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I found M3 a little dark for my liking. Not, y'know, in plot or themes, but the gimmick of monsters from a realm of eternal night plus the nature of the CG-work meant that it was literally too dark to easily see what was happening on-screen during many of the fights. Just a lot of faintly-coloured blobs (some of them with neon highlights) slamming into each other.
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Sep 21, 2015 09:11
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Also, Japan has its reasons for producing more anti-war media than the average country.
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Sep 28, 2015 14:46
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ninjewtsu posted:i think there's a difference between "i want a mecha anime that glorifies war" and "i want an anime with giant robots that also is about something other than how awful war is" Patlabor 2 delved into that territory, and delved into it hard. The whole film was reportedly inspired by Ito and Oshii's opposition to overseas deployment of the JSDF.
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Sep 28, 2015 21:07
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TNG posted:Buff Clan too! Everybody's wagon was fixed but good. I dunno, I thought that while it was nice that the cast got some peace and an (abstract) chance to start again, the upliftingness of Be Invoked was damaged by the serious question brought up in both that movie and the last episodes of the TV show about what right the Ide had to do all that in the first place. Let's be honest, here, it's not a wise, benevolent, and fair-minded arbiter, it's a genocidal, inscrutably alien shitlord running a blatantly rigged game. I'm sorry, but you don't get to judge two races for being unable to get over their differences when you force them to make first contact by framing both sides for each other's genocide, and that's only the start of how the Ide screws with its results. Couple that with its bizarre moral code (the ways in which it expresses its fondness for kids just get creepier and creepier), which raises questions about what, exactly, would meet its standards as an acceptable species, and you've got a creature that makes a Death Parade arbiter look like a trustworthy, sensible decision-maker.
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Sep 30, 2015 01:01
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TNG posted:Probably those sand worm things that haven't exactly built a civilization based around expansion and shooting things. The thing about the Buff Clan and Humanity is that they were both ALL too willing to butcher each other at every turn. The Solo Ship was only running from Solo because the Buff Clan assumed the horrible aliens must have killed their princess and must be attacked and killed in turn. The Ide certainly doesn't help matters, but it isn't like Humanity and Buff Clan wouldn't be punching each other to death if the Ide hadn't thrown a knife into the middle anyway. I'm not so sure. Impending extinction is a pretty huge deal, especially if there's reasonable evidence that the other side's responsible (and, well, as it turned out, there actually was an Earther ship engaged in the repeated and unprovoked nuking of the Buff Clan homeworld - just a shame its crew had no idea, or that it was also responsible for their own homeworld getting repeatedly nuked), and while there were assholes on both sides, the Ide went out of its way several times to torpedo peaceful solutions. By the end of Be Invoked, neither side actually wants to continue, but does so anyway because they're convinced, with a fair amount of reason, that the Ide would find a way to force them into it regardless, and they at least want to go out on their own terms.
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Sep 30, 2015 01:32
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The Gundam stuff released since 2008 has been hit and miss - probably the one I'd recommend with the least caveats is Gundam Build Fighters, a shameless toy commercial with an astonishing amount of heart and enthusiasm poured into it. The sequel series is a significant downgrade, though, so you might want to skip that.
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Oct 2, 2015 09:28
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Motto posted:I heard Buddy Complex was pretty standard mecha show, but an enjoyable standard. It was pretty aggressively vanilla, and I didn't like the mechanical designs - the good guys and bad guys weren't visually distinct enough from each other, meaning fights were often hard to follow. Also, I heard the way it wrapped up was kind of rushed. It's OK if you're desperate for more giant robots, I guess, but it's kinda soulless and mass-produced.
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Oct 3, 2015 01:07
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a kitten posted:Stoked for more Macross. What... what if the aliens sing at us? 
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Oct 26, 2015 03:28
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boom boom boom posted:That happens. If you showed me a picture of the Nirvash or the upgraded Nirvash, I couldn't tell you which one it was That one's easy - the spec2 has the enormous pauldron-wings.
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Oct 31, 2015 03:28
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Gyra_Solune posted:the state of the world in fafner exodus, about two hundred years in the future The Trump presidency was a hell of a thing.
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Nov 26, 2015 18:49
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tsob posted:They're not being controlled by it either. It looks far more likely that they're being gesture controlled. For a start, Walkure aren't even singing when they use the drones to form stagelights right at the start. A few seconds later when they form a shield over some citizens Mikumo makes a gesture towards them with her fingers just before hand. Which is a totally reasonable way of controlling them really. They also use handheld holographic displays to show information. The whole thing is about healing people through the power of jpop. If there's a murder-plague going around and the only way to fix it is with idol concerts, then it's your duty to splurge on high-tech visual effects and put on the best drat concert you can. Like, seriously, I think that's the actual explanation for all the fancy lighting and little dancing drone-holograms.
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Jan 5, 2016 08:51
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Reds posted:I get the feeling the full explanation beyond "music cures the plague" will be a quick "music heals this because fold technobabble, don't think too hard about it" and questions such as "would it work if you played a recording" or "do you really need full magical girls and concerts and a big light show or is just the music good enough, do you need to be up in their faces or can you play it over speakers" or "would death metal be more effective than j-pop, do you need instruments or can it be just raw singing" are not going to addressed. They seem to be going with the Frontier thing of 'emotion can generate fold-space effects with the right technology, and we're going with music because tradition'. If it's about conveying emotion through art to fry the virus, then a visual component is just as much of a plus as an aural one. It being a daft, off-the-wall concept doesn't mean they haven't put thought into it.
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Jan 5, 2016 13:42
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And that isn't an acronym. BBK/BRNK is the official name.
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Feb 16, 2016 01:52
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dogsicle posted:this is a terrible idea and shouldn't happen Did Big O have a proper ending? I hear mixed things about this.
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Mar 25, 2016 00:49
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The anime felt pretty unfinished, so that's nice.
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Mar 26, 2016 03:25
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Luck and Logic remained slight but pleasant to the end, and I liked the clever way they made Over Trancing (the ultra-powerful, ultra-dangerous technique) scary. Basically, you can overclock the fusions with deities that give the cast their superpowers, but since the special mystic power source is your psyche, it'll eventually lead to your personality literally exploding out of your body, and if there's not someone around to catch the shrapnel... well, you won't be as you were.
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Mar 27, 2016 11:57
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Anything from the Zoids franchise worth a watch?
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Mar 31, 2016 19:05
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GorfZaplen posted:Each J9 show is based on a different theme or series, Braiger is based off of a TV series about assassins, Baxinger is based off of the Shinsengumi and Bakumatsu era, and Sasuraiger is based off of Around the World in 80 Days. Jinraiger is apparently going to be based off of Water Margin. Looking forward to our heroes massacring villages, gruesomely killing unfaithful wives, and eating the gently caress out of dudes, then. Seriously, that book is easily the most hosed up of the Four Great Historical Novels.
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Apr 30, 2016 01:19
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The main series is kind of a slog, but the two movies are very good. It's just a pity that neither of them works as a replacement for the TV show. A Contact only covers half the series and makes too many changes to work as a compilation movie, and Be Invoked is essentially a partial replacement for the final episode. If they'd had a third movie to tie them together, that would have been great.
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May 26, 2016 14:48
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ImpAtom posted:It's also going to have Cross Ange though so y'know, monkey paw wishes. I'd be extremely surprised if the worst bits of Cross Ange make it into something as light and family-friendly as a SRW game.
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Jun 5, 2016 13:00
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MonsieurChoc posted:Seems appropriate for a Go Nagai project. It's by the Wolf Guy Wolfen Crest author, whose flavour of skeeze is far less campily ridiculous and far more purely unpleasant.
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Jun 9, 2016 08:33
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MonsieurChoc posted:They should do an entire show using only puppets and plamos. Thunderbolt Fantasy with giant animal-robots? I'd dig it.
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Oct 4, 2016 00:24
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One thing I was just thinking about today was how great the Gurren Lagann OPs are as complete packages - great song, and animation that matches it well to create an incredibly strong mood. In particular, that bit at the beginning where the heavy guitar cuts out and the sweet, hopeful lyrics kick in as Simon bursts out of the sky and soars through the clouds conveys this amazing sense of innocent adventure. Any other giant robot openings you'd say are that good at setting a tone through well-integrated music and visuals?
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Oct 15, 2016 13:59
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It's Gundam again, but Iron-Blooded-Orphans is another very solid show with a much stronger emotional core than G-Reco. It suffers from several of its conflicts being kicked down the road for a second season, but fortunately, that second season is here and smells like it's going to deliver - the last couple of episodes have basically been setup for everything to go straight to hell in a very satisfying way. There's also Gundam Build Fighters, which is a nakedly commercial product, but manages to transcend that to become an incredibly charming sports show. It says a lot that the episode where members of the cast learn how to build little plastic models is one of the flat-out cutest in the run. The total lack of risk of injury to the 'pilots' means the fights can be surprisingly intense, too. Avoid the sequel show, Try, though - it's the same again with none of the soul. Kuromukuro is also great, yes - it's this really fun little coming-of-age story that very much reminds me of Full Metal Panic (plus some of the lighter aspects of Neon Genesis Evangelion). The giant robot action is very definitely the worst part of it, but even that has its moments.
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Oct 15, 2016 22:06
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OK, running it down: Xebec's last mecha show was Argevollen, which was extremely dull but at least had some half-decent CG action. Katsuichi Nakayama's had minor staff positions in a whole bunch of stuff, but only one previous full series direction role, in a 2006 anime I've never heard of called The Good Witch of the West. Shoji Gatoh is, of course, the author of the original light novels, but also has series composition and screenplay experience, both on adaptations of his work and on the adapted screenplay of Hyouka. Aya Yamamoto doesn't have an MAL or ANN entry. Looks like we might have an experience-light staff here with a scriptwriter who (obviously) knows the source material well, and has produced some good anime, but was always working with highly talented, experienced people before now. I'm tempering my expectations accordingly.
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Oct 22, 2016 08:34
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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 The previous two adaptations also filtered out a lot of the weird poo poo. Like, it was there, but it was toned way down from the light novels. I'm a little concerned that with this nobody staff, we may well be seeing a less filtered Gatoh than we're used to.
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Oct 22, 2016 14:56
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Gyra_Solune posted:Actually it was Fafner Exodus! Which I really enjoyed though it can be a bit of a mixed bag. That's why I brought it up, the technical side of things. There's good odds on this one using CG mechs, but with a reasonable degree of competence.
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Oct 22, 2016 22:37
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Guy Goodbody posted:Active Raid is good Ignore this poster. It's a heap of tedious nothing. There are highlights, but they're few and far between.
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Feb 7, 2017 01:05
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Guy Goodbody posted:I liked it. All the characters were developed and got some time to shine, and the ending was really cool. The characters were static, bland, and one-note as hell (the closest one to being an actual character was the boss, and as part of an ensemble cast, she really didn't get enough time to shine), and the ending felt like nothing we hadn't seen done a million times better before in other robot shows. If you want buddy cops with powered armour, Tiger and Bunny blows it out of the water.
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Feb 7, 2017 10:08
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TaurusOxford posted:Dammit, I was hoping for a bigger time skip. There's no way those forearms can do rocket punches. That might be what the big one at the back is for.
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Feb 10, 2017 16:57
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It's very much a movie sequel, though. A major but relatively self-contained threat that doesn't greatly alter the overall plot. Definitely feels like setup for a full sequel series.
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Apr 6, 2017 14:44
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Srice posted:Argevollen has a few uncommon elements to it. Buddy Complex just wants to recapture Gundam Seed. Yeah, Argevollen isn't all that exciting, but there aren't many grunts'-eye-view slice-of-life mecha shows out there. Buddy Complex is just a lame Gundam knock-off, give or take a couple of weird bits around the edges.
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Apr 9, 2017 17:32
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Well, ID-0 is already vastly more interesting than Active Raid. Taniguchi's making a relatively smooth directorial transition to full 3D, too - there's some janky shots, but it could honestly be a whole lot worse.
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Apr 19, 2017 01:31
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Artum posted:I'd heard it described as cute girls doing cute things but mecha and wasn't hugely enthused, is this accurate? Not remotely. It's a show about transhumanism, high-risk space mining, and corporate skulduggery (and first contact). Been pretty fun so far.
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Apr 19, 2017 13:12
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Sharkopath posted:ID-0 is still cool. Ah, the Persona 5 option.
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Apr 26, 2017 23:02
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Was on a YouTube stroll the other day, and received a reminder that even if little else of the show has aged well, Vandread's first opening theme is really goddamned great: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSA_gVBPvYY
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Jun 19, 2017 17:23
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Attack on Titan is actually a pretty decent shout if you don't mind your mecha being a little... meaty. Kuromukuro is also great, but the robot fighting is actually the weakest part.
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Aug 14, 2017 17:24
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If there's one thing you can't fault IBO for, it's a lack of ambition. Not many directors have the sheer balls to create a mob story that simultaneously serves as a reimagining of Zeta Gundam, Berserk, and the rise and fall of the goddamned Japanese Empire. Gundam TV shows tend to aim big, but Iron-Blooded Orphans aimed big.
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Aug 14, 2017 23:07
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tsob posted:It's not something I could fault it for, but it's not something I'd praise it for either. Aiming big isn't worth anything on it's own. That said, I'm not even sure how IBO is a re-imagining of Zeta. It contains a lot of remixed elements, culminating in a group of psychologically damaged children going off to die in a sociopathic manchild's effort to do something good for once in his life, a rebellion against the evil, Earth-based space police who (unbeknownst to them all) have been subverted by a ruthless, charismatic genius, his fanatically devoted female sidekick, and the main character's sad-sack rival (who is mad at the MC because he repeatedly humiliated him and killed two of his love interests), who have very different plans for the organisation. As for why it's worth praising, it's because ambition is interesting. Aim high, and you'll give the audience lots to think about and talk about even if you fail. IBO aimed insanely high, and is the most thought-provoking Gundam show in a long, long time as a result.
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Aug 15, 2017 00:40
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Snooze Cruise posted:I don't get this. What about IBO screams "aiming high?" Yeah it had some interesting ideas, but calling it thought provoking really seems like a stretch. It was putting its own spin on (at minimum) two of the most famous, influential, and acclaimed nerd properties in the country, in order to capture the national experience of Japan's most influential, traumatic few decades of the past three centuries for people living almost a century later. That's pretty damned gutsy. Seriously, the final arc of S2 does an amazing job of showing the mad whirl of emotion that must have accompanied the fall of the Empire - the hubris, the rising panic, the humiliation, the guilt, the hope, and the despair. It also gives us a hell of a lot to chew on - the degrading nature of oppression, and the triumph and beauty that can still be found within it, as well as the moral and practical value of violent rebellion versus incremental change (were the reforms at the end of the show provoked by McGillis and Tekkadan shocking the world into action? If so, did that make what they did worth it?). Even the mechanical design has a deeper, more intimate, and more complex relationship with the story and themes than is usual for Gundam. I definitely think it's OK that it doesn't answer all of its questions - these are not solved arguments in the real world, but they're important, and identifying problems and inviting more people to think about them more is always a plus. Tae posted:G-Reco at least have people I know that are passionate about it. The most I get out of IBO is "Well, that was a thing I guess. It failed miserly, but not enough that I care." FTFY.
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Aug 15, 2017 01:43
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