Care for a fish-out-of-water story? Well, here is a series where that is not quite a metaphor.

Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet starts off in space. Ledo is a teenage mecha pilot trained to be a soldier in the war to save humanity from the Hadeauze. But when a battle goes wrong, Ledo is trapped on the wrong side of a worm hole with his mecha war machine Chamber. When he awakes he finds himself on a primitive, by his standards, planet. And guess what planet that is? Earth! Long thought lost and abandoned, the survivors of a global catastrophe have formed a new society on a planet which now is totally water.

Ledo is taken in by the people of Gargantia, a sort of nation state made up of a fleet of rusty ships. Here he meets a girl named Amy, who not only is his guide to a new world but becomes his morale compass as well. Amy is the heart and soul of this series.

Caring for an invalid brother and working as a messenger, 15-year-old Amy still keeps her innocence. She is on the border between girlhood and womanhood, even expressing her sexuality in an innocent way. This naturally attracts Ledo, but his military instincts sadly interfere.

Ledo learns the forgotten history of humanity, and the truth about the Hadeauze. He begins to question for the first time. The story becomes more engaging as it goes along.

The animation is on the higher level for an anime series. Not quite feature film level, but still well done with few if any shortcuts.

The one problem is the series is too short. Only one season of 13 episodes is not enough. More time could have been spent on the budding relationship of Ledo and Amy. The last four episodes has a plot twist which is not totally explained, and could have been told in a series of flashback episodes. Easily this series could have and should have been spread into two seasons.

In the climax, Ledo risks all for Gargantia, and in doing so finally learns how to live as a human. But will he live as a human? Will he live?

For the answers to these and other questions, I recommend you watch Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet.