blech, the final two episodes were pretty lame so i guess i have to walk this back. i don’t think i hate anything as much as Plane Crazy: Gate Expectations, but there were a few snoozefests.
i love these two character designs to an unreasonable extent
every time i see them i feel like i’m witnessing some kind of cartoon renaissance. so much hilarity packed into a small number of details: the permanently-scowling bug glasses, thin frog lips and overlong fingers; the forward lean into a slumped torso, baggy eyes and underbite. though i feel like the characters are only used well in episodes 1, 2 and 5
turn a gundam’s been replaced in my rotation by votoms. 4 episodes in, it actually feels a lot like an early 2000ad story. the gritty war setting where all the characters are out for themselves, the stoic protagonist who keeps getting into a different life-or-death situation every episode, and the fact that the world is generally a disgusting shithole.
the back of the blu ray case calls it “the most realistic giant robot combat series ever produced”, which is probably true, though only 4 episodes in and chirico’s already been experiencing something like newtype flashes.
it’s definitely a stark contrast to turn a gundam, set in a beautiful world where everyone’s fighting for some kind of ideals, even if some of the ideals are insane nonsense!
I did exactly this yesterday as well lol.
I went in completely blind, knowing only something something Mellowlink (which isn’t included in the BD set I think). Not sure if I would call it “most realistic giant robot show” since Patlabor exists, but it seems pretty good so far. I like that the robots look like cheap and nasty deathtraps.
There sure is a lot of this show, 52 episodes, 30+ OVAs and 6 movies?
i think the movies are all just condensed versions of the tv show’s story. but the oavs are a combination of side stories and continuations
it really sucks that mellowlink has no official english release, it’s excellent and very very videogamey (the list of episode titles even looks like the list of stages from a mega drive game)
Ep 13 confirmed it. Man that sucks. What a bad, weird, baffling decision.
It also just feels like they had this sexual assault happen, then in the next episode, she’s fine! And she prevents the guy from being murdered, and they leave. I fully expect that the show thinks that this is fully resolved?? Mind-boggling stuff.
I want to keep watching it for the rest of the story but this is going to drive me crazy for the rest of the show.
binge-rewatched madoka after something like a decade and realizing i had forgotten just about everything but the “gist” of it after that time, as i seem to do with most things. made it feel like i was seeing it for the first time while also just feeling exactly where things were going to go, just not how.
forgot how videogames it was. maybe it’s obvious to everyone else and this has been talked about, but i felt like i was looking at stuff that got remixed and regurgitated into nier automata in a lot of little ways. they are the same emotionally, and i think yoko taro and urobuchi like to tell stories in similar ways. the same “hey wouldn’t it be fucked up and sad if” plots.
i like that stuff still, so madoka holds up for me.
also immediately followed up with the 3rd movie, like, the whole reason i went back here was seeing a scene shared from this and i wanted the full context. it looks great, and while probably a mess i loved seeing homura go this hard. loved the fight between her and mami. surprised there’s still another sequel coming out, they could have just left things there
Summer of Gundam continues unabated. I watched the Mobile Suite Gundam film trilogy. I had watched the series over ten years ago, loved it, and never really finished anything else. Watching it in movie form and as the person I am today, I like it even more. I really didn’t remember all of the moments that truly hit. It surprised me in a way that it’s successors don’t.
The only thing that doesn’t completely land for me is all the talk about Newtypes. The moments with Lalah are sublime and the way characters experience esp is strong, but the political ramifications and dialogue around it doesn’t develop in an interesting way.
