Gnosia

Episode 5

Okay, I'm not going to lie: I expected a lot of strange folks to show up on the D.Q.O., but I was still pretty shocked to see a guy with a living cat modded through a giant hole in his neck. I just…I don't even understand…actually, you know what? I'm just going to roll with it. It's what Yuri has to do, after all. This week, we meet Comet with the Jello Trapper Cap and Chipie with the Freaking Cat-Hole in the Middle of His Neck for Some Godforsaken Reason. Sure. Why not? Let's pay some Werewolf.

Last time, the role of the Engineer was introduced to shake up the formula even further, though, naturally, it is a role that has to be accepted by whoever was selected to take it on. In other words, people can lie about being an Engineer as much as they can lie about being human, which is exactly what plays out when Yuriko and Stella both claim to be the real Engineer. It's a compelling twist on the usual formula, even if we spend a bit too much time explaining the obvious complications that arise from having yet another variable thrown into the Werewolf stew, and that's before we even get to the introduction of the Doctor role.

The show's need to very bluntly explain the social aspects of the game is very apparent this week, since Jina of all people ends up getting voted into cold sleep on account of being just a little too quiet. It's not that the show is off-base for trying to dramatize a deduction process that would normally take place inside the head of whoever is playing the video-game version of Gnosia; I wish the script could sand off that layer of obvious tutorializing from the dialogue. We're at the point where we really need to start establishing the cast's personalities and relationships more. While what we get is perfectly functional, I think I would be more emotionally invested if the characters weren't so obviously working hard to keep Yuri up to speed.

There are good little character beats, though. I thought it was sad when Jina admitted that, during her cold sleep, she would dream of her…well, “friends” is probably not the best way to describe this crew as of yet, but you get the idea. Chipie and Comet also bring a liveliness to the proceedings that is sorely needed (even if Chipie and his cat look absolutely too deranged to take seriously). I especially liked the bit of worldbuilding we got around Comet's home planet and the origin of the intricate patterns of symbiotic fungus that cover her body.

Was this whole sequence a thinly veiled excuse to show off Comet's naked body while she expositioned to the protagonist? Most definitely. Still, it demonstrates Gnosia's commitment to making its cast of alien humanoids stand out from the basic science-fiction tropes. Hell, even Chipie's freakish Cat-Thing makes sense when you realize that his dream is to eventually mod himself into becoming the cat. I have to give Gnosia some credit for finding creative ways to play with its science-fiction concepts.

However, I must admit that I am beginning to worry about one major issue that might not have a very easy fix. I mentioned last week how I actually appreciated the way that the world-line style of time travel that Yuri is working with means that pretty much every character will end up guilty by the end of the series. This still holds true, but the final act of “Wild Intuition” reveals a flaw with the way that the investigations surrounding the guilty parties play out. In a murder-mystery game, the whole puzzle of the crime is solved by investigating clues and suspects after the fact. The best ones give the viewer (or player) the chance to genuinely piece together all of the information and suss out the real culprit. The problem with a Werewolf-style whodunit is that all of the deduction has to happen in the moment as people argue their cases and divert blame to other parties.

This gives the climaxes of these Gnosia episodes a structure that more resembles a courtroom drama than anything else, except these are court scenes that have to play out over just a few minutes, and with an ever-expanding cast of characters that we barely know. In other words, it feels very difficult to actually play along with Yuri and figure out who might be guilty or not; you simply have to sit back and wait for characters to explain what they are thinking, and then use the scant few seconds of processing time you're given to decide if any of this makes sense or not.

This is why, when Chipie eventually confirms that Yuri got it wrong and he is the Gnosia, my reaction wasn't, “Oh, damn, that's so crazy that he managed to deceive everyone with his clever scheming!” Instead, my feelings could be summed up as, simply, “Oh? Okay, cool, I guess.” The little detail of his personality remaining the same after getting Gnosia'd was interesting, but that's about it. My only hope is that, once the show is finally done introducing all of these characters, we will be able to focus on making the drama of the Gnosia investigations more compelling in their own right. Every game needs a good tutorial, but after five straight weeks of reading the rules, I'm ready to get to work with Yuri and actually play.

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.