Marzan

On 10/2/2022 at 3:44 AM, Heron said:

Yeah I disagree with Kawamori giving up his interest in Macross. Delta is merely what the current audience of Japan wants. At least from most reports from there. As well as a large number of international audiences. But now that Macross is free of the previous HG restrictions, we may see a different take on series in the future.

You have a point, but it's debatable. Delta wasn't the huge success in Japan either. Just look at the viewing figures for films from other anime franchises and it is dwarfed many times over. Unless it's only supposed to be a vehicle for advertising Walküre in which case it's doing its job well I suppose.

As for Kawamori, I love the guy to bits and he's an incredible artist, creator and world builder, but I stand by my point that he hasn't really done a memorable, quality show since...well, Frontier actually.  I would love to be proven wrong by the next iteration of Macross.

Been a while since I posted here, but since I finally watched Zettai Live I thought it was a good time to return and psot my thoughts.I suppose it was an improvement over the last movie and having less of the Knights was always going to be be a good thing. But that said, it still cements itself as the most disappointing Macross installment of all for me. It just never clicked

I said before and I say it again. Kawamori should hand over control of Macross to someone who will develop it and take it into a fresh direction, but that actually cares about writing and characters.

Haven't checked into MW in a while, but with all that is going on I just had to check in. What a time to be alive as a Macross fans. English language releases of almost the entire catalogue.

I'm speechless!!

I need to ready my wallet. I hope they take the time and care to do this right and we get the releases in the right quality.

I thought Kaguya-sama was going to be the best thing on this season, but Spy X Family has been everything as good and entertaining. It keeps on surprising me.

On 3/25/2022 at 8:29 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

It wasn't always like that... that was a development that came with the pivot away from the titans as the story's main antagonists around halfway through the series.

 

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As far as I'm concerned, Attack on Titan should have ended on that panel when they finally reached the sea. It would have been a logical and satisfying conclusion. The moment they started giving us all the Marley content things fell apart from a narrative perspective for me.

On 3/20/2022 at 11:37 AM, no3Ljm said:

 

So what are we looking at here? 3 Musical BD's?

This has been a pretty good season with at least two great shows in Mushoku Tensei and Ousama Ranking which has been nothing short of a revelation. Add to that a very decent 86 second season and Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut. Good times.

Keiko Nobumoto who wrote the screenplay to Macross Plus has passed away at the age of 57. Way too young. She penned so, so many of my favorite shows (Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Tokyo Godfathers, Space Dandy). And she was the creator of another classic, Wolf's Rain. RIP.

As a huge, huge Cowboy Bebop fan, I've been too afraid to start watching. Will probably do when some time has passed and I can judge it on it's own terms without the twitter/Reddit rants/hype rolling around. SO I cannot comment on the quality/lack of of this show.

The cancellation tho, Netflix just takes waay to little time before they axe things.

8 hours ago, seti88 said:

So....lady M...ax?

Or Lady M...ilia who then calls her ex-husbando to help out their granddaughter?

Anyone else seen Beastars S2? The second season is not quite as good as the first imo.

Just one film? Impossible to choose for me. There's so many. And some of them are kinda bit bleak so they would be an unwise choice for just seeing for the rest of mu life.

On 8/15/2021 at 9:13 AM, Keith said:

Well, I sure as hell want to discuss this.

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Eva TV always put it out there that events were moving too fast, that Seele < Gendo's plans had to be modified to accommodate the excelleration of events, but this film really drove that point home. It truly was to 3.0's disservice that the two films were 8 years apart, but that's all water under the bridge now.

Seeing the depths that Gendo was willing to go through for absolute control in Instrumentality really shook me. Anyone paying attention over the years has probably noticed that I've been a staunch Gendo fan/defender/etc. Now, even I can't defend the depths he's gone to. Weaponizing both Asuka & Rei to break Shinji & manipulate Shinji into becoming another him was daaaaaaaaaark.

And let it be said, he most definitely did weaponize Asuka. The Shikinami Series as I theorized previously (as a thing) was most definitely a mass production version of Asuka made from the remnants of what was left of Asuka after dying in Unit-03. Through some flashbacks we see the Asuka of 3.0 & 3.0 + 1.0 was a clone (body + soul) of the original, though this one was taken in and raised by Kensuke. Finally we can put to rest the theory of theageless pilot "Eva curse."

Rei II was expectedly resident in Eva-01 after Shinji rescued her in 2.0, but Ayanami-09 (I don't know what else to call her) was a trap Gendo left to break Shinji down to his own level. Rigging her to lose her form as soon as she achieved a familiarity and happiness level with Shinji ultimately backfired, but that intent on Gendo's part was so messed up. It's never been a secret that Gendo resented Shinji for stealing Yui's attention, and I always assumed Rei was created from Yui for his own benefit. Now, oh man, now I question that whole concept. Seeing a son seeing himself in his father is pretty common, even a father wanting to live vicariously through a child isn't uncommon. But a father wanting to break his son into the same broken individual (as himself) through that level of setup & manipulation is pretty heavy. Tossing the Shikinami series into mix is an intentional overkill.

Manga Gendo actually has a relatable heart to heart with Shinji where in the light of Seele invading Nerv to take control & Gendo recognizing Shinji was in a better position to progress/take control, assumes that Shinji having gone through these experiences must feel the same way he does, and as such will initiate instrumentality.

Here though we get an older Gendo who has had time to put all of his plans in motion. Who has had time to fully shed his humanity. Who is still ultimately defeated by his son, this time not just through his relationships with others (winning over Rei/Lilith & Adam/Kowaru), but finally his own willful action (Gendo initiates Instrumentality this time using Eva-01 & Rei  Eva-13 & Asuka along with his own artificially created god/angel nature) Shinji jumps head first into Eva Imaginary (Gendo's own fully created God/Lilith rather than using the original like in EoE) and cancels it out.

During their single form contact Shinji finally sees his father for all he is, and Gendo is finally able to see Shinji as carrying on a part of Yui, not just seeing him as everything he hates in himself.

And no, repressing all life into the cores of his various mass produced Eva models was not lost on me. This Gendo eas "not" playing around. He allowed Wille to have the Wunder. He dispatched Seele in 3.0 through no simple luck or accident (he literally was just done with them). He was at all times in control, and only faltered in his pure spite of himself. This Gendo was more Gargoyle than Nemo (Nadia) in that he fundamentaly misunderstood his own nature. Strangely it was Misato who ultimately took up the Nemo role, something that went totally over my head in 3.0. I don't know how or why I didn't see it. I guess I was just hanging on too tightly to TV Misato, or my understanding of her. I always saw Gendo as Nemo & Keel as Gargoyle, It took until last night to finally let go of those images, but wow.

I guess that ultimately makes Rei Neo (Nadia's brother resurrected into a puppet, not "The One"). Excuse me for seemingly jump from topic to topic, or even rambling, but there's just so much to unpack. Did anyone else love Ritsuko going full Elektra & shooting Gendo in the head? When he actually picked his brains up off the floor and put them back I was blown away. I'm still sad that Ritsuko will never get Electra's happy ending, but at least she no longer dies as someone literally used up and tossed away.

And now for the elephant in the room, Mari. Since 2.0 she's always been such a damned mystery. Even here Anno seemed so damned intent on keeping her someone only he truly knew. It was almost frustrating to unravel her mystery, looking to just the manga to unravel her origins & part in the story, but I think maybe I've finally a grasp on why Anno made her so important. Before losing his form Fuyutsuki & Mari have a very interesting conversation, seemingly solidifying a version of Mari's manga origins. They do know each other, they do know each other from Yui's college days (as she refers to him as "Fuyutsuki Sensei"), and Mari is no accidental participant in these events. However, Fuyutsuki calls Mari by an interesting name, one that on the surface evocates one of his trademark biblical references. He calls her "Mary Iacariot", at it's surface a combination if Mary Magdalene & Judas Iscariot (an interesting reference and hint in and of itself if you were to attribute the role of Jesus to Yui), but then on my second viewing (yes, I watched it back to back) something resonated with me hard.

For an understanding of where I'm going here, I'd like you to read this wiki excerpt with the understanding that Hideaki Anno is pretty damned hardcore even among Otaku.

""The spelling of her name is uncertain. In the episode guide she appears as "Marie", in the Japanese series books she is "Mary", Streamline Pictures calls her "Mari", and in episode 24 she signs one of her drawings as "Marry" (though this could simply be that as a four-year-old she doesn't know how to spell her name). Even so, Marie is probably the most accurate spelling, as it is the French one."

This is of course a description of Marie from Nadia. Personality wise, Mari & Marie fit perfectly. Mari's ultimate role in the story, treatment of Shinji (as a pet jokingly) etc line up so damned well. For her prominent role in Nadia, Marie is an archetype that hasn't repeated in other Anno works that I can think of, so of course I missed her here. She treats Shinji like King, and her ending is similar to her winding up with Sanson. Her backstory is still one of inference, but I feel so much better about it now. A rival of Yui's from college, very likely the first proof of concept for Yui's theories, first teproduced clone (human/angel) with a dubbed/transferred soul, likely a sempai/mentor behind Kaji/IPEA/Wille, and ultimately true protector of Shinji/Yui's plan to both propagate & protect humanity.

 

Thank you for sharing all your thoughts. It makes perfect sense to me. Nadia  when I watched it back in the day, always seemed like a Proto NGE to me but I had kind of forgotten making those connections when watchin 3.0+1.0. I'm soon doing my rewatch of the rebuild films and will be paying more attention to these details.

It has its own page, but I watched the final Evangelion film. I cannot believe its come to an end.

IN regards to this season, its pretty poor. The only show that consistently wants me to come back for more is Sonny Boy.

Just finished it. What a ride. To this day I still don't know if the Rebuild film's were necessary or just an act of extreme self indulgence by Anno to get his intellectual property away from Gainax. But they're a great retelling of the original story and this is a mirror to E of E in it's own way. It's a cleaner, more generous ending, coming from a more mature man who perhaps didn't feel the need of of crushing his own creation anymore.

I still think my favorite Evangelion is Sadamoto's manga version, but this one does what it needs to do in it's own visually spectacular way.
 

He can do so many things. I wouldn't put it past him to do a Shoujo K-Pop Macross with an all female Valkyrie squad.

5 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Definitely interested to know what this about.  The green hologram at the beginning of the trailer appears to be what this gal is inside of, and it's repeatedly marked with the words DE-124 SIREN DELTA SYSTEM.

Could this be the legendary lady M?!

Last season ended with a bang with Fruits Basket coming to a very heartfelt and emotional finale. Normally those kinds of shoujo shows are not for me, but this one really had a lot of good things going for it.

86 was a good watch as well. The mecha are a bit meh, but the story and worldbuilding are interesting enough.

But by far my favorite shows were To Your Eternity and Megalobox 2. Top notch both of them. The latter just oozes old school cool too.

The new season is not very impressive to be honest.

What a horrible thing for there to happen. Absolutely tragic news, so very sad.

On 5/24/2021 at 2:23 AM, Seto Kaiba said:

Higehiro's title definitely gives off a kind of skeevy vibe, but the content is mostly an attempt at heartwarming drama.  

It's definitely a little darker than what I was expecting.  It doesn't downplay the kind of trauma that would come from living on the streets the way Sayu did before she was taken in by Yoshida, and most of the drama seems to revolve around the as-of-yet unspecified issues that drove her to run away from home, her general unwillingness to believe in altruism, and her growing jealousy of the number of women who've suddenly noticed Yoshida exists for some arbitrary reason.

I always found the premise a bit problematic (god I hate using the word but cannot find anything else). As an adult man, I cannot help putting myself in his shoes and think of at least 2,3 other ways in which to help a runaway teenage girl which doesn't imply letting her live alone in your tiny apartment. Kudos to him for his altruism, but damn if it isn't the wrong way to handle things. Makes for some great drama tho.

86 and To Your Eternity are still the best things this season for me. The latter really manages to change the tone from episode to episode but in a good way.

On 5/8/2021 at 4:08 AM, Roy Focker said:

I'm going to be a Debbie Downer and say I think they've both lost their chance.  There was a period when this joint agreement would have meant that our dreams had come true.  I saw Gundam and Dragon Ball Z toys at Target today.  A North American fan who knows their anime will consider Macross of equal importance.  Everyone else maybe they've heard about it.   Delta did come out around 5 years ago.  I can see more specialty stores carrying stuff and small streaming services putting up some series but Macross lost its chance to be a global juggernaut.

I agree with you to some extent. There's so much anime out there that is mainstream and part of the popular culture now. The mecha genre is scuffed at by younger fans as well.

If BW and HG could have done this deal 4,5 years ago then a big Macross release could have had a bigger impact. If they had done it when Frontier came out, Macross would be colossal.

Man, this hits hard, real hard.

RIP to the greatest mangaka of all. He will be missed. I hope they don't come up with any stupid ideas like continuing to the story. You cannot recreate his art style in any way shape or form.

My late contribution to the topic.

I think there will be plenty more Macross. Kawamori is the youngest looking 60 year old on the planet and these directors keep working well into their seventies. And he's not afraid to keep on with the times.

Would like to have a fresh voice in the show though. Would like to see what someone else can do with the Macross core concept.

I take back my words about it being an underwhelming season. There's a couple of really solid shows that had flown under my radar.

86-  lots of Code Geass vibes from this one.

Vivy's Fluorite's Eye Song- Violet Evergarden meets Steins Gate.

To Your Eternity- might end up being the best of the lot. Last episode was Princess Mononoke meet some cosmic sci fi

As long as there is a Char and they drop a colony on Sydney I'll be game