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"What we have here is a failure to communicate."

The story of Elemental Gelade (EG) is an unfortunate example of an enticing premise bogged down in a mire of contrived plot devices — it has some shining moments and juicy drama, but the road to them is paved with poor choices and frustration. If you're looking for a romantic adventure/drama set against a fantasy backdrop then you may enjoy what EG has to offer, but if you expect intelligent characters making rational choices and/or growing from their mistakes then I'm afraid you're probably in the wrong place.

Oh and before we get started, if you've been taken ... in by that misleading jazz about "sky pirates" like I was, then please don't be fooled — no skyship in this entire series seems to last longer than 60 minutes, and our heroes spend the vast majority of their time on solid ground.

The story structure is semi-episodic, but executes this format better than most — many episodes (or sets of two or three episodes, in the case of some longer arcs) tell mainly self-contained stories with bits of overarching plot sprinkled in, but most of these mini-stories are quite relevant and serve to develop the world in meaningful ways. Characters from prior arcs often return to make minor cameo appearances in later episodes, providing some resolution and going a surprisingly long way towards making their otherwise isolated sub-stories feel more involved on the larger scale.

The story itself is a tale of adolescent adventure and interracial romance as our wide-eyed, idealistic protagonists attempt to traverse a world rife with racism and slavery. This classic backdrop is quite compelling and drew me in immediately, but I soon came to the unfortunate realization that it would be almost exclusively used as an excuse to have the shy, reclusive heroine kidnapped and saved by the reckless, loudmouth hero over and over again in a variety of slightly differing ways, often stemming from frustratingly painful-to-watch miscommunication between the two. We watch them make the same mistake over and over and be punished for it in the same way again and again. It's like watching some kind of shock-collar training.

Speaking of shock-collar training, they actually make use of it at one point to try and force the hero to improve himself. The results of that training last approximately until the end of that arc. Long-term character development is largely limited to the stages of the two mains' budding romance — other than that, only two or three characters stood out to me as having received any significant development at all beyond their introductions. The vast majority of characters are exactly the same in episode 26 as they were in episode 1, and those few that aren't are generally ex-villains who did sudden 180° turnabouts after our screamy shounen protagonist made them realize the error of their ways with some passionate speech about love and hope and acceptance. A few side characters deserve shout-outs for standing head-and-shoulders above everyone else in terms of development (even if it is only over the course of their particular, single arcs).

In spite of all these shortcomings, the basic premise of the story and world were still solid enough to keep me interested. Most of the minor characters have engaging tales to tell (almost all of them being more interesting than the main cast), a few arcs really stand above the rest as unpolished gems and there's at least one decent plot-twist near the end to reward viewers for sticking around. For all its flaws, it might still scratch that adventure/romance itch if you're willing to suspend your disbelief and tolerate a fair bit of numbskullery.

6/10