Bri

Saw the movie, it wasn't bad. Very nice action scenes and it was decently paced. The movie wrapped up most of the remaining plot points and salvaged what it could from the, in my opinion disappointing, second season of Gundam 00. While watching the movie I had some flash backs to scenes from 2001: A Space Odyssey and Terminator 2. On the whole Gundam00 was rather enjoyable but I hope that after Seed and 00 we will get new Gundam series that will rely a bit less on recycling the plot of a previous Gundam show.

The only movie of his I don`t like however is Grave of the Fireflies that reeks of the Japanese perpetual victim mentality I dislike so much. You know, he could have had at least one scene in that movie that showed Japanese troops advancing across Manchuria or its pilots bombing pearl harbor, just to give Japanese kiddies a little perspective as to why this was happening to two innocent Japanese kids. IS Grave his movie though, or is it just Ghibli? I get confused in my old age...

Indeed, Isao Takahata was the director of Grave of the Fireflies. Bit hard to blame the director as the movie is an adaption of the novel by Akiyuki Nosaka.

• Pen and paper: in case I wake up with an idea for the current article I'm working on.
  
• Mobile phone which doubles as my alarm clock
  
• "Kafka on the Shore" by Murakami
  
• "Unseen Academicals" by Pratchett
  

For it's My neighbor Totoro. I haven't seen any other film that manages to capture the way children experience the world like this one does. The wonder, the imagination, the fantasy it's all so well done.

I'm not very critical when it comes to Macross. Sure, a few things bug me but nothing to make me dislike any Macross show. The worst moment for me is the times that I realize that when Frontier's movies are done it could take years before we see another Macross anime.

I have the M7 series and OVAs/Movies since around 3 years ago. But because of the bad feedbacks by the Macross community, I haven't started watching any of it yet. Guess the time is now hehe.

Sheryl is ahead of Ranka by a wide margin in the poll. But many people voted for the I don't care opion. Sigh ... I guess most of those who voted for the I don't care option are those who are too tired of discussing the topic already. Again, sorry for that.

It's not so much being tired of the topic but I don't like Alto very much so I'm fairly indifferent about who he ends up with. I hope that the triangle wont overshadow the events of the second movie as I hope to see more of the events surrounding the Macross Galaxy and aftermath of the war.

For the triangle resolution I don't see a SDFM like situation happening where Hikaru made a choice between the two girls. My guess is a choice by default like Alto staying on the Varija homeworld and either Sheryl having to return to Macross Galaxy or Ranka leaving for a galactic music tour. Especially Sheryl is quite a popular character based on character rankings so I doubt the producers want to risk fan backlash by any too serious a relationship.

The Patlabor movies are much darker and political then the TV-series and OVA. The latter are more comedy/slice-of-life type shows. WXIII is the weakest movie of the three but I like Patlabor II the least (which comes chronologically after WRXIII) as the main cast lost much of their sparkle when moving beyond SV2.

I'd buy it. The scheme is nice enough, besides I want to keep my line-up of Hikaru valks complete.

Wait, what? Wow. I need to watch Animax Musix now just because of this.

By the way, I found this one through your link.

May'n x God knows is a pretty divine combo.

Nothing really picked my interest from the winter season charts except Fractale. First episode of IS: Infinite Stratos did not really make an impression, seems to be cliché harem with mecha.

On the bright side, I will have time to dig into the classic Super robot shows. Not quite sure where to begin, but Mazinger Z seems like a nice starting point.

For me it's Hikaru with Basara as a close second. While pretty much opposites both have a grumpy kind of determination I really appreciate in characters. Neither is particularly sociable but lack the cruel streak that I find unappealing in some of the other pilots.

Alright, finished the novel, and now I'm super ready for spoiler talk

Warning, do not read if you have not seen/read/already heard about everything that happens in Disappearance.

This movie was a serious rollercoaster. I've spent the last few hours going back & fourth reconciling everything I just watched & read (well, doing other things too, but this story has seriously been weighng on me in the background all day). My main focus has been Yuki's motivations for everything she did. Initially I wanted to believe that the erronoious data that led to the "bug" was somehow Asakura's influence tainting Yuki after their initial battle. But the more I think about it, the less that seems to be the case. It really does seem to come down to a combination of tiredness & jealousy.

If anything, Disappearance fully jusitfies the E8 decision in my eyes. Yes, now I do believe it was necessary to repeat the same episode 8 times in a row, and even stretch the timeframe of events way past the novel version, just to pound home the wear & tear it put on Yuki. The fact that she stayed home the first day of school resonates very powerfully now. She wasn't just tired, she was really freakikn' tired. Yes she came back, but even Kyon & Koizumi noticed she wasn't quite the same, no matter how hard she tried to hide it. What really stands out is the scene during Sigh, where Kyon goes to speak with Yuki after Mikuru & Koizumi cast suspicion on each other. Aside from pointing out the obvious to Kyon, Yuki also stresses that despite his almost blind trust in her, he really shouldn't trust her either since he knows just as little about her, and can't prove anything she says either. Initially what sounds like logical sound advice, takes on a much colder ring.

And following a very tired, slightly jealous line of logic, it makes sense that Yuki seeing Kyon's usual groaning nature at Haruhi's antics, that she'd take an opportunity to take away both of their troubles. And yet, she set's everything up in such a way as to give Kyon not just a choice between crazyness and mundane, but literally between Haruhi & Yuki. If she merely wanted to relieve all of her troubles, there'd be no reason to leave Kyon with his memories, let alone an escape/reset program. Everything she set up was in such a way that she gave Kyon the option of living out a life together with her. Asakura was put right smack behind him in order to scare Kyon back into safety, i.e. Yuki. Haruhi was not only completely moved off campus, but with suedo boyfriend Koizumi, seemingly to make it easier to drag them both back as the keys, but more subtley to make Kyon think twice abotu persuing Haruhi. And most notably, Yuki left herself with a version of Kyon taking he to the library to get her library card, a memory she knew she'd cherish & trust. Also of note, she left Shamisen with Kyon. While yes having a cat in the movie was Haruhi's idea, I can't help but wonder if Yuki directing them to the cats near her building was a coincidence. Put into this light, Shamisen seems to be somewhat of an indirect gift.

When you look at the extremes she went through, not only stealing Haruhi's powers & taking out the time travlers & espers, but whiping out the Data Overmind entity deally, it puts that quite softspoker little girl into a very scary light. Like Mikuru, she knew Haruhi could potentially destroy/remake the universe if anyone tried to take Kyon away from her. Unlike Mikuru, she wasn't content with just sitting back and walking pushing Kyon towards Haruhi. Comparing her actions with the actions of Ryoko, it makes you wonder whatever badass things those aliens have done in the past to make both Mikuru & Koizumi's people so scared of them. I get the impression that its their SOP to violently remove any obstacles to their goals, Yuki's actiosn obviously being at the most extreme side of that spectrum.

And like I said, while I initially wanted to just put the blame somehow on Asakura, the more I look at things, I really can't. Even nearly killing Kyon appears to be a final jealous strike from Yuki. Afterall, who put Asakura outside of the school with a hugeass knife set to protection mode at the exact time the reset program that she (Yuki) designed could be initiated? The alternate Asakura literally told Kyon everything in the elevator, basically "you better be careful with Yuki's feelings, or I WILL f^ck you up." And be it 2 days before that conversaion, that's exactly what Asakura did. Kyon's rejection that world was a rejection of Yuki, and she responded in kind.

Now we know a more sensable (?) slightly more future Yuki subdued Ryoko from striking that final blow. And obviously no one could have healed Kyon's wounds but Yuki. But did she accept things because of the repair program? Or because Kyon reached out to her afterwards at the hospitol (and thankfully he made his point quite clear, if they try and take Yuki away, he'll sick Haruhi on the whole galaxy!). That if anything I believe is what calmed Yuki's wrath.

Likewise the movie has been on my mind lately.

This movie was 100% worth the hype.

Can't agree more. Received mine yesterday and just wow. It was everything I hoped it to be and then some.

Best:

Anime Series: Giant Killing - It understands what football means. The absolute star in a lacklustre year for anime.

Film: Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya - 100% epic.

OVA: Gundam Unicorn Ep2. - It's UC gundam, nuff said.

Science Fiction Film: Inception by lack of competition

TV Series: Hardly ever watch TV but best show I've seen this year was Madmen

PC/Video Game: Starcraft II - RTS heaven

Consumer Electronic: Heatbox - Not having to remove frost from my car windows at minus 15 makes me love this device.

Toy/Model/Action Figure/Plushie/Nendoroid: Yamato VF-1S Roy Focker TV 1/60

Spring 2011 anime

http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/1694/1292397295604.jpg

Mmm deadman wonderland.

Appleseed!, I so hope it will get the adoption it deserves. Fingers crossed.

Santa with a little help from Amazon was so kind as to drop off the new Japanese version of the Haruhi Suzumiya BR box at my doorstep. It's nice upgrade over the already lovely up-scale from the DVDs. It comes complete with subs and dub.

The bishonen male pilot thing goes back to way before evangelion; you can see it as far back as Gundam 0079 and I'm sure there are even older examples that I can't think of off the top of my head.

still I don't really see how that effects characters like Alto. To me Alto comes off as a very much like a slightly more mellow version of Camille Bidan from Gundam Z.

Camille and Amuro are bishonen in the original definition of the word, but I was talking about bishonen-tropes. Modern bishies based on shoujo type manga: aka feminine, long tall characters who look like they have a personal stylist on call and have a need to share their dark brooding nature to the world. Think Twilight. Often accompanied by a sempai or best friend character for Fujoshi fanservice. Camille and Amuro cannot really be mistaken for teenage girls, otherwise Char would have nailed them on the spot

Same way as Minmay is "moe" before the term was coined. However she is not a moe-stereotypical character like Ranka, who starts of as a standard airhead type moeblob with fixed set of behaviours (although she improves in time).

As for where Eva comes in: it is often credited with starting off the change in anime from primarily plot driven shows to character driven works. It also set off character cults. Kaworu Nagisa is imo the first true modern bishie in anime. Gundam Seed really "perfected" the principle for mecha with Kira and Arthran.

Finally Macross Frontier. I did not particularly enjoy the gundam seed syndrome the show suffered from. The adolescent ace pilots and the Vajra. Fighting space bugs with a variable fighter was not what I had hoped for when I saw the first episode. Alto was too emo and angsty, and the only reason I continued to watch was because I liked see Ozma Lee and Klan Klan kicking ass, and to see Alto get his ass handed to him. I waited in vain, because it never really happened.[...] Frontier too suffers from the Super Sentai syndrome. Also, I HATE PRIVATE MILITARY CONTRACTORS. I do not identify with them, and despise the concept. The fact that the heroes are all mercs rubs me the wrong way.

I'm not a big fan of the love triangle of Frontier but I like the Vaijra and the MF storyline. The "bug" like nature of the Vaijra was essential to dehumanize the enemy and pull off the DYRL plot inversion with the human forces now in the role of the Zentradi.

Forgive me for saying so, but that's a rather odd complaint for someone who was "brought into the world of anime" by Gundam. Gundam's downright famous for its angsty teenage pilots in most of its universes... and I think it's safe to say that in terms of emoness or angst, Alto has nothing on the likes of a young Amuro Ray, Camille Bidan, Judau Ashta (in the second half), Uso Ebbing, Kira Yamato, Relina Peacecraft, Saji Crossroad, etc.

A difference is that post-evangelion mecha shows often have pilots that are effeminate and fabulousin addition to being angsty. These bishonen tropes date back to the increased influence of shoujo mange on anime in the late 90s. The new Bones mecha Star Driver takes the Bishi concept to a whole new level of testosterone estrogen fueled epicness.

Not sure how Frontier could be said to suffer from "super sentai syndrome"... but I do agree on the subject of PMCs. They were trendy as heroes for a while, now they're trendy as villains... particularly in video games. It irked me to see the New UN Spacy portrayed as barely competent while swaggering mercenaries with all the latest toys wade nigh-invincibly through combat. It's hardly a realistic depiction of PMCs either... SMS is more like MITHRIL from Full Metal Panic! than anything.

Unlike MITHRIL, the SMS just had an air about it, that bugged me. MITHRIL was a bit too fantastic and functioned, as it seemed to me, more like a military organization, than SMS did. The "Super Sentai Syndrome" I refer to is based on how the "elite" SMS had to run out and save the day, while the regular troopers languished in incompetency. MITHRIL, was better equipped in FMP! but overall was as well trained as any professional military. SMS seemed to be somehow on that standard, while the regulars were shown as two cuts below the norm. The whole show seemed over exaggerated to me, and it was over the top to my taste, that's all I was trying to say, other than the PMC comment, But we can talk about that some other time.

When have military organisations been portrayed as positive in anime? At best they presented as bureaucratic, wasteful, corrupt institutions and usually ineffective against any major threat. It's always one group, unit or ship including a number of high-school aged kids that is different from the norm and save the day, nothing new or different in MF there.

Character designs by Enami Katsumi (Bacanno). The studio Bones look of characters works well with Macross imo.

(From Jikai Blog):

Chelsea Scarlett: Pilot at the private military provider S.M.S. (Strategic Military Services) Apollo platoon. A pure-blood Zentradi, her strange background has her viewed as an idol above all. Good at reading others, and a talented pilot.

Hakuna Aoba: A Frontier Colonial Fleet “Island 15″‘s old VF-1 Valkyrie Racer.

Also the SMS VF-19 in VF-1A cannon fodder scheme is pure win.

Every Transformers fan on the planet needs to see the first half of this weeks (episode 7) episode of Panty & Stocking. The old school references were off the chart. There was R.C., Starscream, Soundwave, Hotrod, Grimlock, Devastator, even Unicron right at the end. & to top it all off, showing scenes from the 1986 film during the montage scene showing the battles. That was just too much for me to handle, though at the same time incredible.

True, didn't think much of P&S at first as it was so similar to early cartoon network shows. However since Ep 4. it got better and better. Gainax did it again.

Rare shot---an actual round in mid-air from an A-10: http://www.airliners.net/photo/USA---Air/Fairchild-A-10A-Thunderbolt/1810250/L/

Awesome picture, ugly has it's own beauty. Somehow I can see the A-10 survive it's replacement.

Watched the first three epsisodes of Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai .

Really enjoyed it. Otaku centric show about a protagonist who gets introduced to the world of anime fandom through his little sister with otaku-like tendencies.

Hilarious was the real life meet up in episode 2 with the mahou shoujo and bishonen fan trading insults.

In interviews, Carl Macek sometimes expressed that he had a goal of changing the perception of animation to the American public so that they wouldn't think animation was just for children. He didn't turn it around completely. In America, despite Family Guy and South Park, animation is generally considered to be for children.

If Macek was so serious about opening up animation to older audiences, why the need for dumbing down Robotech by adding narration and simplifying relationships? Would his so called adult audience not be able to grasp concepts aimed at young Japanese? I don't buy it. Robotech has never been more then a hastily put together project to cash in on the success of Transformers. Macek just got lucky that a high school/college crowd picked it up, but I don't believe it was intentional.

I think there's a middle-sized group of people in the west now who don't reject anime outright, but don't embrace it, either...and seem to NEED the kind of "smoothing the edges" that Star Blazers, Voltron, and Robotech (among others) provided.

Isn't that pretty much saying when people were younger they had little to no idea where their entertainment really came from and didn't care because it all looked the same anyway and in a language they could understand?

I think you both make a good point here. Gubaba describes the difference between an animation fan and a anime fan. Still, if Einherjar's point holds. What then was the difference between 80s animation (like Transformers, G.I.JOE and Thundercats)that were produced in Japan and 90s localized Japanese shows (like Pokemon, Sailormoon and Dragonball Z) that really triggered the western anime boom?

Finished the Blu-ray yesterday evening. I'm very happy with the way the movie turned out. The pacing is faster then in the TV-series but it did not feel rushed to me. I like that they established Ranka, Alto, Michael,Luka and Klan as an already pre-existing group of friends. This fixed many of the problems I saw in terms of character connections and motivations from the early TV-series. Sheryl, no longer mentor/support character turned rival, is now introduced as the exciting wild-card. On the whole, character progression felt a lot more natural to me. With the focus more on Sheryl, Alto is no longer the self-centered main protagonist but more a friend. Making him a lot more sympathetic. The visual quality is turned up a notch with the movie often having fantastic backgrounds. The CGI are nicely integrated for the most part.

The only issue I have with the movie, is the way the characters don't seem to blend in with the background. Somehow the colors and lighting don't seem to work well. This is very noticeable when you compare Itsure no Utahime to other movie/film productions like Rebuild of Evangelion and Garden of Sinners where the blend of character and background is extremely good.

About time Basara grew a pair and got laid, I was beginning to think the guy was a goddam eunuch with the way he ignores women.

The guy is a rock star, I'm sure his needs will be met. No wonder he ingnores pushy would-be-girlfriends. Besides he's got Clore's fleet to work through, not surprising he never returned to Macross 7.