Category: Mecha

The Shining Darkness Series: Voices of a Distant Star

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Most artistic endeavors are impressive no matter how many people work on them. Some things are awe inspiring when done alone. It just boggles the mind that one person could be so dedicated and talented that they could do such an enormous endeavor solo. One man wrote, animated, and produced Voices of a Distant Star. In the original version the only help he had was his fiancee providing some voice acting and a friend providing the music. Makoto Shinkai made by himself as an amateur what usually takes a team of professional animators to do. He did the work of a writer, director, producer, traditional animator, CG animator, and even a voice actor. Although it looks amateurish at points it is as good as most mass produced professional anime works. It is awe inspiring because one man did brilliantly what a team so often can’t do together.

I heard a lot about this movie when it was originally released and for some unknown reason it just slipped right on past me until this year. And honestly, I feel sort of ashamed now that I have seen it. How could I let something so beautiful and amazing, not only because of the one man team but because of its simple and thoughtful story, go unwatched! Not to mention it’s ability to create something so remarkable in just 30 or so minutes of film. Well, I have now reconciled this grave oversight! Now I share it with all of you just in case you too have missed this little treasure.

In 2047 Earth has gone into the far reaches of space. While excavating some ruins on Mars a race of aliens, dubbed the Tarsians, began to attack humanity. Using the technology found on Mars humans created a fleet of faster than light ships to strike back at the aliens. Mikako Nagamine becomes a space pilot to fight against the threat. This inevitably separates her from boyfriend Noboru Terao. They communicate over their cellphones but the further she gets from home the longer it takes their messages to reach each other. It is a love story over a seemingly insurmountable distance of both time and space.

We are set down a fast track path, only getting snippets and glaces at these characters. Nevertheless, their path becomes entangled with our own. Mikaki exhibits a fascination with space (which also seems to be a theme in Makoto’s works) and also a bit of naivete of what it would be like fighting out there. Both Terao and her start off seeing it like an adventure, that the distance will not stop them. As we continue on with them, the natural doubts of not seeing someone creep in but are pushed away. Even when you think Terao might move on, or even when he thinks he might, memory and hope move to block the path. It is hard to pinpoint what is so engaging about Mikako’s characterization style, but perhaps he just knows us better than we know our selves.

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Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Why not?

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GUEST REVIEW BY BOXING OCTOPUS AND LOTHOS

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann doesn’t have anything extra special about it. We have a young boy who is influenced by his older male friend to become awesome one day and do whatever he wants; a strong female character with a ridiculously large gun and very small bikini; an obnoxiously weak love interest female character; a few dozen ancillary characters that are poorly set up; bad guys that do really well at first, and then fail miserably; giant robots that combine with each other and fight other giant robots; interstellar combat; and made up animals like hippos covered in grapes. It would seem that there is nothing spectacular about Gurren Lagann. However, this show goes from mildly entertaining in the first few episodes to so absurd I can’t not watch the next episode even though I know it’s going to be awful in the end.

I really wanted Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann to be good. Once the show gets rolling the off the wall antics, kinetic animation style, and overall tone of the show will probably remind viewers of FLCL (also by Gainax). The mech designs are cartoony but at the same time pretty cool. Now, I liked FLCL a lot, and I know it tended to be a loved it or hated it type of show and that’s how I think most people are going to react to Gurren Lagann. Really the show draws a lot of parallels to FLCL when you think about it. The characters of Naota and Simon are quite similar, both start out being rather bored with their lives and pretty much just go through the actions of living every day. Then they meet someone by chance who is so far from the norm they can’t help but feel inspired by them. In Naota’s case it was Haruko, for Simon it’s Kamina. They follow this person on their adventures and begin to crave a more meaningful and fuller life. Through them they learn what it is to be a man and stand up for themselves, even if it means doing something they don’t really want to do. I would say probably the main difference between the two shows is that FLCL never really takes itself seriously, they know the stuff going on is ridiculous and don’t really try to explain it in a serious manner. Gurren Lagann, however, likely due to being more than six episodes, attempts to weave a deeper plot but in the end doesn’t really end up explaining any of it. For me that’s why I think I enjoyed FLCL much more than the whole of Gurren Lagann despite the shows being rather similar in presentation.

The show revolves around Simon, the weak and annoying boy from the beginning of the show, and his attempt to overcome impossible odds to let humans live on the surface world which is guarded by comically stupid beast men. He and his older friend Kamina find a robot in their underground village which Simon can pilot and immediately have to use it to fight off another giant robot that has crashed through the earth and into their village, probably crushing several innocent people to death. Luckily, a bouncy, young, gun-happy girl named Yoko comes to help them. They all become great friends. They then join up with some other characters and do some pretty ridiculous stuff.

Simon and crew fight to make a life on the surface world, meeting confrontation with the forces of Lord Genome (the beastmen) and after repeated successes decide to take their fight right to the beastmen capital, the seat of Lord Genome. However, after their battle there they are given an ominous warning foretelling the eventual downfall of all mankind from an even bigger threat than the beastmen, which is the basis of the last half of the series. There are a lot of characters in Gurren Lagann. We have the main characters of Simon, Kamina, and Yoko at the start and then a recurring villain named Viral, and a shadowy overlord who is mentioned but we know very little about called Lord Genome. Quickly the cast swells to over 20 recurring characters, some of which have more pivotal roles in the plot and get some actual introduction, others just “appear” and are assumed to just be part of the team performing some function. The story takes place over a relatively long time-frame so it makes sense that there would be a fair number of characters, but it is disappointing that you really don’t get to learn anything about a lot of the characters in the series. We’re introduced to Nia, a girl who Simon happens upon about a third of the way through the series, who acts as the constant optimist through much of the series but is otherwise there to act as the damsal in distress. She’s not a total sack of moe, which is nice, but she’s not really a dynamic character either. Really, few of the characters in the series display much in the way of growth except maybe Simon.

So, I will now share with you how to make it through all 27 episodes of Gurren Lagann:

  • Watch the first 20 episodes. This step isn’t actually necessary unless you want to know a few of the characters’ backgrounds. Many characters don’t have backgrounds at all and are introduced on the fly for no apparent reason, so you may skip this step to save time.
  • Then anytime anything happens that makes no sense, creates a plot hole, makes you wonder “Why the Hell didn’t they just do that in the first place?,” or leads to any other confusion, just say to yourself “Why not?”

I will now demonstrate this method in action. Hey, that robot can rip holes in the time space continuum and use it to travel to whatever thing it focuses on. Why not? That bad robot just took two universes and smashed them together, creating a big bang type reaction, and then threw it at that good robot. Why not? Why is that giant robot wearing sunglasses that he can throw at bad robots? Why not? Wait, shouldn’t they all be dead by now? Why are they still alive? Why not? Did that kid’s pet just spontaneously evolve for no reason, not even to advance the plot? Why not?

Music doesn’t make or break a show for me by any means, but it is something which can really add a lot to a show if it’s good. In FLCL all the music was done by the same group, even though the style of music varied a lot it still had a sense of cohesion and the tone of the songs chosen really reflected in an auditory sense the tone of what was happening at that time. Either through the singer’s raw emotion in the lyrics, the bouncy upbeat rhythm, or a wistful and melancholy piece, the songs chosen as the soundtrack for a particular scene just really worked well in FLCL. But in Gurren Lagann the music is silly and nothing spectacular. It’s definitely no Pillows. The soundtrack is done by various artists, and while some pieces fit the action, others are just bland or at worst seem really out of place. When you have music that really fits it seems like they animated the action for the music. When something doesn’t fit so well it at best seems like they made the music for the animation, at worst it seems like they just picked some music to be playing in the background that doesn’t really have anything to do with what’s happening on the screen. For me this takes away from the action on screen, and like I said, while it doesn’t turn a mediocre show into something great, or turn a great show into crap, it’s just something which can affect my overall enjoyment of the show.

The final 7 episodes become a montage of “one-uppings” that far exceed the realm of being highly implausible and venture more into the absurdly ridiculous. Though, they are highly entertaining to watch, don’t try to tie together any of the events with logic, there is none. Don’t try to form any sense of cohesion between past events and what’s currently happening, there isn’t any. Just sit back, shut off your brain, and enjoy the ride.

Why the Hell not? If you think about this show too much, you may have an aneurysm. If you watch the entire show, you may be disappointed in it overall, but if you only watch the last 7 episodes it will at least be entertaining. The one benefit that I can find to watching the entire show is that you can then watch the Gurren Lagann Parallel Works videos, where the roles and time periods of characters are altered for some short animated segments. Otherwise, Gurren Lagann is a hilariously unexpected disappointment.

Why did Gainax think it was necessary to run this show for 27 episodes, make at least one movie, and these OVA things? Why not? Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann was a show I really wanted to be good, and it started out being good, but it then all collapsed under its own weight and leaves the viewer with a bunch of nonsensical junk at the end. Albeit highly entertaining junk, it just leaves one with the feeling of an incomplete and either rushed or contrived ending. So much so that it makes one wonder what the other 20 episodes were for since they apparently didn’t really matter.

Top 5 WTF?! Moments in Anime
5. Most of FLCL
4. The mushrooms episode of Cowboy Bebop
3. NaruTaru and the “test tube” incident
2. Last 3 episodes of Gurren Lagann
1. Shinji and comatose Asuka in End of Evangelion

Macross Frontier, I’m not an adult, I’m a MAN!

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Macross Frontier is the story of the love triangle between a tsundere Kabuki princess pilot, the greatest Asuka Langley Soryu impersonator of all time, and a girl with the universe’s greatest backpack, a cool cell phone, and living hair.

I want that backpack no joke! Just as much as I wanted a Guvava.

Macross Frontier starts 13 years after the events of Macross 7 and 40 years after the ending of the original Macross. Earth is still sending out colony fleets to settle new planets in hopes of spreading humans and Zentradi throughout the galaxy. On the Macross Frontier a pilot named Alto Saotome meets two girls before a concert that that will forever change his life. One is the insanely popular idol singer Sheryl Nome and the other is Ranka Lee the cute waitress at the local Chinese restaurant. What might have been nothing more than unimportant chance encounters become bonds off fate when a unknown alien force called the Vajra attacks the Frontier with living space ships. After Alto saves Ranka’s life he decides to join the SMS as a military pilot and Ranka decides to try to become an idol singer. This prompts Sheryl to becomes involved with both of their careers.

Alto has a desperate need to fly so much so that he abandons his family’s traditions, and his own personal success, in Kabuki theater, to do so. I found this endearing and admirable, something to really define you as a person. Alto is young and when he meets Ranka for the first time we see they both have dreams. This is a story about how a dream can lead down a very unexpected path. But throughout the series I felt Alto was rather underdeveloped, we learn little more than what I just mentioned about him. I also tended to swing wildly from episode to episode whether or not I liked Alto. I was really blown away at points by his stupidity. He does have a realization of what is most important that comes from moving out of youth but he still wasn’t a man by the end. He ended up being a somewhat of a side character in his own story.

Alto is a passionate soul that has come to repress his feelings over the years. He has passion for flying and for freedom it provides but most of the time he seems very subdued and straitlaced. Although Alto is the pilot of Macross Frontier’s love triangle his background in Kabuki theater gives him a unique insight into performing. Despite being the main character we don’t get a great deal of insight into Alto. He tends to be rather quiet unless promoted but outside forces. We mostly only see how he relates to other characters but rarely do we get insights into Alto himself.

Ranka is a super cute, optimistic, talented girl that is trying to make it as a singer. She really looks up to Sheryl since she is the biggest thing in the universe. This is just a random thought but if this wasn’t Macross, I think Ranka might have gone all single white female on Sheryl. Within the span of a couple episodes Sheryl overshadows Ranka’s entrance into the academy, basically steals her man, and gets her first television appearance canceled. However, things really start to shift in favor of Ranka as the story goes along. She certainly has a passion for singing, like when she gets up the nerve to sing in the middle of a mall. I felt her character slipping at some points nearing the end but her strong will shines through.

Ranka is super fun, super cute and supremely easy to root for but also has a moe vibe surrounding her. Up until the last few episodes they perform a careful balancing act between making Ranka an adorable moe character while still having her have moments of independence and strong character. She pulls it out in the end but I was worried there at points. I really enjoy her character because she is just instantly likable. You want her to see her become a star, you want her to find love with Alto, you want her to be happy. Due to a traumatic incident in her past Ranka has a good deal of amnesia about her early childhood. That could easily be the kiss of death into making her a bad character but they use it effectively and keep her an enjoyable heroine.

Sheryl is a loud, self-important, beauty who is the biggest pop singer in the galaxy. In any case I did not like her nor trust her from the moment she stepped on my screen. To me she always looks devious and no one can see it! Like when your friend is going out with a really manipulative girl, but everyone thinks she is great and wonderful. But you know the truth and no one will listen! She sometimes has the “EXACTLY AS PLANNED“ face. We get to see brief glimpses into what really makes her tick, maybe that is really how all people can be seen. There are two major moments that stuck out in my mind pertaining to this, moments where I was excited and rooting for her. And it can’t be denied that her music is beautiful and powerful. And she does scream out “LISTEN TO MY SONG!” I just found these moments of awe too few and far between for me to actually like her.

Sheryl is my least favorite type of strong female character. The full throttle bitch. This means that she is constantly in everyone’s face and doing whatever she wants to get what she wants. I don’t mind characters being assertive and confident but I do mind them having having an overinflated sense of entitlement at the expense of those around them. They often try and give her alternating periods of softness and vulnerability but I feel it can’t redeem her utterly despicable default attitude. Plus while half of her softer moments are genuine and make the character more tolerable the other seem artificial and sometimes for nothing more than plot convenience. Don’t get me wrong I would never have them throw Sheryl out of the show. It’s fun to have a love rival that is realistic competition but fun to hate.

Brera is kind of a wild card. I was super curious about him when he first showed up. I had high hopes. He is important but he is completely underused which I think is a tragedy. They just turn him into this unmovable cock-block. Now on to someone who is as awesome as I thought he was going to be, Ozma. Ozma is big tribute to Roy Focker, and I don’t think we minded one bit. Him and Cathy (the tribute to Misa) were two of my favorite characters to see on my screen.

Well, Ozma is a Fire Bomber fan. He is therefore automatically awesome and that is mathematically provable. I’m sure both of us would sign up to buy the DVDs of Macross Frontier: Ozma Gaiden. It’s a shame we don’t get to see more of Ozma and Cathy as they are awesome both individually and separately. You can keep your Michael Blanc and Klan Klan shrines. I’m a Ozma man. Brera on the other hand is merely there for me. I’m not anywhere as mean as the person who nicknamed him Kaifun Brera because you should never go there but I can’t say I feel any passion for him either.

One character stand out head and shoulders as creepiest person in Macross Frontier and that is Leon Mishima. This is a minor spoiler but it turns out he is not on the side of the angels. I don’t really feel bad saying that because everything this guy does screams he in not a good human being. In fact Narutaki and I have nicknamed him Creepy Kiss Guy after his first scene with Cathy Glass.

I shudder at the thought! How dare they engage Cathy to him. EWWWW! I actually found a screen shot of the kiss but I refuse to reproduce that terrible moment here. Most of the time he spent with Ranka was I afraid he was going to try and creepy kiss her, too. The bigger villain is a little harder to spot, but atleast has an interesting connection to Ranka and Sheryl. However they never really develop them beyond I’m-bad-because-I-am status. It was wasted potential, there was plenty of backstory to work with but instead Snidley Whiplash emerged.

While I always found Minmay to be a dumb bimbo who was selfish and emotionally manipulative, Sheryl is at least intelligent and cunning. So I can enjoy disliking her. I wanted her as a rival, she is a perfect rival. Sheryl and Ranka are very different people though I do think they come to together in a nice way as we learn about their pasts. The love triangle really keeps you guessing from beginning to end. This could account for a few moments that seem rather out of character. There are definitely scenes of dramatic BS that in the grand scheme of things make little sense. Though I can understand the need to desperately keep us on our toes and not have fans be lulled into a sense of security.

In episode eight, High School Queen, we see Sheryl visit Mihoshi Academy and cause an uproar. In this episode the homage to Asuka Langley Soryu is subtle but obvious if you look for it. The scene where Sheryl is talking to Alto by the pool while all the male students look on from behind a fence in a clear reproduction of almost the same scene from episode ten from Evangelion. Clearly it is to make reference to the similar personalities between the characters and to give a nudge and a wink to the fans of both franchises.

Lothos, who is probably lurking around here someone where, doesn’t watch Macross Frontier. But he is my Eva expert so I sent the episodes off to him and said “Just watch these and tell me if you noticing anything. I don’t want to say anything else to influence you.” He did just that and he came back with more than a couple of Evangelion references, he saw them right away. But I think you are supposed to. Homage is fun!

Macross Frontier is filled with winks, nudges, and references to other Macross series. We have Ozuma’s love of Fire Bomber and several references to Basara, Fire Bomber, Song Energy, and the Protodeviln. We have several references to Mao Nome and insights into what she has been doing since Macross Zero. There is movie that is made with the story of Macross Zero much like how Do You Remember Love is a movie about the original Macross series set in the Macross universe. At one point Alto saves Ranka using a Valkyrie in almost the exact same way Hikaru saves Minmay. The Zentradi warrior Tehmzin that instigates a rebellion in episode twelve is a clear homage to Kamjin in character design and philosophy. There are even some dread Pineapple Salad references.

Macross Frontier starts off with incredible looking battles sequences and great music, two things essential to the Macross franchise. And while the budget for the epic space frays stays high possibly as nice looking as Macross Zero, I feel that the character animation starts to get slop pretty early on. It then picks up quality at the end.

There are some real Yashigani scenes in this anime. They really seem to put the A team on the space battles so they look gorgeous. They are well choreographed and beautifully animated with the best CG. They seems to farm out the character animation to the B and C teams and in some episodes the Z team. There is a sequence so horrible in the TV broadcast of the 10th episode I can only assume that they will clean it up to something watchable on the DVD release. If nothing else Wataru will have another rarity for his video store.

I thought the music got better as the series continued. The first opening grew on me, I enjoyed all the insert songs, and the endings were always good. I loved the second opening song, but have little to say about the actual opening animation besides that I thought it was poor compared to the first. Some people think Yoko Kano to be overrated, but I always find her music to instill something in me. For someone who is not very musically inclined, I always remember her music and the way she portrays the moments in a series uniquely.

Like I mentioned in the Macross Plus article when you put Yoko Kanno together with Macross you have an unbeatable combination. The great thing is how artistically they dovetail the animation with the music, like when they use music to enhance a fight sequence. A perfect example is in episode four when they cut back and forth between Alto fighting in a training mission and Ranka singing My Boyfriend is a Pilot during the Miss Macross competition. Both sequences match up so well with each other that they harmonize into a great whole while still having a infectious sense of whimsy. Also despite how much I dislike Sheryl as a character her songs are quite catchy. I really liked Diamond Crevasse with it’s strong refrain in a otherwise soft reflective song. But I would be remiss to forget super cute Interstellar Flight is.

I would be lying if I said the last episode didn’t excite me. It was beautiful, suspenseful, melodramatic fun. The battle was stellar and the music was grand! And it was certainly better than the few episodes of lead up. But it didn’t hold up its end of the bargain in telling us what the heck was going on. It really should have been spread out over a few episodes and not crammed in these meager 30 minutes.

I feel the last third is the weakest for various spoilerific reasons but the finale while rushed is definitely enjoyable. I guess I was upset with parts near because of people making decisions and events seem to happen more for emotional impact that for common sense. The ending delivers even though I feel some people are going to be rather upset and others are going to demand more. It was a mixture of action and melodrama and definitely in the spirit of Macross. I would have been a little happier with the standard 26 episodes rather than 25 with content of 25 and 26 spread out over the two episodes. There was more than enough material for it and it could have given time for some set-up and revelations. I am eagerly waiting to see what the new Macross Frontier movie will be about. Will it be a Do You Remember Love style re-imagining of Macross Frontier or will be be a new story? Either way I am excited.

Top 5 most disappointing anime endings
5. Martian Successor Nadesico
4. Death Note
3. Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny
2. Honey and Clover
1. Vision of Escaflowne