In the desert that is Summer 2020, any puddle is worth stopping at to take a drink.  And Giabate is that, at the very least.  About the only really notable thing about the resume for this original is that legendary designer Amano Yoshitaka (most famous recently for Final Fantasy but with a history all the way back to Speed Racer) designed the characters.  But it’s timely if nothing else, being as it deals with a pandemic – or more properly the aftermath of one – and in a season devoid of series with actual stories, it certainly seemed worth checking out.

One thing you’ll certainly have to get past here is the animation, which is done on the cheap to say the least.  This is studio l-a-unch・BOX’s first go with a full series, and it seems pretty clear we have a minimal budget in play – there’s a lot of CGI and it’s pretty cut-rate.  But Amano’s character designs at least give Gibiate a distinctly old-school look.  And while there’s a good deal of clumsy exposition in the premiere, there is at least a premise which holds together and is easy to grasp.  In 2030 the world has been besieged by the Gibier virus (which started in Venice), and turns anyone infected into a monster.  For some reason.

Also for some reason, a samurai named Sanada Kenroku and a ninja named Sensui Kanzaki are transported from 1600 (just after the Battle if Sekigahara, which has seen both of them exiled) to 2030, where they meet up with survivor Kathleen Funada.  It’s altogether unbelievable how easily these 21st Century folk accept this development for plot convenience, though with as weird as the world has gotten I suppose their credulity will have been strained.  Kathleen lives in a camp with a hundred or so mixed-nationality survivors trying to remain uninfected – which means avoiding getting stung by an infected person, called a Gibiate.  One of them is an obviously sinister doctor who’s looking for a cure.

Does any of this add up to anything?  It’s far too early to tell, though for all its bargain-basement production values and rather rote exposition this first episode is moderately interesting.  Gibiate plays as pretty by the books, but there’s enough potential in the premise that it could be a watchable option at the very least.  With as little competition as it has I’m not in any hurry to make a decision on it.