Dustman wrote:Not so much that, but to make the story easier to follow.
Reconguista is extremely unusual in how it was told. It is nothing but linear yet its characters are held at a distance. Each of them are uniquely human and their reactions are often appropriate to their surroundings but the story itself is not driven by an internal struggle and instead by action and adventure.
However, with the themes of the series being as esoteric as they are and with the presentation as being so broad, the fact that there wasn't that much focus on human drama becomes alienating. Case in point, any other series would have been hyper focused on the resulting guilt of Bellri's actions in Episode 6. But though there are subtle developments in his personality which follow, it would appear as though it didn't actually matter because it doesn't overtly relate to any kind of character arc.
I once saw somebody describe Reconguista as "pre-Freudian" and that profound events are portrayed without commentary. There is no emotional guidance to the story, no greater attempt to relate subjective psychology to the diegesis of its teleplay. This is an accurate assessment of the series and I think that while the end result was far from being as out of control as it would appear, it is with an increased focus on continual human relations that the story would become easier to navigate. And for many, even if the structure were to be intellectually confusing, they could at least leave with a sense of emotional accomplishment.
Yes, exactly this! It's not just pre-Freudian, but pre-Jungian. Tomino has always been unique in that he doesn't involve the embedded psycho-analytical approaches that have taken over most contemporary storytelling, but in G-Reco he dials up the impenetrability created from discarding that narrative frame even more than usual. I've always thought Tomino may have an internal persuasion that psycho-analysis in stories have hindered rather than enhanced the ability for people to understand each other. It's a theme which he has not only visited over and over, but which has in fact defined the body of his work (misunderstandings between people, newtypes, etc.).
One aspect of storytelling Tomino has resisted time and again is escapism, and G-Reco is a greater bulwark on this front than his other works (though I recall that for G-Reco some of this was unintentional). Rather than give the audience a window into what's going on in a situation or between characters, he'd rather make them figure it out on their own. I think what turns off most people about G-Reco is that it forces them to confront the frustration of trying to know others and understand what's happening as an outsider, much as one often has to in real life. That said, I don't think the average audience draws this parallel very often. If we're being blunt, and I'm making a deductive speculation here, I'd say he thinks psycho-analytical and relationally focused approaches have cheapened narratives and has made audiences lazy, and he's defiantly challenging his audiences to do better.
This style is a delight for people who are active observers of their own surroundings, those who are familiar with being outsiders in their every day life, and other story tellers who live and breathe the exploration of narrative as expression. In that sense I think of Tomino as an innovative storyteller's storyteller, but who's so deep into the critical questions and concepts of this expressive form that what he does can be virtually inaccessible to regular laymen. It's a form of snobbery, but one which has some interesting intentions and meta-thematic arguments. If good storytelling is about showing and not telling, Tomino is a rebel artist in pursuit of purer incarnations of that purpose.
. Although I still consider the result to be bad at storytelling (and hopefully the movie will fix it to a degree).