What are you watching/or completed? (Anime)

[Dr Kain]

So I watched the first 5 episodes to Reconguista of G today and they weren't bad. I think having just watched a ton of Gundam series has helped with all of the lingo they are throwing down left and right. However, it would be nice to get some damn exposition laying down the setting of the show. I have no idea what the difference is between the Capital Army, the Capital Tower, Ameria, Space Pirates, and the other group they have briefly mentioned. Are these different countries? Is the Earth Federation gone? Has the world been set up into different divisions?

I also don't get why they would let a prisoner pilot the G-Self. First it was the Capital Army letting Aina pilot it back to Ameria and now it is Ameria letting Bell pilot it. WTF? WHO LETS PRISONERS PILOT THEIR MACHINERY?!!! Thankfully Bell has a great personality and reminds me a lot of Judau with his laid back attitude. It's kind of refreshing right now. Not sure what to think about the others though, especially the pink haired girl. I do like the Haro in this show. The animation is pretty nice too.

Oh, and is it just me, or is the Capital Army located in a restored Jaburo jungle?

Overall, it's already better than Destiny, but we'll see where it goes. Maybe my expectations have been lowered so much I am not hating it as much as I should.

Oh yeah, I forgot to add that the show answered a question for me I never asked nor knew I needed answered. How the pilots go to the bathroom.

[Rody]

Clannad: After Story had an Ultraman reference. Yay!
In all seriousness, I just finished the show. I can see why it's so beloved, though I didn't love it myself (I still liked it).

One more to mark off my Kyoto Animation checklist.

[Dr Kain]

Watched episodes 6-16 today and the show isn't terrible by any means, but there is a lot of information I feel that is missing. I do like that it isn't all in your face with exposition like a lot of anime is these days. The problem is, there isn't any bit of exposition, so I have no idea what the difference between the Capital Army and Capital Guard are. Why is Ameria at war with the Capital Army? What countries make up the Capital Army? Also, what the hell is a Kuntala?

Oh, and is it just me, or is Captain Mask the weakest Char clone ever? He is pretty much the Jerrid of this show as he has accomplished nothing but keeps talking about how he is going to do so next time, only to lose again.

The animation continues to be nice though and I do like Loran 2.0, I mean Bell. However, damn, they just Skywalker'd him. WTF?!

The biggest problem is that things are just happening without any explanation for them. I have no idea what the character motivations are or why they do what they do. Nothing is really explained. It isn't the worst Gundam series ever, and Tomino clearly had an idea here, but there are a lot of missed opportunities. Finally, why is this show only 26 episodes when it is clearly being written to be a full length Gundam show? I feel like I should have another 25 episodes before the crap hits the fan, but I only have 10 episodes left.

[Dr Kain]

Okay, so we just finished Reconquista of G and my god, that has to be the most assnine frustrating ending I have seen from Gundam since Destiny's rushed mess of an ending. For the most part, the series was quite enjoyable and I'm glad I gave it a full chance as there were a lot of great things going on in the show.

There are some spoilers involved...

Positives:

+ The characters themselves were likable, especially the main group.
+ The animation was really nice and didn't force in CGI crap while keeping with a more traditional character design.
+ The show doesn't rely on constant exposition to tell its story like a lot of series today are doing. However... (see negatives)
+ The music, while not the best Gundam score, is quite good too. Yuga Kanno has done better with the like of Psycho Pass, but this was still good.
+ Tomino still has some great ideas when it comes to a Gundam show and provided a series that could have been the best show since Turn A.
+ This is made for Gundam fans who have watched the vast majority of the series before as it is full of the Gundam terminology.

Negatives:

- Character motivations are left in the dark and things just happen because.
- The lack of exposition leaves too many things left with no answer as to what the hell is going on. What is a Kuntala? What is the difference between the Capital Army and the Capital Guard? Why are they controlled by a pope? What countries encompass the Capital people? Where are the colonies? Why is Jaburo's remains still around when it was nuked to ash in Zeta? What is G-IT supposed to be?
- The backpack weapons for the G-Self should have been great, but instead each one is used like once and then it is never heard from again, making it just some stupid gimmick that was unnecessary.
- The entire Venus Globe thing was pointless. One episode ends with them having dinner with the leader and then the next episode starts with them leaving the place and within two minutes they are already back in Earth's orbit. WTF?! Why did this even need to exist? Why not cut that out and actually develop the G-IT people since one of them sacrifices himself and everyone acts like we are supposed to feel for this guy when we saw him on screen for maybe 15 minutes in total.
- Raraiya was an utterly pointless character.
- They talk about the pope being kidnapped and Captain Mask rescued him and the ship he was on when that NEVER HAPPENED!!!!
- THE ENDING!! It makes no sense as the war just stops because Bell says he is not going to fight anymore.
- Captain Mask is the most useless Char clone ever. He is pretty much the Jerrid of this show.

Overall, this was a unique show that showed Tomino really wanted to bring something back to the Gundam franchise that has been missing for years, but the execution is bad. In fact, I can't even fully blame Tomino for this because everything that is wrong with this series feels like it is thanks to Sunrise and Bandai screwing him over. Last week I said that Turn A Gundam was 10-15 episodes too long, but this show was 10-15 episodes too short. I don't even understand why this show was only 26 episodes to begin with as the writing of the first 15 episodes easily felt like it was being paced as a normal length Gundam show. The last 10 episodes of the show are so rushed with pointless aspects that it leaves a lot to be desired, especially the final five minutes of the series, which was just down right stupid.

This is hard because I really wanted to rate this as a top notch Gundam show, as it is very complex with a lot of great ideas, but in its current form (and most likely its only form), it is an average one at best. It is by far better than Destiny, but I was really wanting to say this show is even better than both SEED and Wing, but now I can't because I'm not so sure it is. Overall, I give it a 6.5/10.

[klen7]

i finished Ajin season 1 last night. Overall i'd say its good. Its a bit slow at times. I fell asleep during two different episodes and had to rewatch them. The action when it happens is beautifully choreographed. If you do watch, don't pay particularly close attention to the end credits of each episode... they feature artistic renderings of a good majority of the series twists for most of the series...

[Rody]

...So I just discovered the 2009 movie Redline. If anyone is looking for Mad Max-octane action in glorious hand-drawn animation, Redline is the movie for you.

[Dr Kain]

[lhb412]

^You know, with TV series requiring so much time commitment (already occupied by other nerdy interest and, well, life stuff) I recently decided that if I wanted to scratch the anime itch I should go after movies instead. Redline is pretty near the top of the list.

[EricDent]

Borrowed from the local library:

Gai-Rei-Zero: good action, decent dub with some of the lesser used Funimation actors, and plenty of blood.
Maybe if it's cheap during the holiday sales, might pick it up.

Love, Election & Chocolate: up through episode 10, so far it's decent.
Not sure what direction it wants to go, sometimes it's a romantic comedy, sometimes political drama, and sometimes it just goes really dark.

Also bought Karas The Prophecy, Karas the Revelation, Gestalt, The Legend of Crystania Movie, Cowboy Bebop The Movie (Blu-Ray), and Ouran High School Host Club (Blu-Ray).

Karas The Prophecy was good action, though the CGI was a bit iffy, the story on the other hand is kinda hard to figure out what's going on.

[O.Supreme]

DiscoTek just released Dai-Guard. I'm considering it because I love most Super Robot series, but I was just wondering if anyone has seen it or has any opinions?

[Dr Kain]

I watched the first four episodes to ZZ, well, kind of. More like 2-4 since the first episode is just a clip show to recap the basics of the Gundam universe and the important plot points that have happened thus far, making it irrelevant to watch when I just watched both series less than two month's ago. So far this show is full of such fun and goodness. I love it as it is a nice break from what just occured in Zeta. It is so strange to have a non-mopey Gundam pilot though and I can definitely see the signs that would eventually lead Tomino into Turn A. It doesn't mean it is all perfect though, as nothing truly spectacular has happened yet other than a bunch of slapstick comedy.

The video quality is pretty much the same as the Japanese discs as far as I can tell. And just like the Japanese discs, the first episodes is in 1080i while the rest is in 1080P since Sunrise doesn't bother remastering the clip show episodes. The subtitles themselves seem pretty accurate too, although I could have sworn they called the one kid Shunta in Zeta whereas here it is Shinta. Can't wait to continue on as it feels great watching this show legally subbed.

[O.Supreme]

Did you order directly from Sunrise or another source? -Amazon has the street date as June 7th for the first ZZ Blu Ray set. But I know some places ship directly earlier. I too have been waiting for this. Now I can dump my bootleg set, yeah I always wondered why the 1st episode was a recap, I guess just to catch fans up. As much as I like the serious tone of Zeta, ZZ is definitely a refreshing deviation. Its been almost a decade since I watched the whole series through, so its about time. --But I'll have to wait until next month, hoping to get this and Evolve together.

[Dr Kain]

[sentaison]

I decided to try out Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress, and I'm glad I did. I ended up watching all six episodes out so far in a binge. A very entertaining steampunk/zombie apocalypse story with the usual Japanese touches. The animation is beautiful, the action is well done, and the story and characters are engaging. I'm looking forward to the next episode.

[O.Supreme]

Greetings All,

To Dr. Kain or anyone else who may have seen this... Is Gundam Build Fighters worth checking out? I was not a fan of the trend of shows overtly being made specifically about toys (Ultraman Ginga, Transformers GO! etc...) I mean... I know most Japanese TV & Anime aimed at children are designed to sell toys....I get that. But blatantly having TOYS themselves be a central part of the show...I guess It just took the sense of greed and commercialism to a whole other undesirable level to me. Still...If Sunrise is going to be offering Build Fighters on DVD in North America (something I never thought would happen), I'd be willing to check it out, if it is half way decent.

I just don't want to see a show about a bunch kids building Gundam Model kits, and then piloting them...which is what I fear this series may be about

[EricDent]

From the Wikipedia description, Gundam Build Fighters sounds more like Angelic Layer or Little Battlers Experience (LBX).
Or Bayblade/Battle B-DMon.
Basically a tournament show with plastic models doing the battles in a VR setting.

Anyhow it's been a while.

I borrowed Gauken Alice from the library.
It was pretty cute (it was a shojo show), though it got kinda dark sometimes, as well as sad.
The kids were all pretty cute (especially the main girl Sakura Mikan).
It's sub only, and available from Nozomi/RightStuf.
Might pick it up if it gets cheap during the holiday sales.

I also watched a few things on Netflix while watching my parents house/cats.

Yu-Gi-Oh The Bonds Beyond Time: Like most of the Yu-Gi-Oh stuff this had some ridiculous cards.
No matter what, if three duelists that had no clue what was in each other's decks joined forces, there is no way they could pull off a rather easy win like these three did.
In case you were wondering, it was Yugi, Jaden, and Yusei.

I watched the first episode of Drrrr2 (with dub) it was kinda fun, but I wasn't in the mood to do more episodes.

After I got back from that extended stay, I watched Shamanic Princess.
Decent action & cool magic powers, and of course nice looking ladies.
However the story was kinda confusing.
The dub was OK, but the only familiar name was Crispin Freeman.

[O.Supreme]

Watching the latter half of GaoGaiGar again. Probably the 3rd time through since I purchased the DVD's way back when. This is just a really fun show, great action, great music. Great Robot/ *transformer* designs. Next year will be the 20th anniversary. I hope we get something new...but I wont hold my breath. Too bad Takara relinquished the toy rights to Bandai. It would have been awesome if Hasbro licensed some of the toys and/or other Brave Anime series in North America as a sort of sub-label to Transformers.

[EricDent]

There was this store in Seattle that sold those kinds of figures/toys. They were extremely expensive.
So I agree it would be awesome if somebody in the US got those.

I bought Haunted Junction at Half Price Books, mostly cause I wanted to buy myself a gift for my B-Day (which was yesterday). They sent me a 15% off coupon.

I also grabbed Yotsuba&! Vol. 13 at a local Barnes & Noble.
Hopefully we don't have to wait another 2-3 years for the next volume...

I watched both Armitage III movies (Poly Matrix & Dual Matrix), pretty good action & story.
First dub features Elizabeth Berkley & Keifer Sutherland, the second just has Juliette Lewis.

[The Shadow]

With O.Supreme's mention of GaoGaiGar, I figured I'd go check out the first episode. Until now the only thing I've seen is the promo MediaBlasters included with the Voltron DVDs. I specifically remember the promo describing GaoGaiGar as a mecha/super robot show made by people who grew up in the golden era of mecha/super robot shows (or something like that). I expected to see a show that had all sorts of references to earlier super robot shows, but I did not expect to see a ThunderCats reference.

I noticed that Cyborg Guy's gear includes a bracer on his left arm much like Lion-O's Claw Shield; and as the Claw Shield is a sheath for the Sword of Omens, Cyborg Guy appears to have a blade weapon sheathed inside his bracer.

The Anime Network has been running Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? -- it's another of the recent round of shows (though this began as a light novel series) that take at least part of their world cues from JRPGs and MMORPGs. It's been a fun show to watch, it be nice if it received further seasons. Is it Wrong... uses a Greek mythology basis on top of the MMO and JRPG elements so many viewers will have a double strain of familiarity with the world. In Is it Wrong...'s world there is a great dungeon and people can become adventurers and explore this dungeon (which has progressively more difficult levels the deeper you go) to collect crystals and other treasures from the monsters they find there. In the past several of the gods left their high realms to live among the mortals and voluntarily sealed nearly all their powers -- these gods are the center of various familia (something like guilds) that are named for them and serve said deity. IE Hephaestus's familia focuses on smithing, other familias focus on adventuring, crafting, etc.

There's a definite harem like sub-plot but at least in this first season it hasn't really been focused on.

[Dr Kain]

I have no interest in Build Fighters, so I can't really help you there.

[Rody]

Funimation has started streaming Lucky Star, so I played a random episode for fun.
Within four minutes, I caught a reference I had missed before; and another four minutes in, I saw a reference I still didn't get.
I love this show.

[O.Supreme]

Rewatched GaoGaiGar Final. Definitely not as fun as the series itself. Tried to take itself a little too seriously, but still not bad overall. Its Kind of odd... at the end of the regular series Mamorou goes off into space and leaves everyone else behind. At the end of Final, it is the exact opposite. Guy and everyone else from GGG seemingly sacrifice themselves so Mamorou and Kaidou can return to Earth. I like the final line however...stating that someday the heroes will return. Although initially the Brave Series was basically a "place holder" during an era when no Transformers animated series existed in Japan, I wonder how it could make a return? -Transformers is alive and well in Japan and North America for the time being, and Sunrise is churning out one Gundam series after another. Might there be no room for a new Brave Series in todays Anime world

[Dr Kain]

And so ends the adventures of ZZ. My god this show was down right incredible. Sure, it isn't as good as Zeta, but it is better than the original. In fact, I feel like it takes the best elements of both series and makes it its own thing. The last disc just continued to show how great Tomino is when it comes to storytelling, at least when you look at the whole picture. There were some little issues that crop up, especially because characters like the 3Ds just disappear. As I have said many times, Haman Karn is my favorite Gundam character and the last batch of episodes continue to show why. Judau is also one of the best Gundam pilots ever because much of how a likable of a guy he is and he grows quite significantly throughout the show. In fact, I'd say that he might even have more character depth than Kamille does because he has seen the dark side of life and still tries to look past it. Of course, Kamille is still my favorite Gundam pilot, he just isn't the best. It is a shame Char never showed up in this show, which is a shame because it would have been nice to have some type of build up to the genocidal dickwad we get in the next story, but oh well. It's time to watch Char's Counterattack.

EDIT:

Char's Counterattack - So this was my first time watching this movie since seeing Zeta and ZZ. In fact, I watched this one back in 2010 before I even saw either of those series for the first time. I've always had mixed feelings about this movie, which came even moreso after seeing Zeta because why would Char go from Earth defender to genocidal douche who wants to kill everyone? Well, now that I have the series fresh in my mind I came to realize why during the movie, which deals with the way the Federation were treating the event of Dublin from ZZ. I think it is that moment that made Char become the man he is in this movie. Holy crap, now it all makes sense to me.

So does that change my opinion of the movie? Well yes and no. I'm still mixed on it as the movie runs 30 minutes longer than it needed to be. Quess is by far one of the worst Gundam characters ever (probably second to Flay from SEED) and every scene that deals with her is a poorly contived mess. I have no idea what her purpose was to this or why Tomino felt the need to add this little ****, but if you remove every scene of her from the movie, you would have a really tight 90 minute adventure. Of course, there is another issue, the ending, or the lack thereof. God does it suck. It just stops as if Tomino forgot to write the last 2 pages of the script and Sunrise didn't bother saying anything to him.

There is another issue with the movie, but that isn't the movie's fault, it is Bandai's Their translation is utter dogpoop. I hope to the gods that Rightstuf uses an accurate script that also remembers proper grammar and doesn't decide to call "the Titans" by their proper name instead of "The Haman" like their subs say. Oh, and "I won't let closer to the thrusters," makes no sense whatsoever. So here's hoping Rightstuf has proper subs to go with their remastered video.

Anyway, I do think the music is great, the mech designs are great, and the scene when Char makes his big speech (despites its poor translation) is stellar. None of the new characters are all that memorable though and were really there just to die, which was annoying. Chan was such a T's. Nevertheless, I'm going to give the movie a 7/10 because when it is great, it is really great and it is a nice finale to the Amuro/Char story (kind of).

Well, I can now finally watch Unicorn, YES!!!!!!

[Dr Kain]

It has taken me 6 years to finally watch all of Gundam Unicorn after watching the very first episode when it first came out, but you know what? The wait was well worth it. Watching it now after having watched the series before it in (almost) chronological order made the thing feel not only special, but very satisfying. The fourth episode is by far the weakest of the lot, which is thankfully subsided by the incredible batch of episodes that follow it. I think Episode 6 may be my favorite of the bunch. Nevertheless, the seventh episode was an excellent way to send the series that also made sense. Obviously, we know nothing changes thanks to the events of F91 and Victory, but it still brings such a gratifying end to the entire Federation/Zeon war and does it without getting convoluted. Another great thing aspect is how the writers behind this series found a way to explain the ending of CCA in a manner that fits with the rest of the events that occured in the series prior to it. The only negatives outside of the fourth episode really come down to it holding the standard Gundam tropes like characters raising the red flags that lead to their deaths, people having some sudden love in a woman they just met and need her for total support, etc. Regardless, this is hands down my third favorite Gundam series out there right now. Oh, and Bright has grown into a fine character throughout the 17 years of battle. This is hands down one of the best conclusions to ever grace the Gundam franchise.

BTW, the dub is down right excellent despite how bland the English voice was for Bright. Of course, I'm not sure if there is really anyone out there that could match up to his original Japanese voice.

[EricDent]

Watched Karas The Revelation it still was kinda confusing, but had good action.
The ending was decent so I will keep it for now.

I got Silent Service at a local used game store for like $2.
Did Japan really hate the USA that much in the '90s?

Now watching Scrapped Princess again.
Really surprised no body has tried to rescue this, it's such an interesting show.
Mix Sci-Fi & Fantasy elements with interesting characters and of course a great dub.

While looking at the Half Price Books near work I saw a copy of Angel Links Complete Collection.
It was priced at $19.99...lowest on Amazon is like $90.
So yeah I grabbed it, seriously these people have no clue on rarity at that location.
Yet, at another location they have stuff like Arjuna Anime Legends set for like $100.

Yes Angel Links is a tad weird, but it was interesting enough to buy it (especially at that price).
Plus the main girl was kinda hot...