Gnosia

Episode 11

We're halfway through Gnosia's run, and there's just…something about the show that is keeping me at a distance, even when we get solid episodes like this one. I've been wanting to know more about SQ since the series began, since the girl is basically the game's poster character, and I figured there had to be something more to her than a collection of cute poses and catchphrases that contrast nicely with that “Gotcha, bitch!” face that the Gnosia-infected characters always do when their secret is revealed. As it turns out, yes, SQ does have a lot more going on, which we find out in this very exposition-heavy spotlight episode. So, then, what isn't working for me?

Here's one potential speedbump: The D.Q.O. When the show introduced all of the new rooms and the possibility for holographic alterations that can make interiors look like almost anything the story could demand, I figured that the ship had plenty of built-in ways to keep from becoming a stale and repetitive setting for a lengthy mystery like Gnosia. Alas, we're nearly a dozen episodes in, and the D.Q.O. has mostly proven to be a stale and repetitive location for a lengthy mystery show like Gnosia. You'd think that by now we'd at least have a solid sense of identity and geography for the limited number of locations that the D.Q.O. does offer, but I think the ship has only become more disorienting over time. When you have all of these heavy, emotional conversations going on between the likes of Yuri and S.Q., cutting back to the same cafeteria, bedroom, and hallway locations just saps a lot of the energy from the proceedings.

Then there is the larger matter of the show's disjointed, episodic narrative. I know that the fragmented, stop-start nature of Yuri's constant looping is a feature of Gnosia's premise and not a bug, but the stakes remain so abstract that it is difficult for me to get emotionally invested in anything. At the very end of the episode, after revealing her shocking backstory and the possibility that Yuri might not meet this version of SQ again, she flat-out confesses her love for our protagonist, and it was even more sudden and forced than the connection Boobies!Yuri shared with Sha-Ming last week. Is this supposed to be justified by the potential relationship that SQ had with the Yuri who existed before all of this amnesia and time-hopping? Is the “Manan” personality that SQ has grown to be a vessel for influencing her feelings? It's difficult for me to say for sure, or to even know if those are possibilities I am even meant to be taking seriously.

The best way I can describe the feeling of watching Gnosia is to compare it to being given an off-the-cuff but remarkably in-depth summary of a show or game from someone who basically has the story memorized. They can recount all of the beats and character details, but they tend to focus on the moments that stuck with them in particular, the most, rather than the order of events that would make sense for a complete neophyte. They can give expert descriptions of who each character is and what their dynamics are like as a cast, but they obviously have to rush through the finer points, though they promise you that it's totally cute and well-written and cool. By the end of it, this friend may have even done a great job of selling you on how entertaining and interesting this story is, and you feel like you have a solid grasp of what it's all about, but you could never feel it in the way that your friend did. You only have the second-hand simulacrum of the real thing to go by.

It may not be fair to call a well-produced season of television the “simulacrum” version of the Gnosia story, but I've never played the original game, and if this show isn't cutting out a lot of the smaller details and beats that would make this product feel a lot more cohesive, well, you could have fooled me. It's a shame, too, because I want to love this story. Everything about SQ's tragic and low-key horrifying existence is the kind of science fiction I eat right up. Imagine being the 511th in a series of clone bodies for a woman who seems like a major psycho, only to know that some of her memories and personality live inside of you at all times, despite developing your own free will. The worst part is SQ acknowledging that there are probably plenty of world-lines where Manan does take over, meaning that the SQ we get this week could be an impossibly singular identity lost in an ocean of repeated loops and reset memories.

It's great stuff, and I am holding out hope that Gnosia's story will come together and pay off some of these killer story threads. As the weeks go by, though, I am beginning to worry that all Gnosia the Anime will end up accomplishing is making me want to switch off the T.V. and simply check out Gnosia the Video Game, instead.

Episode 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.