Gundam Unicorn Long PV Released (I’ve Got You Covered)

It turns out the rumours were true and that there was indeed a new PV for Gundam Unicorn released on the Japanese PSN today.  Somebody was kind enough to upload it to youtube in HD and so here it is:

I wonder if when the time comes I’m going to be the only one following this

Cast In The Name of God, Gundam F91 Ye Guilty (Now Apologize To John Williams Already)

Normally I have nothing but good things to say about the Gundam franchise, be it about it’s music, it’s mecha, it’s animation or it’s vision of the future, but today I’m going to hit it up a bit about something I’ve always found extremely irksome about one of it’s entries…namely Gundam F91.  This might actually be something that most people aren’t aware of or perhaps not, but the nerve it has in labelling it’s music as an Original Soundtrack when it’s clearly not visited me again last night while I was playing a G Generation game with my friend.  

Good Things Come To Those Who Wait (March Mecha Madness For 2010?)

All good things come to an end

The latter half of 2009 has left me mecha starved with only a couple of titles (Basquash which was a huge disappointment and the awesome but alone Shin Mazinger), but 2010 is already looking up with the announcement of a new Votoms OVA (that makes 2 very recently with Pailsen Files in 2007) to finish off the story once and for all right around the same time as Gundam Unicorn is set to debut.  The way things are going it’s looking like 2010 is already going to be more active than 2009 as far as my blogging is concerned.  

What The Hell Happened With The Fall Season And How To Survive The Rest of 2009 (With A Curious Leadoff)

Ugh those tracks you just can’t stop repeating but you don’t care because they are so damn good you might as well let them stay playing for a week.  It’s that Senju Akira again and his dastardly slow building music that just keeps on building:

I could listen to that all day and perhaps maybe I’d rather listen to that all day then watch any one of the new anime series we have coming out this season.  And that’s what I’m really here to talk to you, but by all means let the song be a mood setter.  ghostlightning states “FFFFF We Hate the New Season” and calls it fail fall 09, but he doesn’t necessarily ask the question.  What is the question? Is there a question?  Well I certainly have one and it’s a certain “what the hell happened?!” as far as the last couple of seasons we dealt with actually.  Last season gave us a certain gem in Bakemonogatari and I’m sure people found something to suit their interests as well, but for mecha fans like the ghost and I it’s been pretty slimpickings.  There don’t seem to be any particular heavy hitters for the remainder of 2009, and in fact it’s arguable that the entirety of 2009 slipped by without any of the heavy hitters we’ve had almost every season from 2006-2008.  Have we been spoiled, or is the boom over so to speak?  Finally is it just me or have the bigshot companies just suddenly decided to collectively say, “2009 isn’t looking so good, let’s wait until 2010 before we spring the big stuff on them” and if so could the crash at the end of 2008 had something to do with the anime industry playing so conservatively this year?  I don’t pretend to have all the answers and hate to leave people hanging, but if indeed this is already it as far as the big 2009 titles go I wouldn’t mind sharing my survival strategy with everyone instead.  It’s a fairly simple one that should be adaptable to most people’s standards:

Time To Walk Straight Into One Of The Most Popular Shows Of The Season (A Real Look At Bakemonogatari With Episode 02)

So How Many Sony Press Conference Jokes Have Been Made About This Show Anyway?

Well it’s time to kick off the second part of my look at Bakemonogatari.  The first bit was of course supposed to be the kind of reaction to the opening episode you might see if you decided to take everything that happened literally and without trying to go into what the themes and ideas behind the show might actually be.  That was fun, but now I think it’s time that I got a little more into the serious business of really telling people what I think about the show without the role playing, gags and just general nonsense gut reactions.   Just what are they getting at with this story about a weightless girl and the guy that says he’s going to help her? While I might be a little bit late to this part I still want to see if there’s anything I can’t add to the conversation at hand. 

Time To Barrel Roll Into The Most Hyped Show Of The Season (I Finally Check Out Bakemonogatari)

This Is Your Brain On Drugs….Any Questions?

Honestly I went ahead and gave this show a chance and so far it’s giving me a headache….well at least at first….and yet I still want to see more of it just the same.  I’m perfectly sure there’s something interesting being developed here with regard to Hitagi’s plight and how Oshino is going to try and help her, but I’ll also say that the first episode with that looping music track over the opening conversation in the classroom (annoying and repetitive beyond description) as well as the randomly flashing text and rapidly shifting camera angles for no discernible reason or effect was just dizzying and disorienting beyond belief.  Especially since the parts of the episode that aren’t like that are quite drawn out but also really intense and creepy at the same time with the psycho bitch and well….just the show in general. I know somebody is going to probably tell me that that’s just Shinbo, but I’ll just reply by asking how this necessary and by answering myself with, “probably drugs”.  Other than that bit of “guh-huh” it was a more intriguing and eye-catching start than what I’ve seen most series feature these days, but not by much.

Now what I really did like and found most intriguing about this opener was how the one girl with the glasses (sorry her name eludes me and I’ll probably catch shit for this) sold Hitagi as something completely different then what she is portrayed as upon her first introduction, which helped to greatly enhance the atmosphere of her turning out to have a stationery fetish. Here I am expecting a total stereotype of a Mary Sue and then she just turns out to be a nutcase that doesn’t fit any of the traits she was described as having.  I cant’ even begin to describe how this struck me as an incredibly good thing.  Also Oshino didn’t come across the way I thought he was going to either and ends up being more like a second season Tieria Erde as opposed to the Saji Crossroad I was expecting.  Already we are seeing that the characters seem to have more than one side to them, and that’s pretty good stuff that I would definitely call promising for somebody like me who hasn’t watched much of this highly hyped and praised series yet.

Now to get a little more wishy-washy again though, because let’s face it this is just what I do when it comes to raw first impressions.  I’m really not sure if I like Hitagi’s voice acting yet though, mostly because I’m more used to Chiwa Saito voicing squeaky, peppy, loud and just generally extroverted characters like first season Louise Halevy, Natsumi Hinata, Lavie Head and Rebecca Miyamoto and I think maybe she is too. Also I can’t say Bakemonogatari is likely to be winning any awards on the BGM front either.  I’m probably not going to make many friends for saying this judging by how insanely popular this show is at the moment, but Bakemonogatari probably has some of the most unpleasant BGM I have heard so far this year.  The visual style though……..as much as I may have seemed like I was put off by it before, I am more befuddled, and honestly I like being surprised and then just learning to go along with the ride…..if it doesn’t turn out to be totally insulting that is.  I think I will probably be getting high when I watch episode 2 just to enhance the experience.  It’s the kind of show that seems to warrant it and probably the piece of the puzzle missing in understanding why the points of view and text are so messed up.  I figure Shinbo is probably toking up while he’s directing all of this stuff, might as well indulge him.  It’s just like….whatever it’s a surface right….might as well through some text in there…..attaboy Shinbo!

The 08th MS Team Should Not Hold Gundam Back (A Few Reason Why People Need To Stop Asking For More Of It)

It’s Time To Let It Go People

After reading the latest demand for more 08th MS Team on Animesuki today, I figured I might as well just finally say it.  The answer to the question why they don’t make more 08th MS Team, and a further look at how their have in fact been tons of real robot grunt warfare type stories since 08th MS Team with of course some opinion added into the mix.  And yes this well feature some of my particular brand of angry and I’ll mention why a little in the actual text.

Gundam Antagonists And Sexual Deviancy (Do They Go Hand In Hand?)

The top right corner features the image in question that has sparked some pretty interesting discussion

A lot of people have expressed surprise and even shock at this picture of Alejandro and Ribbons hugging that has been inserted into the special edition volumes of Gundam 00 and with it a new layer on top of an implied gay relationship between the two main series villains.  It sort of doesn’t come as a surprise given how they talked to each other, but then while discussing this idea with a friend I started to think more about it and realized that maybe, just maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise in general.  As I looked back on the history of Gundam Villains I’ve started to notice in them what appeared to be at least one or more tendency’s towards a sexually deviant fetish or impulse, along with a tendency towards the sociopathy that most Gundam villains have been known to suffer from to a degree.  Consider the following that I came up with and maybe have a thought about it yourself and whether it is just sheer coincidence, me thinking to hard about it, or a clear and consistant pattern in building the personality of a Gundam Villains:

Note that this article will be posted on both Animehistory and We Remember Love

I Think I’ve Finally Found My Dream Wedding Scenario

I’ve punted around a lot of crazy ideas for what kind of wedding I would like to have in my time, but I think this lucky bride and groom have already had the best wedding that could ever be possible:

Not exactly a traditional Japanese wedding is it?

The couple naming their daughter Sayla kind of reminds me of all of those old school Star Wars fans naming their kids Luke, Leia and Obi-Wan around the time The Phantom Menace came out.  Holy cultural icon Gundam!

The Wrestler Thoughts (A Next Generation Rocky)

So I just finished watching The Wrestler (I know this has nothing to do with anime, but I still like to talk about my western movies as people probably already know so please hear my out)  on my cable services On Demand feature and I realize that I’m about a year too late for this, but this movie was so strong that I felt I still had to say a few words regardless.  Here is what it basically all came down to for me in the end.  Randy “The Ram”, while his career may be one of the most fake and showy of them all, comes across as one of the few honest people in this movie, while everyone else in the “real world” comes across as fake or unrelenting to an extent.  I remember thinking early on in the movie as I saw The Ram and his opponents doing there thing in the ring that this profession is brutal and almost masochistic, but then I came to notice that after the match they were clearly all comrades and professionals who had nothing but the most honest and heartfelt respect for each other at the end of the day.  They were able to leave the profession in the ring when they hit that dressing room and support each other and be the best of friends, but the people in the “real world” as we came to see refused to leave their work where it belonged and ended up being far more brutal on The Ram in his civilian life than anything he endured as a pro wrestler.  Hard to believe, but consider this: