This month I’m doing a Yoshiaki Kawajiri theme, kicking it off with a two-part OVA based on a work by Buichi Terasawa (creator of Space Adventure Cobra), Goku Midnight Eye! He doesn’t have a cloud to fly on and he can’t become Super Saiyan Blue, but this Goku does have an extending bo like a certain other Goku! Add to that his ability to basically dominate technology, and you have… well, kind of an OP hero, who somehow still struggles. But hey, at least he can make a boss car.
review
Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans Season 2 Episode 06 – Battle of The Plains of Alberta
Like the Edmonton battle before it, the battle in this episode starts in media res, taking place two weeks after the events that transpired in the previous show. Unfortunately for Takaki, Aston, and the rest of the Earth-based Tekkadan members, they’re smack dab in the kind of warfare they are not familiar with. It turns out I was wrong last week when I said the bearded man is another name for Kamen Galli-Galli, but the guy who’s now heading Tekkadan’s battle operations, Galan Mossa.
Brilliant strategery abounds this episode, and well-timed since it gives the audience something to look forward to in terms of tension, and stops the series from becoming an Orga-y of Maccinations (I regret nothing). You do feel for Takaki and Aston, who despite doing their best, are still completely unaware they are being played by Galan. The man uses throughout this episode psychological conditioning to subvert the chain of command, carrot-and-sticking them into constant battles. It’s one thing if Tekkadan were a bunch of younger to middle-aged adults, but now their success is being used against them. It’s one thing to be manipulated while being young and poor, but what happens when you’re in a position of power? Shit’s getting awful and you just know it whenever Takaki and Aston opine in this episode. I’m finding Galan and Radice to be MUCH worse than Maccy. Sure what Maccy has done and is going to do is horrible, but then again at the same time Rustal and the rest of Gjallarhorn are just as bad as he is, if not worse. Plus Radice is a spiteful little man who betrays Tekkadan not out of some desire (misguided or not) to reform it, but of envy, and that’s always the worst kind of betrayal.
Otaku Evolution Episode 76 – Paranoia Agent
In my spooky Halloween episode for 2016 (a very frightening year!), I don’t go for ghouls and ghosts, nor zombies and witches, but a monster borne from the very human mind and the cultural around us! But what does this say about my own demons? It’s about time Satoshi Kon got his due on my show as I take a look at Paranoia Agent!
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Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans Season 2 Episode 05 – Cool Hand Chad
I do believe what we have here is a “failure to communicate” on this week’s episode. It is not just the distance between Mars and Earth that Tekkadan has to struggle with, it is also the fact they’re still fairly innocent about the world. Oh don’t get me wrong, their lives sucked before they started wearing the big boy pants, yet this impacting line by Takaki defines what I believe will be a prevailing arc this season:
“What will happen if we can’t even trust family?”
Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans Season 2 Episode 04 – Martian Half-Metal Futures
Ah, it is nice to finally have something to talk about now. By the skin of their teeth, Tekkadan captures the leader of the Dawn Horizon Corps, and routs the attempt by the WDoJ/Arianrhod from stealing their ‘kill’ so to speak. This is a sound victory on Tekkadan’s part, since the inclusion of a third party in the previous episode’s affairs heightens the tension. This is most manifest in Julieta, who not only gives Mika a workout in terms of combat skills, but also comes off (in my mind), as a female version of him: eccentric to a fault, and fiercely loyal to her superior like Mika is to Orga. Whether this will change any dynamic between him, Kudelia, and Atra in the case he ever meets her is still up in the air, but I cannot help but see some similarities to them based on their disposition in combat.
Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans Season 2 Episode 03 – Yo-Ho-Hum
After two episodes of build up, we have our first full on space battle with Tekkadan facing off against the Dawn Horizon Corps. True to Gundam form, things are not what they appear, and Tekkadan has to fight at a disadvantage.
Yeah, that’s pretty much it.
Not gonna lie, I am REALLY hard pressed to talk about anything this week. It is not that there is anything TOO bad about this episode, but there’s nothing new to discuss. After my gush over Hush last week, he is summarily sidelined for plot purposes as the old boys of Tekkadan sally forth. Understandable, but it is still disappointing. The big non-mecha highlight is the conversation between Orga and Maccy’s subordinate, Isurugi. It provides a nice set up to the battle, never mind the various machinations each side (or at least Maccy-nations for one) has in store, but other than that nothing much can be said. Heck to even say the battles are nice is to state the obvious, and Tekkadan as always is doing the best it can given the circumstances.
Otaku Evolution Episode 75 – JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure OVA (2000)
In this episode of my barely-watched anime review video series, I take a look at the 2000 OVA of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, which adapts Part III of the larger metaseries, Stardust Crusaders. Though oddly enough, only the first half, since the second half was animated in 1993. Yeah, so I’m reviewing in chronological order of the storyline, rather than the production order here. But what are these flashes of memories I’m getting about my first meeting with Pen Pen? Something tells me there’s a need for a TO BE CONTINUED…
Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans Season 2 Episode 02 – Groundwork Grind
Just like the second episode of the first season, the opening ends with a successful rout of enemy forces by Mika and the Barbatos…
…And just like the second episode of the first season, the rest of the episode is dedicated to prep work for the next phase in our players’ games. On one hand it is kinda boring treading familiar territory, but on the other it is kindof necessary and has enough differences to warrant this retreading of old ground. One half-hour after all isn’t enough for a massive cast like this animu has, so I should probably give it a pass for now. Besides, it allows us one instance of foreboding that may colour erryboddy in this show:
Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans Season 2 Episode 01 – The Kids are Doin’ Alright
Wow. It’s been a year hasn’t it? These upstart rapscallions, once on the verge of utter defeat, now are the biggest names in both the regular and black market. Unlike the last serial Gundam series that had two seasons (Gundam 00), Iron-Blooded Orphans kicks off without any big down note where our heroes are in a lesser position of power than before. After the well-deserved victory they scored last season, they need this moment to shine, and shine they did.
I anticipated a few weeks ago privately that the premiere will be somewhat of a retread of the first episode except Tekkadan is running the show. Sure enough, this is the case. It is not a bad thing, since the time and emotional investment you may have given is not wasted. Set in about I wager six months to a year after the finale, Tekkadan is not just the military adviser to an Arbrau headed by Makanai, but a full-fledged member of the Teiwaz Group. Meanwhile, Kudelia has learned to multitask and founded another enterprise in half metals with the aptly named: Admoss Company. Like the first episode, this one focuses on just establishing their world amidst the backdrop of the bigger one. The series where its first season gives us war as seen from the underclass becomes a series where its second season may give us war… as seen from the upstart lower-middle class. It is refreshing to also see how their actions also brought about unintended consequences. Upstart bunch of kids beating hoity-toity Gjallarhorn now incentivizes upstart groups of people to start utilizing them, Human Debris, and even mobile suits in their quest for either independence from Gjallarhorn or for more power.
The Vision of Escaflowne Episode 26 [FINAL] – Fate, Hope, and Love (Or: Raise you up on Angel’s Wings)
And now it is time to say goodbye.
It turns out Folken’s kill of Dornkirk had some intended consequences after all in the latter’s part, serving as a dead man’s switch to turn the Zone of Absolute Fortune online. Now, in ghost form, (which is weird since he’s an Earthling, I guess his will was strong enough to exist as a spectre), Isaac/Dornkirk observes with Hitomi the effects of his final gambit. What is it? Makes everybody’s wishes come true.
Unfortunately for everybody, it has them act upon the emotion they are in at the current moment. So it means all these kingdoms which appeared in the last few episodes want to conquer one another now, dissolving their alliance by way of bloodshed. While they do such, we see how Isaac/Dornkirk takes it: in scientific dispassion. Here is a man so wedded to ending conflict by any means necessary, that he will write off wanton slaughter if this is the inevitable result of his actions. Far cry from the Atlanteans, who at least give warnings and seal away powers in an attempt to not let history repeat itself. It seems like reason awake does not stave off the monsters they say its slumber would bring. No complaints here at this overarching threat in the last part of the endgame, for it is within our foe’s character and rationale.