What are you Watching?

[SteveH]

Started re-watching Zeta Gundam. I own the Bandai "Anime Legends" releases and haven't "upgraded" to the latest version (and probably won't).

I remember hearing on a different forum people mentioning that the opening title song was changed for the US release. I finally watched the original Japanese opening yesterday on YouTube and, wow, the DVD-only opening is a massive improvement. The original song, with its pop-like vocals and tone not only doesn't fit the feel of the show, but it doesn't even look like it syncs to the editing of the opening clips. However, the instrumental version used on the US DVDs meshes perfectly with the visuals in terms of editing (the added sound effects help too) and has an epic space-opera/militaristic vibe.

And also just finished up Gundam 00. I don't know what I was thinking the first time I watched it a few years ago. I remember disliking Season 2 but, this time around, I genuinely enjoyed both seasons. I'll have to hunt down the movie, even though I've heard very mixed things about it.

Heathen. Visigoth. Saracen dog. Roman pig. How dare you.

[Char Aznable]

I like the instrumental OP for Zeta Gundam too. That said, the purist in me is still a little irritated about the change.

Oh, believe me, I completely understand how many wouldn't be happy with that OP alteration. Had I seen the original version first, I know it would have bothered me that anything was switched. Funny enough, when I watched Zeta Gundam for the first time on those US Bandai DVDs, I had been surprised that there wasn't a more pop/rock song with lyrics, since that's something of a staple in other Gundam shows. Little did I know that there actually was...

Heathen. Visigoth. Saracen dog. Roman pig. How dare you.

Haha, I guess I shouldn't bring up how much I preferred the masterful editing of Clash of the Bionoids over Macross: Do You Remember Love? (I joke! )

[llj]

So I picked up Funimation's set of Armitage III because I don't think this is ever going to make it to BD. Geez, Funi sure didn't do anything at all here to improve it from the previous release; this is just a straight dump of the Geneon/Pioneer DVDs from what I can see. Old rainbowy jagged-line composite master...it doesn't even look like they attempted to try to look to see if they could get a better master from Japan. Poly Matrix movie is 16:9 but isn't even an anamorphic presentation, what is this, 2001?

Anyway, I finally got to see the OVAs (only saw Poly Matrix movie before)...wow, I didn't realize how much of a ripoff/homage this was of Blade Runner when I first saw Poly Matrix. Which of course is cool considering how this came out quite a while after the 80s ended, when every 3rd or 4th anime was referencing Blade Runner. The animation here isn't quite as good as I remembered from Poly Matrix (which basically is the OVA, edited), in my memories it seemed more theatrical quality, but, while the animation is all right for an OVA, it also has many of the same occasionally sloppy animated moments typical of many decent-budget-but-not-deluxe OVAs as well.

Another amusing thing to me is that the OVA swipes the "cheerful car ride ending" of Blade Runner's theatrical version, and then for the Poly Matrix movie they opted for a more subdued/ambiguous ending, just like the Blade Runner Director's Cut/Final Cut versions! Could they be more obvious about their love for Blade Runner?

I do hope that someday they decide to create an HD master and BD release of at least the OVA (if not both the movie and OVA, though doing a BD for both would seem pointless and redundant aside from the endings), even though I see chances of that as slim. I like this OVA, Blade Runner ripoff and all, and would like to own a better version that this muddy looking composite transfer.

I took a quick gander at Dual Matrix, and while I'll probably watch it, it seems to have some of the hallmarks of creaky early 2000s CG and digital use, as well as that "overly smooth digitally manipulated camera panning" that plagued the Fox Kids' 90s Spider-Man cartoon (hated those pans, I don't know if I'm using the right technical terms here, but people who've seen it probably will know)

[Drew_Sutton]

zeta gundam words

Funny how I stop in to check this thread and people are talking about Zeta Gundam. Recently, I've been wanting to re-watch both it and Gundam ZZ and since the wife is out of town for the work-weeks for the next month or so, I suddenly have all this time after work to do just that! So, after work, I have watched a disk or two a night and am so far up to Episode 20. I'm having a blast with it; haven't really felt this way about an anime in a while and even though it's nothing new, I'm falling in love with Zeta all over again. I've considered it one of my favorites of the franchise for a long time and while I've liked stuff like Unicorn, The Origin and Thunderbolt, Zeta is the type of Gundam show I like the best. Re-watching ZZ will be interesting; when I first watched it, I was really turned off by the near-immediate change of tone from Zeta to Mobile Suit Scooby Doo. I really like the last ~half of the show, when it turns dark again and starts setting up for Char's Counterattack. Wondering if I will feel the same way this time around?

Regarding the music, I'm deeply bummed about the OP/ED themes getting changed for the North American release. Not just the purist in me, not just because those are the songs I know as Zeta Gundam but because I genuinely like those songs. It's nice I have them on CD (and my phone) or that I can queue them up on the YouTubes but dammit, I want to watch the show without having to reach for the remove every 22 minutes or so. I will say though that given the position that Bandai was in (Thanks, Neil Sedaka!), they picked music that wasn't too bad. Personally, I think their ED theme is a better fit than their OP theme though.

[llj]

I picked up the Ninja Scroll blu ray (this has gotta be Sentai's best selling title if it warranted two completely separate releases within 3 years) and I have to say, Kawajiri never did get enough credit for how dynamic a filmmaker he was. A lot of anime films look more like 1.5 hour TV episodes than actual movies, but Kawajiri really pushed his films cinematically, in terms of camera angles, editing, color design, storyboards, etc,. He didn't half-ass any frame or scene and along with all the gore and tits were scenes of real visual beauty and imagination. There's a reason why so many scenes from his movies have filtered into pop culture in some way. It would be one thing if he were throwing gore and tits at the screen with no sense of artfulness, but that wasn't the case. They were memorable for how he composed and staged these scenes in a provocative and cinematic way.

[DKop]

I am 9 episodes away from finishing Hokuto No Ken, which thanks to the giant collection DVD that was on sale at a stupid low price over a month ago on Amazon.com, I can dive right into Hokuto no Ken 2 and get get closer to ending my watching of this which has taken about 5 or so years off an on.

[llj]

Finally watched Iria: Zieram the Animation! Sure took me long enough to get to it, haha. I definitely wasn't disappointed--the OVA is filled with wall to wall action and they don't cop out on them budget wise (overuse of freeze frames, narrated action, etc). The overall animation budget is probably just a little short of ideal, but it's good enough for what they wanted to do, which was to make an OVA with LOTS AND LOTS of action. I mean, hardly 5 minutes goes by in every episode where something doesn't blow up, get shot at, stabbed, slashed, etc,. Iria herself has a seemingly limitless arsenal of firearms, pointy objects, grappling hooks, explosives...she's basically like Arnold in Commando. Speaking of which, you can tell the animation staff REALLY LOVED 80s Hollywood. I spotted references to Terminator, Alien, Predator, Die Hard, Star Wars, and the aforementioned Commando. So maybe the amount of action in this series, and the degree of care put into them, was a deliberate homage to those movies.

Discotek's DVD is really clean and detailed-- I wonder if this is an HD master. It looks a bit better than the R2 DVD screenshots I've seen of it. I definitely would go for a BD release if it ever comes about.

[usamimi]

Awesome to hear the Iria dvd looks good. I haven't gotten around to watching mine yet but I'm def looking forward to it!

[DKop]

I need to see Iria sometime, since it seemed like one of those anime I remember seeing on VHS in the very late 90's that I wasn't sure what to make of it on the shelves of Suncoast.

[_D_]

Almost caught up to the current run of One Piece. I'm up to episode 655. Originally I started at 700 or so but went back and over the past 8 months watched the whole thing. I like this series a lot but there don't seem to be a lot of fans of the show in town. Dragonball on the other hand...