Welcome. Gibiate is a new (summer 2020) anime about survival in a time when humans are being infected and turned into monsters called Gibia. Studios working on this anime are Studio Elle and Launch.Box. I’ve never heard of either of those till now, and it seems they are new studios. I look forward to seeing more of what they produce. Let’s take a look at episode 1.

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Art/Visuals

The visuals look fine to me. I like all the muted but varying colors. It’s like a faint rainbow on a cloudy day. I don’t mind the CGI monsters. There were a few things about the style that felt awkward, but I don’t quite know how to describe what was “off.” Visuals are the part of anime that I know and understands the least. But the impression I get is that although there’s a lot of budget saving things like still-shots and less than impressive CGI, the characters, lighting, and colors still look pretty good.

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Sound

The opening song is “Gibiate” by Yoshida Brothers (featuring SUGIZO). The ending theme is called “Endless: Toki wo Koete” and is by Maki Ohguro. I believe she is the same singer who performed “The Real Folk Blues,” for Cowboy Bebop. The eerie music during Kathleen’s monologue at the beginning was great and reminded me of the scores from Another. There was nice music throughout the episode.

I don’t recognize the seiyuu except for one. Many are probably new talents. The voice I recognized was that of Yoshinaga; I remember that same seiyuu acted as Kite from Hunter x Hunter. I think his name was Ikeda. Anyway, like the art, the visuals aren’t so bad. There’s a lot of potential for it to go either way.

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Story

The story seems alright. The premise isn’t all that original (humans are turning into monsters an the world is an apocalypse) but with enough unique elements added in, it works. Those unique or unusual elements I mentioned include the following: monsters that manifest their forms according to an individual’s DNA, the presence of characters from another point in history, a main female character who isn’t completely over the top, and the mostly believable dynamics between the modern people and those from Edo.

With that being said, I think everyone believed in Sensui and Kenroku too easily. Then again, in a world where people transform into monsters, maybe it’s become easier to believe in magic. Indeed, later on, Dr. Yoshinaga makes this exact point. It’s rough around the edges but the story doesn’t seem bad so far.

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Characters

I like the characters so far, though it’s only episode 1. Kenroku is appropriately skeptical yet quick to adapt, and she strikes me as the sly but good-natured type. Sensui is a highly loyal and dedicated man, no doubt very committed to the Bushido code. Kathleen is passionate, friendly, and has guts. While she might not end up being some bad-ass character, she’s strong and driven enough to entertain me. Dr. Yoshinaga is sexy as fuck and even if he wasn’t, well, I generally like doctor characters anyway.

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Enjoyment and Verdict

My enjoyment was about average for a new anime I know virtually nothing about yet. I’d say the score for the first episode would be around 6/10, which is fine but not quite good. As I mentioned with the audio, however, there is the potential for this series overall to go either way: engaging or disappointing. We’ll see. Thank you so much for joining me today at Anime Rants. Take care!

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