scene from a more figurative perspective? The shedding of clothes, the dance and the conversation between Ledo, Pinion and Bellows are all aspects of this visual metaphor.

What does clothing actually represent? There’s a saying that what we wear makes us who we are. Looking at the world around us, it’s easy to see its true. If you see someone wearing a hard hat with a bright orange vest, you could probably tell that he’s construction worker. You walk into a hospital, and amidst the slew of people you can identify the doctor from his white coat and stethoscope. Clothing doesn’t only symbolize an occupation, it can epitomize a person’s culture, social standing, likes and dislikes. By choosing what we wear, we not only help others understands who we are, but substantiate our personalities to ourselves.

I mean don’t you feel fancy when you change into a nice suit or an elegant dress? In the same way Amy transforms into a dancer after shedding her regular delivery clothes and donning her bejeweled bangles and silken veils. At this point, you might be saying to yourself, “I get the entire clothing-identity paradigm, but she still doesn’t need to be half naked to be a dancer…”. I don’t believe this to be case. In fact I would say it’d be inappropriate if she weren’t half naked. Dance is a form of self expression. By showing her skin, she is exposing herself and her personality to the audience. She is letting them know who she is beyond the mail girl that flitters about the Gargantia.

These two elements come together in Ledo’s conversation with Pinion and Bellows. He is requested to discard his previous self and find out what he wants to do. He is being asked to change clothes. But which clothes though? That’s where self-expression and inflection come into play. Ledo has to figure out what he wants to do and the goals he wants to achieve. Only then can he find a path to navigate through on the Gargantia.

Well that was quite a long response, so I think we’ll just keep it to one tweet today. This was a very polarizing episode of the Suisei no Gargantia? What did you guys think? Do you agree or disagree.