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"What makes a hero?" At first glance, Gatchaman Crowds is just another shallow superhero anime where the main character beats up lots of baddies, but it's actually far from that. While there are some very nicely done combat scenes, which include 2d and 3d animation, the focus of this show is on the underlying themes. And trust me. There's a lot of them.

The first thing that has to be addressed is the music and soundtrack. Hot diggity damn. The composer of Soul Eater's and Gurren Lagann's soundtracks, godly Taku Iwasaki has created a masterpiece of songs that fall into a ton of categories. They range ... anywhere from dubstep to opera and I have to say, I'm a fan of all 21 of them. Soundtrack aside, the opening, Crowds, by White Ash, is a perfect fit for the style of Gatchaman Crowds. I still don't know what these lyrics are, by the way.

Speaking of the style: Wow. The music paired with an unconventional art style and vivid colors creates for a very unique presentation. As far as character designs go, to me they seem a little lackluster but their Gatchaman transformations definitely make up for it. I would love to see a good cosplay of one of these guys.

The story. Without spoiling things, the Gatchaman are a small, secret, superhero organization that devotes itself to protecting Earth. JJ, the leader of this group, which is presumably a god, chooses our main character Hajime Ichinose for some unknown reason to join the Gatcha team. They then to go on fighting the forces of evil as you'd expect from any superheroes, but eventually internal conflict arises from the possible downfall of the planet. While keeping many serious moments, there are also countless things that will make you laugh, especially with the little alien panda mascot, Paiman (which actually hates being associated with pandas).

Moving on, the characters won't leave you bored anytime soon. While there are several members of the Gatchaman team, Hajime is the one everything is centered on. Being a genki girl that tackles everything she can with the biggest smile on her face, she's the kind of character that you should already know whether you'll love her or hate her. Sadly, even if you think this go-get-em personality is great, these kinds of characters simply don't belong as main characters for shows with serious elements to them. Many times while watching her, you'll sit back and think: "This girl's way too positive in dire situations. No matter what happens, what she's doing isn't going to work." And then it does. Hajime's case of the "main character syndrome" of everything working out in her favor is a constant annoyance, but then again it's always great to just see someone being so cheerful. While Hajime's fighting for the powers of gatcha, Berg-Katze is on the other side, taking the role of fabulous alien villain that tears down planets for the fun of it. It's actually quite refreshing to see a nearly all powerful gay alien causing mischief as he pleases. Not to mention Mamoru Miyano, the voice of Light Yagami and Okabe Rintarou, did a nearly perfect job voicing him.

Even though Gatchaman Crowds has a girl that's bouncing off the walls and a gay alien as opposing main characters (oh, and I forgot to mention there's a cross-dressing guy as well), there are very serious issues it brings up, as I said before. The app that everyone in this setting uses, GALAX, which acts a social network that can be used to help people, is used as a catalyst for Hajime and Berg to clash heads and show the viewers the absolutely terrifying capabilities of the internet that we all have at our disposal. Gatchaman Crowds hits much closer home than most animes do, assuming you've used the internet before.

If you're looking for an anime that's simply a lot of fun, or you want to read into something deeper, Gatchaman Crowds is a great pick either way. Also there's a second season on its way sometime in 2014 which will hopefully tie up the first season's rather vague ending. Until then, Gatcha!