[anime] Gilgamesh FST
Things that go bump in the night, eh?
Does sci-fi horror count?
Gilgamesh is an anime based (rather loosely) on a manga by Ishinomori Shoutaro, who's famous for series such as Kamen Rider and Cyborg 009. Of course, both manga and anime draw upon the world's oldest written story, the Epic of Gilgamesh. This epic tells about a demigod king, Gilgamesh, who had many amazing adventures with his sidekick Enkidu; they killed monsters, battled the gods themselves, built the ancient city of Uruk, and, after Enkidu's death, Gilgamesh traveled beyond the ends of the earth in search of immortality. Although upon casual glance this manga/anime doesn't follow the plot of the epic very closely, there are more parallels than you'd think.
Ishinomori's story is very dark, though; I'd classify it as sci-fi horror, with a lot of the horror centered around bioengineering and cloning, as well as the despicable things people do on their own. Paired with Ishinomori's distinctive, old-fashioned art style, the manga was sort of like reading a gothic horror novel about Speed Racer, you know? XD For the anime, they picked a character designer who'd worked on some horror titles, and the resulting art is pale, dark, kind of bizarre, even downright ugly sometimes, which matches the story very well. (Although some of it can be pretty; these covers have some artwork from the DVD covers.)
The story starts sometime in the middle of the twenty-first century, where a massive research project called Heaven's Gate is going on in the Middle East in the ruins of Uruk. One of the head researchers, a man named Madoka Terumichi, has submitted a report to the project leaders, and whatever he said was enough to prompt the immediate discontinuation of the multi-billion-dollar research project of Heaven's Gate. To the surprise of his fellow researchers, Madoka Terumichi shortly thereafter went into the restricted area of the research facility and set something off that destroyed the entire facility and set an electromagnetic pulse over the entire world, covering it with a strange cloud that came to be called Sheltering Sky. This terrorist act wiped out communications worldwide, and for a decade the world tore itself apart in war, ending up with a decimated population living in pre-industrial conditions. Since it happened on October 10th, the event was known as Twin X.
Madoka Terumichi (円 輝道) became known as "Enkidu" (which happens to be the on- reading or alternate reading of the kanji of his name.)
Fifteen years later, his two children Kiyoko (17) and Tatsuya (14) live on the run from the yakuza. Their mother is dead and their father hasn't been seen since the day of Twin X. They seem to live in the various abandoned houses scattered all over since the terrorist incident; the cities themselves seem mostly abandoned. On a rainy night they hide in a mansion which apparently had been part of a bioresearch facility. In that house they find three other people also taking shelter from the rain; they're three nice young men wearing bizarre black formfitting uniforms (they look like they escaped from a visual kei band, quite frankly). Upon hearing that the two children are on the run from the yakuza, the three men offer to let them live with them, where there are "many others like them." However, at that time, the yakuza finds the house and is banging at the front door. The three young men excuse themselves, and Tatsuya and Kiyoko wait nervously. All of a sudden there's a pulse of power that blows out the candles and shatters a mirror, and the three men are seated where they had been just seconds ago, saying that the yakuza was gone now (as in, lying in pieces in the road).
More than a little creeped out now, Kiyoko and Tatsuya try to find an excuse to leave, but apparently there are even more newcomers waiting outside the mansion; three "devil children" with strange powers that the young men say are out to get Kiyoko and Tatsuya. The young men may be monsters, but if Tatsuya and Kiyoko have to choose between devils and monsters, whose side can they really safely pick?
Gilgamesh is very strange and very dark; it's not for children. It's also one of the few shows where I honestly could not predict what would happen next or how the story would end - and not because of poor plotting, because upon rewatching there had been subtle hints all along. If you like creepy, disturbing sci-fi with an actual plot, this is well worth getting. Classical music is also an integral part of the story; Beethoven's Emperor Concerto is a recurring theme, and Kiyoko has perfect pitch and carries a tuning fork.
[ THE ZIP (116 MB)]
01. Daft Punk - Steam Machine
The ruined world after Twin X, where the hallucinatory Sheltering Sky shimmers over abandoned cities.
02. XTC - Runaways [ lyrics ]
Tatsuya and Kiyoko apparently have been on the run together for most of their lives after their mother drank herself to death. She'd warned them that there would be people who would hate them for their terrorist father.
03. Spalding Rockwell - Vicious
The three nice young men of the group "Gilgamesh" - Novem, Sex, and Octo.
04. Cocteau Twins - Serpentskirt (featuring Faye Wong) [ lyrics ]
n. [Native American Mythology] "serpentskirt" is the English translation of the Aztec word Coatlicue. Coatlicue, also referred to as Teteoinnan and Toci, is the Aztec earth goddess, symbol of the earth as creator and destroyer, mother of the gods and men. The idea she embodies is powerfully concretized in her statue (Museo National de Antropologia, Mexico City) - her face is of two fanged serpents; her skirt is of interwoven snakes (snakes symbolize fertility); her breasts are flabby (she nourished men and gods); her necklace is of hands, hearts and a skull; her fingers and toes are claws (she feeds on men, as the earth consumes all that dies).
The two children are taken in by the mysterious Countess of Werdenberg, a beautiful, cold woman who is not above manipulating and using people to get her way. Let's just call her this series's Ishtar, shall we?
05. Auf der Maur - Lightning Is My Girl [ lyrics ]
06. Black Box Recorder - Child Psychology [ lyrics ]
The Countess has raised three foster children with strange powers; she calls their little group Orga, and their mission is to destroy Gilgamesh, as Gilgamesh is controlled by Enkidu. Despite their strange powers, the three children are friendly and willing to show Tatsuya how their powers work; there's Fuuko, the slightly flirtatious girl, Fujisaki, the calm, cool older-brother type, and Tooru, the child of the group. I guess "Lightning is my girl" is for Fuuko and "Child Psychology" is for Fujisaki; I couldn't think of a good one for poor Tooru. Ahahaha sorry!
07. The Sparrow - The Only Way Out
Kiyoko practices the hotel piano (she loves to play and had always wanted to be a piano tuner) until one day when she plays Beethoven's Emperor Concerto, which for some reason drives the Countess into a bitchy rage. Shortly afterwards, Kiyoko leaves Orga to live on her own without her brother.
08. Zombie Nation featuring My Robot Friend - The Cut
In their frequent clashes with Gilgamesh, a new force is brought in by outside parties to fight Gilgamesh; this is the Blattaria army, a frightening insectoid clone army which wields spears and tears apart their prey without hesitation.
09. Vitalic - Poney Pt. 1
The Countess takes Orga to visit her grandfather, the Chairman. It's a strange, creepy home with a blind girl and pomegranates growing on the trees.
10. Autopoesis - Seasidewaltz
The October Project, the attempt to dispel Sheltering Sky, is being guarded from Gilgamesh by a civilian military group headed by a frightening man named Kazamatsuri. Kazamatsuri controls the Blattaria army as well as several other bizarre cloning projects.
11. B-Movie - Nowhere Girl [ lyrics ]
Tatsuya goes to visit his sister in her small apartment on the outskirts of the city. She tells him that she's been supporting herself tuning pianos, but the Countess knows better.
12. Roots Manuva - A Haunting
The more that they find out about Twin X, Enkidu, and the past, the more muddled things become.
13. David Bowie - Hallo Spaceboy [ lyrics ]
14. The Moon Seven Times - My Game
15. Art of Noise - Moments in Love
Kiyoko takes in a stray, even though she really should know better.
16. Röyksopp - Dead To The World [ lyrics ]
The city is decimated by another massive fight between Orga, Blattaria, and Gilgamesh, and Tatsuya rescues his sister from her apartment.
17. Storm - Lokk [ lyrics and translation ]
18. Front 242 - Crushed [ lyrics ]
There's two flashbacks to Twin X from the perspective of two different people who were there.
19. The Legendary Pink Dots - Disturbance [ lyrics ]
The final showdown between Orga, Blattaria, and Gilgamesh, in which Gilgamesh's puppetmasters show up in person.
20. Bent - The Everlasting Blink
L'extrémité.
If you're interested in buying the series, it's being put out by ADV (hey, they have at least two volumes out so far!) Comment if you download if you like - you can, um, list your favorite classical myth, that's the ticket.
Does sci-fi horror count?
Gilgamesh is an anime based (rather loosely) on a manga by Ishinomori Shoutaro, who's famous for series such as Kamen Rider and Cyborg 009. Of course, both manga and anime draw upon the world's oldest written story, the Epic of Gilgamesh. This epic tells about a demigod king, Gilgamesh, who had many amazing adventures with his sidekick Enkidu; they killed monsters, battled the gods themselves, built the ancient city of Uruk, and, after Enkidu's death, Gilgamesh traveled beyond the ends of the earth in search of immortality. Although upon casual glance this manga/anime doesn't follow the plot of the epic very closely, there are more parallels than you'd think.
Ishinomori's story is very dark, though; I'd classify it as sci-fi horror, with a lot of the horror centered around bioengineering and cloning, as well as the despicable things people do on their own. Paired with Ishinomori's distinctive, old-fashioned art style, the manga was sort of like reading a gothic horror novel about Speed Racer, you know? XD For the anime, they picked a character designer who'd worked on some horror titles, and the resulting art is pale, dark, kind of bizarre, even downright ugly sometimes, which matches the story very well. (Although some of it can be pretty; these covers have some artwork from the DVD covers.)
The story starts sometime in the middle of the twenty-first century, where a massive research project called Heaven's Gate is going on in the Middle East in the ruins of Uruk. One of the head researchers, a man named Madoka Terumichi, has submitted a report to the project leaders, and whatever he said was enough to prompt the immediate discontinuation of the multi-billion-dollar research project of Heaven's Gate. To the surprise of his fellow researchers, Madoka Terumichi shortly thereafter went into the restricted area of the research facility and set something off that destroyed the entire facility and set an electromagnetic pulse over the entire world, covering it with a strange cloud that came to be called Sheltering Sky. This terrorist act wiped out communications worldwide, and for a decade the world tore itself apart in war, ending up with a decimated population living in pre-industrial conditions. Since it happened on October 10th, the event was known as Twin X.
Madoka Terumichi (円 輝道) became known as "Enkidu" (which happens to be the on- reading or alternate reading of the kanji of his name.)
Fifteen years later, his two children Kiyoko (17) and Tatsuya (14) live on the run from the yakuza. Their mother is dead and their father hasn't been seen since the day of Twin X. They seem to live in the various abandoned houses scattered all over since the terrorist incident; the cities themselves seem mostly abandoned. On a rainy night they hide in a mansion which apparently had been part of a bioresearch facility. In that house they find three other people also taking shelter from the rain; they're three nice young men wearing bizarre black formfitting uniforms (they look like they escaped from a visual kei band, quite frankly). Upon hearing that the two children are on the run from the yakuza, the three men offer to let them live with them, where there are "many others like them." However, at that time, the yakuza finds the house and is banging at the front door. The three young men excuse themselves, and Tatsuya and Kiyoko wait nervously. All of a sudden there's a pulse of power that blows out the candles and shatters a mirror, and the three men are seated where they had been just seconds ago, saying that the yakuza was gone now (as in, lying in pieces in the road).
More than a little creeped out now, Kiyoko and Tatsuya try to find an excuse to leave, but apparently there are even more newcomers waiting outside the mansion; three "devil children" with strange powers that the young men say are out to get Kiyoko and Tatsuya. The young men may be monsters, but if Tatsuya and Kiyoko have to choose between devils and monsters, whose side can they really safely pick?
Gilgamesh is very strange and very dark; it's not for children. It's also one of the few shows where I honestly could not predict what would happen next or how the story would end - and not because of poor plotting, because upon rewatching there had been subtle hints all along. If you like creepy, disturbing sci-fi with an actual plot, this is well worth getting. Classical music is also an integral part of the story; Beethoven's Emperor Concerto is a recurring theme, and Kiyoko has perfect pitch and carries a tuning fork.
[ THE ZIP (116 MB)]
01. Daft Punk - Steam Machine
The ruined world after Twin X, where the hallucinatory Sheltering Sky shimmers over abandoned cities.
02. XTC - Runaways [ lyrics ]
Tatsuya and Kiyoko apparently have been on the run together for most of their lives after their mother drank herself to death. She'd warned them that there would be people who would hate them for their terrorist father.
03. Spalding Rockwell - Vicious
The three nice young men of the group "Gilgamesh" - Novem, Sex, and Octo.
04. Cocteau Twins - Serpentskirt (featuring Faye Wong) [ lyrics ]
n. [Native American Mythology] "serpentskirt" is the English translation of the Aztec word Coatlicue. Coatlicue, also referred to as Teteoinnan and Toci, is the Aztec earth goddess, symbol of the earth as creator and destroyer, mother of the gods and men. The idea she embodies is powerfully concretized in her statue (Museo National de Antropologia, Mexico City) - her face is of two fanged serpents; her skirt is of interwoven snakes (snakes symbolize fertility); her breasts are flabby (she nourished men and gods); her necklace is of hands, hearts and a skull; her fingers and toes are claws (she feeds on men, as the earth consumes all that dies).
The two children are taken in by the mysterious Countess of Werdenberg, a beautiful, cold woman who is not above manipulating and using people to get her way. Let's just call her this series's Ishtar, shall we?
05. Auf der Maur - Lightning Is My Girl [ lyrics ]
06. Black Box Recorder - Child Psychology [ lyrics ]
The Countess has raised three foster children with strange powers; she calls their little group Orga, and their mission is to destroy Gilgamesh, as Gilgamesh is controlled by Enkidu. Despite their strange powers, the three children are friendly and willing to show Tatsuya how their powers work; there's Fuuko, the slightly flirtatious girl, Fujisaki, the calm, cool older-brother type, and Tooru, the child of the group. I guess "Lightning is my girl" is for Fuuko and "Child Psychology" is for Fujisaki; I couldn't think of a good one for poor Tooru. Ahahaha sorry!
07. The Sparrow - The Only Way Out
Kiyoko practices the hotel piano (she loves to play and had always wanted to be a piano tuner) until one day when she plays Beethoven's Emperor Concerto, which for some reason drives the Countess into a bitchy rage. Shortly afterwards, Kiyoko leaves Orga to live on her own without her brother.
08. Zombie Nation featuring My Robot Friend - The Cut
In their frequent clashes with Gilgamesh, a new force is brought in by outside parties to fight Gilgamesh; this is the Blattaria army, a frightening insectoid clone army which wields spears and tears apart their prey without hesitation.
09. Vitalic - Poney Pt. 1
The Countess takes Orga to visit her grandfather, the Chairman. It's a strange, creepy home with a blind girl and pomegranates growing on the trees.
10. Autopoesis - Seasidewaltz
The October Project, the attempt to dispel Sheltering Sky, is being guarded from Gilgamesh by a civilian military group headed by a frightening man named Kazamatsuri. Kazamatsuri controls the Blattaria army as well as several other bizarre cloning projects.
11. B-Movie - Nowhere Girl [ lyrics ]
Tatsuya goes to visit his sister in her small apartment on the outskirts of the city. She tells him that she's been supporting herself tuning pianos, but the Countess knows better.
12. Roots Manuva - A Haunting
The more that they find out about Twin X, Enkidu, and the past, the more muddled things become.
13. David Bowie - Hallo Spaceboy [ lyrics ]
14. The Moon Seven Times - My Game
15. Art of Noise - Moments in Love
Kiyoko takes in a stray, even though she really should know better.
16. Röyksopp - Dead To The World [ lyrics ]
The city is decimated by another massive fight between Orga, Blattaria, and Gilgamesh, and Tatsuya rescues his sister from her apartment.
17. Storm - Lokk [ lyrics and translation ]
18. Front 242 - Crushed [ lyrics ]
There's two flashbacks to Twin X from the perspective of two different people who were there.
19. The Legendary Pink Dots - Disturbance [ lyrics ]
The final showdown between Orga, Blattaria, and Gilgamesh, in which Gilgamesh's puppetmasters show up in person.
20. Bent - The Everlasting Blink
L'extrémité.
If you're interested in buying the series, it's being put out by ADV (hey, they have at least two volumes out so far!) Comment if you download if you like - you can, um, list your favorite classical myth, that's the ticket.