Anime recommendations

[Simond]

I was reminded of another series over the weekend which might interest the "Real Robot" fans - Space Runaway Ideon. It's a little on the old side (going on for 30 years old now) but still worth watching.

Brief synopsis: Human colonists on the planet Solo discover an ancient buried starship and three armoured truck/tank things. Token humanoid alien enemies show up, destroy the colonists' cities and demand they hand over the unearthed items. Plucky (afro-haired) pilot gets into one of the trucks and combines the three to form the giant robot Ideon! (which then goes on to temporarily drive back their enemies). Then the survivors of the attacks get into the ancient starship, load the Ideon on board, and start the trek back to Earth, persued by the aliens.

So far, so Super Robot...right?

Not so much. Ideon was what the creator of (the original) Mobile Suit Gundam did next & it's a lot grittier & bleaker than that series, and the series is frequently portrayed as a pretty direct ancestor to Evangelion (& RahXephon et al. It even finished in a similar manner to Eva with two movies - one summary of everything so far, one actual ending.

[Jain Zar]

Didn't Ideon end with it destroying the universe?

Its a cool design too.  A shame the Bandai Soul of Chogokin line of toys ought to be called "If you can afford these things you really aren't in the target market for them in the first place".

Outside of the early Mazinger releases most of them fucks are 150+ pricetags!

[Simond]

I was trying to avoid spoiling the ending. 

[rk47]

hm G double O finally gets whacked by sheer numbers. cue super robot no one ever seen before to the rescue.

[Fordel]

So when does the next episode of Macross Frontier come out? Or is it out already and I suck at internets etc?


I don't have high hopes for it, but I want to give it a chance.

[Simond]

April, iirc. The first episode was shown as a teaser.


Very belated edit: The look of the three new Throne Gundams in G00 seem to be a not-so-subtle hint that Celestial Being are the bad guys after all - black/red armour, red 'gundam particles' et al. I'm guessing at least one of the 'older' meisters goes over to one of the ground-based sides/goes guerrilla against everyone in the near future - probably Setsuna, as he's (hypothetically) the protagonist. Assuming that one of the four doesn't get captured in 16 anyway.

[Fordel]

How many freaking variations of Gundam are there?

[rk47]

blasting your own ex-teammates? i can't recall it happening ever.
Ok maybe wing has a little bit of scrap but hardly to the point of 'i'm gonna blow ur suit up and make u dieee keke'

[Simond]

blasting your own ex-teammates? i can't recall it happening ever.
Ok maybe wing has a little bit of scrap but hardly to the point of 'i'm gonna blow ur suit up and make u dieee keke'

Actually Mantrap (Tieria) threatened to shoot (H)Allelujah back in ep10 for looking like he was going to get captured...shortly before Tieria was captured him(her?)self and had to have his/her moment of gender confusion to escape.

Anyway, as to the "How many Gundam series" question: Short answer - lots.

Longer answer:
The original Mobile Suit Gundam & spinoffs, set in the UC (Universal Century) universe - MSG, Zeta Gundam, MSG ZZ, Char's Counterattack, MSG 0080: War in the Pocket, MSG F91, MSG 0083: Stardust Memory, MS Victory Gundam, MSG: The 08th MS Team, and a few other oddities). The original Mobile Suit Gundam was pretty much the beginning of Real Robot anime.

Mobile Fighter G Gundam (set in the Future Century universe/timeline): The first non-UC Gundam series shown and also a 'Super Robot' Gundam series, which means it gets sneered at by purists. They are wrong and it is 

Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Yaoi-fodder. Set in the 'After Colony' universe/timeline.

After War Gundam X: Set in the After War calender/universe, a semi-sequel to the UC Gundam series based on a "What if ?", namely "What if Zeon had continued with colony drops/orbital bombardment until Earth was reduced to a new dark age?" Post-apocalyptic...ish.

Turn A Gundam: This one's a little...odd. It's set in the far future but after a dark age or three. Actually, the basic plot is "All gundam series happen in the same universe, just at different times" and this series is the far future for all of them*. Oh, and the Earth-based humans are at a roughly Victorian/Edwardian tech level at the beginning of the series.

Gundam SEED: Very heavily inspired by the original MSG, then ruined by the producer's wife unofficially taking over the show and replacing the scripts with her fanfiction. No, really.

Gundam 00 (Current series): Gundam Wing's basic concept (Advanced tech Gundams from space fighting against Earth's armies) combined with the original MSG's political leanings (more depth than the more recent series' "white hats vs black hats" setups, political maneuvering factored in to the plot, no real 'good guys' - hell, at the moment the nominal antagonists of the three Earth power blocs are more sympathetic on the whole than most of the Gundam Meisters/Celestial Being). Currently 15 episodes into a ~50ep series.



*It was also originally going to be the future of all the Gundam creator's other works...including Space Runaway Ideon. No, I don't know how this would have worked, either. 

[Stormwaltz]

We're now in the middle of Kimi ga Nozomu Eien, right after finishing Air.

Evidently, we are emotional masochists.

[Simond]

You should watch Nana next.

[Fordel]

That is indeed, lots of Gundam 


Here I thought Macross was pushing it in terms of Volume.

Gundam SEED: Very heavily inspired by the original MSG, then ruined by the producer's wife unofficially taking over the show and replacing the scripts with her fanfiction. No, really.

Elaborate! How bad did it get?

[rk47]

Short form: Too many retcons.
Long version: Small Font below
it was supposed to have ended on a high. Childhood friends ending up in different military sides, charismatic artist turned leader of rebellion, a small morally upright nation power crushed under an alliance. The end supposed to feature Stuff like heroes getting perma killed and some injured. But it didn't end there, they wanted to make a semi-sequel with retcons. Dead cool guy brought back to life to populate it with no good reason than 'we want mature characters'.

A strew of similiar plot device reused:
new battleship recieving new tech robots,
the robots get raided and stolen except for one robot
masked villain with a hidden past
cloned guy who has a short life and angry at world.
emo protagonist that wants revenge for his family who were killed by war
suit destroyed, another super suit remade...., one with pew pew, one with layzer wings, one with moar light saberz.
the suit has an uber attachement which pwn the fuck outta legions of noobs with no sweat. (just like the previous original)

the vengeful protagonist was not even highlighted at all in the original series. then by some twist of fate he was just there, trying to evac to safety when the overhead battle took his family lives which was never mentioned until the sequel came out.

[Hoax]

I'm not reading that but it looks like some motherfucker needs to learn how to post spoilers...   

[Simond]

hm G double O finally gets whacked by sheer numbers. cue super robot no one ever seen before to the rescue.

New gundam meisters are  - younger brother is Hallelujah all the time, sister is genki girl with a side order of repressed bunny boiler, and the older brother is sane, calm and rational. Too sane, calm and rational IMO. Plus they've thrown a spanner in the (existing CB) works merely by existing, and pissed off Mantrap.

[Stormwaltz]

You should watch Nana next.

We've been big fans of the manga for a while, though it took watching Paradise Kiss for Jamie to give it a shot. Now when I bring home new volume, she snatches it out of the bag and sits down immediately. The first two anime eps were the first fansubs I procured.

We actually moved on to Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl, which seems like a cute but thinly disguised Tomoyo x Sakura yuri fantasy.

[rk47]

hm G double O finally gets whacked by sheer numbers. cue super robot no one ever seen before to the rescue.

New gundam meisters are  - younger brother is Hallelujah all the time, sister is genki girl with a side order of repressed bunny boiler, and the older brother is sane, calm and rational. Too sane, calm and rational IMO. Plus they've thrown a spanner in the (existing CB) works merely by existing, and pissed off Mantrap.

Asuka vibes too strong, zomg. Mantrap x Postal-Dude ftw. lol. They're setting up for a great doujin materials for the fan girls.

[Simond]

You should watch Nana next.

We've been big fans of the manga for a while, though it took watching Paradise Kiss for Jamie to give it a shot. Now when I bring home new volume, she snatches it out of the bag and sits down immediately. The first two anime eps were the first fansubs I procured.

We actually moved on to Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl, which seems like a cute but thinly disguised Tomoyo x Sakura yuri fantasy.

I'm guessing you've seen the three KyoAni game-to-anime series as well: Air, Kanon and Clannad?

Edit: Official G-L dub trailer.   

[Stormwaltz]

I'm guessing you've seen the three KyoAni game-to-anime series as well: Air, Kanon and Clannad?

We've seen all of Air and the original Kanon. The first volume of new Kanon is waiting on our top-of-the-TV short list.

Edit: Official G-L dub trailer.   

That did an excellent job of cooling any interest I had in the series. I know it's supposed to be the first good Gainax show in years, but that made it look like the most obnoxious parts of Mahoromatic.

[Yoru]

That Gurren-Lagann dub trailer is a crime against humanity. Whoever came up with that should be shot, boiled alive and then fed their own balls.

It's an object lesson in why to watch fansubs.

[Lantyssa]

It's a pretty standard ADV trailer.  I wouldn't watch most of their shows based on the trailers they put out.

Still, it'll give me a good excuse to smack a friend on the head the next time I see him.  I blame all of ADV's problems on him.

[Jain Zar]

I liked the ADV trailers back in the VHS days.  Mostly just visuals of the cartoon with the show's themesong over it.

[Simond]

Still, it'll give me a good excuse to smack a friend on the head the next time I see him.  I blame all of ADV's problems on him.

Tell him to grit those teeth first. 

[Simond]

Quoting myself and two posts in a row? Impossble! Therefore I shall do it anyway. 
Anyway, remember this?

No, because Giant Robots are inherently illogical.

Well...

Admit it, you love giant robots. Call them mecha, Gundam, super robots, battlemechs, or whatever–you love them. I love them. Everyone loves them. Ultraman. MechaGodzilla. Gigantor. Voltron. The other Voltron. Tranzor Z. Each of these franchises has found international acclaim and nourished the battlebot desires of millions of fans–some of whom forget exactly how fictional these sci-fi superdroids really are.

The next person who says “I can’t wait until the Army develops real mecha” gets a boot to the head, because in real life, mecha are actually really stupid.

[Chenghiz]

Yeah but powered armour makes sense, and that's close enough for me. :V

[Jain Zar]

I don't care if giant robots are stupid. 
I  giant robots.

Gambling is proven stupid and billions of people waste their money on that bullshit every day.  Hell, those morons keep me in iMacs, comic books, and the odd RPG...

[Simond]

Ep18 of Gundam 00 (this week's) was pretty much  all around. Oh, and I was slightly wrong about the Trinity sister - she's not actually repressing her crazy at all.

[rk47]

shit it felt easier to watch now we know who's the bad guy. This whole political mess just don't make it easy viewing, I just want to see robots fighting each other

[Simond]

shit it felt easier to watch now we know who's the bad guy. This whole political mess just don't make it easy viewing, I just want to see robots fighting each other

blasting your own ex-teammates? i can't recall it happening ever.
Ok maybe wing has a little bit of scrap but hardly to the point of 'i'm gonna blow ur suit up and make u dieee keke'

Anyway, the first time Setsuna goes back to his apartment & meets up with Saji and what's left of Louise is going to redefine 'awkward', I think.

[rk47]

the trinities are not their own teammates, it's pretty obvious from the start since the intro pointed to a 'data recovery / salvage' that occurred in the past.
As for Mantrap intention of blowing a captured Dual Persona Boy, it's acceptable to blow your tech if it gets captured in this context. 

ahahah this Louise gets a mild Euphie treatment, less hilarious than Code Geass but a little harsh on that girl. Poor Saji, I wonder if he'll join the army or something.

[Stormwaltz]

Further gloomy indicator of ADV's future, provided by a friend.

Today is the release date of both Kanon’s second volume and Kurau Phantom Memory’s final volume.

Neither of my orders shipped.

Neither DVD is listed as “in stock” on Amazon.com or Rightstuf.com.

[Lantyssa]

That's not necessarily doom for them.  They have been late before, as one of my friends had to go to their offices to pick up an order instead of waiting for them to ship it out.  Their warehouse and shipping has always been a mess.

[Simond]

Last ten seconds of episode 19 of 00 took an interesting turn...by which I mean "I have no idea where this storyline is going now". Three factions inside Celestial Being? Two factions plus a third group using either or both parts of CB as their catspaw for their own ends? Louise possibly the decendant of the wealthy industrialist who built the Throne Gundams...who killed most of her family?

[rk47]

it's back into 'hmm, how complicated do ppl want their super robot plot get?' region again.
I used to think Veda or Vader (rofflesubz) as a person, but since it's not a supercomputer; there's never an explanation on who or what made it like that. Pretty annoying really to keep the viewers in the dark, information that protagonists should have known is never mentioned either. Are the UN observers pulling the strings or are those Trinity the ones uploading the fag-4 team data? Which data are they talking about? What are those eggs ? :Z Come back next week and watch our super robot show with a lot of plot holes!

[Simond]

it's back into 'hmm, how complicated do ppl want their super robot plot get?' region again.
I used to think Veda or Vader (rofflesubz) as a person, but since it's not a supercomputer; there's never an explanation on who or what made it like that. Pretty annoying really to keep the viewers in the dark, information that protagonists should have known is never mentioned either. Are the UN observers pulling the strings or are those Trinity the ones uploading the fag-4 team data? Which data are they talking about?  :Z

See, I don't mind that because that's clearly part of of the overall plot - it's not bad storytelling if the conspiracy/conspiracies are going to get revealed over the remaining course of the story. If, however, it's like 'Lost' and they're making it up as they go along then I'd agree...but so far the dots are connecting up nicely.

What are those eggs ?

GN-Tau (red Gundam) drives. 30 of them - ten each for the three powerblocs. Next up - Graham Acre in a GN-powered UberFlag