Gnosia

Episode 3

I'm going to be honest: When I saw that the episode title of this week's Gnosia was “New Crew Members,” I only cared about two things. I needed to know more about the literal Gray Alien guy that we met for just a second last week, and I needed to meet the beluga-whale-thing from the end credits. We do get to spend lots of time with Shigemichi the Gray Alien this week, so I have to give Gnosia at least a little bit of credit. The complete lack of any intelligent and adorably outfitted aquatic mammals, though, has been utterly soul crushing. It has taken every ounce of professional restraint that I possess to not brand the episode with a 1-star rating out of retaliation for this clearly targeted act of narrative malfeasance.

Shigemichi and Stella make for fun additions to the cast that dramatically expand the possibilities of this week's Werewolf-game formula, so I suppose it would be wrong for me to complain too much. As any self-respecting and modern “Killing Game with a Time Loop Twist” type of story needs to do, Gnosia is playing with the shifting expectations that come with each of Yuri's new world lines, and allowing the audience to play with the obvious red (and maybe not-so-red) herrings that come with each new face that is added to the cast. Of course, it would be way too obvious to make the literal stereotype of an otherworldly alien into the Gnosia for this episode's trial…but maybe that's exactly what we're supposed to think. If it isn't Shigemichi, though, then it would clearly be a misdirect to place all of our suspicion on the obsessive and clingy Stella…but we also already lived through timelines where SQ and Jina were the Gnosia, so it's not like we're going to make them the guilty ones again…right? And there's no way that Setsu is going to end up as the Gnosia this early in the run, or at least that's what I would be thinking if I didn't suspect that the writers of Gnosia already thought of me thinking of them thinking of me thinking that, and—

The point is, I think we can all see where the fun of Gnosia's twisted tale is going to come from, provided it can keep these plates spinning with as much entertaining confidence as it has managed thus far. One good sign is the way that the show has adapted its pacing to align with its audience's growing understanding of the formula. Racio's entire speech and trial getting skipped over in a single edit is a great comedy beat that respects the viewers' time and their intelligence, which is something that a lot of other shows and games of this ilk could learn a lot about. It also means that the episode can properly tease out the tension and drama from the really important round of Werewolf that serves as the climax for the week. Clearly, Shigemichi's presence on the ship is something the story needs to address, and handwaving his entire appearance away as “It's just artificial skin because of an accident I was in” just makes the guy that much more suspect. The show also goes out of its way to emphasize just how desperately horny this Stella character is for Yuri, which is a classic red flag for mysteries like this. Is Stella simply infatuated with raw power, Yuri's gender-neutral rizz, or could Stella have more insidious intentions?

Smartly, the episode gets Stella's Gnosia reveal out of the way quick, because the tension here doesn't really come from the guessing game of who is the Gnosia or not. The real source of anxiety is coming from the fact that Yuri still kind of sucks at playing Space Werewolf. On the one hand, I can see how Yuri's insistence on Jina being the killer could play as frustrating, since we've already picked up on the fact that the events of the previous world lines have no bearing on what is happening in whatever timeline Yuri wakes up in after they get got, but it's a lesson that Yuri probably needs to learn more explicitly so the show can be absolutely positive that we're all on the same page.

This is what allows Gnosia to get really into the thick of Yuri's strategizing for the third round of investigating we get to in this episode, which leads to the reveal of yet another subversion of our expectations. It isn't exactly surprising that the other new character of the week got voted to be iced before the credits rolled, but just when I was ready to be disappointed that Shigemichi's exile really didresult in the crew getting the all clear, Yuri gets shunted to another world line with absolutely no warning or indication of what caused it. So, now we know that the fundamental premise of this extended Werewolf Gauntlet is not what it seems, since simply eliminating the Gnosia from the proceedings is not enough to free Yuri from this cycle they are seemingly trapped in. When you combine all of the formula shakeups we get with the show's typically strong presentation, you get an episode that went by in a flash. All we can do now is begrudgingly wait for another week to pass so we can get back into the game and try to figure out just what in the hell is going on now.

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.