A few years back, Saint Seiya ran for a good amount of time here. I used to catch it on the bus to school due to its weekday morning timeslot, but wasn’t very interested in it. Reading a bit on the show, however, tells me that it’s quite good, to the point that its filler arcs are on par with the manga arcs. For a shounen anime, this is amazing.

Just recently, I tried out the first two episodes of the spinoff OVA, The Lost Canvas. I know jack about Saint Seiya (even mistaking The Lost Canvas as a continuity reboot until good man Shiro corrected me), but I liked what I saw.

Now, you maybe asking, what did I exactly see?

I'd besiege her palace, if you know what I mean.

(insert lame quip about boxes)

I think the cast is excellent for this. Aya Hirano plays Sasha/Athena, and does her well. This might be my favorite Hirano role since, um, Haruhi. And taking her White Album feud with Hirano to this show is Nana Mizuki, who is the deliciously evil Pandora. Tetsuya Kakihara does an okay job with Tenma, while Hiro Shimono is doing another Ayato Kamina who just has the misfortune of running into a bad crowd. No complaints on the story side, except for the weird fact that Tenma, a Japanese orphan, is living in Italy of all places.

Aside from the seiyuu, I find the animation to be great, but that’s expected since this is an OVA. By the 2nd episode, I’m reminded how powerful the saints are, wrecking down pillars like there’s no tomorrow (doesn’t this make Athena mad at all?). It’s pretty nice to watch shounen anime with actual budget, though (like Soul Eater, but I ended up dropping it because while the animation was solid, I didn’t dig the aesthetics at all). I’m confident with the production that we won’t see the Saints’ henshin sequences over and over again in the succeeding episodes.

Too bad the next DVD is on August…

Chapter 4 of Gundam Sousei presents a hurdle for Tomino, which is commonly shared by creators of mecha anime–the producers hate the mech. The producer argues that a stark-white mech is too plain, and that no one would buy it. Zero potential toy sales = zero show. Yoshikazu comes up with a quick solution–one could say too quick–but a hasty job with crayons shows how much different a mech can look like to the eyes of someone who’s shelving money for a 40-odd episode toy commercial. And hey, it’s good! Keeping most of the white in prevents the RX-78-2 from looking like a gaudy super robot, while the blue-red-yellow torso looks easy on the eyes and breathes character into the mech.

In the first place, it’s plain that Tomino didn’t intend to put the white-blue-red colors on the RX-78-2. His Gundam novels are testament to that, in which he had free rein to do things–for the greater part of the story, Amuro uses the G3 Gundam, which is painted mainly in gray (and also possesses the Magnetic Coating technology, but that’s another entry). It makes sense in an  environment where pilots are often forced to operate visually.

Throughout the 30 years of the Gundam franchise, the original RX-78-2 colors still crop up for the main Gundams of each succeeding series, if only in spirit (the Freedom is probably the most deviant, sporting white-black-blue colors). I believe that I’m not alone in thinking that a few main Gundams look better in other color schemes (especially the Trombe and Titans color schemes), but it’s the tried-and-tested colors that immediately convey to the fan that “hey, this is the baddest Gundam in the show and we want you to buy gunpla of it more than any other.” That doesn’t stop Bandai from re-releasing the same kits with different colors, though! (See: MG Zaku II 2.0, Gundams of 00)

Many a mech has been ruined by ugly colors. While the consummate modeler could always paint a model kit any way he likes to, the poor unwashed snappers (me included) get turned off by a kit with a less-than-desirable paint scheme. It’s not just reals, either. There are a ton of supers that look ugly, simply because their color scheme is plainly retarded.

At any rate, it’s shit color schemes that drive /m/en to come up with recolors of their own. Some make sense, others are just for fun, but all are pretty awesome in their own right.

Some good examples:

How about you? Any favorite color schemes in mind?

Update: ghostlightning demands kits, so I bring kits.

I’m surprised how I liked the final episode so much, considering that it was fairly uneventful. A lot of it has to do with how the girls live their personal lives through the winter, which shows some insights on their character.

I’m glad that the show reminds us that these are girls after all–Ritsu’s plot thread was by far the most interesting, even if I saw it coming from a mile away. I just wonder why she doesn’t ditch the headband for good… The others were just lol in the sense that the show tried too hard, and failed at it (like episode 11).

Overall, I think of K-On as a decent show. I had fun watching it weekly, and was pretty low-maintenance (meaning you wouldn’t be so pumped to get the latest sub floating around), compared to, say, Eden of the East. Sure, complain that the animation is below normal KyoAni quality, but it still kicks the ass out of many shows. I find it inoffensive, though, to be unfruitful for trolling. This is not Beck, or God Knows drawn out to 13 episodes. Deal with it, because I did, and it saves all of us some grief.

For my previous post regarding K-On, I’m very satisfied with how Yui turned out. I was prepared to groan at her clumsy antics throughout the show, but she did grow as a person. She’s still lazy Yui, but she became genuinely funny as the show went on. Contrast to Mio, whom I was most attracted to initially out of the four girls. She ended up as rather predictable and boring, with her weakness for scary things being played out too much. Mugi is okay, while Azu-nyan is pretty cute but ultimately Mio-Lite. But Ritsu, she really performed well for her role, and I came to like her despite looking the least attractive out of the girls. I mean, how else would I be duped into a Ronery-Kagami-Ver-2.0 scenario? And as for Ui, she was a great side character with some scary hax out there. Maybe the band could use a third guitar…

So, that’s it. I’m still on the fence on acquiring the widescreen episodes, so until then, goodbye, K-On. Another season wouldn’t be bad, but I’d pine for animated Laevatein instead!

Aside from the ingenious mobile suit battles in Crossbone Gundam, I noticed how Tomino tried to ground his Newtype concept by forcing Tobia Arronax, a Spacenoid, to take a simple 12-kilometer mountain hike on Earth. Can you see the catch?

It’s hard to compare the lives of an Earthnoid and a Spacenoid in a Gundam show, as it is made. Why, this is but tangential to robots blasting the shit out of each other. But Crossbone Gundam takes a breather in robot action to address this, and I am marveled by the elegance of its presentation.

So, back to Tobia. Does he achieve the hike? Yes, but with extreme difficulty. Not only is the scale off (if he were in a colony, he’d have scaled the entire inner wall and back), there is gravity, good old 1.0 G, exerting its toll on his space-adapted body. He realizes that Earthnoids live such different lives from both the Jupiter Empire and the Crossbone Vanguard, who are all Spacenoids. Earth’s oppressor and defender both have little inkling of what Earth is really like (this is especially shown in the land battles, where both parties exhibit clumsy manuevers unsuitable in a 1.0 G environment.) Walking great distances on Earth is not something we acquire through evolution; rather, it is something we’ve possessed from the very beginning. But Spacenoids, having adjusted to zero-G environments, take this for granted.

Even the Crossbone was not built for Earth operation...

Human beings are a very adaptable species. There are Eskimos and desert nomads, on separate sides of the spectrum. Your local homeless Jim would probably have a really strong immune system against microbes on the street. No matter who we are or where we’re from, there’s some part of us that’s deeply-rooted in our environment. However, in rooting ourselves, we become unsuited for other environments. How would a Baguio highlander,  who’s breathed fresh mountain air in his entire life, live in Manila, one of the world’s most polluted cities? Remember The War of the Worlds? Not as drastic, but you get the idea.

Crux Dogatie advocates the total divorcing of mankind from Earth. He claims that man does not need Earth anymore, but he is wrong. The lizard may have evolved from the fish to live on dry land, but that lizard will never be able to swim in the waters as good as its evolutionary ancestor can. Likewise, if we were all to evolve into Newtypes, living in space for the entirety of our lives, then we would be total wimps in terrestial environments.

This is probably what Tomino is telling us in Crossbone Gundam: Newtypes are not supermen! To be a Newtype, one must awaken in space. With that comes all the disadvantages of colony environments.  Enjoying a mountain hike or plain simple biodiversity would be alien pleasures for them. Tobia can’t even tell if a deer is a dangerous, man-eating animal! I’m humbled, as a fan, because I’ve known and loved the Newtype concept for how long, and then I’m struck with the revelation that I still know so little of it.

And what do you know? In the end, being an Oldtype isn’t bad, after all. While I work in a polluted city 5 days a week, I doubt if Kamille could fare as well! I may not be able to move Funnels with my will, but this life I have–it’s good enough.

My anime-watching habits have changed ever since getting my second job. Of course, this is a given since I will be working during the day instead of blazing through a series, but I’ve noticed deeper changes to how I watch anime.

First, I’ve reverted to my pre-fansub watching habits. Back then, local TV stations aired anime daily, and most of them were really long shows like Lupin III, DBZ, Yu Yu Hakusho, etc. I’m not the greatest fan of these shows, but they were pretty fun to follow, and I ended up watching episodes whenever I can (read: when I wasn’t doing my homework, ohohoho). However, I couldn’t help missing a good number of episodes because of various reasons. In that case, I’d just shrug, and ask my classmates about how Lupin managed to pull off yesterday’s heist. This is where filler is awesome–they allow you to cut some slack and enjoy anime as an occasional endeavor, as opposed to tightly-written shows that absolutely cannot miss a single episode.

I watch anime whenever I can. I don’t particularly feel obligated to watch anything, and so I depend on my mood to guide me. If I feel mecha-deprived, I’ll watch a good scene from a random mech show sitting in my hard drive. Stuff like that. I’ve cut back on a lot of airing shows I’m watching. Mostly it’s K-On, Eden of the East, and Shin Mazinger which are the shows I constantly keep tabs on, while shows that are fantastic yet behind in subs become lower priority (Souten Kouro, Guin Saga). There are also anime that I sneak into the top of my to-watch list for certain reasons (like Simoun, which I finished last week), but they are exceptions. For old shows, I’m watching Aria and Might Gaine every weekdays, though “every” is more of a guideline than an obligation. Aria is helpful at the times when I go home really tired, which has more to do about the looooooong commute than anything else. Might Gaine is particularly fun, but it isn’t as compelling as GaoGaiGar, so I’m okay with laughing at each ridiculous filler episode per day.

If I’m too tired, I won’t watch. If I’m occupied with my PSP, I won’t watch. There’s no sinking feeling of missing a big part of my life if I don’t get to watch these shows. As opposed to a few months ago, when I was unemployed (I left my 1st job around January), I’d kick myself for missing a day in downloading the latest Toradora sub or whatever. Back then, I was dead set on maximizing my free time for anime (until I find a job). Well, not anymore.

I think it’s because of my new job. I like my current job a lot, and I’m motivated to wake up at 5:30 AM in order to arrive early at work. Since I work in a bank, the building is cleaner, the people are nicer (they aren’t nerdy antisocial programmers), and the elevators are fast (my previous job had really shitty elevators). Sure, you’ll see me occasionally reading MTF or ANN at work, but most of the time I’m in a programming trance of sorts, where time passes doubly fast.

My current lifestyle only allows me about 3 episodes of anime a day, from Monday to Friday. Any more and I’ll have to sleep at around 12 midnight, which is bad–I’m trying hard to sleep around 11 PM and my PSP just gets in the way (curse you, Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce). Add the fact that I’m reading anime blogs, forums and books, and you have a Schneider who’s more stressed out with allocating his free time to maintain a semblance of a life than with his work. Oh, and there’s this blog, too! Urk.

What’s more, I’m starting to write fiction again. One might ask why I didn’t start earlier, when I was unemployed, but I just can’t write in a stress-free environment. With the limited time at my disposal, writing becomes exciting for me, and the words come quick (that doesn’t mean I don’t have to revise, though). I’m still no good, so don’t expect me to post my stuff here.

This doesn’t mean I’m folding up or anything. I just need to vent out steam. Really.

While I subscribe more to the hot-blooded type of manliness (i.e. Shin Mazinger, Sengoku Basara), I wholeheartedly approve of Souten Kouro’s angle, too.

Xiahou Dun was here, Date Masamune is a loser.

It’s a lot like LOGH. TBH, I think Souten Kouro is closer to LOGH than Tytania. We have the upstart noble, Cao Cao, who seeks to overthrow the decadent imperial dynasty by amassing both political and military power. On the other side of things, we have Liu Bei, the slacker bandit lord who seeks world conquest for… we’ll see. Cao Cao and Reinhard are extremely alike, having both lost precious women in their lives to the foibles of those more powerful than them. However, I can’t really compare Liu Bei and Yang since the only real trait they share right now is extreme laziness.

Cao Cao is a pretty interesting protagonist. He’s rich, handsome and talented, but those aren’t enough when he’s up against powerful enemies. He uses a combination of guile and honesty to win people over to his cause, as well as a little bit of sword-waving. In six episodes, we’ve seen him kill a man through debate, convert enemies to his cause with his oratory skills, troll a proud warrior into submission, divest corrupt officials of their riches and executing them afterwards, bed three women at once, and set the giant boulder of rebellion rolling with four mere words. And the clincher is, he hasn’t grown a beard yet.

There’s more beside these noteworthy exploits. I particularly admire Cao Cao’s leadership style, alternating harshness and softness to his subordinates, expecting nothing but the best from them. His strict adherence to the law is an important quality of any state-builder, as any chap can tell you that a law unenforced is as good as no law at all.

Cao Cao also puts his more refined talents into good use. In one episode, he sets up a ceremonial sword dance for the Emperor. The resulting event is awesomely staged, in which several women swoon as if in a Frank Sinatra concert.

Cao-kun so kawaii~

Sadly, I can’t comment on Liu Bei much (other than a penchant for flatulence), since as of this time of writing, he had just been introduced. It’ll be interesting to see the two story threads develop and intertwine with other, however. At any rate, 3 Kingdoms fan-favorite Guan Yu is awesomely portrayed, so there’s no complaint.

Translation: STFU

The little touches add up. There’s the narrator, voiced by Ryusei Nakao (aka Frieza), who manages to punctuate things with a healthy amount of flair. The music makes great moments grander, especially during delicious background shots. And the calligraphy. You know that something badass is happening when it shows up.

If you like war, politics and a mature flavor in your dosage of manliness, pick this show up. Hell, if you’re aching for a decent 3 Kingdoms anime that doesn’t involve turning the cast into girls, it’s this or Yokoyama Mitsuteru Sangokushi.

My Gundam mentor showed me a peculiar Gundam manga, Gundam Sousei. It’s not another of those Gundam sidestories, but rather a humorous and exaggerated take on the production of First Gundam. Oh, and did I mention that Tomino is the main character? Not the Tomino that you and I know, but SUPER AWESOME COOL TOMINO.

Chapter 1 is about how Tohru Furuya’s famous “Even my father never hit me!” line was perfected.

Chapter 2 is how Yoshikazu Yasuhiko (suspiciously looking like a cross between Garma Zabi and Paptimus Scirocco) got convinced to make Mobile Suit Gundam a reality.

Chapter 3 is about how a drunk Shuuichi Ikeda got cast for the role of Char Aznable. IMO, the best chapter yet.

Of course, one shouldn’t take this stuff seriously at all. But chalk it up to Gundam to spawn an over-the-top take on the production of its best-known offering.

I’ve all but forgotten about Zeonic Corps’ scanlation work on Crossbone Gundam, having read their release of Volume 1 a year back. So imagine to my surprise when I saw a batch torrent floating around in the usual places.

It took them more than 4 years to finish this project, 4 years of being laughed at by /m/ for being Slowking. Really a thankless job, and my overwhelming gratitude for ZC won’t be enough compensation for the countless jeers thrown at Deacon and his staff.

To the uninitiated, Crossbone Gundam is a manga written by Tomino during the mid-90’s, illustrated by Yuichi Hasegawa. It has space pirates (manning a spaceship that has BEAM SAILS), and pirate-motif Gundams with cool tech, like anti-beam cloaks. It’s set in the Universal Century and takes place after F91, with Seabook, Cecily and Zabine as recurring characters.

Well, it’s time for me to read my copy now.

(Massive spoilers for Eureka Seven)

I virtually grew up on anime. Voltes V was a cultural phenomenon here in the Philippines, and it still appears on TV every now and then. My main course of anime in my elementary school years was composed of World Masterpiece Theater shows (Tom Sawyer, Cedie, Princess Sara, A Dog of Flanders, Romeo, etc). There also was the occasional Sailor Moon on Saturdays, which I’m still afraid to admit to have watched IRL. As I grew older, I saw four Gundam shows, a Witch Hunter Robin here, DBZ, and Cowboy Bebop, which I thought was a darn good cartoon but never really grabbed me by the balls. Perhaps a rewatch is in order.

I didn’t watch fansubbed anime until 2006, when I was finishing my 1st year at uni and having just acquired my laptop. Enthusiastic to fill it with something substantial other than boring schoolwork, I turned to my blockmates–then my senpai of anime–for anime to abuse our uni’s bandwidth for.

Then there was my soft-spoken friend, who gave a shrug and casually said, “Eureka Seven.”

That was how I got acquainted with the anime that changed my life, just the title. And it was more than enough to get myself a few episodes of it.

Understand that I was a mecha fan since my younger years when I had stumbled upon Daimos, Voltes V’s less-known cousin. I had seen Robotech up until Pineapple Salad, and could tell each of the Gundams apart. But nothing prepared me for the LFOs. The mechs were lithe, graceful and Nirvash’s eyes were all too human. They were surfing. SURFING IN THE SKY. And they could transform!

I got into the show easily. Eureka, glorious blue-haired Eureka, crashing down on Renton’s place with the sexiest robot I had seen since Nobel Gundam and its her gaudy ribbons. I. Can. Fly. Renton’s spontaneous confession. Seven Swell. I had entered E7 without expectations, and it set the bar for everything I have seen, and will see.

I watched smoothly, a few episodes here and there, without any rush. I was enjoying the ride, simply put. Episode 13 came along. My heart felt something unexplainable when those two teenagers, enemies before and yet after, banded together in a cranky bike to get medicine for the girls they loved. Renton and Dominic were true BROS. I then knew that something must be done–watch more of this show, until I had caught up with the airing.

The appearance of Ray and Charles was something I cherished. But the moment Renton buried his face in Charles’s chest hair, I thought that this will not last, and that something would come to deal Renton a bad hand again.  I remember not being able to sleep after seeing episodes 27-28. It was that hard–they were the ideal parents that Renton could never have, just because.

And then suddenly, the subs stopped. I found myself stuck at episode 33, unable to go further. There was nothing I could do, but wait it out and watch other shows. And so I watched many anime. Good shows, bad shows, I watched everything that my friends told me about, that /a/ was talking about. I started my exodus to /m/ around that time.

A year passed. Despite how much love I felt for the show, I had all but forgotten it, mired deep in my ongoing mecha education. The subs finished, I had my DSL at home, and it would only take me a few clicks (and half a week) to be back on track. I recommended the show to friends, and they finished it earlier than what it took me (more than a year).

I realized how much of a failure of a fan I was. Come on!

One fine day, when my torrents were all properly seeded above the ratio of 2.0, I started the journey back to my first anime love. I never realized how much I missed E7 until then, and I blazed through the exposition in the mid 30’s that was long overdue. I met Norbu and his past, and ronery Anemone.  I cheered during the soccer match, a well-placed filler episode that served as rest not just for the cast but for the audience, as well.

The last OP (Sakura) appeared and the show kicked into overdrive. I was introduced to the Devilfish–which combined the sexiness of an LFO and the extreme piloting conditions of Tallgeese. Everyone became better, even the animation. Especially the animation. Shit blew up prettily, and in the midst of them all Dominic shed his adult pretensions and admitted his love to a group of strangers. I was laughing at him the whole time, and mourning my own inability to be as honest as he was.

And then I finished the whole thing. GOD, I thought. It’s been so long!  I’ve changed so much since then. I have seen quite a lot of shows already, but after finishing Eureka Seven, I still felt I had a lot more to go. My watching habits have eaten up a great deal of my life, and I was ready to start the next show I was planning to watch. It is a strange and crazy love that compels me to do such things, and I don’t see myself stopping anytime soon.

I’m not a critic or a scholar or an expert (hohoho). I’m just a consumer of entertainment who happens to post on a blog. On a busy day, I want nothing more than to slump in front of the computer and watch the sort of anime that would prep me up for the next day and keep me hopeful for the next windfall in my life. Finally working now, I’m looking at the consumption of anime for productivity. And in the end, Eureka Seven conveys to me exactly what I want out of anime, a life-affirming message.

I have a lot more to say about me and Eureka Seven, but that would probably be too self-serving and incoherent. Again, I’m very thankful to have been introduced to anime through such an awesome gateway.

]]> http://tsuzukusekai.wordpress.com/2009/06/02/first-love-eureka-seven/feed/ 7 schneider True Love It's a platypus, isn't it? Zippers Love conquers all http://tsuzukusekai.wordpress.com/2009/05/30/hk-subs-are-better-than-nothing/ http://tsuzukusekai.wordpress.com/2009/05/30/hk-subs-are-better-than-nothing/#comments Fri, 29 May 2009 16:27:45 +0000 schneider http://tsuzukusekai.wordpress.com/?p=553 ]]>

I’m fond of watching obscure mecha shows. Being obscure, there are a complete lack of subs for many of them, while some are being subbed by a loosely-knit group of /m/en (a labor of love for the most part, considering that their audience is almost completely composed of fuckwads). I want to watch this show, but a quick-and-dirty search yields nothing.

Do I give up? No, for there is one last resort: HK subs. Badly-encoded, minimal typesetting, erroneous karaoke, and very very lol translation, HK subs make even “mass naked child events” look nothing. They can’t even get the names right. But that’s what I have a brain for.

Because compared to no subs, lol subs are better.