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ninjewtsu posted:I dunno if it's disqualified from this conversation due to being an OVA series instead of a TV show, but fundamental thunderbolt was an extremely good mecha anime I think IBO was much better, honestly. Like, Thunderbolt is very pretty, and the diagetic music was cool, but for the first season the characters didn't really go anywhere, the plot was bleak for the sake of being bleak rather than because it had something to say, and most of the fights were hilariously one sided. (Sometimes it did interesting things with the fights being one-sided, and the first person shot of the Gundam is great, but the opening fight in 0080 had much more give and take.) Second season tries to have a little more going on with the characters, but it also loses the plot. Whole chunk feels less like a plot with a beginning, middle, and an end, and more like a series of events that just kind of... happened. That said, they're only a bit over an hour each, and I'd say the good was enough to justify the time investment. Definitely style over substance, especially first season, but enough style starts building up a substance of its own. (That said, I know the manga goes into a bit more depth on some things, but most discussion centers around the anime, so that gets the description here.) chiasaur11 fucked around with this message at 02:27 on Aug 15, 2017 |
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Aug 15, 2017 02:24
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Blaze Dragon posted:This is the main reason why I want Aquarion Logos at some point in SRW. For all the flaws that show had (and it was not lacking in those, though I found it enjoyable regardless) having a bunch of different Aquarion forms combined from different Vector choices and sometimes even the same but reversed was neat as hell and I also see it as something really hard to adapt to how SRW works, so I'm super interested about what Banpresto would do with that. the big problem with Aquarion Logos is primarily that like, each form does one thing, ever. there really isn't the substance to make those forms actual units, and to make that even less viable, you'd basically be forced to shuffle around half a dozen useless jets in weird combinations, most of which you couldn't actually combine in any combination, so it'd be a pain to remember who next to who does what specific thing the way they'd do it is likely disappointingly simple - it'd just be one unit, that only combines and stuff as attack animations, and the whole crew of six is sitting there as a single spirit pool
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Aug 15, 2017 04:57
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It did have something to say? It said "war is bad, and transforms people who would otherwise be good people into bad people." Like it's not a terribly complex message but it's not just making you depressed for the sake of being depressed. It's not like this is random footage of a puppy being drowned. The fights not being traditionally entertaining is kind of why I love them too? They're much more about the emotional impact than the spectacle of the fight -purposefully- and I think it's very unique and good in that respect. Its good that the show is self concious about the fact that making you go "wow this is so cool I want to see more like this" about people being brutally slaughtered is actually kind of hosed up, and does a good job of weaving that feeling into the broader narrative (there is a good fight with lots of give and take in the movie, and it's representative of the tragedy of both io and daryl totally being consumed by war and enjoying themselves as they try to murder each other).
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Aug 15, 2017 05:03
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Also "characters didn't go anywhere" seems kind of strange to me, since the whole first season was about daryl's transformation into the same kind of fightdemon that io is. Tbh thunderbolt is probably my favorite gundam period. In a series that generally has fairly middling execution I thought it was incredibly spot on with that it was going for. That it laser focused on the "war is hell" message of gundam and didn't pay much mind to the transhumanism or environmental messages isn't a big downside to me. I very much appreciate that instead of trying to say 5 things poorly, it choose to say 1 thing very well. That being said if season 2 shat itself I wouldn't know because I was wanting to hold off for another movie compilation before watching it
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Aug 15, 2017 05:07
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ninjewtsu posted:It did have something to say? It said "war is bad, and transforms people who would otherwise be good people into bad people." But it didn't do anything to show they would be good people. We barely see Io as anything but a combat junkie, and Daryl's bunch sits in a mass grave and complains that the enemy was so unfair as to fight back. You also get things like Claudia's drug addiction and the children's crusade too, bits which don't make too much sense in the context of the narrative as shown in the anime except to make things "grittier". Why send a bunch of children to die without accomplishing anything, destroying multi-million dollar military hardware for no gain? BECAUSE WAR IS HELL! It's all shown with an almost leering camera, invoking less of a disgust with war than a perverse attraction. It's not good, but it's still cool. To top it all off, the message didn't feel honest. Compare to War In Pocket. There, the message is "War ruins lives". You see good, likable people doing questionable things and getting killed because they're in a war. You see bad people given power because of war. Bernie and Chris are tragic because, without the war, they'd probably wind up like in Build Fighters. Thunderbolt says that people in war are monsters. Daryl's friends are eager suicide bombers, the Federation's team killers and battle maniacs, everyone's just all kinds of hosed up. Instead of getting people who are mostly just people (if, you know, often traumatized one way or another by the things they've seen and done), Thunderbolt has exaggerated symbols of the horrors of war. It does enough well that I see why people like it. I just can't agree with the most effusive praise.
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Aug 15, 2017 07:19
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chiasaur11 posted:But it didn't do anything to show they would be good people. We barely see Io as anything but a combat junkie, and Daryl's bunch sits in a mass grave and complains that the enemy was so unfair as to fight back. Yes it did. Cornelius literally has a monologue with claudia about how io isn't naturally some horrible death demon, but his balls to the wall personality being mixed with war creates a horrible death demon. He more or less literally turned to the camera and said "io is a good person who has been twisted by war." It's as subtle as a sledge hammer, and while it could have been shown in ways better than a side character having a monologue it's certainly there. Io's interactions with claudia and the children serve a similar purpose: he's humanized in that he's well aware of how hosed up the situation he's in is ("we're both here because everyone above us died" and "we live in times where the more people you kill, the more you're called a hero" being choice example quotes). Daryl's a little less obvious, but seeing the contrast between him as an innocent, happy child and the reality of his current life seems like enough to me. Claudia's drug addiction makes plenty of sense. She's a normal loving person with the tragic "weakness" of caring about people dying, and the guilt leads her to dark coping mechanisms. Her valuing human life would be a good quality in any situation besides "war commander," where it undermines her ability to lead effectively (her constantly having to retreat to her room to deal with her guilt is a bit less than inspiring) and her final action is choosing to have the ship evacuated so the crew doesn't die. This action gets her shot by someone she was trying to save . "War is awful to good people" is the entire point of her plot, and while it's certainly the weakest part of the show its not at all pointless. Narratively, I'm not sure what's at all unreasonable or unbelievable about "person in a bad situation turns to drugs to deal with it." The kids' purpose is to contrast the reality that the soldiers face with the idealized version that people who haven't experienced war hold. It's not as good as a whole series devoted to the concept like 0080, but as a quick and condensed deal the kids being introduced spontaniously saluting a war machine while all the actual soldiers look on and say "what the gently caress are they doing?" Is pretty good, followed up by them immediately panicking as soon as a single zeon soldier starts shooting at their group of 40. Narratively, they're a distraction meant to draw zeon's attention while io goes on a solo mission to blow up all the zeon ships. Daryl actually does the exact same thing with one of his buddies, and both plans work out extremely well. I'll grant that I'm not entirely sure why they got gms instead of all being put into balls for this purpose. ninjewtsu fucked around with this message at 07:55 on Aug 16, 2017 |
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Aug 16, 2017 07:53
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ninjewtsu posted:Yes it did. Cornelius literally has a monologue with claudia about how io isn't naturally some horrible death demon, but his balls to the wall personality being mixed with war creates a horrible death demon. He more or less literally turned to the camera and said "io is a good person who has been twisted by war." It's as subtle as a sledge hammer, and while it could have been shown in ways better than a side character having a monologue it's certainly there. Io's interactions with claudia and the children serve a similar purpose: he's humanized in that he's well aware of how hosed up the situation he's in is ("we're both here because everyone above us died" and "we live in times where the more people you kill, the more you're called a hero" being choice example quotes). Daryl's a little less obvious, but seeing the contrast between him as an innocent, happy child and the reality of his current life seems like enough to me. Because it's the end of the One Year War, when the Federation had finally started focusing the combined energies of an entire planet on building mobile suits, and was starting to hand them out like candy. That's a major subtext to the entire Thunderbolt Sector arc, especially when compared with everything about the Living Dead.
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Aug 16, 2017 11:28
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Darth Walrus posted:Because it's the end of the One Year War, when the Federation had finally started focusing the combined energies of an entire planet on building mobile suits, and was starting to hand them out like candy. That's a major subtext to the entire Thunderbolt Sector arc, especially when compared with everything about the Living Dead. Yeah, Zeon had experienced pilots who had been fighting since the start of the war, the Federation hadn't had any MS so all of their pilots were rookies. This wasn't a tentative rollout to see if GMs were a good idea, Zeon had proven that MS were the deciding factor in space combat. In the original series Federation ships show up to A Bao A Qu with GMs tied to the outside. All that mattered was putting MS in the field.
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Aug 16, 2017 13:38
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I don't have a problem with Thunderbolt's narrative structure, though I would have really preferred if the Feddie reinforcements were young rookie pilots instead of the 244th Literal Children Daycare Battalion. Them being honest to god children kind of jolted me out of the story and made me roll my eyes really hard because of how dumb it is.
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Aug 16, 2017 22:02
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Kanos posted:I don't have a problem with Thunderbolt's narrative structure, though I would have really preferred if the Feddie reinforcements were young rookie pilots instead of the 244th Literal Children Daycare Battalion. Them being honest to god children kind of jolted me out of the story and made me roll my eyes really hard because of how dumb it is. In the manga it made a little more sense since they had an adult chaperone and the explanation was that the Feddies were just throwing poo poo at the Newtype wall in hopes something would stick. Tied in with some later stuff thematically. In the anime, it just felt stupid.
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Aug 16, 2017 22:35
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I started watching Aldnoah Zero. The first couple episodes were good.
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Aug 19, 2017 20:41
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Guy Goodbody posted:I started watching Aldnoah Zero. The first couple episodes were good. Yeah, that was what people thought when it first came out, too. Urobuchi worked on the first... three episodes, I think(?), and after that had no involvement. And apparently, it shows. Looking at old threads about it, goes from being a potentially really interesting show to a massive disappointment.
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Aug 19, 2017 21:53
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Aldnoah has really fun and good robot fights and good music and is worth seeing for that. Just expect the plot to get really, really dumb and bad somewhere around the beginning of the second cour and make peace with that.
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Aug 19, 2017 22:02
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chiasaur11 posted:Yeah, that was what people thought when it first came out, too. Urobuchi worked on the first... three episodes, I think(?), and after that had no involvement. And apparently, it shows. So it becomes good by episode 4?
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Aug 20, 2017 00:24
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It becomes something.
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Aug 20, 2017 00:55
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Impressions of the new Eureka Seven movie http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-feature/2017/08/17-1/a-preview-of-the-world-premiere-of-the-eureka-seven-hi-evolution for those who ar click-adverse posted:Hi-Evolution opens with a bang, throwing its audience into the events of the Summer of Love which have only been alluded to in the series long history. We’re shown where propaganda has reshaped Adroc’s sacrifice to save the human race from the Corelian threat as we follow his mutiny and ultimate martyrdom real time. Although only the first ten minutes of the movie, the Summer of Love is packed with some of the most intense action seen in Eureka Seven, culminating in the apocalyptic conclusion which shaped the entire franchise. I'm not entirely sold yet, but it does sound better than both Pocketful of Rainbows and AO. Plus it sounds like it could change drastically from the source in the second and third films (like Evangelion ReBuild? ). Still tentatively excited!
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Aug 20, 2017 01:07
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...There's a eureka 7 movie trilogy? 
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Aug 20, 2017 02:53
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Got announced a while back but didn't get much fanfare on account of E7's post-S1 track record.
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Aug 20, 2017 03:17
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So are there any mecha series on streaming services this season besides Gundam spin-offs and Knight's & Magic?
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Aug 20, 2017 23:11
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Re:Creators has giant robots, though it's not primarily a mecha show.
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Aug 21, 2017 02:56
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the follow up question to that is at what point does re:creators actually wrap around to being good? because it definitely wasn't in the first 1/4, and i feel like 7 episodes is already a big commitment.
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Aug 21, 2017 03:01
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dogsicle posted:the follow up question to that is at what point does re:creators actually wrap around to being good? because it definitely wasn't in the first 1/4, and i feel like 7 episodes is already a big commitment. you're probably not going to like the rest of it then i'll give the show that it's been consistent in quality, just not consistently good also if you're in it for the robots you're gonna be disappointed, Mr. I Have The Giant Robot is kind of a non-character and the robot doesn't do much anyway
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Aug 21, 2017 03:55
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What I watched of ID-0 was pretty fun, if you can get past the full CG.
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Aug 21, 2017 09:42
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There's actually more than one mecha in Re:Creators, it's just that the others aren't a factor until the recent episodes.
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Aug 21, 2017 16:06
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Darth Walrus posted:What I watched of ID-0 was pretty fun, if you can get past the full CG. I'll look into that one, thanks. Netflix's browsing interface is a slog so I must have missed it.
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Aug 22, 2017 14:59
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The Muffinlord posted:I'll look into that one, thanks. Netflix's browsing interface is a slog so I must have missed it. Netflix hasn't uploaded the show outside of Japan yet. That is going to happen on October 6th or so, apparently including a dub. It's a pretty nice sci-fi series, starring mostly characters in robot bodies rather than strictly piloted machines.
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Aug 22, 2017 19:04
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I've been playing a lot of Super Robot Wars V so now I'm watching Shin Mazinger and then I'll probably watch Getter Robo Armageddon.
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Aug 22, 2017 21:27
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RubberLuffy posted:I've been playing a lot of Super Robot Wars V so now I'm watching Shin Mazinger and then I'll probably watch Getter Robo Armageddon. these are good decisions an even better decision would be to read all the getter manga, it fuckin owns
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Aug 22, 2017 22:13
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Light Gun Man posted:an even better decision would be to read all the getter manga, it fuckin owns Eh, the original Getter manga was pretty average past the first volume, and G wasn't even that. Getter Robo Go and forward are amazing, however.
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Aug 22, 2017 22:53
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Hence I said all. Gotta get the whole saga.
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Aug 22, 2017 23:05
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12 Episodes into Shin Mazinger It's pretty good. Never really been a mecha guy (despite loving SRW games, lol). It's pretty cheesy and just real goofy and fun about everything going on. I used Z a lot in SRW V as one of my heavy hitters, so it's fun to see all its attacks in context.
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Aug 23, 2017 02:07
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I finished the first season of Aldnoah Zero. The first three episodes are the best, but I think it's a mistake to attribute that to the director. The first three episodes are the ones where everyone's running around and poo poo blowing and it's all crazy. No series could keep up that pace. And it's not terrible. The monster of the unique robot fights are clever and fun. The main character is unique. My real complaint is that it spends way too much time on the Knight and the Princess. Very boring characters. and it takes away desperately needed time from the actually interesting parts; the story of the rag tag crew and the near complete destruction of Earth's population. You don't find out how bad earth is doing until almost the end, and most of the time spent on developing the crew is taken up by half-hearted low-level harem shenanigans. After the season finale I really don't have much desire to keep going. If the main guy is dead then I don't care about the show anymore, and if he's not dead the explanation is probably gonna be something lame
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Aug 27, 2017 19:24
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The first episode of the second season made me drop Aldnoah Zero, and this is coming from someone still watching Re:Creators.
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Aug 27, 2017 19:31
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Stop watching, make up your own continuation in your mind.
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Aug 27, 2017 19:43
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Aldnoah S2 definitely gets dumber, and has a very weak ending, but at least there are a fair few parts of it that are the entertainingly ridiculous kind of dumb, like the thing with the bullets.
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Aug 27, 2017 22:46
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I still don't know if the very end of Aldnoah S2 is meant to be good or bad. The content is tragic but the music is so triumphant. My favourite scene in S2 is when the guy says the lady has put on weight by calculating her mass in 0G based on how far she moves when he throws a ration at her.
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Aug 27, 2017 23:30
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I finished Shin Mazinger, which was good, ending was kind of a bummer, i want that sequel. I then watched GR Armageddon, which was really good, although it had some real wtf moments (like them seeing the wormhole in the last episode and immediately being like "we must go there and fight eternally". ummm how do you know that)
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Aug 28, 2017 18:54
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Getter Rays.
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Aug 28, 2017 18:57
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EthanSteele posted:Getter Rays. The cause of, and answer to, all of life's problems.
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Aug 28, 2017 18:59
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The Armageddon ending rules.
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Aug 28, 2017 19:19
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