The Apocalypse Is At Hand (...severe vanity)

AnimeNewsNetwork ^ | Monday, August 4th, 2003 | Me, the Depressed; resigned to the bitter fate of humanity....

[section9]

Well, folks, it looks as if the End is At Hand,

or a Hillary Presidency at the very least.

Yes, It has finally come to pass.

Those of use who are witness to the agony of live action costume contests at anime conventions feared that this might happen.

Live action Sailor Moon.

Ritual suicide is in order. And to think, I was foolish enough to believe that Western Civilization had a chance.....

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Mmm....what a nice way to wake up in the morning. Brisk walk, cup of coffee, bagel, and hole_n_one pinging me to a Yatta flash file!!

[Chewbacca]

I prefered Star Blazers as a kid.

[Terpfen]

I'm up to episode 42. The story is just another rehash of the same damn thing we've seen in 0079, Zeta, ZZ, Wing, X... Gundam prototypes made, some boys steal Gundam prototypes, Gundam prototypes fight each other, Gundam prototypes change the face of the always-two-sided war and eventually win it.

This is why I'm glad that Sentinel exists, even if it's not animated: it changes the entire formula around. Let's get some damn variety in these Gundam stories already. Actually, the variety is already there, it just needs to be animated: Sentinel, Crossbone, and Hathaway's Flash are all pretty good, they just need to be put in visual media.

[section9]

I prefered Star Blazers as a kid.

Better known as Space Battleship Yamato, SB appealed to the Zero pilot in every young Japanese male.

SB had the good fortune to have great characters and an outsanding set of story arcs. It compares favorably to the other Eighties epics, Gundam, Macross, and of course, the Captain Harlock stories.

Anime has come a long way since Speed Racer. SR, after all, had at its heart an incestuous homoerotic relationship between Speed and Racer X...

This pair just screams Yaoi content....

Anime has come a long way, all the way from the metaphorical buggery of Speed Racer to the not so metaphorical buggery of Gundam Wing.

You'll notice that Princess Releena is not in the picture? Hmmmm? What a bunch of mincing, prancing gay boys. I'm sorry, but you'll notice that Releena gets treated like an old yellow dog througout the series?

Poor Relena. So many men. So many bathhouses....

No, in all seriousness, the Gundam franchise is superb. Including Gundam Wing. Turn A Gundam includes a musical score by Yoko Kanno, which makes it that much better.Macross is an outstanding effort, in and of itself.

Natch, none of these approach the finest anime of all time, Cowboy Bebop, but they are wonderful efforts in and of themselves.

Thanks again to B-Chan for the updates, btw.

Be Seeing You,

Chris

[Terpfen]

G is great, especially in terms of storyline: it also takes Gundam to different places, since it's more of a super robot parody show than a drama on war and peace. Gundam X is pretty good, but it's still standard fare stuff: Gundam prototypes made, Gundam prototypes stolen, Gundam prototypes fight, Gundam prototypes eventually change and end the war.

As for Wing... well, if you're a Wing fan, that explains why you like the 0079 story rehashes...

[section9]

What did you think of Trigun and Bebop?

Be Seeing You,

Chris

[B-Chan]

Yamato will always be my favorite anime.

Little-known Fun Fact: Yours truly was variously an artist, writer, and editor for the English-language Star Blazers comics magazine here in the States from 1993 to 1997. What fond memories...

[E Rocc]

A certain Sam Kinison line comes to mind, where basically he stated that he did not understand gay attraction at all.

-Eric

[Terpfen]

Whoa, calm down there, buddy. Gundam took a nosedive when Bandai purchased Sunrise, agreed, but that doesn't mean the series as a whole is terrible. You're just watching the wrong parts of it. In terms of appreciating a story, if you stay away from 0083, ZZ, F91, G-Saviour, Wing, X, and SEED, you'll be fine. I'm going to say it one more time: Sentinel, Crossbone, and Hathaway's Flash are the trio of stories that can save Gundam, if they're ever put into visual media. Get the Macross Zero animation team on those three and we'll get some classics going.

As for the mecha design, agreed: Okawara needs to go away. Thankfully, we have Hajime Katoki, Mika Akitaka, Yutaka Izubuchi, and Kimitoshi Yamane slowly working to clean up his crap... check out the Katoki's Wing Gundam redesign, for example:

[rintense]

Speed and his brother, Racer X? Nah. Although I have my suspicions about Chim-Chim and Sparky.

[E Rocc]

Remember, these are the same people that gave the world Yatta

Well at least that video was less disturbing than the original.

-Eric

[Terpfen]

Both were great. Bebop suffered from having a start-and-stop plot: the whole Spike-Vicious-Julia thing was only, what, 4 episodes? You can pretty much pick out any episode and be assured that you don't have to watch the previous ones to know what's going on. Trigun had a continually-moving story, and characters that are probably just as strong as Bebop's... I enjoyed them both, but probably Trigun more (Vash's facial expressions are out there even for anime).

To analogize it, Bebop's parts are more than Trigun's parts, but Bebop's whole is less than Trigun's whole.

[section9]

Nice, but there's too much crap on the Gundam. Distracts from the character of the machine. Remember original '80's Gundams? Clean lines, strong storylines.

However, I'm thinking like a gaijin. Japanese viewers love this stuff. It's like they're all on the same drug that someone gave Jack Kirby.

Be Seeing You,

Chris

[mhking]

Yet another sign of the apocalypse...

Just damn.

If you want on the new list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...

[Terpfen]

You're confusing the wings and colors with the Gundam itself. It's no more complex than, say, the Hi nu Gundam. Mid-'80s stuff is TERRIBLE, too. It's like the designers forgot they were supposed to be designing machines that could actually one day be built.



Stuff like this is what will save Gundam, if Katoki's designs are ever allowed back on TV.

[section9]

I have three bitches about Bebop that I shared with my cousin, Getzz, a lurker on this forum.

One; there was no reason Spike had to die. For some ungodly reason, Spike must die when Vicious dies. It's the whole scorpions in a bottle thing. They basically killed the series, unless the Japanese decide to do what they did to Escaflowne and create an alternate storyline. Pissed me off.

Two; the entire gate accident backstory killed off Earth as a background for an alternative civilization to Mars and all the political and criminal shenanigans that went with it. Instead of Spike and Vicious fighting each other at the top of a cathedral or in the Red Dragons Towers, they could use the Empire State building or the Tokyo Tower as a backdrop (which they sort of did in the Bebop movie in a bow to the girls at CLAMP, who include Tokyo freaking Tower in everything they do).

Finally, the relationship between Spike and Faye isn't allowed to grow at all. That's because Julia is still around. Julia has to die, of course, just like anyone who was connected with Spike in the past, because she has to pay for his sins.

For all this, Watanabe's direction and Kanno's music make Bebop the best there is, imho, period.

Be Seeing You,

Chris

[section9]

I have three bitches about Bebop that I shared with my cousin, Getzz, a lurker on this forum.

One; there was no reason Spike had to die. For some ungodly reason, Spike must die when Vicious dies. It's the whole scorpions in a bottle thing. They basically killed the series, unless the Japanese decide to do what they did to Escaflowne and create an alternate storyline. Pissed me off.

Two; the entire gate accident backstory killed off Earth as a background for an alternative civilization to Mars and all the political and criminal shenanigans that went with it. Instead of Spike and Vicious fighting each other at the top of a cathedral or in the Red Dragons Towers, they could use the Empire State building or the Tokyo Tower as a backdrop (which they sort of did in the Bebop movie in a bow to the girls at CLAMP, who include Tokyo freaking Tower in everything they do).

Finally, the relationship between Spike and Faye isn't allowed to grow at all. That's because Julia is still around. Julia has to die, of course, just like anyone who was connected with Spike in the past, because she has to pay for his sins.

For all this, Watanabe's direction and Kanno's music make Bebop the best there is, imho, period.

Be Seeing You,

Chris

[E Rocc]

I'm sure Scott Ritter will be investigating soon.

-Eric

[Charlie OK]

Asian girls are soooo hot!!

Now, what were you grinching about Chris?

[section9]

Well, okay, yes, they're hot. As in, "Love Hotel" hot.

Be Seeing You,

Chris