Gatchaman Crowds insight

Episode 5

It's election time! Per Sugayama's big announcement, Japan is holding its first digital prime minister election, in order for the people to take the question of CROWDS into their own hands. Sugayama's starting off with a sizeable majority, but Gelsadra promises to throw some unexpected complications into the mix. And when Jou joins the campaign as Gel-chan's advisor, things start looking even worse for our hapless, CROWDS-happy prime minister.

This week's Gatchaman Crowds insight wasn't just “an” election episode. This was the election episode. Drawing on all of Gatchaman's themes and characters and fiercely debated arguments, this episode tackled questions of horizontal power, modern media, and the information age in general from every conceivable angle. This was a rolling stunner of an episode, an epic clash of Rui's battered idealism, Gelsadra's broad mandate, Tsubasa's pure faith in heroes, and Jou's pragmatic, world-weary experience.

Gelsadra opened this episode by doing what he always does - seeing what everybody else wanted. And in this case, the answer was “get rid of CROWDS,” meaning that immediately became Gelsadra's campaign platform. Society is in turmoil, and people are frightened, and so CROWDS has got to go. Even though Gel's intentions here are perfectly honest, his platform embodies a time-tested election strategy: blame everything on the previous guy's signature accomplishment, because if people have Problems, clearly there has to be One Thing Wrong. Time and again, Gelsadra's simple statements end up accidentally embodying everything cynical about modern politics.

Rui took obvious issue with this platform, and countered with the expected “that wish is temporary. People are just afraid right now.” This is true, but it speaks to the inherent contradiction of Rui's beliefs - Rui wants to believe people can self-govern, but is savvy enough to understand they're also easily swayed by general ideas like “CROWDS is causing all our problems.” Rui wants to believe in “updating the world,” but the updated world isn't the one we're dealing with. And as Tsubasa bluntly states, maybe “what people want isn't an updated world,” anyway.

Jou's stance is even more hardline. Like Tsubasa, Jou champions traditional heroes - but unlike Tsubasa, Jou is perfectly willing to admit that that belief largely comes down to him not believing people really can handle themselves. Jou's reasons for distrusting CROWDS are utterly cynical, relying on an understanding of human nature that borrows from both Rui and Rizumu, but his ultimate goal is the same. And so he decides to help manage Gelsadra's campaign, applying his cynical understanding of ephemeral election cycles to a candidate who couldn't possibly understand why he's actually winning.

Jou ends up using a classic Rui weapon for his campaign - the horizontal power of social media. Instead of relying on traditional campaign advertisements, Jou has Gelsadra go out into the streets, calming babies and helping little old ladies. As long as Gel keeps doing that, the social media machine will pick up these meaningless feel-good stories and do all the election work for him. This isn't an actual, meaningful campaign platform, but as Jou admits, “campaigns are decided more by popular flow than ideals.” While Sugayama loses ground due to ultimately meaningless gaffes (helped along by the 24-hour-news-cycle stand-in Millio, whose interest in the country's future begins and ends at what candidate brings in the best ratings), Gelsadra soars on fear of CROWDS and small gestures of kindness. “We don't need CROWDS,” says Tsubasa, “Gel-chan and I will protect you forever!” And the crowds laugh and cheer, as Jou watches morosely in the distance.

“this nation's finished lol” types one eager new voter, and “I'm voting because Tsubasa-chan's cute!” types another. Jou isn't happy about his own methods, but his goal was actually prompted by fear for Rui's safety. This episode triumphs because even though its overall points about social media and popular elections are cynical (if also entirely justified), every one of these central characters is trying to do the right thing and “save the world” in their own way. Rui wants everyone to gain social responsibility together, and so creates a system to replace the Gatchaman. Tsubasa's trying to follow in her Gatchaman companions' footsteps, and so ends up attacking the system Rui made to give everyone power. Jou is worried about his friends and the immediate cost of lives, and so embraces a conservative ideal of heroism regardless of the methods required. And Gelsadra just wants everyone to be happy.

But in the end, it's only Rizumu who seems happy with this outcome. Laughing in his cell, his face reflected in the blank TV screen emblematic of our social media age, he says he knew all of this would happen. Sugayama and Rui bet on the people deciding to give themselves power, but in the end, when actually given power, they chose to give it right back to their saviors. Japan is a nation of apes, and Gelsadra is Chief Ape. And things will be getting a lot more dangerous now that it's Gelsadra running the monkey house.

This episode was a withering breakdown of modern media and popular elections that also made fantastic use of a diverse cast of individuals while always maintaining tension, momentum, and even a sense of humor throughout. A stunning highlight for Gatchaman Crowds.

Rating: A+

Gatchaman Crowds insight is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Nick writes about anime, storytelling, and the meaning of life at Wrong Every Time.