FelixOrion
Poet Centuriate
Man, I really need to get caught up on Dandy. Episode 23 really sounds like a hardcore crowd pleaser.
Also: you have no fucking idea
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Summer 2014 Anime |OT2| Or, where Jexhius finally watches more Doremi for Hito.
- Thread starter Narag
- Start date
- Status
Man, I really need to get caught up on Dandy. Episode 23 really sounds like a hardcore crowd pleaser.
Also: you have no fucking idea
Canis lupus
Member
Legendary Girl Utena 6
Finally getting a bit interesting but gahdamn this show is moving forward so slooww.
Finally getting a bit interesting but gahdamn this show is moving forward so slooww.
Honestly, the first arc isn't all that good outside of a few select episodes.
MetroidPrimeRib
Banned
Hunter x Hunter 146
This ep was on the mark. I think 147 might be the last real episode, and 148 will be a series highlight reel/recap.
Gonna be sad when this is over. I think I've said that every week for the last like, five weeks.
This ep was on the mark. I think 147 might be the last real episode, and 148 will be a series highlight reel/recap.
Gonna be sad when this is over. I think I've said that every week for the last like, five weeks.
KillerMan91
Member
Well it wasn't exactly amazing show but not bad either. Decent all around =P.
Well as far as I have understood 11k per volume is great sales in anime market.
Woah...they're really close to being caught up. HxH being on hiatus permanently, I wonder when we'll see the anime come back.
CorvoSol and Dynedom, you both make good points in that there are women in Gundam that don't fit within the negative categories that I defined. However, to reinforce my earlier point, you have to examine Tomino's greater body of work. While I'm hardly a Tomino scholar, a cursory glance through his catalogue will reveal that the 'bad', stereotypical women appear again and again throughout his catalogue of shows. Consider Brain Powered, or Ideon, or Xabungle. It's a distinct pattern. I mean, I think this speaks for itself:
As if further evidence was needed, Xabungle features one hyper competent women. She isn't led around by men, like the two primary girls in the show. Neither is she weak, in fact we see her besting the main character both physically and in a robot fight. She's cool, she's strong, and she's brutally murdered by Tomino in the episode she's introduced in because that's how Tomino treats women. It's the pattern that condemns him, not individual instances of bad writing.
I didn't expand into Tomino's other work because I don't know much about them aside from stuff like Ideon (which was mostly spoiled for me). I have heard some rather disturbing things about Dunbine though.
It's definitely endemic to Tomino considering that Unicorn isn't nearly as atrocious in its treatment of female characters (although fuck you for
killing off Marida
Puru "bloodline"
If you want to expand to the Gundam universe at large, the biggest example of a character being Tomino'd would be Cagalli in the Gundam SEED universe (particularly Destiny). It's like someone got an angry memo from him. Actually, SEED shares a lot of similarities to the original MGS timeline in the "wtf is up with these women" regard, even down to Stella (aka Rosamia 2.0).
I guess it shouldn't be surprising that one of the best women in the overall UC universe happens to be from its best work: War In The Pocket.
I was going to ask whether or not women were just depicted poorly in 80's anime but then I remembered that Dirty Pair (among countless other works) exists.
Corvo: I'm honestly drawing a blank on whether Haman's character stayed consistent. I feel I need to rewatch Z and ZZ (which, given the length, I probably never will) but something about her character soured for me.
The Black Rose arc is going to warp your mind.
Yup..
Dedication Through Light
Member
Finally getting some World Trigger music, Sonar Pocket doing the theme song for it.
KillerMan91
Member
Oh. Did you mean that I was implying that sales have increased since first volume? Oh sorry. Only meant that it sold well. I guess you can interpret that other meaning from my sentence too. English is not my native language so there are these misunderstandings from time to time lol.
Cardcaptor Sakura 30
Dash is cute. It's like a bunny rabbit. Or a miniature kangaroo. I like that Syaoran does have a softer side to him. Using magic for cheating is a no-no, but as some personal inspiration? It makes for a sweet ending. The magic was inside you all along, Rei. Next episode sounds like another broken card I've heard about.
Dash is cute. It's like a bunny rabbit. Or a miniature kangaroo. I like that Syaoran does have a softer side to him. Using magic for cheating is a no-no, but as some personal inspiration? It makes for a sweet ending. The magic was inside you all along, Rei. Next episode sounds like another broken card I've heard about.
The Idolm@ster - 04
Traitorous bitch Chihaya's turn for this episode. Don't you feel sad that she doesn't get to sing? Well no, not really because we know nothing about her or her motivations beyond wanting to sing and she's naive as fuck if she's not expecting some struggle along the way.
Producer reveals he is utterly incompetent at his job since he knows nothing about the personal lives of the people he manages. Kind of a key point really as a manager.
Producer reveals he is utterly incompetent at his job since he knows nothing about the personal lives of the people he manages. Kind of a key point really as a manager.
Alright, thanks ! I should be fine with the supernatural. Pre revolutionary France is a particular interest of mine so I think I will enjoy it regardless of which path they hadtaken.
Theonik
Member
He gets better as the show progresses! That's part of the point. And your Chihaya/characterisation complaint will also make a bit more sense.
Also naive girls joining the entertainment industry? Why I'd never.
He's introduced in the first episode as a hot shot producer. Granted this is by the owner who has somehow managed to start a company and even scout people despite also being incompetent but not knowing the timetable or situation of the people whose lives you essentially have to manage daily strikes me as exceedingly unprofessional.
Why am I arguing, I don't care. I want this to be over.
Theonik
Member
He is introduced as a hot shot of sorts that is true. But other than the owner's word we have no indication of that fact whatsoever.
You should consider that he's new to this company. Him getting to know the girls and the business is part of his character arc.
astrogamer
Member
Re: Hamatora 10
Well this was a depressing episode. Also themed around the trope villain forcing protagonists to run around town to save their loved ones and then force each other against themselves
Well this was a depressing episode. Also themed around the trope villain forcing protagonists to run around town to save their loved ones and then force each other against themselves
I didnt realize that before but youre right she does. So she is in that new show that features Monochrome too?
I ordered already too. Dont wanna miss out! Some things lately have been way too quick to go out of stock. Kinda disconcerting.
Youre welcome!
You havent seen Makoto or Takane's magnificence yet. Thats probably whats wrong.
Jex
Member
[Gundam Unicorn] - Complete Series Thoughts
UNMARKED SPOILERS WITHIN FOR UNICORN, AS WELL AS OTHER UNIVERSAL CENTURY GUNDAM SHOWS AND MOBILE FIGHTER G GUDAM
Before we get started I'd like to say that I basically enjoyed watching this series. Please try to keep this in mind when youskim ignore read my lengthy ramblings.
I had originally attempted to watch this show as it was released and I basically completely lost track of the plot and gave up on watching it at all, for a number of reasons. In an attempt to form a more informed opinion I recently sat down to watch the entire series in a single day, to see if this would make the series more palatable. Unsurprisingly, this greatly improved the show but I still have a number of issues with the work that I'd like to discuss,
Strengths
I don't think I need to dwell too heavily on this shows strengths because most of you already know them. Still, I have to point out what I liked about this show before I start ripping into it.
The overall director of the show, Kazuhiro Furuhashi, is a pretty solid guy. You'll probably know him best as the director of Rurouni Kenshin, including the excellent Trust and Betrayal OVA. While he's hardly a wunderkind, his overall level of experience shines through in the way he handles of this series.
The most important thing he brings to the table is how clearly he communicates through the visuals so that we're rarely, if ever, confused as to how and why things are happening, which is very important in a show with as much combat as this. In addition, the choices he made in terms of the adaptation keep things moving at a good pace and I was rarely, if ever, bored.
My one criticism would be that his handling of space and time is somewhat... questionable. How locations are connected geographically, and how far people seem to travel between these locations, isn't always made clear. I don't really know how much time has passed between certain scenes, for example.
On the art side of things, the design work is excellent and I'm not just talking about the mecha. I really like the designs for this sizeable cast of characters. They all look distinctly different from each other. The animation is excellent as the attention to detail in nearly every shot of the series is impressive.
The music is ok, I guess.
In terms of the writing, there are some likeable characters.
I guess that's about all I have to say that's strictly positive.
Realism vs Tominoism
Gundam Unicorn tries to take all the ideas and concepts introduced by Tomino in the 70's and re-package them in a realistic, cool way for adults. I don't think that you can do that to the Universal Century story without making some fundamental alterations to how it works. There are some elements of Tominos vision that are inherently incompatible with a 'realistic' story. It's pretty easy to explain this problem.
On the one hand, Mobile Suit Gundam was a gritty war story about kids being caught up in a conflict during a dark time for humanity.
It's also a show about SPACE PSYHICS and NAKED NEWTYPE TIME. Newtypes, you know, those next-generation humans who can truly understand others by being able to feel what's in their hearts? Let's not forget the idea that humanity would be in such a better place if only like, our souls were truly connected to one another.
Now, there's nothing wrong with the idea of space-psychics being the future of humanity. It's a concept that's been explored in countless other works such as Towards the Terra. However, I do feel that if you really want to explore this idea properly you should make it the actual focus of your story, as it is in Towards the Terra. Having it sit directly next to the 'war story' of Gundam weakens both elements considerably. Moreover, I've always found the portrayal of Newtypes in UC shows to be too ridiculous, too corny and too psychedelic to take seriously. All that naked floating and turning into swans stuff feels so dated, so of it's time. There are better ways to explore these ideas but UC is still married to the whole floating nude people shtick and it's never something I can buy into.
So, these two elements have never set particularly well next to each other, and this is doubly the case in Unicorn. So much time is spent developing a plausible world and then suddenly it goes all naked-rainbow-time on you. It would really be better to just focus on one or the other, as you see in purely 'war' focused stuff like War in the Pocket and 08th MS Team. However, Unicorn feels the need to discuss everything and so it's forced to try and combine these two disparate elements into a single title and make the whole thing feel very serious but it just doesn't ring true to me.
Structure
On a fundamental level, I don't think there's much that separates the plot of Gundam Unicorn from any major Marvel movie. It's basically an extremely elaborate hunt for a MacGuffin.
Now, I'm not saying there's anything inherently wrong with that structure, but I don't think anything is gained by dressing up this very simple premise with layers and layers of artificial complexity. I'm specifically referring to the number of organisations, group, factions and sub-factions that get involved in the hunt of the Laplace's Box. Bringing them all into the story doesn't really accomplish that much besides confusing the audience and allowing for some cool mecha action fanservice. Banagher, Audrey and the Unicorn itself get passed around between the factions more often than a joint at a student party and for what real purpose? It just feels like empty busywork.
Of course you could say that the purpose of Unicorn isn't about discovering what's inside Laplace's Box, it's really about the development of Banagher Links. Or, perhaps, it's really just meant to be a whistle-stop tour of the history of the Universal Century. The problem is, I can't really tell which of these is true because I don't think that show accomplishes any of those goals. Let's examine how this series discusses the Universal Century before moving onto a dissection of Banagher Links.
Unicorn and the Universal Century
Gundam Unicorn sees itself as being a story about the ideas of the Universal Century more so than a story about any particular character. I mean, it's right there in the name 'UC'. Now, I think I could accept a subpar plot and a few middling characters if the show at least had something interesting and fresh to say about he UC but I don't think it does.
The reason for this is that the path the Unicorn guides our heroes on is, a literal historical tour. Along the way we learn about all the major Gundam ideas (Zeon vs Earth, the Colony Drop, the One Year War, Major Battles etc) and we even explore some of those old ideas again (Zeon vs Feddie, Pacifism vs Pragmatism, Cyber Newtypes vs Life etc). For the theoretical Gundam neophyte perhaps it's useful to see all the ideas and characters and stories and from the UC contained in a single series, but for anyone already familiar with this stuff there really isn't anything new here. It's very much a show about the past and perhaps that's what Gundam fans want, a tale of the familiar.
Personally, I wanted to see something more. If we were going to examine all this stuff again I'd have liked to see it tackled from new angles, with different outcomes, and with new perspectives. Or I'd have liked to see the show comment on all this stuff, to in some way put a cap on these old ideas in a satisfying way. However the show seems rigidly stuck in the old ways. Banagher is the same bog standard protagonist going through basically the same journey as all the others. Other characters and groups play to their old stereotypes - the Zeon can't let go of their hate, the Federation are shady, Cyber newtypes die painfully. It's just a re-hash, on nearly ever level. This is very disappointing.
Banagher Links
On that note, we arrive at our protagonist, Banagher Links. As I said before, in this great MacGuffin hunt, I feel like Banagher's story takes a backseat to all the political machinations and conflict that happens in the show. In fact, I'd say he's almost completely subservient to the ideas being discussed, rendering his status as a protagonist questionable.
Now, I feel that many of you may be puzzled by this assertion. After all, isn't Banagher the character who pilots the titular Unicorn? The hero of the story? At first glance I can see why that might appear to be the case but upon closer examination it's quite clear that his agency is extremely limited.
Everyone in the show wants to find the Laplace's box. The Unicorn itself simply guides Banahger, and everyone else in the show, to this ultimate destination. This means that they're simply dancing to the tune of the Unicorn (and it's creator, Syam Visit). Sure, along the way Banagher has to fight some people, learn some life lessons, give some speeches and get beaten up, but ultimately he's playing an on-rails shooter. He spends time with a number of different groups ostensibly to develop his rather thin character, but what the story is actually doing is using Banagher to explore all the different factions in the story. He rarely, if ever, makes any choices on his own and even the ones he does make don't really matter. The biggest choice in the show is even stolen from him by another as Mineva is person who reveals the final location of Laplaces Box, not him.
If we were to assume that I'm wrong, and that Banagher Link's story is extremely important, why do we never deal with Banagher's murdered father? Why do we never explore his feelings towards his father and mother for than two seconds? Why do we never see him try to investigate who set his father up so that he could avenge his death? In fact, much of Banagher's life gets swept under the rug and we never really deal with what happened to him as a child and why he forgot it all. This is because he doesn't really matter to the story as a whole.
Much of this is evident in the very first episode when we first meet Banahger and learn that he doesn't talk or think like a human being. Consider such interactions as these:
Truly bizarre, no? Banagher has known this girl for something like an hour and he's already begging to be told how needed and important he is. Later on he basically says that he'll do anything she asks. Why? On what basis is their relationship formed? What has she done to engender such trust? Moreover, the two of them lack any kind of chemistry or relationship dynamic and yet we must assume that they're in love, or something, because that's how these stories go.
In fairness, Mineva has this kind of convenient effect on young men, consider this scene with Riddhe:
Approximately four minutes after meeting Mineva, Riddhe decides to commit what I can only imagine is a capital crime, by breaking a prisoner out of her jail and spiritng her down to Earth. I guess she really has a way with words. Anyway, wasn't I talking about Banagher?
So, to be fair, Banagher does actually have a character of sorts. It just happens to be one that only surfaces in the middle of the story and only then to spout terribly clichéd and horribly written dialogue:
This mid season character arc feels horribly perfunctory. The problem here is that this is the exact same arc that numerous Gundam protagonists have undergone, so we're once again re-hashing story arcs from previous shows. Not that any of it matters because, as I've said above, Banagher is basically a slave to the story rather than a master of it. All this wandering the desert is just window dressing.
Perhaps this helps explain why, at the end of it all, the show doesn't really care about his fate, nor can it seem to decide what should happen to him. First he turns into a rainbow, but then the show decides that even though that'd be consistent with the rest of the ending it's somehow a bridge too far. So then he just goes back to being normal now I guess? It really feels very half hearted and weak.
Please stop abusing women
Or, where I tell Gundam Unicorn to go fuck itself.
So, I've kind of burned some of this material already, but I feel that it needs to be said. You already know about the tragic female characters in Gundam, like Four? Their often cyber newtypes, humans who have been forcibly modified into living weapons without free will. These characters are all controlled by their machines and it's usually the job of the protagonist to free these doomed women from their roles by opening up their hearts. Then, of course, as soon as the hero manages to rescue them from their predicament they wind up dead anyway, sometimes at the hands of the protagonist due to some twist of fate. This has occurred numerous times within UC Gundam.
I don't like this trope for a variety of reasons. Mainly, I see the constant victimisation of women as being extremely negative. It suggests a world in which there's just no hope for these women to ever escape their lot in life. There's no reason why we can't explore the idea that hey, these women have a change to actually escape their situation and to better themselves. Yet it never, ever works out that way and women stay stuck within their roles as victims.
What we really don't need is to see another women become enslaved to her machine and then get killed tragically by one of the major characters. Moreover, why do they have to be women, specifically? Is there a real needs to just show us women as doomed victims again and again, even without Tominos' involvement in the project?
Somehow, for some reason Unircorn features this exact story again. Women are once again the victims and once again hope is snatched away from these women at the last second.
What's more disgusting is the show delivers this tired arc TWICE within the same story. Lets talk in detail about one important character: Marida Cruz.
For those of you who weren't paying attention, or perhaps who aren't familiar with the complete story, Marida Cruz might well have suffered more than any other character in the Universal Century series of shows. Her backstory makes Lalah Sune's life look like a tea party.
So, to recap, Marida is a actually a clone who forced to fight into battle as a child. So, we've got quite a lot of trauam there. From that point on she's sold as a child sex slave and during this period of her life she's brutally abused by many of her customers and she undergoes numerous pregnancies and abortions. She is eventually rescued by Zinnerman which leads to her becoming a MS pilot.
This is the amount of trauma she suffers before the show even begins. It's worth pointing out that, despite all this, she's actually one of the most reasonable and rationale people in the entire series. She's even kind and warm towards Banagher Links. Unlike certain other character, she's not filled with rage or anger.
Until, of course she gets captured and brainwashed by the Vist foundation who turn her against her own people. Luckily she manages to break free of her programming and reunite with her surrogate father. Perhaps, unlike so many women before her, she's actually going to get the happy ending that she deserves? WRONG. Riddhe kills her in last episode because, er, he's really confused about his emotions, or something? This is unacceptable and, frankly, disgusting.
What purpose does this repeated victimisation serve? Why is there never any hope for these abused women? What narrative purpose does it serve to kill her off like? Not only is it emotionally manipulative but it's completely unfair. If anyone deserves a happy ending in this series, it's her. No one has suffered more and yet still managed to be a fundamentally good person.
What's crazy is that outside of the Universal Century and outside of Tomino specially other writers have explored this exact same character story before and managed to give the women a genuinely happy ending. I'm talking, of course, about Allenby in G Gundam. It shouldn't take a completely different writer, telling a story in a completely different universe, to come up with the idea that perhaps a women might escape the abuses that she faces. Nor should Unicorn, a show written far later than the original Mobile Suit Gundam, stick to rigidly to it's tired and extremely questionable scenario tropes.
Final Thoughts
Somehow, even though I've gone on forever I still haven't covered everything. I haven't been able to rant how Zimmerman's character flip flops depending on the need of the scene. Or how boring perfect Mineva is as a a character. Or had how bad the dialogue is overall. I guess I'll just have to make do with this post for now.
UNMARKED SPOILERS WITHIN FOR UNICORN, AS WELL AS OTHER UNIVERSAL CENTURY GUNDAM SHOWS AND MOBILE FIGHTER G GUDAM
Before we get started I'd like to say that I basically enjoyed watching this series. Please try to keep this in mind when you
I had originally attempted to watch this show as it was released and I basically completely lost track of the plot and gave up on watching it at all, for a number of reasons. In an attempt to form a more informed opinion I recently sat down to watch the entire series in a single day, to see if this would make the series more palatable. Unsurprisingly, this greatly improved the show but I still have a number of issues with the work that I'd like to discuss,
Strengths
I don't think I need to dwell too heavily on this shows strengths because most of you already know them. Still, I have to point out what I liked about this show before I start ripping into it.
The overall director of the show, Kazuhiro Furuhashi, is a pretty solid guy. You'll probably know him best as the director of Rurouni Kenshin, including the excellent Trust and Betrayal OVA. While he's hardly a wunderkind, his overall level of experience shines through in the way he handles of this series.
The most important thing he brings to the table is how clearly he communicates through the visuals so that we're rarely, if ever, confused as to how and why things are happening, which is very important in a show with as much combat as this. In addition, the choices he made in terms of the adaptation keep things moving at a good pace and I was rarely, if ever, bored.
My one criticism would be that his handling of space and time is somewhat... questionable. How locations are connected geographically, and how far people seem to travel between these locations, isn't always made clear. I don't really know how much time has passed between certain scenes, for example.
On the art side of things, the design work is excellent and I'm not just talking about the mecha. I really like the designs for this sizeable cast of characters. They all look distinctly different from each other. The animation is excellent as the attention to detail in nearly every shot of the series is impressive.
The music is ok, I guess.
In terms of the writing, there are some likeable characters.
I guess that's about all I have to say that's strictly positive.
Realism vs Tominoism
Gundam Unicorn tries to take all the ideas and concepts introduced by Tomino in the 70's and re-package them in a realistic, cool way for adults. I don't think that you can do that to the Universal Century story without making some fundamental alterations to how it works. There are some elements of Tominos vision that are inherently incompatible with a 'realistic' story. It's pretty easy to explain this problem.
On the one hand, Mobile Suit Gundam was a gritty war story about kids being caught up in a conflict during a dark time for humanity.
It's also a show about SPACE PSYHICS and NAKED NEWTYPE TIME. Newtypes, you know, those next-generation humans who can truly understand others by being able to feel what's in their hearts? Let's not forget the idea that humanity would be in such a better place if only like, our souls were truly connected to one another.
Now, there's nothing wrong with the idea of space-psychics being the future of humanity. It's a concept that's been explored in countless other works such as Towards the Terra. However, I do feel that if you really want to explore this idea properly you should make it the actual focus of your story, as it is in Towards the Terra. Having it sit directly next to the 'war story' of Gundam weakens both elements considerably. Moreover, I've always found the portrayal of Newtypes in UC shows to be too ridiculous, too corny and too psychedelic to take seriously. All that naked floating and turning into swans stuff feels so dated, so of it's time. There are better ways to explore these ideas but UC is still married to the whole floating nude people shtick and it's never something I can buy into.
So, these two elements have never set particularly well next to each other, and this is doubly the case in Unicorn. So much time is spent developing a plausible world and then suddenly it goes all naked-rainbow-time on you. It would really be better to just focus on one or the other, as you see in purely 'war' focused stuff like War in the Pocket and 08th MS Team. However, Unicorn feels the need to discuss everything and so it's forced to try and combine these two disparate elements into a single title and make the whole thing feel very serious but it just doesn't ring true to me.
Structure
On a fundamental level, I don't think there's much that separates the plot of Gundam Unicorn from any major Marvel movie. It's basically an extremely elaborate hunt for a MacGuffin.
Now, I'm not saying there's anything inherently wrong with that structure, but I don't think anything is gained by dressing up this very simple premise with layers and layers of artificial complexity. I'm specifically referring to the number of organisations, group, factions and sub-factions that get involved in the hunt of the Laplace's Box. Bringing them all into the story doesn't really accomplish that much besides confusing the audience and allowing for some cool mecha action fanservice. Banagher, Audrey and the Unicorn itself get passed around between the factions more often than a joint at a student party and for what real purpose? It just feels like empty busywork.
Of course you could say that the purpose of Unicorn isn't about discovering what's inside Laplace's Box, it's really about the development of Banagher Links. Or, perhaps, it's really just meant to be a whistle-stop tour of the history of the Universal Century. The problem is, I can't really tell which of these is true because I don't think that show accomplishes any of those goals. Let's examine how this series discusses the Universal Century before moving onto a dissection of Banagher Links.
Unicorn and the Universal Century
Gundam Unicorn sees itself as being a story about the ideas of the Universal Century more so than a story about any particular character. I mean, it's right there in the name 'UC'. Now, I think I could accept a subpar plot and a few middling characters if the show at least had something interesting and fresh to say about he UC but I don't think it does.
The reason for this is that the path the Unicorn guides our heroes on is, a literal historical tour. Along the way we learn about all the major Gundam ideas (Zeon vs Earth, the Colony Drop, the One Year War, Major Battles etc) and we even explore some of those old ideas again (Zeon vs Feddie, Pacifism vs Pragmatism, Cyber Newtypes vs Life etc). For the theoretical Gundam neophyte perhaps it's useful to see all the ideas and characters and stories and from the UC contained in a single series, but for anyone already familiar with this stuff there really isn't anything new here. It's very much a show about the past and perhaps that's what Gundam fans want, a tale of the familiar.
Personally, I wanted to see something more. If we were going to examine all this stuff again I'd have liked to see it tackled from new angles, with different outcomes, and with new perspectives. Or I'd have liked to see the show comment on all this stuff, to in some way put a cap on these old ideas in a satisfying way. However the show seems rigidly stuck in the old ways. Banagher is the same bog standard protagonist going through basically the same journey as all the others. Other characters and groups play to their old stereotypes - the Zeon can't let go of their hate, the Federation are shady, Cyber newtypes die painfully. It's just a re-hash, on nearly ever level. This is very disappointing.
Banagher Links
On that note, we arrive at our protagonist, Banagher Links. As I said before, in this great MacGuffin hunt, I feel like Banagher's story takes a backseat to all the political machinations and conflict that happens in the show. In fact, I'd say he's almost completely subservient to the ideas being discussed, rendering his status as a protagonist questionable.
Now, I feel that many of you may be puzzled by this assertion. After all, isn't Banagher the character who pilots the titular Unicorn? The hero of the story? At first glance I can see why that might appear to be the case but upon closer examination it's quite clear that his agency is extremely limited.
Everyone in the show wants to find the Laplace's box. The Unicorn itself simply guides Banahger, and everyone else in the show, to this ultimate destination. This means that they're simply dancing to the tune of the Unicorn (and it's creator, Syam Visit). Sure, along the way Banagher has to fight some people, learn some life lessons, give some speeches and get beaten up, but ultimately he's playing an on-rails shooter. He spends time with a number of different groups ostensibly to develop his rather thin character, but what the story is actually doing is using Banagher to explore all the different factions in the story. He rarely, if ever, makes any choices on his own and even the ones he does make don't really matter. The biggest choice in the show is even stolen from him by another as Mineva is person who reveals the final location of Laplaces Box, not him.
If we were to assume that I'm wrong, and that Banagher Link's story is extremely important, why do we never deal with Banagher's murdered father? Why do we never explore his feelings towards his father and mother for than two seconds? Why do we never see him try to investigate who set his father up so that he could avenge his death? In fact, much of Banagher's life gets swept under the rug and we never really deal with what happened to him as a child and why he forgot it all. This is because he doesn't really matter to the story as a whole.
Much of this is evident in the very first episode when we first meet Banahger and learn that he doesn't talk or think like a human being. Consider such interactions as these:
Truly bizarre, no? Banagher has known this girl for something like an hour and he's already begging to be told how needed and important he is. Later on he basically says that he'll do anything she asks. Why? On what basis is their relationship formed? What has she done to engender such trust? Moreover, the two of them lack any kind of chemistry or relationship dynamic and yet we must assume that they're in love, or something, because that's how these stories go.
In fairness, Mineva has this kind of convenient effect on young men, consider this scene with Riddhe:
Approximately four minutes after meeting Mineva, Riddhe decides to commit what I can only imagine is a capital crime, by breaking a prisoner out of her jail and spiritng her down to Earth. I guess she really has a way with words. Anyway, wasn't I talking about Banagher?
So, to be fair, Banagher does actually have a character of sorts. It just happens to be one that only surfaces in the middle of the story and only then to spout terribly clichéd and horribly written dialogue:
This mid season character arc feels horribly perfunctory. The problem here is that this is the exact same arc that numerous Gundam protagonists have undergone, so we're once again re-hashing story arcs from previous shows. Not that any of it matters because, as I've said above, Banagher is basically a slave to the story rather than a master of it. All this wandering the desert is just window dressing.
Perhaps this helps explain why, at the end of it all, the show doesn't really care about his fate, nor can it seem to decide what should happen to him. First he turns into a rainbow, but then the show decides that even though that'd be consistent with the rest of the ending it's somehow a bridge too far. So then he just goes back to being normal now I guess? It really feels very half hearted and weak.
Please stop abusing women
Or, where I tell Gundam Unicorn to go fuck itself.
So, I've kind of burned some of this material already, but I feel that it needs to be said. You already know about the tragic female characters in Gundam, like Four? Their often cyber newtypes, humans who have been forcibly modified into living weapons without free will. These characters are all controlled by their machines and it's usually the job of the protagonist to free these doomed women from their roles by opening up their hearts. Then, of course, as soon as the hero manages to rescue them from their predicament they wind up dead anyway, sometimes at the hands of the protagonist due to some twist of fate. This has occurred numerous times within UC Gundam.
I don't like this trope for a variety of reasons. Mainly, I see the constant victimisation of women as being extremely negative. It suggests a world in which there's just no hope for these women to ever escape their lot in life. There's no reason why we can't explore the idea that hey, these women have a change to actually escape their situation and to better themselves. Yet it never, ever works out that way and women stay stuck within their roles as victims.
What we really don't need is to see another women become enslaved to her machine and then get killed tragically by one of the major characters. Moreover, why do they have to be women, specifically? Is there a real needs to just show us women as doomed victims again and again, even without Tominos' involvement in the project?
Somehow, for some reason Unircorn features this exact story again. Women are once again the victims and once again hope is snatched away from these women at the last second.
What's more disgusting is the show delivers this tired arc TWICE within the same story. Lets talk in detail about one important character: Marida Cruz.
For those of you who weren't paying attention, or perhaps who aren't familiar with the complete story, Marida Cruz might well have suffered more than any other character in the Universal Century series of shows. Her backstory makes Lalah Sune's life look like a tea party.
So, to recap, Marida is a actually a clone who forced to fight into battle as a child. So, we've got quite a lot of trauam there. From that point on she's sold as a child sex slave and during this period of her life she's brutally abused by many of her customers and she undergoes numerous pregnancies and abortions. She is eventually rescued by Zinnerman which leads to her becoming a MS pilot.
This is the amount of trauma she suffers before the show even begins. It's worth pointing out that, despite all this, she's actually one of the most reasonable and rationale people in the entire series. She's even kind and warm towards Banagher Links. Unlike certain other character, she's not filled with rage or anger.
Until, of course she gets captured and brainwashed by the Vist foundation who turn her against her own people. Luckily she manages to break free of her programming and reunite with her surrogate father. Perhaps, unlike so many women before her, she's actually going to get the happy ending that she deserves? WRONG. Riddhe kills her in last episode because, er, he's really confused about his emotions, or something? This is unacceptable and, frankly, disgusting.
What purpose does this repeated victimisation serve? Why is there never any hope for these abused women? What narrative purpose does it serve to kill her off like? Not only is it emotionally manipulative but it's completely unfair. If anyone deserves a happy ending in this series, it's her. No one has suffered more and yet still managed to be a fundamentally good person.
What's crazy is that outside of the Universal Century and outside of Tomino specially other writers have explored this exact same character story before and managed to give the women a genuinely happy ending. I'm talking, of course, about Allenby in G Gundam. It shouldn't take a completely different writer, telling a story in a completely different universe, to come up with the idea that perhaps a women might escape the abuses that she faces. Nor should Unicorn, a show written far later than the original Mobile Suit Gundam, stick to rigidly to it's tired and extremely questionable scenario tropes.
Final Thoughts
Somehow, even though I've gone on forever I still haven't covered everything. I haven't been able to rant how Zimmerman's character flip flops depending on the need of the scene. Or how boring perfect Mineva is as a a character. Or had how bad the dialogue is overall. I guess I'll just have to make do with this post for now.
Moral Panic
Member
Couldn't you argue that Marida gets a good ending? Her death is more of a heroic sacrifice that leads to a number of positive outcomes and if she hadn't died the "good guys" would've lost with Unicorn trapped physically and Riddhe trapped mentally. Four's or Lahlah's also have their death being "necessary" but in ways that I think are more damaging. I agree that in terms of the fact that it keeps on happening is very problematic though.
I actually really like Marida and her MS is ridiculously cool so at the very least I can say the show didn't give me a negative impression of her like it did for Mineva. I think I'm more tired of Japan's love for the princess trope at this point than the 3 or 4 times over the 30 years of Gundam that they repeat Four's story.
I actually really like Marida and her MS is ridiculously cool so at the very least I can say the show didn't give me a negative impression of her like it did for Mineva. I think I'm more tired of Japan's love for the princess trope at this point than the 3 or 4 times over the 30 years of Gundam that they repeat Four's story.
Why would you hate the greatest anime of all time?
AquaWateria
Member
Here's the cover of Tokyo Ghoul's Vol 1 blu-ray set with bonus.
Man as much as I don't like this adaption since it butchers the source material which is really amazing. The cover art looks fuckin awesome. That knuckle popping. Hope Funimation releases it like this because it will be a day one buy.
Man as much as I don't like this adaption since it butchers the source material which is really amazing. The cover art looks fuckin awesome. That knuckle popping. Hope Funimation releases it like this because it will be a day one buy.
I think it's fair to feel soured if you didn't approve of her relationship with Judau, because, while I feel that her relationship with him is nearly identical to her relationship with Char in almost every way, the fact that Judau is 5 years her junior, rather than 5 her senior most definitely colors that.
However, when I say Haman remains consistent, what I mean is this: In Zeta Gundam, Haman is characterized as a powerful woman who is both an astute politician and prominent warlord. For someone who is neither a Deikun not a Zabi, Haman manages to attain prominence in their society, to the point that, when she loses Mineva, Haman manages to remain in full control of Zeon until another Zabi heir arises.
Where one can readily fault Reccoa for switching sides, Haman's triple crosses come off as both her being someone who is cunning and someone whose singular goal is ensuring that she and her institution come out on top of the three-way war.
Although Haman is an immensely intelligent figure, she's also portrayed as having human depths in Zeta. Her past relationship with Char brings up memories both pleasant and unhappy of her years in exile. In spite of this, rather than quailing, Haman remains true to her desire to retain and gain control by seeking, not to join Char, but to convince him to join her cause.
Come ZZ Haman follows this same pattern. In the vacuum of the collapse of the Titans, as the Federation and AEUG get into the apathetic bed with one another, Haman swiftly gains control of the Earth Sphere. Although we only see her in Mashmyre's flashbacks early on (and I confess those flashbacks paint a dissonant picture with her as portrayed in Zeta, until one realizes that Mashmyre has been deceived and that dissonance is the point), when we do meet Haman, she still combines her savvy for politics and willingness to go to the frontlines, like she did when she personally snuck aboard the Nahel Argama. Although she has a relationship with Judau, Haman insists throughout that Judau, not herself, is wrong about that relationship's nature. She further persists in seeking to have Judau join her, never once really considering defecting to the AEUG. Late in the series, Haman's goal is still to have herself and her part of Axis come out the final battle as the dominant force.
As an aside here, I personally think that, if Judau -had- succeeded in converting Haman, or vice versa, the Universal Century Timeline would have played out very differently in Char's Counterattack.
Judau and Haman's relationship is very similar to Char and Haman's in that respect, that she wanted to convince both men to join her. Whether Judau reminded her of a young Char or a young her, I don't really know. They differ in that Haman had known Char for much longer than Judau, but I think that she enjoyed the opposition both brought to her. All the same, the relationship is one I concede is very "love it or hate it." Both sides of that are completely understandable, too. Their relationship has a big age gap and is probably one of the most inappropriate relationships in the entire saga. On the other hand, their characters definitely feel better off for it. Haman and Judau acquire a sort of on-screen chemistry that Haman and Paptimus didn't really have with Kamille because of it, I think.
As a further bonus, I think Haman Khan probably has one of the better sets of outfits for a woman of her role. I mean, ask yourself what the odds are of a female villain in modern mecha anime to not have an outfit displaying her cleavage in a hypersexualized way. Haman rarely ever dresses in anything so, shall we say, extravagant. Her most iconic outfit is a pair of pants and a poncho over a shirt. In ZZ the worst she does is sort of upgrade to standard Zeon regalia with a headdress. She has like, one scene in a bikini. If Haman's character were to happen again today, I'd expect her to be dressed and behaved more like Chara Soon.
It's telling, actually, that the Gundam series hasn't ever since had a female villain on Haman's level. You get lots of female subbosses, but there's never a woman on her level.
nintendoman58
Member
G Gundam - 22
Glorious, glorious Super Robot team-up action.
Despite that though, this episode felt the most, Gundam-ish out of all of them. What with the strategic planning of defending against an invading army with a team of five Gundams, one currently being under repair.
And darn it Domon!
Glorious, glorious Super Robot team-up action.
Despite that though, this episode felt the most, Gundam-ish out of all of them. What with the strategic planning of defending against an invading army with a team of five Gundams, one currently being under repair.
And darn it Domon!
Now you've locked yourself in a corner with the final boss and his right-hand man! How the hell are you going to get out of this one?
KirbYuuYuu
Member
Good point!
phoenix296
Member
Possible Grave of the Fireflies spoilers ahead
I wasn't really sad or mad with the decisions Seita made, I was more upset with his aunt. Seita had just lost his mother and had a baby sister he needed to care of so he had to put on a brave face for her. His military father probably had some influence on why he made his decisions so I can't fault him for leaving his aunt's house when he is obviously not wanted.
His Aunt is a mother of two and so I would have expected that she would be more sympathetic to the two orphaned children who have just lost everything in the world to them. She didn't have to treat them as if they're her own children but she shouldn't have acted with such contempt towards them.
Chaika 01-03
Decided to start catching up on some stuff.
Chaika's naive enough to be endearing without going full retard. Toru's kind of bland. Akari is a poor man's Senjougahara with a dash of brocon weirdness, but at least it's fun to watch her fight. The antagonists are who I find most interesting, actually, as they're clearly not bad people and the show gives us enough of their perspective to empathize with what they're doing.
Each episode has had good action animation so far, here's hoping that holds up.
Decided to start catching up on some stuff.
Chaika's naive enough to be endearing without going full retard. Toru's kind of bland. Akari is a poor man's Senjougahara with a dash of brocon weirdness, but at least it's fun to watch her fight. The antagonists are who I find most interesting, actually, as they're clearly not bad people and the show gives us enough of their perspective to empathize with what they're doing.
Each episode has had good action animation so far, here's hoping that holds up.
I wouldn't, and the reason I wouldn't is because Riddhe is immediately absolved for his crime. Like, immediately. It's the weirdest thing. There's this strange forgiveness for the evil men do in Gundam that isn't granted by the plot to women. Consider: Chan offs Quess and is immediately killed by Hathaway, yet Hathaway is not punished for it. Rosammia has to die right away and yet Yazan lives to see ZZ, and so on.
KirbYuuYuu
Member
Mustve been super dead today or something. Wow
MetroidPrimeRib
Banned
IWATCH HYPE?
Well I guess I got my answer, in some sense. *gulp*
Sortof been buried in the page, but have you finished Zeta yet?
R_thanatos
Member
Nozaki-kun - 03
2 new characters , both excellent
Episode was awesome
Pose of delivering a satisfying performance !
2 new characters , both excellent
Episode was awesome
R_thanatos
Member
Nozaki-kun - 04
True story of how doujinshis are made for comiket !
Tomoda !!!!! What a noble sacrifice !
Inviting a prince to a mixer ? That's a FATAL ERROR !
True story of how doujinshis are made for comiket !
Tomoda !!!!! What a noble sacrifice !
Inviting a prince to a mixer ? That's a FATAL ERROR !
Well its that part of the week with no shows people watch. I know for me there's nothing Tuesday/Wednesdays.
R_thanatos
Member
Nozaki-kun - 05
Everything is ....
Researching is good .
i've always wondered why there was a tanuki exploding in the opening , and now i can safely say that this was well deserved.
Can you really make a shojo manga with a tanuki and an elephant ? Really?
Everything is ....
....for the sake of research.
You don't say
Researching is good .
i've always wondered why there was a tanuki exploding in the opening , and now i can safely say that this was well deserved.
Loving those delusions so far..
Can you really make a shojo manga with a tanuki and an elephant ? Really?
santeesioux
Member
Plus most of the shows are almost done, i'm sure it will pick up with the Fall season.
tuesday is hunter x hunter day (2 eps left)
weds is love stage day (last ep tomorrow)
I can understand others not watching those even though they are enjoyable
hmmm I suppose I need to start compiling data for next season soon.... I have to figure out what I am excited to check out.
santeesioux
Member
I'm re-watching Samurai Champloo, it's still awesome.
R_thanatos
Member
NOZAKI-kun - 06
BEST
CONFESSION
EVER !!!!
During 1 hour i was alone in animegaf, felt weird.
BEST
CONFESSION
EVER !!!!
During 1 hour i was alone in animegaf, felt weird.
Almost as useless as the token fanservice girl in a harem show.
I would rather buy that Moto 360 personally.
nintendoman58
Member
G Gundam - 23
YOOOOOOOOOOO DAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMNNNNN.
This is the kind of episode that I was waiting for.
YOOOOOOOOOOO DAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMNNNNN.
SUPER SAYIAN DOMON.
SCHWARZ IS ACTUALLY KYOUJI?!? It certainly looks that way! I mean, the hairstyle, the look of his eyes. I was totally convinced that Schwarz was Domon's father there, like DAMN.
BUT SERIOUSLY THOUGH, THAT ENTIRE FIGHT. THAT CURBSTOMPING AT THE END. THAT'S SOME DBZ STUFF RIGHT THERE.
SCHWARZ IS ACTUALLY KYOUJI?!? It certainly looks that way! I mean, the hairstyle, the look of his eyes. I was totally convinced that Schwarz was Domon's father there, like DAMN.
BUT SERIOUSLY THOUGH, THAT ENTIRE FIGHT. THAT CURBSTOMPING AT THE END. THAT'S SOME DBZ STUFF RIGHT THERE.
This is the kind of episode that I was waiting for.
It was the pride that led the characters to their fate. Both sides were at fault. Children too proud to accept help and get over their differences and an Aunt who was too much of a bitch to put up with them.
Chaika has a few surprises up its sleeve. It turned out to be fairly well written and animation wise its never poor. Very competent execution.
Say what?
ShinRPGamer
Member
G Gundam - 23
YOOOOOOOOOOO DAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMNNNNN.
SUPER SAYIAN DOMON.
SCHWARZ IS ACTUALLY KYOUJI?!? It certainly looks that way! I mean, the hairstyle, the look of his eyes. I was totally convinced that Schwarz was Domon's father there, like DAMN.
BUT SERIOUSLY THOUGH, THAT ENTIRE FIGHT. THAT CURBSTOMPING AT THE END. THAT'S SOME DBZ STUFF RIGHT THERE.
This is the kind of episode that I was waiting for.
Episode 23 is Super Robot action at it's finest. Easily one of the best episodes in G. And the episode after this will open the way towards seeing some of the silliest (and arguably unfortunate) mech designs you will ever see.
- Status