On June 19 2011 13:38 x-Catalyst wrote: Best blog/guide evarrrrrr! I love anything that involves giant robots/knights/and other cool shit like that. Fuck yeah.
Giant Robots+Knights=Escaflowne:
If you haven't seen it, you should check it out. Its one of the only ones of its kind (mecha+knights)
On June 19 2011 13:38 x-Catalyst wrote: Best blog/guide evarrrrrr! I love anything that involves giant robots/knights/and other cool shit like that. Fuck yeah.
On June 23 2011 04:41 kakaman wrote: Where's Voltron?
What about it? Voltron doesn't really have much significance other than being less popular than Robotech when it was adapted and released in America in the 80s. GoLion (the series that was the first Voltron) and Dairugger XV (which made up Voltron 2) were just generic super robot shows of the early 80s.
Sure, the shows existed, and Voltron was fairly popular back in the mid 80s when released in America, but outside that, they haven't aged well, and didn't really have any impact at all on the genre.
The OP needs to be shot on sight for blasphemy...How dare you suggest mecha anime and not mention E7.
Seriously though, watching this series is something Id recommend to anyone as something to do before you die. Personally, im no huge anime fan(ive only seen a handful..like 8 or so) but this is seriously the best one by far even when measured against non-mecha. One of the best example of storytelling ive ever seen. Watch IT!!!!!
Eureka 7 is like Gundam X except with more annoying characters and no Gundams. I don't recommend it. I can hold my nose and recommend Code Geass and Evagelion, but I can't bring myself to do that for Eureka 7.
I will concede that E7 can get annoyingly cheesy and downright childish but once you can get past that, its a great series.
Our tastes are clearly different. Both E7 and CG are among my favorites for specific reasons. They both have such strong storytelling like competent plot twists and climaxes and great character development. They both have morally ambiguous protagonists and most importantly they treat their respective subject matters with relative seriousness throughout unlike over the top bullshit like bleach. Oh yes and also what both these anime series achieve beautifully are their emotional weight. This is like 70% of the reason i love them both.
After watching these, I searched for other gems like them that might be out there and settled on Gundam seed after reading reviews and shit. Only managed to watch half of it before i gave up.
Usually when I start watching a new anime series I force my self to watch the 1st few episodes before i decide. With all the ones that ive enjoyed, they hooked me by the 5th-8th episode. 26 episodes and there was no magic with Gundam Seed. While it has potential, it was just too boring. Its frightfully devoid of good climaxes and/or stunning revelations and there are no impressive plot twists.
Since then ive avoided anything with "gundam" in the title like a plague. Everyone has different tastes i guess.
Good animes or even stories in general present you with a 'what' in the beginning and over the course of the story gives you the 'whys' and sometimes the 'hows' which makes for good plot twists etc.
The thing is, SaRrAceN, you are arguing about the quality of E7 as being a successful anime/story, but this does not necessarily mean successful as mecha. If you want to say something was a good anime, I can accept that, and if someone says differently, then we can just say it's a difference in taste and leave it at that. However, the topic of this blog is mecha, not anime, and E7 really wasn't very good if you look at it from a mecha fan perspective. I feel like it comes down to you not actually liking pure mecha but rather other genres like drama or psychology which sometimes are combined with mecha (such as in E7 and Code Geass).
I'm planning on watching Eueka 7 since it is about to be taken off of Anime News Network soon and it seems interesting.
I'm mostly a fan of 80's and 90's mechanical designs. For 80's mechs I mainly perfer those from Gundam, L-Gaim, and Dragonar (I still have yet to watch the latter two). I also liked the 90's Gundam and SRW designs. However more recent mecha look too slim and look strange too me although the Mazinkaiser SKL looks pretty cool. I still have a lot of anime on my to watch list such as Dunbine, Vifam , Mazinger Z, Getter Robo, and a bunch of others. I learned of most of these anime from SRW or plamo. I collect gunpla as Bandai kits are cheaper and easier to build than other plastic models (which is why I don't have any SRW or Zoids kits).
Also how did this thread get to 6 pages and Cybuster did not get a single mention? It was one of the earliest original mechs in SRW and it has a cool theme song and moveset:
On June 23 2011 16:42 KazeHydra wrote: The thing is, SaRrAceN, you are arguing about the quality of E7 as being a successful anime/story, but this does not necessarily mean successful as mecha. If you want to say something was a good anime, I can accept that, and if someone says differently, then we can just say it's a difference in taste and leave it at that. However, the topic of this blog is mecha, not anime, and E7 really wasn't very good if you look at it from a mecha fan perspective. I feel like it comes down to you not actually liking pure mecha but rather other genres like drama or psychology which sometimes are combined with mecha (such as in E7 and Code Geass).
I wasnt arguing anything, im just saying give it a chance before shooting it down. However you make an interesting point about being 'good mecha' as opposed to being a good anime in general. Its not the first time ive seen such a distinction but I still dont get it. Im curious as to what 'true' anime fans would consider good mecha because anime series like any Gundam derivative cant seem to hold my interest at all yet they are loved by many. Am I missing something ?
On June 23 2011 04:41 kakaman wrote: Where's Voltron?
What about it? Voltron doesn't really have much significance other than being less popular than Robotech when it was adapted and released in America in the 80s. GoLion (the series that was the first Voltron) and Dairugger XV (which made up Voltron 2) were just generic super robot shows of the early 80s.
Sure, the shows existed, and Voltron was fairly popular back in the mid 80s when released in America, but outside that, they haven't aged well, and didn't really have any impact at all on the genre.
On June 23 2011 16:42 KazeHydra wrote: The thing is, SaRrAceN, you are arguing about the quality of E7 as being a successful anime/story, but this does not necessarily mean successful as mecha. If you want to say something was a good anime, I can accept that, and if someone says differently, then we can just say it's a difference in taste and leave it at that. However, the topic of this blog is mecha, not anime, and E7 really wasn't very good if you look at it from a mecha fan perspective. I feel like it comes down to you not actually liking pure mecha but rather other genres like drama or psychology which sometimes are combined with mecha (such as in E7 and Code Geass).
I wasnt arguing anything, im just saying give it a chance before shooting it down. However you make an interesting point about being 'good mecha' as opposed to being a good anime in general. Its not the first time ive seen such a distinction but I still dont get it. Im curious as to what 'true' anime fans would consider good mecha because anime series like any Gundam derivative cant seem to hold my interest at all yet they are loved by many. Am I missing something ?
Gundam is a 30 year old franchise. Therefore most shows have had different directors and writing of varying quality. You've stated that you avoid Gundam because you disliked Gundam Seed. Gundam Seed is one of those series that is loved by many but hated by many as well. Seeing as Sentenal compared E7 to Gundam X maybe you should try that. You can also try the 80's Gundam series and movies (the trilogy and Char's Counterattack). 0080, 0083, and 08 MS team are also liked by Gundam fans due to their unique protagonists and stories as well as being more realistic than their TV counterparts. Many people outside Japan first got into Gundam when they watched W or G on tv in the early 2000's. However more of their appeal is stuff getting blown up all the time and less on the story, although many people do enjoy them. There are a lot of series to choose from so don't hate Gundam because of one series you (and many others) didn't like. It's like someone hating the entire Star Wars franchise because of Episode 1 or hating the entire Alien franchise because of Resurrection.
On June 23 2011 16:09 SaRrAceN wrote: I will concede that E7 can get annoyingly cheesy and downright childish but once you can get past that, its a great series.
Our tastes are clearly different. Both E7 and CG are among my favorites for specific reasons. They both have such strong storytelling like competent plot twists and climaxes and great character development. They both have morally ambiguous protagonists and most importantly they treat their respective subject matters with relative seriousness throughout unlike over the top bullshit like bleach. Oh yes and also what both these anime series achieve beautifully are their emotional weight. This is like 70% of the reason i love them both.
After watching these, I searched for other gems like them that might be out there and settled on Gundam seed after reading reviews and shit. Only managed to watch half of it before i gave up.
Usually when I start watching a new anime series I force my self to watch the 1st few episodes before i decide. With all the ones that ive enjoyed, they hooked me by the 5th-8th episode. 26 episodes and there was no magic with Gundam Seed. While it has potential, it was just too boring. Its frightfully devoid of good climaxes and/or stunning revelations and there are no impressive plot twists.
Since then ive avoided anything with "gundam" in the title like a plague. Everyone has different tastes i guess.
Good animes or even stories in general present you with a 'what' in the beginning and over the course of the story gives you the 'whys' and sometimes the 'hows' which makes for good plot twists etc.
What sort of plot twists or revelation were you looking for in SEED? It was a war story, telling the story of a person who was forced to fight his own people in a war he didn't want to fight. SEED goes out of its way to make both sides in the war look like the bad guys, and has a really strong anti-war message to it. So what sort of "whys" and "hows" were you looking for? I could also describe Gundam SEED with very similar language that you used to describe why you liked E7 and Code Geass lol.
Since you mention twists, and also mentioned Geass, I didn't like most of the "twists" in Code Geass, especially those in R2. Those twists existed for the sake of themselves, and at the expense of rationale and believability. They didn't really add much, and eventually they fell into the trap of having to constantly try to out-do themselves, and that resulted in lots of IMO stupidity.
Anyway, stylistically, E7 is very close to Gundam X. Renton x Eureka is closely modeled after Garrod x Tiffa, except Garrod is one of the best main characters ever, unlike Renton who I hated. Gundam X's main problem is that when it was airring, they stuck it in a horrible time slot that no one could watch, so it got bad ratings, and got canceled. Thus super rushed ending.
Also, like has been said, there is alot of variance in the Gundam franchise. Seeing that you do like some Mecha anime (E7 and Geass), there is bound to be a Gundam out there for you. Probably Zeta Gundam if you can tolerate old anime, or G Gundam if you like crazy stuff. Or 08th MS Team if you like realism.
On June 23 2011 17:57 CrackSpider93 wrote: I'm planning on watching Eueka 7 since it is about to be taken off of Anime News Network soon and it seems interesting.
I'm mostly a fan of 80's and 90's mechanical designs. For 80's mechs I mainly perfer those from Gundam, L-Gaim, and Dragonar (I still have yet to watch the latter two). I also liked the 90's Gundam and SRW designs. However more recent mecha look too slim and look strange too me although the Mazinkaiser SKL looks pretty cool. I still have a lot of anime on my to watch list such as Dunbine, Vifam , Mazinger Z, Getter Robo, and a bunch of others. I learned of most of these anime from SRW or plamo. I collect gunpla as Bandai kits are cheaper and easier to build than other plastic models (which is why I don't have any SRW or Zoids kits).
Also how did this thread get to 6 pages and Cybuster did not get a single mention? It was one of the earliest original mechs in SRW and it has a cool theme song and moveset:
If you like old mech designs, have you thought about VOTOMs? VOTOMs got a bit of publicity recently from SRW Z2, and I really liked it (note that I watched most of VOTOMs long before SRW Z2 lol). VOTOMs tries its hardest to be the most realistic and practical mecha show ever.