What are you Watching?

[greg]

Wow, and the movie trailer has a breast fondle 30 seconds in! Yeah, I guess it's okay for that to be on film with actors, but not in an anime. Maybe that's how he rationalizes it. IIRC, it was Ishihara who said that Japan's youth are being ruined by foreign English teachers and such. Interestingly enough, I bet in anyone's experience as an ALT in Japan, the tough-guy "yankee" types with bleached hair and who act dangerous are the least likely to spend any time being nice to their school's ALT. How is it that we could be an influence on these types? They usually ditch English class anyway.

[greg]

I rented Yamato: the New Voyage and we watched it last night. It's a made-for-TV movie that happens right after the 2nd series. Deslar and his small fleet return home to Gamilus, only to find the Dark Nebula Empire mining it. They take the enemy fleet by surprise and destroy it, but by doing so it only makes matters worse. Gamilus is destroyed, and the Dark Nebula Empire has its sights on Iscandar. What used to take a half year's voyage is now nearly instantaneous, and the Yamato arrives rapidly to assist Deslar. And... I thought Shima was sucked out into space and died? Now he's back at his station in the Yamato? Hmm... Anyhow, it was a cool movie, with some real shockers in store. I've never seen the original Yamato past season 2. Be Forever Yamato is next in the chronological line to be watched.

[SteveH]

I rented Yamato: the New Voyage and we watched it last night. It's a made-for-TV movie that happens right after the 2nd series. Deslar and his small fleet return home to Gamilus, only to find the Dark Nebula Empire mining it. They take the enemy fleet by surprise and destroy it, but by doing so it only makes matters worse. Gamilus is destroyed, and the Dark Nebula Empire has its sights on Iscandar. What used to take a half year's voyage is now nearly instantaneous, and the Yamato arrives rapidly to assist Deslar. And... I thought Shima was sucked out into space and died? Now he's back at his station in the Yamato? Hmm... Anyhow, it was a cool movie, with some real shockers in store. I've never seen the original Yamato past season 2. Be Forever Yamato is next in the chronological line to be watched.

The trip is shorter because a. It's a known destination and that, combined with not having to fight along the way, trims a ton of time off the trip.

b. They only have 90 minutes, so...

I love Yamato The New Journey. It's got a simple plot, many generally known characters and wraps up a number of questions. For years I used it to 'transition' Star Blazers fans into the wider world of Yamato.

The animation is overall decent. The music is stellar. To this day I regret that Miyagawa didn't carry over the Dark Nebula themes to Be Forever Yamato.

Glad you liked it. It's an important film to my fandom youth.

[llj]

Kids on the Slope, first 2 episodes. The production values are impressive, but this is still somewhat generic high school stuff. You got your typical spineless main character who can't fight for himself, you got the girl next door type he crushes on, and you have the tough dude with the heart of gold (with requisite band-aid on the nose). I still haven't seen a real reason for this to be set in the 60s yet...maybe at some point some sort of historical relevance will come into play. And everything is awash in that sort of sentimental nostalgia.

[Char Aznable]

I just picked up the Project A-Ko collection on DVD. I've only seen the original before and, while I'm extremely fond of the film, never got around to seeing the OVA sequels. But now, for the first time, I'm watching them and so far they're very entertaining. Unfortunately, the sequels lack the fantastic soundtrack of the original (which came with the set on CD!).

[greg]

I've only ever seen the first A-Ko movie myself. I own it on LD. I never got around to seeing the sequels either. I have the domestic soundtrack by USMC.

[Animusubi]

Finished Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun. An anime based on a 4-koma series about a guy who anonymously (at least to most people) draws a shoujo manga for a living, and the people who help him. It's been a long time since a newer anime series had me laughing and smiling like a buffoon, as well as made me addicted to watching it. Really hoping for a 2nd season, I'm probably going to rewatch it soon.

Also halfway into the Crusher Joe movie...I didn't realize it was so long. XD;

[ParaParaJMo]

Finally watching the first season of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Just in the middle of watching Battle Tendency story arc. I wish they got Chiba Isshin, the voice of Dio in the old capcom fighter, to voice Dio in this anime. It doesn't feel right with Koyasu Takehito.

[llj]

Finished Kids on the Slope. A bit disappointing. While certainly watchable and the production values are high throughout, but this is standard high school stuff. Boy loves girl, girl loves someone else, and around and around we go. And aside from the references to American sailors stationed in Japan in post WW2, I didn't find much of a reason for it to be set in the 60s beyond a nostalgic setting. The much hyped jazz music is mostly window dressing for most of the show--they were there to place emphasis on the relationships and romance rather than for the love of the music itself. Certainly you won't find anything here like Beck Mongolian Chop Squad when it comes to the focus on music. Even K-ON! seemed more interested in its music content than Kids on the Slope for a show that was really about slacking off half the time.

I still think the last truly groundbreaking anime about high school life was Kare Kano. Even taken into account that it was unfinished and it having about a billion recap episodes.

[greg]

Yesterday I was busy building a model for my dad in America. He was involved with the SR-71 Blackbird project in the '60s, so that's what I'm building for him. I had Macross running on the computer beside me all day. I'd started watching this over the summer, IIRC. I finally finished it. I have to admit that some of the ideas could be a bit lame, and there were times where I thought that they could've used just a bit more imagination than they did. But those are just minor nitpicks.

While watching it, I was reminded of the mystery behind the "Observation Army" or whatever the Zentraedi's enemy was, and again wondered if this was ever explored in any of the other Macross shows I never bothered to watch.