The Goubain Effect

Warning: Contains spoilers for Fafner.

The infamous Goubain helmet, yaoi negator.

Thoughts on SRWK

Of Aces And Sky Crawlers

Sky Crawlers is a powerful movie. But its production values aren’t the best part, for me. It’s the mood, the mood that the show kept consistent from start to finish.

When I first read about it, I thought it was some sort of glamorous Top Gun-esque flick with crazy dogfights. Nothing can be farther from the truth. It first plays out like a pilot slice-of-life, then important stuff happens, then it ends. It explains the nature of Kildren in trickles (there’s only one noticeable LOL Oshii exposition scene), until it hits you in the head (don’t forget to stay after the credits). There are dogfights, and beautifully-animated ones at that, but they’re not grandiose, merely empty games that occur daily. You’ll understand when you see it.

When you see it...

Gundam X: Hidden Wonder

Gundam X is a very maligned show. It was cut short by 10 episodes and was a commercial failure. But it achieves something that its direct predecessor Gundam Wing failed at, which is telling a damn good story. Gundam X may not have done well as a Gundam show, but it was a great anime.

Things Schneider Thinks Would Be Cool, Mark I

Thanks to Owen for indirectly referencing me to this post idea. I’m a huge super robot fan (as if that isn’t clear enough by now), and there are some things I find lacking in the genre, things that I would really like to see more of.

Macross 7: Not at All Fun and Games

A week ago I started watching Macross 7. It is a very quirky show, even by Macross standards. The characters are all amusing without being overly annoying, and I dig the Fire Bomber music.

(Warning: spoilers ahead)

My Favorite Gundam (Mecha)

Mechafetish, being the Gundam connoiseur that he is, asked me about my favorite Gundam mech. And I stumped myself. If you know the franchise well, you can say that it’s a damned hard question to answer.

“Come on, anything that comes first in your mind,” he said.

“Err… Turn A?” I replied. It wasn’t a lie. I liked the Turn A, mustache and all. I loved its design, lacking the backpack entirely, which was the problem with most contemporary Okawara designs. And boy it had the coolest looking beam-rifle-and-shield combination out of all titular Gundams.

But as any Gundam fan worth his salt would tell you, one is not enough. There’s too many Gundams to love. So here are some others that my mind brought up:

Flag: Courage and Hope

Out of the diverse library of anime I’ve watched, Flag strikes me as very unique. It makes me feel that I’m watching a war documentary in a not-so-different alternate world where bipedal robots work. It’s camera porn, complete with film grain. The characters are all well-portrayed and believable, and the story has solid focus. Even its one tangential episode was meaningful and relevant.

Someday I will turn this into my banner.

Marriage in Anime (A Godannar and LOGH post)

Anime about married couples is rare. Probably because most anime fans are single? Let’s just leave it at that. Today I talk about how a few shows deal with the wonderful world of marriage. (Sorry Clannad AS fans, I haven’t watched your show yet.)

Koutetsushin Jeeg

Slowpoke here, but I finally finished Koutetsushin Jeeg, after 2 years. The main reason for this was the lack of subs during its time, and I all but completely forgot about it until just recently. Anyways, it’s a great show, shame that Gurren Lagann overshadowed it while it was airing.

Epic calligraphy is epic.