Mr March

I have to disagree with this statement. Mechs of that size would be able to go places a jeep couldn't. I doesn't take much to stop a wheeled vehicle and the current gulf war has taught the army just how vunerable helos are. I can't really speak for the Gasaraki but the scopedog can carry a buttload of heavy weapons. The whole point of a feasable small mecha would be to provide a significant military resource that could go places a light vehicle could not, while at the same time possessing more advantages over conventional infantry that can go anywhere. In this list of criteria would as be such oft-forgotten considerations like cost-benefit of the mecha unit, operational endurance compared to conventional units, unforseen vulnerabilites of an unconvetional humanoid mecha, worth of the mecha unit as compared to the combined arms of the military, etc. From where I stand, a realistic analysis of those anime mecha within the scope of our foreseeable future technological abilities would not provide a viable result. It's OK if we don't agree but to in my opinion the scopedog meets all of your criteria. It's capable of carring a multitude of weaponsystems. It's able to handle enviroments where conventional vehicles can not operate, including zero-G. cost is irrelevant to thics discussion since these are fantasy designs it's impossible to put a pricetag on them except to say that the fact that they exist in thier respective universes means that they must be cost effective to produce. Actually, no it isn't. The only way to begin questioning whether one mecha is more plausible than another is to take our current understanding and apply it to the supposed reality of such vehicles. Otherwise, where can a comparison even begin? If we accept the physics and economics unique to each individual anime series while silmultaneously we suspend our disbeleif indiscriminantly, one mecha is EQUALLY as plausible as the next. In that case, the more outrageous, fantastic, or magical the abilities of the mecha, the better it is as the mecha of choice. Obviously, this is a ridiculous and dead-end way in which to analyze "plausibility". So we return to my original assesment and the reasoning behind it. This makes the afformentioned Patlabor and GITS mecha the more plausible.

I have to disagree with this statement. Mechs of that size would be able to go places a jeep couldn't. I doesn't take much to stop a wheeled vehicle and the current gulf war has taught the army just how vunerable helos are. I can't really speak for the Gasaraki but the scopedog can carry a buttload of heavy weapons. The whole point of a feasable small mecha would be to provide a significant military resource that could go places a light vehicle could not, while at the same time possessing more advantages over conventional infantry that can go anywhere. In this list of criteria would as be such oft-forgotten considerations like cost-benefit of the mecha unit, operational endurance compared to conventional units, unforseen vulnerabilites of an unconvetional humanoid mecha, worth of the mecha unit as compared to the combined arms of the military, etc. From where I stand, a realistic analysis of those anime mecha within the scope of our foreseeable future technological abilities would not provide a viable result.

I just thought about that, you think the creator of Family Guy ever saw these(Stewie always trying to kill Lois)? Yes, it is hilarious, but am I the only one who thought just from seeing the title it was a stunt A1 was pulling? Seems to follow his style. "Deliciously evil!"

I'd mostly agree with Gobotfool. Most plausible mecha designs in anime would be the Crab-Type Standard Light Tank from Ghost in the Shell and the multi-legged MBT's like the HAL X-10 and RADHA from Patlabor. You basically get all the heavy firepower advantages of a tank with the bonus of more speed/manuverability, enhanced terrain adaptation, variable height, reduced land warfare vulnerability, improved stealth, etc. At the same time, such hardware is not that great a step up from current military equipment. The increased maintenance and material/logistic costs of these "Mecha Tanks" are well within the grasp of future military spending and technological capability. As for humanoid style mecha, the smaller the mech, the more plausible and practical in my opinion...to a degree. Mecha like those featured in Gundam, Evangelion, and Macross would be far too large to be practical. The costs involved in the construction of even a single such mecha of that size would be prohibitive. Smaller mecha like the Patrol Labors in Patlabor and the Battlemechs in Battletech/Mechwarrior would be much more feasable. On the flip side, mecha that are much too small would not be of any use to a well equipped military. Mecha featured in VOTOMS, Gasaraki, and the like would be too small to carry arms of any significance that would make the units more useful than current light vehicles. Armed jeeps, assault armor, and other light attack vehicles would be infinitely more versatile, cheap, and useful than small mecha. Also, mecha units that small would be armored too lightly to offer any advantage over heavy infantry weapons. Even today, modern heavy infantry units possess sufficiently powerful weapons to destroy tanks and other heavily armored hardware (ala anti-tank rockets). Personal powered armor suits like Mospeada Ride Armors, Bubblegum Crisis Hardsuits, and other such form-fitting armored suits would only be practical without all the amazing abilities they possess in the respective anime series. Putting aside the obvious question of how one would build an engine/reactor small enough to form-fit as part of the suit, such mecha are marvels of miniturization to such a degree that would not be possible in our conceivable future. Just thinking off the top of my head, heat management and radar vulnerability would be the biggest flaws to overcome in such a design. Fielding of superior firepower and stealth are probably the two most important considerations when the military conceives any new piece of equipment. Sadly, most anime mecha would fail those tests given a reasonable prediction of our future technological capabilities.

Hahaha. Great stuff. Always trying to kill Lois

Two points to consider. 1) As much as I love Macross and will always enjoy it, Macross is far past it's prime. Like film, timing and popular culture relevance are what drive 99% of all creative works. As a child back in the 1980's, Macross was very relevant, new, and came out at a time when most kids were in love with giant robots and demand was high. In all likelyhood, you child is not growing up in the same state of mind or current culture which would endorse Macross. Not to say it's unlikely the child will ever enjoy it, just be aware of the fact that times have changed and Macross simply isn't on top of the food chain as it were. 2) Robotech is by far even more dated and more irrelevant. Not only is it a modification (and a poor one at that) of an anime past its prime, but it is also the poster child for the mistreatment of a foreign artform in North America. When your child is an adult and IF he/she becomes an anime enthusiast, it would be more than worthwhile to watch Robotech from the perspective of the anime historian. On a side note, I would strongly encourage you to introduce your child to foreign, subtitled art and entertainment as early as possible. As a huge fan of film, myself as a Canadian is spoiled by the amount of native language film and it is possible for most of my fellow citizens to go their entire lives never enjoying foreign film because they "hate subtitles". It would be a tragedy to perpetuate this narrow viewpoint and so I would encourage you to at least try. The child may always reject it, but at least you've tried. And keep in mind, as the child grows, he may even explore subtitled film/anime he/she once rejected simply becuase of the early childhood experience. It worked for me.

Ooooo, I like that one!

Gundam or Star Wars. Meh, to each his own. Personally, Gundam will never mean that much to me. It's basically like Trek, a franchise that existed to fill fan demand for sci-fi because there was little of anything else at the time. Nowadays, there's simply so much more available of much better quality that Gundam isn't worth the considerable time investment. Star Wars is basically B-movie fluff with plenty of entertaining eye candy for me to enjoy. More importantly, Star Wars doesn't significantly infringe upon time I use to explore new film, anime, or literature. And it doesn't take 49 hours to watch, just so I can try to justify to anyone who will listen why I just watched so much mediocre anime that "wasn't that bad".

That is much closer to what I imagined and I like that better. It still looks a little pale, but the combination of colors is better.

I must admit, that while I think this movie is devoid of any worth for a viewer like myself, the theatrical poster for Constantine is a very nice piece of artwork. It has a certain distinctiveness that is unique despite its simple desing. Yet, it is that simplicity that catches my eye everytime. The theme of the poster is also very suitable for the subject matter of the film.

Oh...my...gawd! I can't wait for this ship to be complete. This is the most exciting 3D fan model I've seen in years. A very, VERY welcome change from all the tired Trek designs plauging the net and a nice break from the Star Wars and Babylon 5 stuff as well. Can I beg for 1600x1200 beauty shots of this lovely, ugly behemoth? Cause I will

Is that, Patlabor The Movie? It's gotta be.

It was indeed. Maybe it suits the mecha more than one would guess Still don't like it though

That Sharon pic cracks me up

Hmmm, I must admit that color scheme is not really to my liking. It almost looks like the paint one would use for a factory only prototype piecemeal. I can understand why decisions were made to jazz up to colors. I was thinking the RX-78-2 Gundam would look good as primarily white with dark accents and dark colored sub-surface features, much like the Ez8.

I watched the first 8 episodes of Samurai Champloo last weekend. I've taken a while to put my thoughts together on the series, since it's both similar and different to anime I've previously seen. Overall, the series is good entertainment, but it has so far failed inspire me. I find myself enjoying Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex much more, particularly the subtext of that series. Samurai Champloo seems to remind me much more of a serialized, north american television show if it was done by a talented japanese anime director. Not that there's anything wrong with episodic, north american television (yeah, I know I'm trying to be way more diplomatic than I really feel), but it's just not what I'm really looking for. I enjoy the different facets of Samurai Champloo, especially the entertaining characters, the use of hip hop music merged with a Feudal japanese period. I certainly can't complain about the animation, which is easily on a level with GITS: SAC and Cowboy Bebop. The strengths of the series just don't seem enough to make up for a lack of power within the series' storytelling. I would be willing to see more Samurai Champloo and enjoy the series for it's moderate entertainment value, but I can already tell as I'm writing this, I'm just not going to put in as much effort to see further episodes as I did to view the first eight.

I typically enjoy mecha that feature more earth-like tones or metallic colors. Most of the mecha in Macross Plus, particularly the YF-19 and the VF-11 Thunderbolt, utilize color schemes that I prefer the most for a mecha. However, as a reality of many anime, particularly older animes from the 70's and 80's, bright primary colors were often necessary to distinguish one object/character/vehicle from another. I find subdued colors help my suspension of disbelief when accepting big, giant robots. As much as I love color and find it aesthetically pleasing, mecha with bright primary colors just seems kinda silly to me and hurts the realism.

That's certainly your choice if you prefer the Valkyrie design, but hardly a case for whether a Mecha looks good or bad colored white. Arguing over accents which account for less than a significant portion of a Valkyrie's color palette is splitting hairs far too thin to be relevant IMO. I doubt that the original Gundam was meant to be as white as a sheet of 8.5 x 11. The Stormtroopers of Star Wars were Tomino's inspiration for the Gundam and they are far from totally white. I think the original RX-78-2 Gundam would have looked great as a white design, much the same as the Gundam Ez8 and the VF-1 Valkyrie. I think in general the Gundams look best with a relatively subdued color pallette than the traditional designs, like the RX-78NT-1 Gundam Alex or the Stamen. IMO, the Ez8 is a good Gundam design that is perfectly fine in white, and certainly not ugly. Your mileage may vary.

Huh? The Valkyries are nearly all white in color and they look great, even in early 80's animation. The Gundam Ez8 from Mbolie Suit Gundam The 08th MS Team is one of my favorite UC era Gundam designs, but the thing is basically all white. I think creatively the decision to use those silly primary colors for the RX-78-2 was terrible. But the decision was prompted by toy/model sales (as seems the curse for most Gundam shows) so I can understand the choice even if I disagree.

The HK film industry has been in decline for about a decade now. Fewer and fewer films being made every year. At least those films which do get made generally tend to be better quality. Graham Yes, there has been a sad trend in the decline of Hong Kong cinema as a result of the economic uncertainty caused by British withdrawal in the last decade. The decline is starting to level off even in spite of many a fear about "government funded" control in cinema (which some have claimed is one of many concessions suffered by Hong Kong society in the face of the growing communist influences). But even during the past decade of dwindling film financing in Hong Kong, I didn't think the market slipped that far compared to it's prime years. Hong Kong still produces a modest number of films annually and is still visible in the international scene even now. I'd be curious to learn exactly what the hard figures are for annual film counts in Hong Kong.

Damn, did Rick M. ever put on the beef between Phantom Menace and Revenge of the Sith

Are there other ways I can recommend Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex? Because I like the series so much, I'm going to try to find those ways Seriously, I do like the show and I can definitely recommend it. I also loved the first Ghost in the Shell film, though I'm dissappointed with the second feature. Regardless of whether you liked the films or not, GITS: SAC is very different and a more conventional storytelling style that you'll most likely enjoy it. I can also recommend any Hayao Miyazaki films such as Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Nausicaa, and the like. They are fantastic films, albiet made for a little less mature audience (there are exceptions). If you enjoy an engrossing fantasy that's a little lighthearted, you'll love them. I'd also recommend more of Mamuro Oshii's films, especially Patlabor and Patlabor 2 films. Both are fantastic examples of well written, deliberately paced crime thrillers in a sci-fi setting. They are easily among the best animated mecha films ever made. I'd also recommend Akira and Grave of the Fireflies. It goes without saying that anyone getting into anime should see those films.

Hi!

Unlikely. In most nations, pornography is considered a seperate industry for many reasons beyond the stereotypical moral implications. Most likely, specialized forms of film would not be included in the film count of a given nation. This would include pornography, instructional films, government films, corporate films, and other such specialized film.

In answering such a question, keep in mind that the film counts of the world's nations is difficult to accurately measure because of the disparity involved and lack of a coordinated body to track world wide productions. Also, given the very nature of the american termed "runaway" productions and globalization of many film industries, it's more difficult to define what makes a "Canadian film" or a "Hong Kong film." With the above in mind, I'll post what I found from one online source. India - 1,200 U.S. - 540 Japan - 293 France - 200 Spain - 137 Italy - 130 Germany - 116 China - 100 Philipines - 97 HongKong - 92 I know from past reading and study that some of the above are in error. For example, I know the Philipines makes at least 3-4 hundred hundred films annually (I beleive the 2004 count was somewhere around 380 films) and that Hong Kong averages more like 1-2 hundred a year. Regardless of where one might obtain their statistics, I can tell you that I personally always see India, the U.S., the Philipines, France, Hong Kong, and Japan in the top of any list of the world wide film industries.