Episode 18, "Graduation Ceremony Battle"
*****SPOILERS***** Synopsis: Time passes and Asemu is to graduate. On the day of graduation, he reveals his plan to join the military after the break. Military police interrupt the ceremony and arrest Zeheart. Zeheart’s contact decoys the soldiers. He attacks the soldiers until Zeheart can get to his mobile suit. In his cockpit he reflects on the times he’s had with Asemu and his friends. Back at the school, Asemu gets a call from Vargas, who has sent the trailer with the Gundam. The Gundam comes in and fights Zeheart’s MS. Asemu is again pinned down by Zeheart, who reveals that he’d been fighting him. Romary sees this. Zeheart retreats. Comments: Watching this episode, it feels like I missed five or six episodes. Asemu and Zeheart are dear friends with photos of moments of their friendship, Romary seems closer to them, and everyone is graduating. There are two trains of thought on this, to me. One is, wait a minute, they just skipped ahead of character development? Shouldn’t we see some of those moments? They shorcut the way there with those photos, so that’s actually somewhat clever, but it doesn’t feel like Zeheart’s betrayal of Asemu’s trust is any big deal, because they’ve been friends for two episodes. The other thought is, well, who wants to wait around? Obviously we’re trying to move forward to Asemu joining the military and fighting the Veigans more directly. If we’re just sitting around watching Asemu and Zeheart hanging out, it’s liable to get very boring. So in this way, the time skip is no big offender. There’s a lot of story to get to, after all, we can’t be sitting on our hands waiting for them to become good friends. However, what about a compromise, Sunrise? You could have given it at least another episode for the relationship between Asemu and Zeheart to cement. Instead, this sudden skip ahead has decided character development in a very tricky way that removes any gravity a betrayal will have. We don’t really feel for Asemu because we already knew Zeheart was going to betray him and it didn’t have time to really build up. It was a decent episode, I guess, but I don’t know, I don’t really like some of the choices they made. Overall Score: 3.5 out of 5
ANIME TOP TEN (LIST #2) – #8: End of Evangelion (1997)
Director(s): Hideaki Anno, Kazuya Tsurumaki
Screenplay: Hideaki Anno
Music: Shiro Sagisu
All things must come to an end and in End of Evangelion, pretty much everything does (at least for a while). When the plans of SEELE and Gendo Ikari clash, Shinji, Asuka, and NERV all get caught in the crossfire of their grand schemes. Again the themes of alienation, of miscommunication, come to light as Human Instrumentality comes to fruition. Shinji experiences a frightening truth about himself and the world around him. He is forced to confront himself and this new world, and what it says about him as a human being, and what it says about all human beings. The production values are quite good, though the visuals can be needlessly trippy at times, and the action is brutal and unforgiving. End of Evangelion is a great capper to a great series.
Space Battleship Yamato 2199 PV
A few notes:
– Captain Okita’s character design seems to be the least redesigned.
– Doctor Sado looks like a compromise between his original design and the new style.
– Awesome, some of Hiroshi Miyagawa’s music is making it in, probably because his son is doing the music.
– Gamilian spaceships! If only they would show Gamilius and/or Lord Desslar.
– Starsha confirmed!
I’m so psyched about this. As I’ve established, SBY is one of my favorite anime, and this PV makes the remake look pretty damn good!
ANIME TOP TEN (LIST #2) – #9: Patlabor 2 (1993)
Director(s): Mamoru Oshii Screenplay: Kazunori Ito Music: Kenji Kawai This is Patlabor at its best. Casting aside most of the comedic elements of the OVA or TV series, this movie is more of a political thriller, commenting on society through the lense of these characters and the world they live in, which is much like our own. More than that, it concentrates on my two favorite Patlabor characters, Keniichi Gotoh and Shinobu Nagumo. In a more sophisticated version of "The SV2’s Longest Day" from the original OVA, a terrorist causes mass panic and political strife through a few actions, using the city and its people as a petri dish to grow his scenario in twisted revenge, and Shinobu has to deal with this old figure of her past, deciding what sort of action to take against this man she loved. I believe this was intended to be the finale for the Patlabor saga, showing the development of the characters and showcasing their abilities and personalities one last time, and it works as both that and with the intended themes of the film as a film all on its own.
ANIME TOP TEN (LIST #2) – #10: Metropolis (2001)
Director(s): Rintaro
Screenplay: Katsuhiro Otomo
Music: Toshiyuki Honda
Metropolis is more of an atmospheric movie than a story or characters one. I enjoyed the old-timey looking character designs, the architecture of the city, and the dixie jazz more than anything. Not that the story or characters were slouches, mind you, but less interesting than the visual and audio aspects, the production values. It’s a beautiful-looking film, even the CG is not too bad. It’s got a pretty conventional storyline, and the only characters I was emotionally invested in were Kenichi and Tima, and even then, pretty superficially. The style of the film may hold domination over the substance, but it’s still a damn good ride.
Gundam AGE Episode 17 Review
Episode 17, "Friendship, Love, and Mobile Suits"
*****SPOILERS***** Synopsis: Asemu keeps secret that he piloted the Gundam. Zeheart is told that the Gundam is likely hidden somewhere at the Asuno residence and joins the mobile suit club with Asemu and his friends. The four prepare for a MS tournament. Asemu invites the team to his house to get information on mobile suits. Zeheart uses this opportunity to look around for the Gundam, finally finding it in the stable. Later at the MS tournament, Asemu in his club MS battles other competitors, winning several bouts. However, Zeheart disappears. A Veigan MS is activated at the Asuno residence and Vargas alerts Asemu. Asemu speeds back home and gets in the Gundam. Zeheart moves in to support his superior, but Vargas activates a smog field which Asemu uses as cover to destroy one of the MS. However, Zeheart pins the Gundam down. The arrival of Romary allows Asemu to get free and Federation MS arrive. Zeheart retreats. The Gundam is moved to a Federation facility. Comments: I like the mobile suit competition in this episode and wish there was more of it (maybe making this a two-parter would have worked). Especially the part about Asemu wanting to impress his father by winning. I imagine that Flit could be a bit difficult to impress, since he already built the Gundam and was fighting the Veigans/UE well before he was Asemu’s age. Asemu is only barely able to build a small MS with his friends. He might not have even done as well as he did in the competition had it not been for Zeheart. I remember that in Zeta Gundam, Kamille Bidan was well-known for being a builder of petit MS. The episode is somewhat a repeat of the previous, only this time Zeheart was in battle, too, and was able to pin down the Gundam. Actually, even before then Asemu was having slightly more difficulty with Zeheart’s contact. Luckily for him the Federation’s mobile suits arrived. But who knows? Maybe he would have been able to recover on his own. Based on what I saw in the previous episode, Asemu can really hold his own. Is it just me or does Vargas seem a lot more helpful in this part of the show than in the previous one? That smog field was a good idea. Overall Score: 3.5 out of 5ANIME TOP TEN (LIST #1) FOLLOW-UP
Okay, so I’ve completed list #1, which covers anime TV shows and multi-part OVAs. But before I move onto the next list, I thought I’d give you a taste of what the rest of the list would look like if I did a top 20.
#s 11-20:
11. Bubblegum Crisis OVA – Cyberpunk at its best. Part Blade Runner, part Streets of Fire, the ultraviolent 80s retro-future world of MegaTokyo and the Knight Sabers makes for hours of entertainment. The music and strong voice performances are also to be commended.
12. Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex – Provocative and enriching, this series also kicks a lot of ass. Maybe a little technobabble heavy at times, though.
13. Giant Robo – A fast-paced, emotion-heavy, passionate epic and monument to Mitsuteru Yokoyama’s works. Director Yasuhiro Imagawa’s magnum opus, as far as I’m concerned.
14. Macross Plus – My favorite Macross work, this story of rivalry and love never fails to deliver, whether it’s on drama or action. Yoko Kanno’s score is brilliant.
15. FLCL – This OVA does more with six episodes than most programs with 26+. A fun and worthwhile watch that warns against growing up too fast.
16. Last Exile – Wonderfully immersive, and with a well-constructed world. It’s hard to beat those airship battles!
17. Space Battleship Yamato 2 – An alternate version of Farewell, this is more fleshed out and has a different ending.
18. Turn A Gundam – While suffering from a few pacing issues, this series is nevertheless beautiful and soulful, concentrating on the characters rather than the combat, and providing an interesting backdrop and unique mechanical designs. It’s my favorite non-UC Gundam work.
19. Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket – Of all the many Gundam productions over the years, this is one of the best written ones. Instead of being about ace pilots, psychics, giant battles, and masked men, this small little slice of the One Year War revolves around a boy’s youthful enthusiasm for a war he knows little about, a war he sees as a game. Instead of many meaningless deaths, the few deaths here mean everything.
20. Mobile Suit Gundam: 08th MS Team – Combining gritty grunt combat with a sweet (if somewhat hurried) love story. It loses focus at times, but remains strong where it makes its points. One of the finest Gundam productions.
ANIME TOP TEN (LIST #1) – #1: Cowboy Bebop (1998)
Director(s): Shinchiro Watanabe Script: Akihiko Inari, Aya Yoshinaga, Dai Sato, Keiko Nobumoto, Michiko Yokote, Ryota Yamaguchi, Sadayuki Murai, Shoji Kawamori, Shinichiro Watanabe Music: Yoko Kanno I’m probably going to seem like a "entry level" anime fan for saying this, but Cowboy Bebop is probably the perfect anime. I think Cowboy Bebop is absolutely a product of genius. I think genius minds conceived and executed the concepts, story, and production of this series. The show is episodic, yes, but rather than being a bunch of completely unrelated adventures that just feature the core cast in different situations, the episodes are more like a series of short little films that each reveal a little more of the bigger picture, not necessarily of the main underlying plot, but something much more important, which is the world and atmosphere, the environment and attitudes which are pervasive in the show. The very lives of the characters are "episodic", but an episode rarely ends without having made some headway in unveiling more of the tapestry of this world the characters live in. The main plot, the plot of Spike’s past with the Red Dragon, that’s something that keeps together the threads, but ultimately only exemplifies- well, perhaps more than that, epitomizes- the grander attitude of the entire work. The production values are breathtaking, some still by today’s standards. The soundtrack, by Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelts, is especially spellbinding. The show is very stylish, and so more cynical folks may be lured into believing the show is "style over substance", but the style becomes part of its substance, much in the way a Tarintino film both indulges in and skewers pop art culture. It’s a show that feels almost as new every new time I watch as it did the first time. The characters are charming, charismatic, and colorful, the character design is excellent, as is the animation. The music is breathtaking. The action is palpable. The themes are presented fantastically, and you get a real "feel" for what the show is about overall. Perhaps the most representative of what anime can accomplish, it is both entertaining and provocative. It’s a rousing jazzy ballad of the bizarre and the sorrowful. It’s a must see for anyone.
ANIME TOP TEN (LIST #1) – #2: Legend of the Galactic Heroes (1988)
Director(s): Noboru Ishiguro Script: Akinori Endo, Hiroshi Komishikawa, Hiroshi Toda, Shigeru Yanagawa, Shimao Kawanaka, Takeshi Shudo, Yuho Hanazono Music: Shin Kawabe… and tons of classical composers Where does one even start to praise Legend of the Galactic Heroes? How do I describe it to people who’ve never seen it? I’ll give it a try. Watching this show feels a lot like reading a really good novel. It’s almost an education. Let’s start with the world-building it does. A fully fleshed-out world where the characters thrive and strive, work and play, live and/or die is spread out before the viewer. It also has a huge cast of interesting characters, from flakes to geniuses (or both, if you’re Yang Wenli), murderers and kings, warriors and politicians. There are discussions of politics and philosophies that are remarkably well-constructed, if a bit simplistic at times. Following the characters’ stories really immerses you in their lives, giving the show a real emotional weight to major events in their lives. Like Yang Wenli says, "There are few wars between good and evil; most are between one good and another good." It’s 110 episodes of brilliance. Go watch it now. Already have? Watch it again. Already doing it? Not if you’re reading this, you aren’t! Get back to it!