Gnosia

Episode 20

I was very curious to see how what kinds of story developments Gnosia would have left to run through as these last three episodes of the show played out, and “World of Stars” unfortunately spends most of its time on the trope I was really hoping we would avoid: The fond farewell to the cast that comes right before the final leap into the unknown. It's an age-old mainstay of the Video Game Narrative Checklist, and one I usually enjoy quite a lot (don't ask me how many times I've replayed the Mass Effect trilogy for this exact reason). However, as I'm sure I've made abundantly clear throughout these weekly reviews of Gnosia, I've found the way it has incorporated its cast into its story to be one of the show's weakest elements, which makes the sappy good-bye celebration ring hollow, for me.

In mystery-fueled visual novels, it is very common to meet an extended cast of elaborately designed and overdressed weirdos, and they often fill very simple and broad archetypal roles in the plot. I don't think Gnosia's greatest flaw is that it didn't devote hours of screentime to the likes of Shigemichi or Chipie. What has made it difficult for me to get invested in this crew of misfits is how little they've been given to do throughout this very lengthy adventure. There are generally two ways to handle developing such a cast: A story can either give characters specific arcs of change and growth for them to follow as the story progresses, or it will be the audience's understanding and appreciation of the characters that develops, instead. In the Danganronpa games, for example, only a handful of characters ever truly change; most of the requisite freaks exist either to move the plot along by dying or to provide interesting morsels of backstory and world-building in between all of the killing game shenanigans.

I don't think Gnosia has excelled in either of these approaches. The development of any character who isn't Yuri has been limited by the time-loop and world-line pillars of the premise. While this episode definitely wants everyone to behave like they're a found family who have bonded over many crazy adventures, Yuri and the audience hardly know this version of the crew. Shigemichi never made his bold love confession, S.Q. never revealed her dark backstory to Yuri, and no relationships were ever tested or strengthened due to the stress of the Gnosia hunts. Yes, you can argue whatever science-fantasy headcanons you like about the characters sharing a bond that is stronger than the barriers of time and space, but I don't think I'd actually want it to be that easy. Where would the stakes be in all of this time-looping and line-hopping, then? If Yuri and the audience never stood to lose anything at all by getting shunted all across the space-time continuum, that would make for an awfully lame science-fiction story.

So, we must fall back on simply appreciating these static and broad archetypes for the novel bits of lore and pathos their presence provides. In that sense, Gnosia has done better, but it is still far from top-of-the-line material. Yuri's scenes with Racio in this episode capture my issues perfectly: After serving as Yuri's guide, cheerleader, and Silver Key provider for the past two episodes, Racio gets lauded for being genuinely nice and helpful underneath all of that snark. That's all well and good, except I only buy this “development” insofar as it gives Yuri access to the alien doohickey they need to access the next stage of the plot. Emotionally, I could genuinely not care less about whether Racio is nice, or a dick, or a secret Gnosia interloper, or whatever else the show might throw at us. The same goes for the rest of the cast. They're all perfectly serviceable Anime Weirdo Types, and they say and do all of the things Gnosia requires of them, but that is about it.

When Yuri dives back into the twisted web of time and space that the Silver Key creates, it is supposed to be the emotional and intellectual climax of this entire story, yet it all just feels like business as usual. We get more vague gestures at characterizing the likes of Jonas, Yuriko, and Kurushka without ever committing to something genuinely interesting. We get more expository prattle about cyberizing consciousnesses and confronting Gnos the eldritch god-thing. What we don't get, even after all of this time, is any hook or emotional anchor that can transform this collection of cool visuals and heady concepts into a story that makes us feel something. With only one episode left to go, I wonder if there are any tricks Gnosia could pull out of its hat that would finally capitalize on all of this unrealized potential.

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.