Category: Mecha

Ongoing Investigations: Case #119

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The last episode Gundam Unicorn left us with not so much a cliff hanger as a short pause before the crescendo that is the battle that opens up The Ghost of Laplace. While we get some conversation and character moments this episode is mostly a series of battles. Thankfully these battles are story relevant as opposed to lovely but time-wasting mecha porn filler. The battles are as engaging as they have been in the past although we don’t get much action out of Full Frontal. He mainly seems to be doing the Char the Manipulator not Char the Action Rival shtick this episode. We learn quite a bit about Marida Cruz and how she ties into previous Gundam material. We also get some mandatory Newtype nudity and trippyness as is a UC Gundam tradition. I did realize at the end of the episode that my Snarky Reductionist Theater title for the show would be Mobile Suit Gundam: National Treasure. It seems the main plot shall be Banagher Links pretending to be a calm version of Nicolas Cage as he goes around the historical sites of the Gundam universe solving puzzles that will unlock Laplace’s Box as he is chased by agents of various secret societies.  The end of this episode will seem VERY familiar to anyone who has seen a good deal of Universal Century Gundam but it continues the tradition of getting the audience excited for the next episode of Unicorn which is important in an OVA series like this.

I watched the short animation Out of Sight from Taiwan by recommendation from Twitter. It features a little girl whose bag is stolen, her dog then chases down the thief leaving the girl on her own searching the city for him. This is a brilliant piece of work incorporating all five senses in order bring the world to life. The design is stand-out while the little girl wanders the city as it comes in and out of focus. Beautiful, sweet, excellent.
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The Show Must Go On

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Your reaction to the ending of a series can be as varied as stars in the sky. By the end some  shows will make you laugh, cry, scream, scratch your head, or even wonder what feeling you have at all. At times you will fondly find catharsis in a series that comes to a satisfying conclusion while others will make you glad you never have to watch another episode of such a train wreck. But since anime can be nothing more than very elaborate commercial for a manga series you will sometimes get a show that just abruptly ends and assumes that you will run down to your local book store and get the conclusion there. Other times production decisions will cutting off a story before it can reach its scheduled resolution. This week we will be looking at five anime that for one reason or another ended at a place that left us both wanting more. We will also each pick one series the other has not seen as bonus as well.

In my earlier days, I remember watching shows and not knowing if there was more, or often assuming there was more because how could you end the story there! Of course I have since come to realize this happens a lot, you get just a taste, wish for more, and never do get it. So this is a celebration of titles that we want more of being aware that it might or more than likely might not happen. This is just the beginning of a list that certainly has many more titles to come.

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Broken Blade Movie 3: Scars from an Assassin’s Blade, Mecha Porn

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CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR MOVIES 1 AND 2

I just have to reiterate that if you like mecha and you haven’t been watching Broken Blade, shame on you! I’m pretty much anxious all the time waiting for these movies to come out. This film marks the halfway point for the series giving it an important climatic and possibly game-changing role. Even though most of this movie is combat, pieces are still being moved into place.

Broken Blade movie three is the end of the beginning. Athens is ready to escalate their campaign against Krisna and are preparing to finally deploy a majority of their forces to the war.  This movie is the last of the small-scale skirmishes before full-fledged war breaks out. After this the dynamic of the battles will be on a whole new level. Guerrilla warfare will give way to armies clashing as part of an all out war of conquest. But there has to be one last clash between the current players and that battle may pan out in ways the audience does not expect. 

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