Gilgamesh (manga)



This is an article on an Anime. For the original Sumerian story, see The Epic of Gilgamesh. No relation to GIRUGAMESH!. For the mightiest swordsman in all Ivalice, click here, or you may find him here.

Sometime in the super-present, the fabled and mysterious Tomb of Gilgamesh is discovered by scientists who are digging around in Uruk (modern day Mesopotamia). A research center is promptly set up to study the strange energy which is being emitted by the site, but a series of events triggered by the site's discoverer, Madoka Terumichi, soon result in a global catastrophe which knocks out all electronics worldwide and turns the sky into a giant electromagnetic mirror. Madoka (who now calls himself Enkidu, after a character in the ancient Epic of Gilgamesh), is labelled a terrorist and promptly vanishes.

Fifteen years later, his two hapless children, Tatsuya and Kiyoko, are in Japan being chased down a city street by some thugs who want to shake them down for some debts owed by their late mother. The children duck into a creepy old mansion, where they run into some gothy teenagers who seem strangely knowledgeable about their situation. The goth-teens, who call themselves the Gilgamesh, rescue the children from the thugs using mysterious psycho-kinetic powers, and then invite the siblings to join their side in a war which will cleanse the Earth and make way for the next evolutionary stage of humanity.

Before Tatsuya and Kiyoko can even give the matter a nanosecond's worth of thought, another group of super-powered children drop by and attempt to get the siblings to join their group, the ORGA, which is opposed to the goth-teens and their fanatical leader -- who just happens to be the sibling's long-lost father. The ORGA are led by Kageyama Hiroko, the Countess Von Werdenburg, an enigmatic, elegant black widow who was once a research colleague of Terumichi Madoka, and who is now his bitterest enemy. She claims that her true goal is to save humanity, but is she really all that trustworthy? (And was she really "just a colleague" of their father's? Or something more?)

Gilgamesh is a tale packed with intrigue. Not only does it feature the above characters, there's also a corrupt corporation, with a vicious Psycho for Hire, Kazamatsuri Hayato, at its beck and call, and a group of well-intentioned (but ultimately ineffectual) scientists who are trying their best to get the Earth back to normal. Throw some clones, some tragic backstory and some Ancient Sumerian Mythology into the mix, and you have a series that makes for some pretty compelling watching.

One thing to note before you dive in, however; this series is dark. Very dark. Crows sipping coffee from an iron kettle while sitting at the bottom of a mine shaft in the middle of a moonless winter night dark. The art design is ugly and minimalist at times, which a cynical viewer might blame on a shrinking animation budget, but which also fits very well with the depressing and apathetic tone of the series. There are no true good guys here. The children at the center of the story never really know who they can trust, and they soon find the ambiguity of their situation every bit as dangerous an enemy as any physical monster they may face. That fact -- along with its complexity, apocalyptic themes and flawed characters -- makes it a very atypical series.

Although it does bear something of a passing resemblance to Neon Genesis Evangelion, which it may have been influenced by, the manga this series is based on dates from 1972.

""Ta... tsu... ya...""
 * Adaptation Distillation: A lot was changed from Shotaro Ishinomori's original 1972 work. Most noticeably, the removal of extraterrestrials. The anime does share common themes with the original, though. The brother-sister pair Tatsuya and Kiyoko, along with an onyomi Enkidu name show up in both, although the kanji for the latter differs from the original. May also be a Pragmatic Adaptation.
 * After the End: An important scene after the ending credits takes place here.
 * Allergic to Love: Fuko, a bit literally, with her sneezing.
 * And I Must Scream: Literally, Kiyoko does, while trapped in.


 * Aristocrats Are Evil: The Countess, while not outwardly evil, really isn't all that nice a lady.
 * The old man's son qualifies...
 * Back From the Dead: The super-powered followers of Terumichi Madoka (Enkidu) apparently all have the ability to do this, although it doesn't stop them from being Killed Off for Real if the plot demands it.
 * Bizarre Baby Boom: The super-powered teens were all created from embryos exposed to Applied Phlebotinum.
 * Body Horror: Occurs when.
 * Brother-Sister Incest: Tatsuya and Kiyoko only had each other to depend on, since their mother was a neglectful alcoholic. Still, their relationship seems a bit... closer than what might be construed as normal.
 * Add to the bag that Tatsuya is.
 * Cloning Blues:
 * Crapsack World
 * Coitus Uninterruptus
 * Crystal Dragon Jesus: Instead of raiding Christianity for symbolism, this series incorporates lots of ancient Sumerian religious mythology.
 * Despair Event Horizon: you hit this at about the half-way mark and it all goes downhill from there.
 * Downer Ending:
 * Dying Declaration of Love: At the end, Novem  In fact,
 * The End of the World as We Know It
 * Evil Matriarch: Kageyama Hiroko. Although apparently we are supposed to sympathize with her because of her sad past.
 * Gainax Ending
 * Grey and Gray Morality: You'll need the higgs boson and a very sophisticated calculator to figure out where to draw any morality lines. Have fun with that.
 * Half-Human Hybrid
 * Headbutt of Love: This is not just a means of giving comfort to a character, but a way the ORGA teens can exchange energy as well.
 * Identical Grandson/Generation Xerox: this is an interesting case, because both the ORGA and Tatsuya, however Kiyoko looks exactly like her mother, and when there is a flashback to when Kiyoko and Tatsuya's mother and father met, the exact replication has certain incestuous connotations.
 * Interspecies Romance:
 * Kick the Dog: The corporate Psycho for Hire engages in this a LOT.
 * Kill'Em All
 * Nosebleed: Tatsuya gets one (but not the explosive kind) when one of the ORGA teens, Fuko, lends him some of her psychic energy through a Headbutt of Love mentioned above. The implications of the nose bleed are made clearer when Fuko cracks that she bled a little her first time, too.
 * The Not-Secret: When the truth of Reiko is spelled out, everyone but Tohru (and perhaps the audience) already knew, and acts like "What? You just figured out?"
 * Opposite Sex Clone:
 * Parental Abandonment: Kiyoko and Tatsuya.
 * Psychic Powers: Dynamis.
 * Psycho for Hire: Kazamatsuri Hayato.
 * Scary Shiny Glasses
 * Smug Snake: Kazamatsuri Hayato.
 * Snow Means Love: In a dream flashback which explores the relationship between the two main siblings.
 * Super Soldier
 * Teleporters and Transporters: Besides Telepathy and Telekinesis, one of the superpowers held by the ORGA teenagers and the Gilgamesh.
 * Tragic Hero
 * Twist Ending
 * Unsettling Gender Reveal: Reiko. It certainly unsettled poor Tohru, who had been developing feelings for "her."
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist: Enkidu and, at times, the Countess.
 * What Have I Done:
 * White-Haired Pretty Boy: Both Tatsuya and his father, the terrorist leader Enkidu.
 * Wholesome Crossdresser:
 * Wholesome Crossdresser:

GUHROOGAMASH!!!