Gnosia

Episode 21

So, when I wrote that whole bit a month ago about how Episode 18 couldn't possibly be the True Ending that Gnosia had been building up to all along, I did so under the assumption that the show would ultimately lead us to a much more satisfying and complete conclusion. Well, you all know what they say about making assumptions…

Since this truly is Gnosia's final bow, I want to take the opportunity to reiterate that I don't think this turned out to be a terrible show. Its unique art, likeable characters, and confident (if often frustrating) pacing provided, at the bare minimum, a solid half-hour of entertainment every week. Still, now that we've finally arrived at the story's real finale, I think it is safe to say that Gnosia is decidedly not the kind of science-fiction murder-mystery that works very well for me. For all of its neat worldbuilding, interesting techno-lore, and more-or-less likeable characters, Gnosia simply never bothered to craft a solid narrative on which to affix those disparate pieces into a cohesive story.

In the end, a major factor in Gnosia's uneven final presentation boils down to what works better in video-game stories compared to television series. I've heard tell that the plot of the show is actually somewhat improved from the game based on its pacing and organization alone, which is all well and good, but I'm feeling a lack that comes from the much more inextricable divide between that ludonarrative thread that unites games to their players and the much more passive expectations shared between a viewer and their television screen. What ultimately makes Gnosia such a let-down, for me, is the decision to make the romance between Yuri and Setsu the foundation of the story's entire emotional climax.

In a video game, even when you are playing as a character that is not meant to be a blank-slate player avatar, it is so much easier to form bonds with the supporting cast of a story. This comes down to several variables, from the psychological quirks of roleplaying from a different person's point of view to the simple investment that comes from spending much more time with a game narrative compared to a season or two of an anime. All told, the running time of the Gnosia anime is roughly nine or ten hours, and I'd be shocked if the game didn't double that length for completionists or more thorough readers. This is to say that, when it comes to the reality-shattering power of the bond shared between Yuri and Setsu, I can absolutely believe that it would be a powerful and meaningful connection to Gnosia's story in its interactive form. As a show, though?

The simple fact is that the television incarnations of the Gnosia cast are all very simple anime archetypes that never really grow or evolve beyond their initial characteristics: Racio is the Asshole with a Heart of Gold. S.Q. is the Quirky Flirt Who Says Random Shit (Except When She's Secretly Been Possessed by the Ghost of Her Immortal, Evil Mother). Sha-Ming is Horny. Shigemichi is an Idiot. Jonas is Gruff and Enigmatic. Chipie…Wants to Be a Cat? Comet Has the Weird Slime. Otome is a Beluga Whale and Not a Dolphin Even Though the Show Insists She Is. Yuriko Does the Ojousama Laugh In Spirit if Not in Practice. Setsu is Smart, Tough, and Capable.

In similar series like Danganronpa, the broad nature of the cast is perfectly acceptable, because the flattest characters are meant as fodder for the murder mysteries anyway, which means the handful that do survive can get just enough development to feel satisfying by the time you roll credits. As I've already discussed, this is a moot point for the infinitely variable iterations of this conceptually immortal crew on the D.Q.O. They can't grow or change, because the entire story is a series of loops and dead-end universes that literally cannot ever intersect under penalty of universal obliteration.

More to the point of this finale, though, it means that it's hard to care all that much about the undying love between the fairly stoic and straightforward Setsu and Yuri, who barely even qualifies as a real character, since their entire spectrum of needs and desires boils down to “Move the story of this video-game turned anime along one step at a time.” Their big victory against the forces of time and space doesn't even amount to great science-fiction drama, either. After spending a few minutes waffling over the typical “Who will let who sacrifice themselves” conundrums, Setsu and Yuri end up falling into the remarkably easy solution of just giving the Silver Key to the Manan and punting her into Kurushka's body so she can screw off to the universe of eternal time loops herself. Manan always wanted to live forever, after all, and now she'll get to, while Setsu and Yuri can face an unknown but shining future together, hand-in-hand.

This, more than anything, is what rubs me wrong about Gnosia's ending. I could happily run with the schmaltzy romance of this finale if it were just one pillar of a conclusion that was also being held up by genuinely interesting narrative payoffs. After twenty-one episodes of jumping back and forth across the space-time continuum, I honestly could not tell you how the Gnosia were even relevant to this story. Sure, in the game, they're an excuse to play Werewolf a bunch of times, but the Gnosia Trials were the least interesting aspect of this show, which only stings that much more when you realize that they truly never mattered. The characters could have all sat down and played a dozen games of Guess Who?, and very little would have changed about Gnosia's bigger picture. In the end, all of the potential we saw in the world-building and tidbits of the other characters' backstories was all just window-dressing for a love story that feels forced and unfounded even by the shaky standards of this YA-fiction grade video-game plot. It could have been worse, but it could have been so much better, too.

Rating:

Gnosia is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on BlueSky, his blog, and his podcast.