In this episode, I take a look at the four part OVA, Dominion Tank Police, that features what seems like the inevitable future of American police militaritization (Japan will just go the Patlabor route)! But is this send up of 80s hyperviolence a social satire or just a parody that identifies with its captors? I hope to sparse the mixed messages from this old “classic” I first saw on Sci-Fi Channel’s Saturday Anime block.
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SPOILERS
For the first time, I couldn’t really find ONE good image from this episode. So like I did with Escaflowne, here is this episode’s Four Perfect Shots. Seriously, it’s really goddamn pretty. In fact, those aren’t the most perfect of shots. Also no, don’t get mad that one of em is Galli-Galli, you pretty much knew the moment he spoke under that mask Vidar was Galli-Galli. The true pleasure though, is what happened to him during the interim between seasons.
So Macky’s plan to seize Gjallarhorn’s HQ goes off without much of a hitch, with the help of Mika and Barbatos Lupus-Rex-Ou-Rey-Roi-King. It has been a long time coming, and this episode doesn’t mince about delaying his movement too much, not only in his coup but also in FINALLY revealing his past. It is as dark as you would expect given his chibi-self’s dourness and implications of abuse. In the latter’s case, boy he has had a lot. There is no innocent, young, rogue in Macky’s past who was slowly driven to the dark side, but somebody who was already there and just moved deeper and deeper into it as time went on. One would wonder if it wasn’t for their friendship with each other, Orga and Mika would have ended up the same if they were on their own. However, this question is neither here nor there in the long run, since we are at the beginning of endgame, and they are where they are, and Macky is where he is. It’s not exactly the most original out there (I was thinking of Griffith throughout his flashback), but it is effective, and very welcome that we now know what makes Macky tick.
It’s another year, and it’s time for the first brand new episode of Otaku Evolution of 2017! In this video, I look at the 1984 sci-fi-action-comedy-curiosity, Birth! It was once released by Streamline Pictures as Planet Busters, but the version I’m reviewing is from the more accurate ADV release from the early aughts. It’s a really strange feature that boasts of talents like Hideaki Anno and Joe Hisaishi, but besides some interesting visuals, it’s a whole lot of nothing!
Like clockwork, after brief 22-minute long pit stops, the episode after said events brings us full force to that Road to Renewed Strength and Promise like it has in the past. Minutes into the show, without any of the pre-battle warm-up talks Tekkadan has already engaged with Jasley’s forces. By episode’s end, they acquire total victory over the man.
There are stakes to be had here since the last episode ended with a potential confrontation of multiple parties from Jasley, Tekkadan, and even Kujan. Yet, in a surprising twist, despite all the frenetic action that occurs in this episode, what’s more interesting is what DOESN’T happen. I guess Rustal’s lack of energy in the previous episode compared to Kujan’s bevy of it had more to it than that, with him restraining Kujan (who doesn’t even APPEAR in the episode) from joining up with Jasley. From what the episode implies, he had an offscreen conversation with McMurdo on the situation and blueballed both Jasley and Kujan from a chance at catharsis. McMurdo even breaks Orga’s Sakazuki cup offscreen and we are shown its remains with very little dramatic fanfare. Both a shame and expected, but a pleasant surprise how McMurdo doesn’t take it TOO hard. He (alongside us) knows Orga offered his cup if he decides to break his oath, and even so he is not surprised or TOO disappointed in the slightest bit that this is the case now. Time to move on is the message for that scene, as well as another where Kudelia finds out Tekkadan has cut ties to her, possibly for protection. Unlike McMurdo, she doesn’t take it well.
SPOILERS
You know an episode has it in for its protagonists if a catharsis one has been hoping for such a very long time does not come to fruition. Yes, Iok is not dead yet. In fact he is as alive and chipper as his usual annoying self is, and thus we all must wait once more for his demise. The only consolation we can seize from this is Rustal is rather blasé about this whole thing, and did not adulate the slightest bit towards Iok’s decision.
Sadly, the aforementioned is one of only two consolations to seize from this week. It is not enough for Gjallarhorn to have the bodies of Naze and Amida, it is Jasley fishing for outrage from the remaining Turbines and Tekkadan during the funeral. McMurdo remains steadfast in his respect for Naze, but now that he’s gone, Jasley is more open in his ambitions to wipe Tekkadan out. It is not shocking in any way, but it is good to see it finally coming to fruition after being already established so long ago…
I found out what the show was clogging the turbines with for this episode…
…It was using soggy biscuits.
UNEXPECTEDLY, as if the last episode did not imply it in any way, shape, or form that something would happen, we finally get our first few major deaths of the season. Yeah, maybe Aston’s death is kinda tragic, but we only knew him for about seven episodes and were more inclined to feel bad for Takaki. Here? We have some Season 1 veterans biting the dust: Naze and Amida. The entire situation they are in is rather predictable, but as always it is the execution that matters and this episode does it so darn well.
After two weeks of hiatus, Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans finally returns to the airwaves. Like the first season, the start of the second half begins on a rather dour note, and Tekkadan is once again at the center of it all as the world tries to overwhelm them.
The events at this juncture however seems to hit a more personal level than the events of Dort ever did, despite the immense effects it had on Kudelia and Biscuit. The Turbine transplants at Tekkadan (Lafter, Azee, and Echo), after stating it so many times in this series that they would, finally depart to rejoin Naze and the rest of the Turbines. The opening scene is a good way to see them off, and you can tell how the departure is quite sad for all of them. The real crux of the farewell’s emotional pathos comes from a personal scene between Akihiro and Lafter. The latter doesn’t confess her feelings to the former, but you can tell how much has changed since their first encounter. Once the most ardent opponents now are the most bosom of buddies. Funny really since I keep falling into the enemy/rival romance trope in this show, for I thought Lafter and Mika might be something, and now it’s Julieta and Mika. Yet I like these developments better. I guess that’s why I don’t write for animu.
It’s the last episode of the year as I look at the English dubs of the anime I’ve covered since the mid season episode. I examine dubs by Funimation, Manga Entertainment, Animaze, Central Park Media, ADV, and others! Which will I praise? Which will I burn? And what’s the deal with that refrigerator, how did that close seemingly on its own (shut up is how)? It’s time to wrap things up for a while, and stay tuned for more in the new year.
Oh, also, there’s a bit at the end.
English dubs covered in this episode:
A quote attributed to John Randolph of Roanoke, a Virginian congressman from the days of American yore, notes this:
“Providence moves slowly, but the Devil always hurries.”
I know it’s pretty obvious this theme of the consequences and enmity raised by rushed ambitions is a major part of this show’s second season, but hot damn does it take a new turn here. The episode does something different once more, and instead of the entire first half being dedicated to Mika taking down the Mobile Armour then second half dealing with the immediate fall out, it is relegated to a flashback from one month ago the story’s time. I remember I said they shouldn’t overdo the time skips for the show, yet here it is again, and RIGHT AFTER I noted my uncertainty on whether the show is taking too long to get to the point.
This series is currently a bit of a tease and I am unsure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. It almost seems as if Mika, Akihiro, and the rest of Tekkadan would really go full force against the Mobile Armour in an arena-like battle this episode, nevermind Macky and Isurugi against Vidar/Galli-Galli. Yet nope, Tekkadan is relegated to strategery once again this episode, thanks to an unanticipated safety precaution in the Gundam Frames, and Vidar instead leaves, delaying the face off against Macky for another time, but not without making his existence known to him. In fact the true final battle with the Mobile Armour will take place next week, alongside the results of its fallout.
