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I just read this whole thread in about two days so now it's 3 am and I'm wondering why you don't see more western properties digging into mecha for shows. They're well represented in video games and tabletop with Battletech and 40K titans but in film and television you're options are incredibly limited if you don't care for Transformers. Pacific Rim The Black is kind of a turn off for me because it looks like the Godzilla Planet of the Monsters anime movies and those sucked. Uprising was lame. I haven't watched GenLock because I fell off of Rooster Teeth content around the time they made their all animated season with Monty Oum where everyone had anime haircuts under their helmets and RWBY took over. Is it any good or does it fall into the usual pit of "anime inspired" western shows that haul out visual tropes and mannerisms with no understanding of how or why they are used? Other than lamenting the lack of visual representation for animated mech shows outside of Japan what are some decent "real robot" shows that are more recent and aren't Dougram, VOTOMS Gundam or FLAG? I'm a suckered for Kunio Okawara chonky bots so stuff he's worked on is a plus.
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Mar 17, 2021 08:03
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I stuck with Geass through season 1 and then the first episode of season 2 was so bad I bounced off the show immediately because I realized that between the rocky finish to S1 and how the show got rejigged for an earlier time slot that it was going off the rails from what I initially liked. Big O was fun. Never watched Mazinger or many Super Robot shows to begin with. I'm looking for something a bit more grounded. Macross Plus was good fun last I watched it. I was hoping something a bit more recent had come out on the RR side of mecha.
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Mar 17, 2021 08:18
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Gripweed posted:Xabungle! It's so real robot, after every fight they siphon gas out of the robots they beat to keep their own robots running. I've watched some of Xabungle and liked it. Tomino knows how to make subtle character tics in animation and I really appreciate that. It does feel like the mecha stuff I like had its heyday in the 80s and 90s and it's been more of a trickle in the 21st century. Good shows certainly but not as much variety to choose from. Side note: has anyone ever watched the one dubbed episode of VOTOMS? I'm not even sure if it's legit or not, I just remember catching it once like a decade ago and I'm still not sure if it's real.
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Mar 17, 2021 15:28
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Since I'm still stuck on this topic I've tried to come up with a list of European and North American series that could be considered Mecha or at least adjacent. Some are technically still Japanese but their western association wins out. In no particular order: Straight up Mecha: Transformers is the obvious and most popular one by far. Pacific Rim Battletech/Mechwarrior/Mech Assault 1920+ with Scythe and Iron Harvest Sym Bionic Titan Megas XLR The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot Voltron Robotech (because gently caress Harmony Gold) Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander Titanfall Robot Jocks GenLOCK Brigador Real Steel Mecha Adjacent: Star Wars walkers Warhammer 40K walkers and titans, or straight Mecha with the Tau suits. Warmahordes Warjacks Robocop ED209s Starship Troopers Roughnecks treats the Marauder suits more like mecha than power armour Starcraft Goliaths Halo Mantis units Gears of War 4 and 5 DB Constructors Killzone Mawlers District 9 Prawn battle suit Avatar bowie knife mechs. The big thing I've noticed is that most of these properties are games rather than television or films and that speaks to the greater differences in how certain types of media are financed between Japan and other countries. It must be hell to try and make a mecha series without proper backing because of the demands of the Hollywood blockbuster system demanding ludicrous returns to be considered successful. Because mecha is so reliant on visual design to stand out, the way the system works in North America makes the costs balloon out of control. They can get away with it in the gaming industry more often because that industry is a mess of corruption and sunk cost fallacy among AAA publishers and shareholders so money isn't as much of an issue. Still, like Hollywood, it only takes one flop to kill a franchise and in gaming it also consistently kills studios. Meanwhile in Japan if you have a dedicated enough fan base even something like Fafner can survive. Arc Hammer fucked around with this message at 17:33 on Mar 17, 2021 |
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Mar 17, 2021 17:13
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Titanicus slaps.
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Mar 17, 2021 17:53
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Gripweed posted:It's worth noting that while giant robots are just a small part of 40k overall, there are several novels specifically about them so they are just total mecha novels. One of them is set entirely in a giant robot, about a lady who works in the leg and has to fight when she finds out the robot is being corrupted from the inside by Chaos. To add to my earlier "Titanicus slaps" I think a lot of it has to be attributed to Dan Abnett's talent for describing a scene. As I said mecha are heavily reliant on the visual element which is hard to get in a western context due to the cost involved. Abnett can't write an ending but goddamn can he paint a picture with words.
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Mar 17, 2021 18:59
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Snidhog posted:Gen:LOCK was cool, as was the whole consciousness transfer aspect, but +1 for it desperately needing a 2nd season and actually examining who the antagonists are/what they want/etc. This is honestly a huge problem with every show written by Rooster Teeth. It's fine when Red Vs Blue was a bunch of random sketches with the barest plot to justify new scenarios, but when the later seasons got plot heavy it got dumb real fast and the villains were barely explored. And then there's RWBY. So I guess it does track that GenLOCK would have the same problem.
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Mar 19, 2021 00:16
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Anshu posted:RWBY has done quite a bit of exploring the villains' motivations and personalities starting in Volume 4 and running all the way through to the currently-airing Volume 8, so while you could defensibly argue that they took too long to get to it, it is something they have done. And that's all I'll say on the topic, since this is the mecha thread and RWBY is not mecha. True enough. It just does feel like a recurring issue in RT shows. Anyhow, I remember a show with a robot called Dan from Thursday. Gun X Sword? I watched a couple episodes and rolled my eyes at the lady whose name was just her breast measurements. Should I pick it back up?
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Mar 19, 2021 00:36
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Yeah a couple years ago they had a change of management and last year they did a massive purge and kicked a lot of their lovely fans to the curb during the Floyd protests. They're still grossly over expensive with their products but I do respect them trying to clean up their act. The best of their Black Library extended universe stuff treats the Imperium as a horrible, horrible place and only the worst bits of fluff still openly embrace the fascism. Most of their middling bolter porn novels just stick to violent nihilism typical of military SF rather than saying "the space nazis are right". They do need to do more stuff with Titans and Knights to get my mecha vibes going. Titanicus is the peak, followed by Helsreach but there actually aren't many stories that focus heavily on the God Machines. Arc Hammer fucked around with this message at 03:48 on Mar 19, 2021 |
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Mar 19, 2021 03:45
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How do you have a character named Mag Uruk Thracka whose nickname is "The Iron Ork" and not think he's a Thatcher pun?
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Mar 19, 2021 15:35
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Is Frontier the one where the SDF throws a haymaker at a battleship?
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Mar 28, 2021 04:44
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Would jet or aircraft anime fall in as sister series to mecha shows? There's already crossover with Macross. I've been meaning to give Yukikaze a spin. Is it recommended?
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Mar 28, 2021 06:44
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Raxivace posted:https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/macross-sequels-and-films-to-be-released-worldwide-by-big-west-and-harmony-gold-exclusive/ Hrrnnnnnnngh. Still, gently caress Harmony Gold.
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Apr 9, 2021 01:29
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At least the Bebop production is still rolling. Faye's actress just wrapped up her shooting in the last week or two. No idea about John Cho and his leg surgery.
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Apr 9, 2021 02:04
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I found Orgun to be rather boring.
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Apr 9, 2021 16:15
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OG or Mark Hamill body horror version?
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Apr 9, 2021 19:50
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Was the unofficial Starship Troopers OVA worth looking at or is it fairly boring?
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Apr 9, 2021 20:09
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So is Bandai's new mecha franchise supposed to be based on the 30MM Gunpla or is it an entirely new mecha series to then create a line of Gunpla for?
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Apr 16, 2021 23:48
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SF Debris is a video review guy who rarely dives into Anime. He's talking about Patlabor: The Movie. He's a self admitted outsider to Anime, but he usually drops some good insights. He's pretty quick to pick up on Oshii's director styles, even if he's not quite able to convey that directly. Arc Hammer fucked around with this message at 03:40 on Apr 22, 2021 |
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Apr 22, 2021 03:34
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moZH0tKUT8o I had no idea there was a Manga Entertainment dub of Patlabor. I think I've seen Patlabor 2 maybe once, years ago, and it was the Bandai released dub from 2003.
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Apr 28, 2021 07:24
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Is mellowlink worth my time if I want to see people fight Scopedogs on foot?
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Apr 28, 2021 15:56
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Maybe one of the Nato combat labors from the start of the second movie.
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May 12, 2021 16:54
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Is that the Core Gundam? I can't quite make it out on my phone.
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May 12, 2021 18:30
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I started watching Mellowlink. First episode was good. Dogman was a dick. How big is Votoms in Japan? The Real Robot genre doesn't seem that large beyond outsized presences like Gundam. Yet it seems like Votoms has had a pretty extensive track record of consecutive shows and OVAs stretching from the 80s into the 2000s. Mellowlink feels like it has a razor sharp focus on what it wants to be and is appealing to a very specific audience but I don't know how you make a long running franchise off of such a concept. Is it like Battletech's audience where the fan base is just really that dedicated to keeping it going?
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May 21, 2021 08:28
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Finished episode 2 of Mellowlink. If this is the setup for the show with each episode being a boss fight where he needs to puzzle his way towards spiking the cockpit then I'm all for it. Mellowlink himself is kinda basic and I don't know spy guy's deal yet, but the fights are good and Im loving the way the AT's maneuver during combat.
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May 22, 2021 06:00
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I posted about this in the general discussion thread but with the HG stuff ending is there a chance that the Manga Entertainment dub of Mafross Plus could be re-released with the original sound mix for episode 4?
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Jun 5, 2021 04:09
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Zone of the Enders plus buttrock? And was that actually Steve Blum in the cockpit or just a guy getting dubbed over by Steve?
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Jun 26, 2021 01:18
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What other mecha series has Kunio Okawara worked out outside of Gundam and Votoms? The dude is probably my favourite mecha designer since I love his big chunky tanks on legs aesthetic.
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Jul 5, 2021 15:48
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I hope we delineate between worst line read and worst line period. Because bad dubs are hilarious but I don't think anything will beat "People die when they are killed!" for sheer idiotic anime dialogue.
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Jul 7, 2021 02:46
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Darth Walrus posted:That one's a bad translation. It's 'people are supposed to die when they're killed', because he hadn't despite the fact that he had, and he's a bit puzzled about why. I still find it hilarious and now it's entrenched in my mind, like it's a shocking stoner epiphany.
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Jul 7, 2021 03:11
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Would you count AEUG as a PMC given that half their members are former Zekes?
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Jul 7, 2021 21:17
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Gaius Marius posted:Half their force isn't Zeke's. Not even Roberto and apolly are even known to be former zeon in the show itself. The show straight up calls it a federation civil war I thought there were at least a few more than just Quattro. I guess I'm falling into the trap of assuming every spacenoid is a Zeon.
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Jul 7, 2021 22:58
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MonsieurChoc posted:Hard to say which is most exploitative and evil between the Idol industry and PMCs. Macross: why not both?
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Jul 8, 2021 02:02
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I know it's Kojima and he's as subtle as a sledgehammer and about as elegant but I do think that the Metal Gear games have one of the best depictions of PMCs because they go to great lengths to also emphasize why PMCs are a terrible idea because of the damage they do to global stability and the trauma they inflict on the people who partake in the business. MGS4 is a dumb game but the stuff about how the PMCs work is pretty chilling stuff and it makes it hard for me to root for shows or films where vigilante armed forces are presented as unambiguous good guys. It falls into the Military Sci Fi pitfall of "hard men making hard choices while those pussy rear end politicians waste everyone's time."
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Jul 8, 2021 02:58
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And the Mamoru Oshii comes along a few years later with Patlabor 2 to point out that Japan absolutely is militarized and armed to the teeth with soldier boys and the longer the country lives in the lie of peace the worse the fallout will be when the facade finally drops.
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Jul 8, 2021 05:26
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I still hope that one day we'll be able to see episode 4 of Macross Plus with the Bryan Cranston dub and the original soundscape. Apparently a rights issue kept the original English dub from using the sound mix so they had to redo it from scratch which is why episode 4 reuses music from previous episodes rather than the stuff specifically made for the episode. Then apparently they made a new dub for episode 4 in like 2014 or something that featured David Hayter as Isamu on a japanese Blu Ray release as a foreign language track.
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Jul 8, 2021 06:11
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And 0079 had a Toonami remix for the OP and ED.
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Jul 10, 2021 23:03
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Looks like a cross between an Autobot and a Maximal. This is a good thing.
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Jul 19, 2021 16:13
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MonsieurChoc posted:Man I should have gotten the Messer. It was so cool in the movie. I liked the part where they shot up a city and people died.
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Jul 20, 2021 23:46
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Beware of falling shell casings
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Jul 21, 2021 02:39
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