What are you Watching?

[SteveH]

Gundam Build Fighters Try Episode 4

Ahhahahahahahahahaahahahahaha!

Swear to GOD this show just puts a grin on my face and makes me bounce up and down in my chair like an 8 year old.

They got the "look how fun to build Gunpla!!" episode out of the way early this time around. They even made SD Gundam stuff kinda cool. Reality and anime collide at the life-sized Gundam Statue and the 'Gundam Park' is probably much, much more exciting than the reality.

All we're missing is a chara who builds Gunpla exactly, perfectly 'stock' and doesn't do a single change, addition or alteration, who reviles builders who 'put their own stamp' on a kit. He'd have to learn the life lesson that doing a build the way you want, even if it violates the 'meaning', is the path to happiness.

And if such a chara actually appears, I called it first.

[Animusubi]

Started watching original Dragon Ball. Thoroughly enjoying it! I kinda knew I'd like it more than DBZ (but I still love DBZ, don't get me wrong). There's the comedic martial arts fun I'm enjoying about Dragon Ball. Which of course reminds me of my reasons I love Ranma.

[greg]

Yeah, I enjoyed the first Dragonball. IIRC, it was a part of the old Saturday morning cartoon lineup back in the '90s. I never cared much for Dragonball Z, but the first show was pretty cute.

[ParaParaJMo]

Manga wise, Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z are the same.

Anyway, I am still watching Sailor Moon Crystal and Garo Honoo no Kokuin. I finally started watching Gundam Unicorn and Gundam AGE.

[SteveH]

Gundam Build Fighters Try episode 5.

I am so in love with this show. I guess there are some out there getting all "Oh, it's a training episode! BORING!" and "Oh, there's relationship nonsense going on BORING" and man, what the HELL people.

I think maybe the modern fan just doesn't know HOW to watch an anime episode anymore. How to roll with it because it's not the end, it's the journey. I think modern fans are more used to mainlining their anime, slamming cramming an entire series, or at least 13-26 episode chunks, and doing all the skipping past OP and ED credits, zipping past recaps and previews and eyecatch and only watching 'the good stuff' .

Where, in that behavior, is the time to ENJOY an episode?

I love 'getting' the references to Gundam I know. I'm 100% positive there's stuff getting completely past me because I have no idea about the Gundam series they're calling back to (basically, anything past Gundam ZZ for me. ) but it's OK, because I can easily infer that "This Means Something" from the story context.

I'm still calling it 'Zeta Build Fighters' in my head because I am sure that we're going to see the previous series cast (all 7 years older! saaay, wasn't that about the spread between Gundam and Zeta? Hmmmm )) in a couple of episodes some time around episode 12.

I need to build some more Gundam plamo. You Win, Bandai!

[llj]

Found some unused volumes of Tsukikage Ran at a bargain store. This show seemed to not sell very well when it was released, despite having very respectable production values and decent writing. It's basically a lighthearted chanbara show homaging old samurai dramas, complete with an old school enka theme song done in a comedic manner. The fight choreography is very good for the first 2 episodes I've seen thus far.

[llj]

Watched a few episodes of Animated Classics of Japanese Literature (sooner or later, every anime fan does). Adaptations I watched are the Burmese Harp, Season of the Sun, Sound of Waves, and Takekurabe.

Most of these episodes are pretty blandly told, with very little visual or animated flair. There's a feeling of Nippon Animation's "C" team on this show. A lot of these classic stories are actually good enough and bold enough to deserve more creative visuals, but alas this seems to have been made for classrooms and edutainment. Even the sex in these stories is depicted as boring as possible. Noburo Ishiguro actually directed a number of episodes, and some of the ones he did do rise a little above room temperature. For people expecting the quality of Nippon's World Masterpiece Theatre series, this is pretty disappointing.

Ironically, one of the edgier episodes was Season of the Sun, which was written by everyone's favorite Tokyo asshole, Shintaro Ishihara. This story falls pretty neatly under the "rebel youth" genre that was popular for a while during the late 50s and early 60s. The animation here is a little better and the animation team seems to have been transplanted from any number of 80s anime about angry teenagers.

Takekurabe also shows some interesting visual flair with the sketchy backgrounds, but drops the ball on the execution as the character animation is as bland as any of the blandest episodes of the series.

I'm glad I finally watched some episodes but one can't help but think they could have tried a little harder. These aren't boring stories in and of themselves; just because they're sonsidered "classics" doesn't mean they have to be told in the most boring manner possible.

[greg]

Ironically, one of the edgier episodes was Season of the Sun, which was written by everyone's favorite Tokyo asshole, Shintaro Ishihara.

I LOL'ed at this. That is interesting that he wrote something like this. I didn't know he did anything like that.

Have you seen Romeo's Blue Skies? That one is a fantastic Nippon Anime series. I think I still have the fansubs on VHS, unless I was able to replace them with torrented files.

[Drew_Sutton]

I managed to get some anime watching in while doing chores around the house and working from home a bit ago. Getting further into Aldnoah Zero which is making me think that the robot fan in me isn't dead. Been meaning to start Argevollen soon, too, as it comes highly recommended. I also started/tried watching 1982's classic Future War 198X a couple of weeks ago, but there's enough going on and no subs, so I have to pay better attention to it.

Steve, I'm glad you're enjoying Build Fighters (and Try) - I caught lots of screen grabs of goofy stuff from Twitter during the first season but I couldn't power through it. I think I am just going to stick to other people's screen grabs.

[llj]

Ironically, one of the edgier episodes was Season of the Sun, which was written by everyone's favorite Tokyo asshole, Shintaro Ishihara.

I LOL'ed at this. That is interesting that he wrote something like this. I didn't know he did anything like that.

Have you seen Romeo's Blue Skies? That one is a fantastic Nippon Anime series. I think I still have the fansubs on VHS, unless I was able to replace them with torrented files.

I've heard of Romeo's Blue Skies, but never seen it. I know their adaptation of A Little Princess was quite acclaimed though.

As for Shintaro Ishihara, I'm actually more familiar with his late brother, Yujiro Ishihara, who pops up in quite a few old Japanese movies I have on DVD, and was apparently something of a matinee idol in the 60s. Maybe you've heard of him?

What I didn't know until googling was the degree to which Shintaro was involved in the popularity of the Rebel Youth genre of the time. One the most important movies of the genre, Crazed Fruit (which I've seen), was an adaptation of a novel Shintaro wrote. The film starred his brother Yujiro, and apparently was a very big deal in its day.

http://www.criterion.com/films/872-crazed-fruit

I guess it's really true when they say the rebels of yesteryear turn into the assholes of today.