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Gyra_Solune posted:pretty much this yeah The giant robot as a surrogate for a superhero is one that resonates with me, I think. Giant robots allow a narrative that has its cake and eats it too; a giant robot pilot gains a larger than life ability to influence events and make a difference that a superhero has while still remaining a squishy frail meatsack of a human being with all the potential flaws, drama, and pitfalls of being one. Superman and Kouji Kabuto are the same fundamental character concept: orphans endowed by their lineage with enormous nigh-unlimited power to use as they wish. The difference is that Clark Kent is an invincible alien with the powers of a god at all times, whereas Kouji stripped of Mazinger is a dumb angry human teenager who is trying his best to do what he thinks is right. Heroes like Batman and Iron Man are outrageously popular in large part due to the fact that lots of people find it easier to identify with a "normal" person than someone who has magic superpowers, but still want that "normal" person to have the power to change the world(in the case of both these characters that power is hypercompetence and infinite money).
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Sep 29, 2015 00:58
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Not Dave posted:Can some one give me a rundown on more recent mecha shows that are good or particularly noteworthy beyond the obvious stuff? Anything post Gurren Lagann would be nice, maybe some stuff prior to it. I feel like I have a decent grasp on stuff from the 70s and 80s, though my knowledge gets progressively weaker through the 90s, 00s, and now. It depends on what you mean by obvious. If you spend a lot of time in these threads, you've probably at least heard of most of the obvious recommendations. It also depends on what your tolerance for really long shows are. -For the 90s:
-For the 2000s:
There's a lot more than this, of course, but these are some off the cuff recommendations.
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Oct 2, 2015 05:13
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Raxivace posted:You're better off just listening to RahXephon's excellent ost, because holy poo poo is the show itself boring as hell and bad. I would say it's about half kind of boring and half good. I feel like the good outweighs the boring, especially some specific moments of payout.
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Oct 2, 2015 05:18
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Not Dave posted:Most of these are ones I know of and have seen, or know about and just forget about constantly (Gravion, Godannar, Gun x Sword). Same with Fafner and Rinne no Lagrange (which I keep reading as Kurogane no Linebarrels). I feel like that basically confirms my feeling that I haven't been missing much. I guess none of the shows that have been out in the last recent years have much merit to them? I keep trying to think of more recent shows and I'll think "Star Driver" and "Heroman" realize that was 5 years ago. Mecha anime isn't exactly a crazy prolific genre, so if you watch mecha stuff at least somewhat regularly you'll generally have seen, heard of, or experienced the relevant series. Srice posted:Far as stuff from the last few years go, I enjoyed Majestic Prince, Liked Gundam Build Fighters, and loved Reconguista in G. Captain Earth and Nobunaga the Fool both started off with really promising concepts and some cool mechanical designs but fell utterly flat in every regard when it came to actual story progression. Nobunaga the Fool also has some hilariously shoddy animation budgeting that leads to stuff like a huge final battle between two major characters early on having its own specific vocal image song insert but the fight itself is a series of looped animations of their mechs running next to each other while sword clashing sounds play. I keep meaning to watch Logos because I have a huge soft spot for Aquarion and EVOL(EVOL in particular).
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Oct 2, 2015 23:54
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TheManSeries posted:Neo Getter vs Shin Getter is pretty loving good. I liked it a lot more than Armageddon. The first episode involves boxing velociraptors. Neo vs Shin is way more consistent than Armageddon due to both being shorter and not suffering from production issues, so I like it a lot more than Armageddon too. Of course a big part of that is Neo vs Shin Jack and Mary King being great.
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Oct 24, 2015 19:52
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Pureauthor posted:May Delta save us from the tyranny of Macross Frontier appearing in every single SRW game. They'll include Frontier alongside Delta. Sheryl and Ranka being kidnapped is now a SRW fixture for all time.
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Oct 29, 2015 05:17
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AradoBalanga posted:As much as I want to hate you for saying that...part of me believes that the first part of post is highly inevitable. The only variance will be who is kidnapping Sheryl and Ranka each time, and how many times they will be kidnapped in each game.
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Oct 30, 2015 03:54
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Lemon Curdistan posted:I've resumed watching Dai-Guard and I'd forgotten just how great it is. Is there a problem with having Back Alley Space Boy stuck in your head 24/7? 
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Nov 3, 2015 01:16
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EthanSteele posted:Zeorymer is really bad, but really fun. It's very proto-Lelouch with the biggest "I threw that poo poo before I came in the room" bullshit plan of all time and then every fight scene is the main dude having a bad time and then going "oh wait" then fist bumping himself and winning. B+ would laugh every time. It's this and the fact that it's very, very pretty that make me really love Zeorymer. It's also short enough that it doesn't wear out its welcome.
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Feb 8, 2016 16:53
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Parallax posted:Man, Votoms would be a better show without the three knuckleheads who follow Chirico everywhere Chirico's three buddies are really important components of the core thrust of the show's plot, which is Chirico discovering what it means to be a human being and not an emotionless murder robot. They're absolutely vital in humanizing him.
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Feb 10, 2016 07:00
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They are really important in the early arcs of the show before Chirico made contact with Fyana. They gave him something to give a poo poo about when he was basically a dead man walking, and all of the moments where Chirico begins to show emotions for the first time are because of them.
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Feb 10, 2016 08:00
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Zero_Tactility posted:Yeah, considering how it could have gone if it was just Chirico and Fyana, I don't think it would feel right. It feels like the only reason that he can take those first few steps is that they won't leave him alone. That they keep tagging along regardless of whether he engages back is what puts the first few cracks in that shell. It's also important to note that Fyana starts off as just as much of a soulless loving murder robot as Chirico does. It's Chirico's interactions with the trio that begin to humanize him, and it's Fyana's interactions with the humanized Chirico that begin to humanize her.
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Feb 11, 2016 03:17
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Tribladeofchaos posted:That's a really good post about Macross 7 but at the same time I still can't stand Basara and think the show is the hardest to really watch all the way through in comparison to other Macross series. That and I really didn't like any of Fire Bomber's songs. Gamlin is a really good character though I felt. This is understandable but it is also completely intentional and integral to the character. Basara is supposed to be a super weird dude who doesn't relate to people in normal ways and comes off like a huge uncaring rear end in a top hat. All of the people in the show except for Ray react to him negatively as well. He's a really intense dude who would likely be diagnosed with some form of autism or developmental disorder who really only knows how to communicate to people through music, not a charismatic and likeable guy. Gamlin is definitely intended to be liked way more by the audience because he's the reasonable, down to earth, honorable, and noble guy who's just trying to do his duty for his friends and his city and who doesn't really understand why Basara is doing what he is. His only negative traits are "is a little hidebound and stiff" and "gets angry at Basara for flying around an active battlefield", so it's not really surprising that he comes off as more likeable.
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Feb 28, 2016 21:48
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Parallax posted:I think I had an issue with Basara's personality earlier on when it was unclear whether the show wanted us to like him or not, but now it's kinda clear that they want you to be somewhat irritated by him. Also, can we not label every fictional character who has trouble communicating as autistic, Basara clearly isn't interested in communicating with people in the normal sense, rather than completely unable to. The "Basara may be autistic or have some other sort of mental irregularity" descriptor is not intended as an insult or a slight against autism or autistic people and it's not a negative trait, it's a foundational aspect of the character and is one of the things I like most about him. Basara is wired completely differently from other people in profound ways and the show and OVAs make that abundantly clear. He is explicitly 100% not a Minmay who is a normal person in pretty much every respect besides having magic singing powers and it was super ballsy of them to make a character like that the lead protagonist in a franchise that has become about idol girls. It's not a matter of him just being uninterested in communicating with people in the normal sense, he legitimately can't seem to; the few times he gets into arguments with Gamlin he can't make himself understood without breaking down into a yelling mess despite Gamlin being one of the most understanding characters in the show. His band members would support his peaceful goals 100% if he would simply explain his intent to them, but he doesn't because he can't so instead he misses shows, drives Mylene crazy, and gets insanely pissed at Ray and starts ranting at him because Ray installed self-defense weaponry on his Valkyrie. Even later on in the show when people finally start to "get" what Basara is trying to do, it's not because of interactions with Basara that they start to understand. The only times Basara ever looks comfortable or happy are when he's singing to people.
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Feb 29, 2016 00:12
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Parallax posted:Minmay is definitely not a normal person, she needs validation from other people to be happy, not to mention how she acts after Hikaru and she are freed after being stuck together for days and days. Every character in the original is pretty hosed in some way or another Minmay is whiny, selfish, and codependent, but everything she does is perfectly sensible and understandable from the perspective of a teenage celebrity with an abusive rear end in a top hat brother and a huge crush on a guy who is part of a love triangle. Basara is is an entirely different universe than her when it comes to dealing with interpersonal relationships. We're shown glimpses of Basara's childhood and he is super strange even back then. Again, it's not an insult. Tribladeofchaos posted:You know what that's fair, when I watched it years ago I think I just missed the point with his character. I took it as "he's the main character and he's always right because his singing works", that and what I felt him having a big lack of character development really soured the show when I first watched it. It's easy to get the sense that "Basara was right all along!" at a glance, that's completely understandable, especially since so many shows cop out on that sort of thing. The thing is is that while his general idea(communication with the aliens) was correct, the way he was going about it was totally worthless and ineffective and only with the aid of the military and other pilots like Gamlin is he able to put his solution into effect in a meaningful way. All of his singing to the protodevlin didn't actually start having an impact until speaker pods and sound energy technology was put into practice. Even with Basara's influence, without the efforts of the people actually fighting like Gamlin, the fleet would have been eradicated long before Basara managed to achieve what he did.
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Feb 29, 2016 03:18
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The Muffinlord posted:It was mostly because the first time they summoned Oubu, all the kids were on the outside of the suit, GR style. but yeah, that comparison's sort of fallen apart. I don't know any more about the show than anyone else, I just think it's pretty great. It is GR-esque in that the show is pushing some very charismatic and characterful antagonists with unique powers, at least.
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Mar 1, 2016 23:25
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ImpAtom posted:Brygar is basically a Lupin-style adventure/mercenary show only they have a giant robot for no real reason. This is a good summary. The show is basically 100% about the on-foot stuff and the interplay between the characters and the Brygar itself basically only ever comes out at the very end of any given plot arc to fight an enemy robot or something, and it almost always defeats its foe completely effortlessly with no real conflict. It's a very good show but if you're looking for cool robot action it is definitely not about that.
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Apr 29, 2016 15:33
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Raxivace posted:I've watched both movies now. A Contact does about as well as squeezing 32ish episodes into 85 minutes as you can reasonably expect. Loses some good moments and characterization from the series, but still. Be Invoked kind of grew into meme status with people making gifs of the conflict at the end and youtube videos of all the deaths in the movie cut together, which makes people who haven't seen it assume that it's a nonstop murderfest.
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May 31, 2016 00:14
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Babysitter Super Sleuth posted:Hot take: fumoffu was by far the peak of FMP and the Tom Clancy wannabe stuff never did anything but drag it down This is a near universal opinion among people I know who have watched FMP, to be honest.
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Oct 22, 2016 19:24
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Those Jaegers look a lot more like humans in armor than the old ones did.
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Feb 10, 2017 14:20
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StrixNebulosa posted:Wait, what? How decently is he portrayed? (It's me, I'm always eager to see anime with autistic folk in it.) He genuinely wants people to understand him and each other through his music, but struggles extremely hard to effectively communicate with people in any other medium.
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Feb 21, 2017 11:35
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Raxivace posted:That actually makes the show sound interesting. When the moral that is being poo poo on by the new series is "People who are different can learn to live in peace and happiness together" it gets kind of hosed up.
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Mar 18, 2017 07:51
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Srice posted:Fumoffu is better than FMP precisely because of, the lack of robots. Yeaaaaaah. The overarching plotline and robot battle parts of FMP are honestly extremely bland and forgettable and the thing that makes the series worth anything at all are the character interactions and the goofy comedy, which Fumoffu goes whole hog on. The very fact that they made an entire OVA with literally no robot parts based on what is ostensibly a robot show should say a lot.
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May 8, 2017 11:38
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Gyra_Solune posted:the villains in FMP are pretty universally garbage. they're barely written like people which makes them not very interesting to see doing stuff. But Gauron and Gates are so kuh-razy and random!!! Or maybe they can fight another one of Sousuke's emotionless and completely interchangeable child soldier buddies.
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May 8, 2017 23:39
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Raxivace posted:I really liked the moment in The Second Raid where Sosuke, after finally beginning to truly connect with Chidori, gets the e-mail announcing he's being relieved of protecting her and isn't allowed to see her anymore. He just quietly reads the e-mail in an uncomfortably long amount of time before just punching the computer to loving death and losing his poo poo in a way we hadn't really see him do before. This is an example of the character moments that are the really good parts about FMP and also why I like TSR a lot more than the original series, because TSR is basically a gigantic journey into Sousuke's messed up head and the only major robot fight is basically a fit of symbolic catharsis.
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May 9, 2017 02:55
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Guy Goodbody posted:Macross 7 goes on way too long, but all that time you spend with the characters ends up making you really like them and care about them. I love the Macross 7 OVAs because they give you more time with those characters but without making you sit through Planet Dance or "Anima Spiritia! eeeeeeeeeeeee" again. Macross Delta was also far too long for the story material they had, though unlike Macross 7 it also failed to make me give a poo poo about any of the characters. Hayate is possibly the most unlikeable lead in the franchise.
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May 12, 2017 08:00
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Mimir posted:Speaking of funny - is Dai-Guard any good? I really, really like it.
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May 26, 2017 06:36
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Srice posted:It's crucial that it happens in such a lame, unimportant way. Yeah, the scene is very deliberately meant to make it feel like a pointless waste and it's very important to Akito's development and the themes of the show in general.
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Jun 7, 2017 12:09
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tsob posted:I like how blase Kihel is in that image. Though I think only Dianna wore that outfit in the show, so maybe it's her and that's just a Dianna doll under the couch. The eyes are a bit too small to use that tell. Who are the two in the back of the image (red haired dude and blue haired girl)? Don't recognize them at all. That's Tristan and Aeon, the male and female lead from the surprisingly great PS2 JRPG MS Saga(Gundam True Odyssey in Japan). Frankly, I'm absolutely amazed that anyone else remembered that game existed.
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Jun 17, 2017 15:37
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I really love Gaogaigar but I don't actually want more of it, I think. Either the ending of the series or the ending of Final are both really good, tight, and thematically consistent ways to end the show; you basically get to choose if you want sweet(series ending) or bittersweet(Final ending). Most shows can't even manage one good ending, nevermind two.
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Jun 28, 2017 09:54
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Relin posted:finally got around to finishing gaogaigar then final. seems kind of unnecessary to end it with everyone in GGG dying, including the robots. maybe grand glorious gathering retcons it? i don't have any inclination to watch it, especially since final already dragged on (though it had some nice animation) There's two ways to interpret the GGG Final ending, really, and I think both work really well for the final animated GGG production. First, you could interpret it in the optimistic way; the GGG people have made a habit of crawling and scraping their way to victory in situations that have otherwise seemed completely impossible before, and it's entirely possible they do it again and make their way home; believe in your heroes and they will turn 1 into 100%. IIRC, this actually happens in side material, though don't quote me on that. The second way you can interpret it is in the bittersweet way; GGG have fought their ultimate battle of all and done the impossible by saving the universe from destruction, and as their last act of heroism they saved their chosen sons. It's a noble, selfless, heroic end perfectly suited for a noble, selfless, heroic organization. In this scenario, Mamoru and Kaidou will likely spend their lives dedicated to GGG's memory and making sure that GGG's heroism and sacrifice will always be remembered.
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Jul 2, 2017 05:28
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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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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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Srice posted:He's right. A good plot and characters can carry lovely mecha designs/fight choreography, but a bad plot and bad characters are generally not saved by great mecha designs/fight choreography. Checks out.
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Dec 12, 2017 00:24
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Gun x Sword is one of my absolute favorite mecha shows ever.
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Dec 12, 2017 00:54
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Schneider Heim posted:Captain rear end was really mediocre and I suffered through the whole thing, which really hurt because I enjoyed Star Driver despite all its faults. Seriously, Captain Earth is one of the most disappointing nothing shows I've devoted an entire watch to. It manages to almost completely waste decent character concepts and fantastic mechanical design and has one of the most boring final resolutions possible.
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Dec 14, 2017 18:34
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Darth Walrus posted:Pandora has Nobunaga the Fool’s director and Macross Delta’s writer. That’s a powerfully underwhelming combo. Holy poo poo, that's like a black hole void of failed potential.
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Mar 18, 2018 21:57
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Guy Goodbody posted:I finished A.I.C.O. Incarnation. I didn't like it. I mostly concur with this. One of my big criticisms is that the divers felt redundant. They didn't do enough or say enough to warrant there being two teams of them, and they have almost no input in the ultimate resolution of things besides to yell things and shoot at an infinitely replicating mass of flesh while the characters who actually matter resolve the entire situation. A lot of the weaker parts of the show(the repetitive fighting, the weird "it's a competition" plot point that never matters, the pointless Aico is attracting the matter oh no!!! "betrayal" plot) are tied up in them and I almost feel like they were incidental to the actual story they wanted to tell. The show's main story thread is pretty cool and good since it's a neat look at transhumanism but the actual execution of the show is kind of sloppy and repetitive. It probably should have been a couple hours of OVA instead of a full single cour show.
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Apr 21, 2018 18:53
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Raxivace posted:I watched Wings of Rean. Baby explosion!
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Apr 24, 2018 17:17
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I'm one of the people who really Blade but the show honestly drags rear end really hard in the beginning and I can't really blame anyone for bouncing off it. It takes a while before there's payoff.
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Jun 28, 2018 16:22
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