Just finished Gilgamesh. What did YOU think of it? SPOILERS AHOY

[SmoothTex]

I just finished Gilgamesh last night.

I'm not sure what to think about it.

I loved the series. I really did.

The ending seemed rather sudden, though.

I'm still kinda piecing it together in my mind how I feel about it but my first reaction is:

It didn't seem logical to me. Why didn't they just cleansing flood the planet at the beginning?

I know that if they did that we wouldn't have a cool anime if that happened but it still didn't make sense to me.

Also, who was the girl who broke out of the cocoon at the very end? I know it used to be Madoko's sister, but what was it then?

Why did it survive the cleansing flood?

What was that other little girl?

Why did Madoko's sister kill that little girl with the tuning fork?

[Yoda47]

I saw the first episode (Newtype disc) and wasn't impressed enough to buy it.

[HABE]

The ending seemed rather sudden, though.


I loved it until the end, which was a big let-down for me. It made me feel like I just watched the whole series for nothing.

[SmoothTex]

The ending seemed rather sudden, though.


I loved it until the end, which was a big let-down for me. It made me feel like I just watched the whole series for nothing.

I can see how you'd think that. I kind of feel the same way.

My problem is that the ending didn't SEEM to logically follow from the previous episodes.

I'm cool with an anime destroying the world in the end.

For example, I think Evangelion ended logically. Throughout the series the angels are trying to reach adam (or was it eve?) and finally they succeed which causes the "end of the world".

I just think that the whole cleansing flood thing could have happened at the very beginning...resulting in the end. I know that it would make a poor anime, but it would be logical.

I don't see why there had to be a 25 episode wait for the cleansing flood to happen.

It just seems that the ending was tacked on in a hurry...like the writing went something like this:

Writer1: We have one more episode and we have to end this thing.

Writer2: We can have everyone fight and then the ORGA kids win.

Writer1: Nah...too conventional.

Writer2: OK Well....we could end up destroying the whole world with a flood like the Gilgamesh myth.

Writer1: I like it...hit me with some details.

Writer2: The sheltering sky falls down and kills everything.

Writer1: yeah ok...sounds good.

[Andrew Cunningham]

Single best ending in years. Completely cynical. All that work and it completely backfired; perfect natural payback.

[TelescopeEyes1987]

I;ve been meaning to see this series for the past 2 years....I'm glad a thinpak is coming out for it. I'll have to go pick it up.

[SmoothTex]

Single best ending in years. Completely cynical. All that work and it completely backfired; perfect natural payback.

I can understand liking an ending that's excessively depressing. I loved the ending to "Beneath the Planet of the Apes".

[SmoothTex]

I;ve been meaning to see this series for the past 2 years....I'm glad a thinpak is coming out for it. I'll have to go pick it up.

It's a great series. I recommend it! I just wish the ending followed logically from the rest of the show.

[JackProton]

The ending seemed rather sudden, though.

Heh, I remember popping in the final episode and wondering how the @#$% they were possibly going to wrap up the entire series in 24 minutes. Then 15 minutes. Then 10..

Its been a fairly long time since I watched it and I need to watch it again but, as I seem to recall, the Countess and her emotions - particularly her smoldering jealousy - were actually the key to the behavior of the mysterious force behind Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh uses lots of mirror and echo imagery hinting at this. I believe the reason the flood started at the end was that the Countess finally realized all this and turned her hatred inward.

The series uses many ideas from the Gilgamesh Epic, particulary the flood story, however, this seems to supplemented with some Chinese legends such as Nuwa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%BCwa who is said to have recreated humanity after a great flood.

[HABE]

Normally I'd suspect the creators suddenly discovered the series wouldn't be renewed for another season and they had to wrap things up fast. However, in this case it feels like a planned ending.

To me it wasn't as satisfying as the end of Evangelian (in which the declining world and ignoble characters had convinced me it was time for a good cleansing anyway) or Beneath the Planet of the Apes (which was the perfect coup de grâce), but I can see why other people would like it.

All the buildup seemed to be leading to a more positive or ingenious solution, so for me the end wasn't so much a surprise as a letdown.

Until the later episodes, I had hoped that appearances were deceiving, and that Terumichi Madoka and the Gilgamesh had some secret understanding of a bigger picture that would eventually come together to show Twin X and the resulting sacrifices in a different light, maybe even leading to a greater good. So my bias for a positive outcome didn't allow me to appreciate the flip-over-the-chessboard ending I saw.

But I know that's just me. The endings to a lot of anime series tend to disappoint me. Just picky I guess.

[SmoothTex]

All the buildup seemed to be leading to a more positive or ingenious solution, so for me the end wasn't so much a surprise as a letdown.

Until the later episodes, I had hoped that appearances were deceiving, and that Terumichi Madoka and the Gilgamesh had some secret understanding of a bigger picture that would eventually come together to show Twin X and the resulting sacrifices in a different light, maybe even leading to a greater good. So my bias for a positive outcome didn't allow me to appreciate the flip-over-the-chessboard ending I saw.

But I know that's just me. The endings to a lot of anime series tend to disappoint me. Just picky I guess.

It's not just you.

Actually, I think you have described what I mean by "the ending didn't logically follow from the rest of the show".

What I got from the middle episodes was that the Gilgamesh may not actually be the bad guys, but were working towards the greater good.

Instead it turns out they were either duped or insanely working towards their own destruction.

It was a let down to me also, but it was a great journey getting there.

I just finished it a few days ago and it left a bad taste in my mouth (so to speak). I couldn't pinpoint WHY I didn't like the ending, but I think you have pinpointed it for me, HABE.

Thanks!

[Damo]

I'm with Andrew Cunningham on this I liked the ending for it's nilistic approach in dooming the lot of 'em, sure I have WTF questions, I did like how everything was effectivly the Countess's fault. What went on with Kiyoko I have no idea...

What the writers really needed to do was write the whole thing start-to-finish even with teh ending it had, then go back into earlier parts of the series and insert precursors as there wasn't enough covered about TEAR and it's effects so wehn all that happened in the last ten minutes it was a bit of a jump, hell was it even an Alien? a faerie? a fragment of the countess's consiousness made manifest by the tomb? or what?

The show as a whole though I really enjoyed.

[SmoothTex]

I'm with Andrew Cunningham on this I liked the ending for it's nilistic approach in dooming the lot of 'em, sure I have WTF questions, I did like how everything was effectivly the Countess's fault. What went on with Kiyoko I have no idea...

What the writers really needed to do was write the whole thing start-to-finish even with teh ending it had, then go back into earlier parts of the series and insert precursors as there wasn't enough covered about TEAR and it's effects so wehn all that happened in the last ten minutes it was a bit of a jump, hell was it even an Alien? a faerie? a fragment of the countess's consiousness made manifest by the tomb? or what?

The show as a whole though I really enjoyed.


I looked at my post above about the show leaving a bad taste in my mouth. I think I should have written "the ending left a bad taste in my mouth".

I would definitely recommend the series to others. I think the journey is worth enduring the ending.

[HABE]

Yeah, despite my initial reaction to the end, now (almost a year later) I mainly remember the good parts and the great atmosphere. It's definitely a series worth watching.

And an ending that gives people something to talk about like this can't be all bad. Better to go out with a bang than a whimper. Sometimes.