Gatchaman Crowds - 1

Hajime Ichinose is a schoolgirl who I would describe as normal, were it not for her freakish love of planners and utter randomness. One day, she meets a strange, teleporting man who promptly rips out her soul, Guilty-Crown-style, and turns it into a notebook. The rainbow swirls and backdrop associated with this process were not the first pseudo-drug-induced moment that this episode had to offer, nor the last.

Jeez, look at her!  What exactly does she want to do to that book?

Later, Hajime finds a Gatchaman - some sort of legendary superhero regarded as myth - and meets a bizarre, rainbow-drug-alien-monster. It turns out that there is a team of Gatchaman, who protect Earth (or at least this part of it) from MESSes, the psychedelic monsters from earlier.

Drugs, man...

The first thing that struck me about this anime was the art style. I do not like it. The eyes look permanently crazy, which, to be honest, doesn’t seem too far from the truth. Maybe I was closer to the mark on the drug-induced thing.

And he's the sane one

Hajime is really testing my patience with her antics, which while permissible for a wacky side character, do not become a protagonist. I guess that’s the point, but it looks like a long, annoying road ahead before it gets better.

My thoughts exactly

JJ is quite mysterious, and strikes a good balance with Paiman. I can’t help feeling that their duality may be a ruse, and that it’s all a two-man racket, but that suspicion aside, it looks like the team will be in good, if odd, hands. I would point out that like most transcendent beings, JJ appears to be neutral. This likely implies either a later conflict of interest or perhaps even a betrayal. Blue and orange morality is always something to be wary of.

He's her boss, you know.  No, no - the space panda.

The CG ‘Bird’ forms look pretty damn cool, and I look forward to some epic fight scenes in the future. The genre looks promising, but I’m wary as to the possible darkness that could easily appear. I’m getting a bit of a Madoka Magika vibe from this episode, overall.

That's pretty undeniably epic

Gatchaman Crowds looks interesting, and could easily develop into a good show. However, there are currently a lot of dangling plot-threads, so if it isn’t dealt with skillfully, the show may fail to have the desired impact, lost under a kudzu plot.

I would recommend this anime