Month: September 2008

Macross Zero, Every man should throw away his life for a woman once in his life.

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Macross Zero is a prequel to the entire Macross franchise. Macross Zero starts after a strange alien space craft lands on earth sparking a gigantic the UN Wars over those who feel humanity should rally under one world government and those fighting against a world government. Shin Kudo is a fighter pilot for the UN who is shot down by the enemy’s newest transformable fighter. Shin is found by the inhabitants of the Mayan islands who are unknowingly hiding a world shattering secret.

This rendition of Macross has more of spiritual/mystical and environmental feel to it than other incantations. It also really plays with the idea of colonization and how advancement can bring destruction to native peoples. This isn’t a new concept and has been explored in numerous mediums. Macross has always used the cultural differences as a conflict but never quite in this way. It has sort of that Pocahontas mythology feel to it.

Well, it was directed by Shoji Kawamori who is rather well known for doing Earth Girl Arjuna which had even more emphasis on mystical and environmental themes. I have never seen Earth Girl Arjuna, but I know it is a show that many people find very heavy handed with its ecological message. I felt that while there was a distinctly environmentalist theme to this series it was never too oppressive. That is not to say Macross Zero does not give off a tree hugging hippie vibe now and again but I never felt overwhelmed by it.

Shin is a bit cocky (but only a little) and reckless, a popular choice. But this series is short so his personality develops rather quickly into something much more grounded. He is caught off guard, understandably, by this island of very primitive people. But he starts to see their way of life differently the more he stays. He has a quirky friendship with a girl, Mao, who really starts his education of the place he has crash landed. Her older sister Sara and him immediately clash and so starts a shaky relationship. Being closer to nature is definitely a big part of the story and Shin starts to understand the lands importance.

Shin is a mostly cocky and reckless guy when he is in the cockpit but is mostly sullen and withdrawn when he is outside his plane. He starts the series detached from everyone but slowly warms to certain people. When it start he goes out of his way to mention that he has no attachment to his fellow pilots including his copilot. As the series goes on we see that Shin is less emotionally guarded. I also think he loses a good deal of his cockiness after switching from a normal jet, which he was an ace at, to piloting a variable Valkyrie fighter that he is totally unfamiliar with.

Sara and Mao Nome, this last name may ring a bell with you if you have been watching Macross Frontier. Mao is spunky, carefree and also extremely curious what lies past the ocean surrounding her home. Whereas Sara resists the ideas of the outside world but she recognizes the violence that can come with progress. Each of these sisters move and shape Shin’s path a the series goes along. Mao breaks open his shell, children can really connect with adults on a different level sometimes and they aren’t so guarded. I saw that in their friendship. Sara helps Shin to realize that old ways and customs aren’t meaningless. They grow close and love blossoms.

Oh and Roy Focker is running around hitting on the ladies and being an awesome pilot for the UN as well. Although Macross Zero is a prequel, it could be more accurate to classify it as a side story that makes places before the original series. It shows us some back-story on Roy Fokker that had only been hinted at during the original Macross series while giving us a new story of some new characters.

I was really pleased to see Roy! His relationship with Aries Turner was actually a high point for me. He is flying around being the MAN and giving out advice on about the opposite sex. So I liked the cameo and I liked even better than it had some relevance.

Very unexpected music choices for a Macross series considering the production usually centers around selling the latest single. It has a tribal feel, nothing near the normal pop and rock songs the series is famous for. However, these songs tied in much more with the themes of the series.

This is the only pre-Minmay Macross so there was no way to work in My Boyfriend is a Pilot or any of the classic Macross songs. I am sure you were broken up about the lack of Planet Dance but somehow you found a way to trooper on. I think this Macross was supposed to have a fundamental almost primitive feel therefore they used a very tribal soundtrack.

The battles are top notch. Nice cuts and angles, fluid animation, suspense, and well done aerial views. This is also Macross’s first foray into the world of CG animation. I was pretty surprised but they did a nice job especially considering this OVA came out about 5 years ago. The robots looked sweet and the fights were a high part of the series.

According to rumor it is the most expensive OAV series ever made. When you sink that much money into something it darn well better look good. I did feel that the fight scenes were very well done and it generally looks like people spent a good deal on the animation all around. The fights are well choreographed and rather intense including the standard Macross Missile Massacre. I did note to myself that I was never worried about Roy because you know he has to live to see the original Macross.

Like I said the fights were cool, but I never really understood what the hell was happening. Was I supposed to care about those Anti-UN pilots? They did at least give some more backstory with Roy but it seemed glossed over and thrown in. The climatic battle that culminates was just off.

Macross Zero does tell a complete story but I have to issues with the pacing. First, there is almost no falling action to the story. You go from climax to end credits. I suppose it’s better than dragging out a long and uninteresting conclusion but I would have like to have a little more insight into what happened to the survivors. Secondly, the episodes often started right in the middle of some sort of event. While it makes every episode start on an interesting note, it also means you have to fill in the gaps yourself. Example, one episode ends with the characters looking for an artifact, the next episode begins with them having already found the item, it being stolen, and several characters being kidnapped all within the the first shot of the episode. I suppose this is partially due to the fact that they are trying to tell a complete story within five very expensive episodes. This means you are never bored with filler but also means they don’t let you digest everything.

I never felt the playfulness that can be seen in other parts of the franchise. Not all the renditions are Macross 7 for sure, but this one never connected with me that it was Macross. However, the series on its own was decent but not memorable. That being said, I think it has to be compared to Macross as a whole since it is riding on its name. If the series wasn’t called Macross it might have had a better reception minus the whole weird ending. But as a part of the franchise it sort falls flat as far as the story goes.

Top 5 Favorite Spirit Anime
5. Natsume Yuujinchou
4. Shonen Onmyouji
3. Kekkaishi
2. Mushi-shi
1. Spirited Away

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Ongoing Investigations: Case #012

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We started watching D.N.Angel with the misguided belief that we would review it for the blog. Well, that ain’t happening. I also read all of the manga that has been released in English, this was a much better experience. The manga is fun, cool, sweet, and even a bit heartbreaking. The anime was a weird mix of fan-service and super-filler. There were good episodes and good moments, but there was too much space between these instances. They don’t explain much and some things just plain don’t make sense. They also seem to throw out the whole phantom thieving at one point. Uh? And yeah I’m still pretty bitter that Dark is in love with Riku in the manga but not in the anime. Read the manga and don’t watch the anime!

I liked the Riku and Daisuke solo dynamic but I feel that adding Dark into the mix makes it interesting to read. Since the manga was not completed they decided to simplify the story in order to adapt it. The problem with that was two fold. First they simplified it too much so you were left with large amounts of filler, wasted space, and uninteresting new additions. I’m looking right at you Mio Hio. Ironically several of their attempts to simplify things made several points more complicated or just plain confusing. Secondly we are cruising along the story pacing highway speed limit at 30 MPH and then the anime original ending cranks up the speed to 110 mph. The last two episodes feel rushed and somewhat unexplained at crucial points. It’s not a bad anime but it’s clearly an anime that is inferior to the manga it was based on.

Ghost in the Shell SAC first season finished! Really amazing show, jumped up into being one of the best things I have watched lately. It had a great climatic ending with some serious emotions emerging. I have heard that it is debated whether or not Batou has feelings for the Major, not sure how this could be debated unless you are blind. Whether the Major actually reciprocates is a different story. Seriously though, the sexual tension in the room (you know the scene I’m talking about) was so intense I thought it was going to crack the windows! As for the Laughing Man, I was pleased though I would love to see him again. And as promised I have a Laughing Man wallpaper.

I want to meet the cool dude or lady who fully got Ghost in the Shell SAC the first time through. I wish to shake the hands with such a genius. I got most of it but I am still fuzzy on several of the details of side cases. I thought everything involved with the Laughing Man was awesome. He is such an awesome character. It was well written and well executed. They could have thrown in some more complex episode in between Stand Alone episodes in the middle but that is a minor flaw. The Stand Alone episodes were often as good as the main plot. Good filler, will the wonders ever end? Oh, I would go as far as to say blind and deaf to miss Batou’s feelings.

Read Kekkaishi volumes 13 and 14. The latter ends the first arc of the series and wraps it up quite nicely while leaving a few lingering villains to show up later on. We also get a glimpse of the tremendous power that is housed in Yoshimori. This is also where the anime ends so I am now reading totally new material. I love that the first thing Yoshimori does when he gets home after this whole ordeal is to bake a cake. I am glad to see this aspect of his personality in tact. The rest of book 13 and most of 14 is mostly short adventures but the end of the book looks to be the start of something.

I read Parasyte book 4. Even though it has a high school student as the protagonist it clearly straddles the line between shonen and seinen that makes it hard to categorize some of the titles in Afternoon. It seem like a shonen manga with it’s high school love story. On the other hand it can be placed in the seinen category just by the number of gory deaths of several important characters and countless unnamed ones. I was a little saddened by the death of the major character in this book but I can’t say it was not interesting.

So when you go to the Live-Evil fan-sub group’s website, the top banner changes and I kept seeing this cute picture but it didn’t say what it was. Finally decided to go through a process of elimination to figure it out, turns out it was a show called Ask Dr. Rin. Watched the first couple of episodes so far. It is essentially a magical girl show with Feng-Shui. Meirin has incredible fortune-telling powers using Feng-Shui, she has a secret identity of Dr. Rin who is becoming famous thanks to her website. Her fortune-telling seems to be dead on for everyone but herself. But when the guy she likes is in trouble her power manifest themselves into a dragon like spirit and she is able to save him. Looks like a major baddie caused this and his motives are yet to be revealed. Cute and fun show that promises nothing more than that.

I watched the Dirty Pair OAVs this week and they are just so much fun! I really like that the science fiction elements are there each and every time to make the story cool. Science is not there to be explained or deus ex machina. It’s just there to enhance the story. I like my hard sci-fi anime like Planetes but some times you need to kick back with two hot girls with big guns and watch them kill God in one episode and upper cut children in the next. Kei and Yuri have a fun dynamic that makes them like sexy versions of the stereotypical buddy action movie characters.

Macross 7 Dynamtie, Valkyries have two modes, manual and guitar.

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Spoilers, spoilers everywhere!

Somethings once seen cannot be unseen. Macross 7 was so popular it got 2 sets of OAVs. All iterations of the Macross 7 anime have the same over the top ridiculous vibe. Macross 7 Dynamite is a little bit different. That is not an easy task.

Macross 7 Dynamite was so weird (even weirder than what we’ve come to expect from Macross 7) that it warranted having its own article.

Macross 7 Dynamite takes place after the original TV series. Basara decides for no reason that is ever adequately explained to run off to the planet Zola. There he finds space poachers who are after space whales to make a tidy profit. Basara being Basara decides that J-Rocking with the power of all the gods of rock is the only way to save the whales. While trying to save them Basara befriends a Mylene substitute who is not related to Mylene. Elma, our Mylene substitute has a father who is also trying to hunt the main white space whale and a sister who is part of the police force trying to stop the poachers. Can Basara save the whales, stop the poachers, sooth Elma’s father’s tortured soul, and play Planet Dance one more time? Only time will tell.

It is a comfort to know that no matter where Basara ends up in the galaxy he will always find the same things. He will always find women who want his body; he will always find something that can only be saved by singing; and he will always find a valkyrie that works with a guitar. Shoo, boy do I feel safer! And I don’t know why they even bothered putting Mylene, Ray, Veffidas, and Gamlin in this. It was kind of sad, I guess they were worried about the 10 people that like these characters being upset.

It might seem like I am joking about Elma being a Mylene substitute but it is serious business. Just look at the two of them side by side and tell me you don’t see a similarity. If at the end Mylene popped in and commented how Barsara found another of her sisters I would not be shocked. Mylene and Elma both even have furry little mascot animals that follow them around.

Elma was creeping me out because she looks even more underage than Mylene! We don’t need that! She was also our somewhat singing replacement and of course she knows all the Fire Bomber songs. Oh yeah and Elma’s dad is a really scary looking dude that is trying to fulfill the psuedo-Moby Dick storyline of this strange OAV.

There is obviously supposed to be a Moby Dick theme. We have the White Whale that everyone is after. Elma’s father has a distinctly Ahab look and is obsessed with killing the whale to the point of his own destruction. All of the dad’s equipment also has an extremely nautical feel to it. The things is it’s all window dressing. This is Macross 7. It’s never going to be that deep. Beyond the superficial trappings the Moby Dick themes are mostly there to give a little structure to what would otherwise be insanity. It’s been about a decade and a half since I read Moby Dick but I don’t remember Ishmael rocking out on his guitar in order to stop Moby Dick and Captain Ahab from fighting.

Well to be fair, in the future all of classic literature has probably been rewritten to include rocking out. The more I think about this show the more my head hurts. There was way too much going on and way too many characters. Not that I wanted this to continue on but it was so confusing that nothing is really accomplished. Basara obviously saves the day!

The second and third episodes have some of the most WTF moments in Macross history. At one point we decide to sneak a peek at one of the other supposed main characters in Macross 7. Mylene has just finished a Basara-less concert and is invited to dinner by a big record executive. During dinner this female record executive decides to drug Myelene’s dinner so she can date rape her. WHAT!? When this turn into a hentai!? Then the third episode begins with our rapist in a teddy lighting up an afterglow cigarette. WHAT!? When this turn into something design to break your soul!?

Was it also necessary to have Elma undress and throw a naked, unconscious Basara into a magical hot spring? Was it then doubly necessary to have Basara awaken while a giant wave threatens to overwhelm Elma? Basara put the child down! Do not touch her while you are both naked! And then a naked Elma’s dad comes out of the waterfall. Is he upset that Basara is holding a naked Elma? No, no, no. Him and Basara proceed to smile at eachother knowingly. Thank you Macross 7, you will now always be remembered by me. I was so shocked by these things! It was certainly madness!

Macross 7 Dynamite’s production values were great! Maybe that is why there was so much crap going on, they just had all this money and didn’t know what to do with it. I mean Basara even changes outfits like 3 or 4 times! Heck, even Ray and Veffidas had different outfits! This is unheard of. And the opening, which was done by Gonzo, has some of the best looking sequence in the entire Macross 7 franchise. The music is just as good as the TV series, granted Try Again isn’t in it but there are loads of new tunes worthy of rocking out to.

Despite being totally bizarre (and manic) the production values on Dynamite are unquestionably OAV quality. The animation is head and shoulders above anything in the main TV series. Just look at the time and money that obviously went into creating the opening and the difference is clear. Also Dynamite is chock full of just as many catchy tunes there were in the whole TV series. I dare you not to get Dynamite Explosion stuck in your head after watching this. Heck I am listening to it as I write this. Dynamite Dynamite Dynamite Explosion Once Again!

Top 5 Most Hated Macross Characters
5. Leon Mishima (Macross Frontier)
4. Docker (Macross 7)
3. Sheryl Nome (Macross Frontier)
2. Lynn Kaifun (Macross)
1. Gavil (Macross 7)

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