|
The Muffinlord posted:Regarding Back Arrow, what's the over/under on the Granedger being able to transform? I swear it looks like it has fists coming out the back. I mean, Elsha seems to be the main heroine, so her getting an upgrade like that doesn't seem wholly outside the realm of possibility.
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2021 16:19
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 28, 2024 22:12 |
|
|
chiasaur11 posted:Speaking of three man mech teams, I finally watched another episode of Mecha Armor Dragonar, and I think I figured out what it feels like. It's Gundam done as one of those 80s and 90s cartoons that had a PSA about drugs or something at the end. Harsh, but fair.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2021 17:21
|
|
|
The Muffinlord posted:Regarding Back Arrow, what's the over/under on the Granedger being able to transform? I swear it looks like it has fists coming out the back. I just called into the Mirage and the Vegas line on that prop is 0.5.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2021 20:37
|
|
|
The Muffinlord posted:Regarding Back Arrow, what's the over/under on the Granedger being able to transform? I swear it looks like it has fists coming out the back. I think it's quite likely, though maybe not until the second half of the series. Also, that huge sword they've got in Rekka sure seems to suggest we'll get some larger scale action.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2021 04:17
|
|
|
chiasaur11 posted:I think I like Plus more, just as a whole stylistic thing, but Do You Remember Love is Macross at its Macrossiest, playing up the music, the love triangle, and the fighter jet mechs to the nth in a couple of glorious hours. You'll love Frontier. Two singers worth of music, lots of transforming fighters fighting space kaiju, and a love triangle that has some really sweet and touching moments.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2021 04:40
|
|
|
I think it's weird the franchise is so known for it's triangles, half the series in it the love triangles feel so non existent that you might as well have cut 'em and focused on the real romance.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2021 04:43
|
|
|
Gaius Marius posted:I think it's weird the franchise is so known for it's triangles, half the series in it the love triangles feel so non existent that you might as well have cut 'em and focused on the real romance. Big same, it's a really weird trope to me. As examples, Macross 7's triangle functionally doesn't exist because Basara is basically aromantic and TV Frontier's love triangle is pretty brutally one-sided to the point where I would hesitate to call it a triangle.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2021 05:51
|
|
|
Zero's is also just, what. One of the women is age appropriate and one of 'em is like twelve. Jeez I wonder which one he'll choose?!
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2021 05:59
|
|
|
delta was two people who were completely into each other from the start and then there were other women in the vicinity.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2021 07:14
|
|
|
gimme the GOD drat candy posted:delta was two people who were completely into each other from the start and then there were other women in the vicinity. With our heroes senior officer having feelings for him. Ick, no. Yeah, Frontier doesn't have a full-on competitive triangle. Ranka is crushing hard on Alto, but I think even she realizes it's sweet but never going anywhere. He's not just a couple years older, she's been raised by a protective older brother, and Alto has been living on his own for at least a year before the show starts. That adds weight to the domestic situation towards the end of the show; it's two people with a really broken family base, trying to make a go of it. Sheryl gets PTSD triggers from sitting down to eat a family meal at the table, Alto probably never got taught to keep house. He's a pilot on active duty, she's actively dying from a degenerative neurological conditions, but they're both putting the work in at home and it's something that I respect from both characters. But it's an odd domestic pairing. I don't really read Sheryl/Alto as a pair of young lovers. Given her condition I don't see their relationship as sexual. But they care for each other and prop each other up to keep going. More than friends, maybe less than lovers, their relationship flows organically from their personalities and histories. It's a realistic touch and helps keep Frontier in the top tier of shows I've watched.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2021 07:40
|
|
|
It's pretty heavily implied that they slept together, from what I remember at least
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2021 07:41
|
|
|
Gaius Marius posted:Zero's is also just, what. One of the women is age appropriate and one of 'em is like twelve. Jeez I wonder which one he'll choose?! I assume Mao's PA was constantly giving her poo poo when she was dictating her biography.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2021 07:48
|
|
|
Gaius Marius posted:I think it's weird the franchise is so known for it's triangles, half the series in it the love triangles feel so non existent that you might as well have cut 'em and focused on the real romance. Honestly, even the original Macross barely had a love triangle. Before her career took off, Minmay only ever saw Hikaru as a friend while Hikaru thought of Misa as an irritating by-the-book nag. When Minmay's career took off, she and Hikaru had such busy schedules that they just drifted apart, while Hikaru and Misa sat down and got to really know each other. By the time of the final battle against Boddole Zer, Hikaru had already let go of Minmay and only confessed what he felt for her to get some closure. I hesitate to call the after-war part as a love triangle either. Hikaru and Misa have already moved on with their lives and have a stable relationship. Minmay's feelings for Hikaru seemed to be spurred on by a combination of being completely worn down and used up by her career, being tired of Kaifun's abusive rear end, and wanting to go back to the good old days. And despite pining for Hikaru at that point, she never really interacted with him in person. Then when she finally went to stay at Hikaru's place, Hikaru was treating her more like an old friend who needed a place to stay for a few days while they sorted out their problems. I feel really sorry for Minmay at the end, but by the time she felt anything for Hikaru it was already way too late. Edit: Spoiler'd just in case Relin hasn't watched to the end yet.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2021 11:27
|
|
|
Maybe the real love triangle all along was between Man-Woman-Plane, so Plus had two triangles.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2021 18:54
|
|
|
The love triangle is between man, hard power (military) and soft power (propaganda). There was a neat YouTube that analyzed og macross that way. E: found it https://youtu.be/RB3JQhghbrs
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2021 21:09
|
|
|
AtheistMantis posted:Maybe the real love triangle all along was between Man-Woman-Plane, so Plus had two triangles. If we go Man-Man-Plane, Yukikaze is an honorary Macross-style triangle with this math.
|
|
#
?
Feb 23, 2021 03:42
|
|
|
AtheistMantis posted:Maybe the real love triangle all along was between Man-Woman-Plane, so Plus had two triangles.
|
|
#
?
Feb 23, 2021 04:19
|
|
|
AtheistMantis posted:Maybe the real love triangle all along was between Man-Woman-Plane, so Plus had two triangles. I mean, it already did. Isamu's dating his Lucy, but she breaks it off since he's still carrying a torch for Myung, who's got a complicated relationship with Guld in addition to her past with Isamu. Moving away from love triangles, the sky, and only barely staying on the topic of mechs, I finally saw the Venus Wars movie. It's by the character designer for the original Gundam, both as an anime and as a manga. Basic pitch is that it's the future, we've colonized Venus, and in every age the deeds of man remain the same, so motorcycle punks help form a special army unit to defend against the invading force's supertanks. Since it's a movie and not a multi-year manga, it's much more compressed, with the focus on the occupation of the hero's hometown rather than the larger strategy (one reason, perhaps, that the main Earthling character is a reporter instead of a military officer) and the second half of the manga (focusing on an officer in the enemy faction uncovering a conspiracy) omitted entirely. Taken purely on its own merits, it's a pretty solid film. The action's exciting, the characters are generally fleshed out enough for their roles even if they're not all time greats, (none of these bikers are as cool as Kaneda), and the plot manages to only feel a little overcompressed most of the time. (With exception of one soldier who we only get characterized in flashbacks right before he dies) There's also a couple of interesting experimental shots combining animation with real world backgrounds. They don't quite work, but it definitely feels more like something Yas wanted to try than something inserted out of obligation. It's only barely mecha at most (there's one weird spider-walker thing) but it's close enough for government work, and it's always interesting to have more science fiction wars that don't go interstellar.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2021 07:59
|
|
|
Venus Wars was one of those animes I happened to rent from Blockbuster in the dark days of the early internet where nothing was really widely accessible outside of video stores and mailing lists, and it's always been a favorite of mine. I go back and watch it every couple years and it consistently holds up - it's not an all-time world changer or anything, but it's got good animation, kickin' tunes, a coherent plot and characters, and is all around very competently executed.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2021 08:17
|
|
|
I really like it when people relatively new to mecha start watching more mecha shows. There was someone on my Twitter feed who started Macross Delta and tweeted something along the likes of "I've seen a bunch of Gundam and I'm used to pilots dying, oh okay he didn't die, cool" and then "gently caress they kill characters off too" oh you sweet summer child
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2021 08:30
|
|
|
Lily Catts posted:oh you sweet summer child I always leave that part out when I'm selling someone on a Macross series. "Oh yeah, love triangle, space fighters fighting space kaiju, lots of pop music, a beloved character gets horribly murdered..." Yeah, no.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2021 09:36
|
|
|
In 7 they had a side character die, then show his wife cheating on him with someone else, for that extra dose of why
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2021 09:43
|
|
|
Lily Catts posted:I really like it when people relatively new to mecha start watching more mecha shows. There was someone on my Twitter feed who started Macross Delta and tweeted something along the likes of "I've seen a bunch of Gundam and I'm used to pilots dying, oh okay he didn't die, cool" and then "gently caress they kill characters off too" It takes a lot of experience to know exactly how much a show will kill characters, and even then you can judge it wrong. (It's also variable how much death sticks, making judgement trickier still. A show that seems quite willing to kill off major characters early on might blink later, revealing that it just goes for fake outs for the shock value, while a more sedate show like Turn A Gundam has its moments of escalation.) Even just sticking to Gundam, you have shows like IBO and shows like Victory sharing a rough level of cast fatalities, but reversing the priority order, so that characters with a cast niche that would let them survive in one would die in the other. Of course, something else more experience is doing is it's making me realize how off-balance a "show me the classics" approach can make your view of more standard shows from an era. I only loved Gunbuster for the back half, but seeing more context makes me understand just how much better it was than the bulk of the shows of the era, and appreciate what it was doing when I previously had no idea.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2021 12:30
|
|
|
delta needed to be more kill-happy imo. those enemy pilots just come and go freely almost every episode, bringing the story to a standstill. it's not the only problem delta had, but ensuring that the dogfighting side could never accomplish anything was real bad.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2021 13:06
|
|
|
gimme the GOD drat candy posted:delta needed to be more kill-happy imo. those enemy pilots just come and go freely almost every episode, bringing the story to a standstill. it's not the only problem delta had, but ensuring that the dogfighting side could never accomplish anything was real bad. Delta was my first Macross series and me and a friend were SO hyped to watch it every week but it just falls apart horribly in like the last quarter for some reason i've never been able to figure out. Like it felt simultaneously rushed but also resolving very little of consequence. I'm hoping the movie coming out this year answers some questions. The series compilation movie was pretty decent but (for obvious time reasons) wildly changed some aspects of the plot. EDIT: It also felt like a one-two punch of Aldnoah Zero and then Macross Delta falling off a cliff back to back.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2021 18:24
|
|
|
New Getter to Watashi translated today, this time revealing the original designs of the Getter 
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2021 18:29
|
|
|
Pyronic posted:Delta was my first Macross series and me and a friend were SO hyped to watch it every week but it just falls apart horribly in like the last quarter for some reason i've never been able to figure out. Like it felt simultaneously rushed but also resolving very little of consequence. I'm hoping the movie coming out this year answers some questions. The series compilation movie was pretty decent but (for obvious time reasons) wildly changed some aspects of the plot. Look at it this way, the average quality of Macross shows you watch can only go up ! Frontier and Do You Remember Love are both on YouTube.
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2021 02:34
|
|
|
chiasaur11 posted:Of course, something else more experience is doing is it's making me realize how off-balance a "show me the classics" approach can make your view of more standard shows from an era. I use this as the excuse for why I'm making my robot-watching friend group watch Magnes the Robot and Balattack. You have to see the bottom-tier garbage so you can appreciate how good Voltes and Gundam are! It's just facts!
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2021 02:38
|
|
|
Back in the late 90s and early 00s there was this mecha anime called The Red Baron. I remember I watched every episode because it ran on the mornings in the national networks so i could watch it before school.
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2021 02:40
|
|
|
MarsDragon posted:I use this as the excuse for why I'm making my robot-watching friend group watch Magnes the Robot and Balattack. You have to see the bottom-tier garbage so you can appreciate how good Voltes and Gundam are! It's just facts! 
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2021 02:40
|
|
|
MarsDragon posted:I use this as the excuse for why I'm making my robot-watching friend group watch Magnes the Robot and Balattack. You have to see the bottom-tier garbage so you can appreciate how good Voltes and Gundam are! It's just facts! So, in various ways, MarsDragon is trying to show them mankind's true potential. But...does it justify forcing people to watch Magnes? I don't know.
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2021 02:59
|
|
|
Xerxes Tire-Iron Dada justifies everything.
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2021 06:24
|
|
|
MarsDragon posted:Xerxes Tire-Iron Dada justifies everything. There are just some things you don’t understand. Revolutions are dreamt up by intellectuals, but their aims are so unrealistic that they’ll steep to drastic measures!
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2021 06:34
|
|
|
Except for bourgeoisie revolutions
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2021 07:15
|
|
|
Tae posted:Who is funding Fafnir??? This is an ancient post, but I actually have an answer for it now, and I hate to let perfectly good weebery go to waste. I was looking up some anime discsales since I saw someone claim that Egao No Daika outsold Granbelm (not true, apparently. Granbelm averaged 252 copies, while Egao only managed 136, less than Comet Lucifer) and while I was there, I decided to take a glance at Fafner's numbers. Figured it would be a bit niche, maybe a couple thousand copies moved like Shin Mazinger or Devilman Crybaby. The actual number was over 20,000 on average, putting the original series ahead of Shirobako and Zombieland Saga, and within spitting distance of Psycho-Pass. Exodus couldn't keep those levels, of course, not with the changing DVD sales environment, but it still moved over 10K for both seasons, putting it in between Iron Blooded Orphans season 1's 12K and the near 9K season 2 averaged out to. Basically, there might not be a big market stateside, but there's a pretty decent sized fanbase in Japan. I know DVD sales aren't everything (a solid hit like Vinland Saga and a disaster like Marchen Maiden can both move similar numbers), but they can sometimes help figure out if a show's keeping up a core audience. Also, Gridman sold much better than Darling in the Franxx, so that's nice.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2021 11:08
|
|
|
They did the impossible, they made Jet Jaguar cool
|
|
#
?
Feb 28, 2021 16:55
|
|
|
This week on Back Arrow: Arrow finally loses a fight. Bit gets wombo combo'd, complete w street fighter fx The princess is sometimes evil! and she may or may not be Prax as well. I'm guessing this is something she did to herself or that her mother or someone in the royal family set up, cuz I don't get why the sychopants surrounding her would have to go thru the trouble when she barely interferes w their schemes to begin with. Ah well, the writing in the show is not actually very good on average so we'll prolly get a big plot dump next week handily explaining everything. Also, I kept waiting for that ominousass opening shot of Bit blasting a target to pay off. Maybe next week. I wish the show would figure out what to do w this annoying lil old dude whose sole purpose as a cast member is to be wrong about everything. Every week, he threatens to carry out his foreshadowed purpose of creating a generational rift in the villagers bc he's scaaaaaared, and every week, the show forgets about and drops that angle the second his scene is over.
|
|
#
?
Feb 28, 2021 20:05
|
|
|
Rahxephon Rewatch #9 final I had been putting this off because I was worried I'd just be repeating my early post. However, my original intent was to reassess the series as a whole and I don't feel like I've done that just yet. So please pardon this last block of text while I conclude my thoughts on the series. THE GOOD Rahxephon was some of the best traditional animation I've seen in a 26 episode mecha series. The character designs are superb and all the mechanical designs (the this show has a lot of mechanical designs) are sharply detailed an evocative. For the mecha fights themselves, while a few are just trading beams, when the more physical fights hold their own with those of any other TV anime. The characters themselves are, for the most part, charming and well realized. You get a strong sense of who they are and how they fit in with the world, and the world itself is compelling and vividly depicted. Every element of craft and artistry is of the highest quality. Studio Bones does not slack off at any point. THE BAD While the characters are well realized from moment to moment, from episode to episode they can behave inconsistently. This means there isn't steady character growth as such so much as character change, often without evident cause. More broadly, the narrative seems to be at war with itself. The show can't seems to decide what's important, why, and toward what end. This is most apparent at two points. First is after episode 5, when it transitions to a monster-of-the-week format and it kills all momentum for several episodes. Second and worse is the aftermath of episode 19, in which Asahina is tragically and inadvertently killed. It provokes the question, "knowing what he does now, could Ayato have done something differently to save Asahina?" The earlier episode 8 suggests that he could have, but the show never follows up on this. Instead, the same masculine violence that killed Asahina is later instrumental in "saving" the world. THE UGLY The final stretch of episodes reduces most of the cast — and especially the women — to being defined by their romantic relationships. This isn't to say that such relationship haven't been a large part of the story, but here every woman decides that their (heterosexual) relationships are what's most important to them. Even Ayato's struggles are framed in this light, his hesitancy in pursuing Haruka being bad because of what it denies her. One exception is Quon, who doesn't come out much better. For being a moe-poisoned magical neuroatypical sick girl who has hangups about clothing, Quon is none-the-less shown to be a remarkably self-motivated character who's willing to assertively pursue her own self interests. Only by the end of the series she's decided her real interest is serving as a stepping stone for Ayato — literally provoking him into killing her for his benefit. (This also reenacts Asahina's death, which invites a very unfortunately and certainly unintentional "pro sexual assault" reading to the series.) The final bit of weirdness is how the ending of the echoes episode 11, wherein Ayato is trapped in a dream world. In that episode, a vision of Haruka tells him, "You don't have to restrain yourself. Why don't you just be a man? It doesn't matter that I'm older than you. You shouldn't hold back. Just do what you want. Just do things as you please." In that episode, Ayato rejects dream Haruka as a poisonous temptation, but in the conclusion of the series Ayato uses his god powers to reconstruct another dream world, and this time he does accepts her! FINAL THOUGHTS Rahxephon has too many high points to fully disregard, but for all of that I can't help but be disappointed. The show's failure to commit to a narrative hobbles it throughout, and by the end feels like the least interesting version of itself it could have been. That breaks my heart because the good parts are very good! The characters are great, the setting is interesting, it even largely pulls off the big conspiracy elements. Episodes 15-19 is a great stretch of episodes with some truly terrifying super robot action. The Rahxephon itself is fierce for how elegant its design is. But it just can not maintain a direction, and the displaced-in-time romance plot the series finally concludes with is just not convincing or satisfying. I keep thinking how 2007's Koutetsushin Jeeg handled it's Rip Van Winkle romance, and while Shin Jeeg is a fun enough romp, but it's not a good sign when a horny Go Nagai throwback series does your A plot better as it's C plot. I do like Rahxephon and I'm glad to have rewatched the show, but I don't know my opinion has changed all that much from this. It touches greatness, but at the end it's mostly a fascinating mess.
|
|
#
?
Mar 1, 2021 00:23
|
|
|
Obviously you need to have part 10 - epilogue for the movie 
|
|
#
?
Mar 1, 2021 00:38
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 28, 2024 22:12 |
|
|
is panzer world galient any good? i dig the mechanical designs and the OP slaps
|
|
#
?
Mar 1, 2021 00:44
|
|
