Anime/Manga - Discuss Japanese cartoons and comics here; NO CULTURE WAR DOOMPOSTING!

[Commander X]

Now, I'm not a fan of CLAMP series, including xxxHOLIC but I am interested in the recently announced live action film, mostly because it's directed by Mika Nanigawa.

Nanigawa, who is also a professional photographer, her color-suffused visuals first came to my attention with her 2012 film Helter Skelter, based on Kyoko Okazaki's manga about a popular entertainment industry star with a dark secret. Her mental and physical health starts breaking down, in part due to the pressure, the need to stay Number 1 and not end up a has-been, but also very much due to the dangerous extensive full-body cosmetic surgery she underwent in an illegal clinic, which requires heavy medication and frequent touch-up surgery to maintain.

She also directed the film Diner. An adaption of a crime novel by Yumeaki Hirayama (followed up with a manga series) about a woman whose response to the wrong posting on a job board ends up with her kidnapped and pressed into service at the titular eatery, a garish, exclusive establishment that only caters to professional killers. Overseeing this is her tyrant of a new boss, former hitman turned master chef Bombero who makes no bones about what will happen to her if she steps out of line. Sadly not available in the US yet. Though it might end up dumped on streaming services with little fanfare sometime this year, perhaps, maybe, from what I've heard.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

I'm gonna do it.

I'm gonna start the Gundam franchise for the first time.

I told myself years ago that I was going to spend an entire year watching it, but haven't felt the need until recently after I bought Wing on DVD kinda on impulse. I'd have started on New Year's but I was on vacation, and I just looked at my calendar and realized "Oh shit, I need some anime to watch", and alongside some goals I have in mind for this year, I figured Gundam all year will do it. Might watch other things here and there, but the meat and potatoes of my anime watching will be Gundam.

Given I've watched 700 episodes of One Piece in four months, I can do this.

 

[King Dead]

I'm gonna do it.

I'm gonna start the Gundam franchise for the first time.

I told myself years ago that I was going to spend an entire year watching it, but haven't felt the need until recently after I bought Wing on DVD kinda on impulse. I'd have started on New Year's but I was on vacation, and I just looked at my calendar and realized "Oh shit, I need some anime to watch", and alongside some goals I have in mind for this year, I figured Gundam all year will do it. Might watch other things here and there, but the meat and potatoes of my anime watching will be Gundam.

Given I've watched 700 episodes of One Piece in four months, I can do this.

Like any long-running IP, Gundam is a mixed bag. Some of it's good, some of it's really good, but some of it is pretty bad too. As someone who's only recently been more serious about getting into it, I can't offer a whole lot of advice, but I can at least give my takes on what I've watched.

The original MSG is great and honestly holds up really well, and that'd be my recommendation as to where to start. It's kind of a shame it's as good as it is because (from what I've heard) the later UC series don't ever quite live up to its legacy. Some people say to just watch the compilation movies, but since you're used to long hauls, I'd say to watch the series instead. Not only is it a satisfying story with good characters, you also get all the infamous animation goofs that way.

I have yet to watch any other UC stuff aside from War in the Pocket and Unicorn (TV); Zeta's on my to-watch list but I've yet to get started. The former I watched years ago with friends and I don't remember much, but I know it's a good side story set during the One Year War. The latter I also watched years ago and didn't have any idea what was going on since I was totally unfamiliar with Gundam, but it was okay from what I remember, though I think most will recommend the OVAs instead.

The only other series I've watched all the way through is G Gundam, and it's just wonderful. I'd recommend it after the standard early UC watch order (79 -> Zeta -> ZZ -> CCA) just to mix things up, but like any alternate Gundam timeline, you can watch it whenever. It's goofy and wacky and shonen to the core, and I loved every minute of it. It's probably better subbed, but the dub is worth it just for Domon and Master Asia's English VAs giving it their all.

IBO is trash. Just absolute trash. I didn't finish the first season, I gave the second season a shot, it was still boring, I quit.

 

[Tor Lugosi]

The only Gundam entries I've seen that I really, genuinely enjoyed were 79, Char's Counterattack, and X. Wing and G are fun in a trashy, shonen way. 00 had a good first season but then fell flat on its face and never really recovered. The rest have been various degrees of mediocre.

I think War in the Pocket is the only UC entry I haven't seen yet. Don't think I've watched any of the new series after 00.

 

[HexFag]

I've had a 60GB rip of the original Gundam laying in my hard drive for multiple years but I always get sidetracked by some other shit. Once I finish that and Zeta I'm going to watch the shit out of G Gundam. It seems like dumb fun and I've seen the Shining Finger scene more times than I can count.

 

[PS1gamenwatch]

They made a live action movie of the androgynous romcom manga Ai Ore

I heard they were supposed to make anime series out of it but was canceled due to unfortunate events, they never explained what they were. Anyone got a clue?

 

[Juan's Sombrero]

Now, I'm not a fan of CLAMP series, including xxxHOLIC but I am interested in the recently announced live action film, mostly because it's directed by Mika Nanigawa.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=iSO-KRyaxyg
Nanigawa, who is also a professional photographer, her color-suffused visuals first came to my attention with her 2012 film Helter Skelter, based on Kyoko Okazaki's manga about a popular entertainment industry star with a dark secret. Her mental and physical health starts breaking down, in part due to the pressure, the need to stay Number 1 and not end up a has-been, but also very much due to the dangerous extensive full-body cosmetic surgery she underwent in an illegal clinic, which requires heavy medication and frequent touch-up surgery to maintain.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ab0a1Y5nqIg
She also directed the film Diner. An adaption of a crime novel by Yumeaki Hirayama (followed up with a manga series) about a woman whose response to the wrong posting on a job board ends up with her kidnapped and pressed into service at the titular eatery, a garish, exclusive establishment that only caters to professional killers. Overseeing this is her tyrant of a new boss, former hitman turned master chef Bombero who makes no bones about what will happen to her if she steps out of line. Sadly not available in the US yet. Though it might end up dumped on streaming services with little fanfare sometime this year, perhaps, maybe, from what I've heard.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=jwsXUG8PI00

I preferred the live action to Shinjuku Swan. It helps that the manga pretty much depicted the realism behind the adult industry in Japan.

 

[murdered meat bag]

@PS1gamenwatch If you're talking about Patlabor EZY, it was announced at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in 2017 but, so far, there's been no solid news since then.

we got the short ova a while back. and that live action didnt do too well.

 

[sasazuka]

To me, Patlabor is kind of like Tenchi Muyo in one very specific way: I'm still really only interested in the productions from the 1990s (and also late 1980s for Patlabor) even if it somehow keeps on getting revived every few years.

At least "current year" Tenchi Muyo stays animated and doesn't venture off into "I don't care because it's live action" land.

 

[Moguro Fukuzou]

I'm gonna do it.

I'm gonna start the Gundam franchise for the first time.

I told myself years ago that I was going to spend an entire year watching it, but haven't felt the need until recently after I bought Wing on DVD kinda on impulse. I'd have started on New Year's but I was on vacation, and I just looked at my calendar and realized "Oh shit, I need some anime to watch", and alongside some goals I have in mind for this year, I figured Gundam all year will do it. Might watch other things here and there, but the meat and potatoes of my anime watching will be Gundam.

Given I've watched 700 episodes of One Piece in four months, I can do this.

I would say even while doing a long haul to take it a slower pace so you don't end up getting burned out, they are long series that can get fairly depressing when they want to. It also might take you a bit to get used to how Tomino does dialogue. Even with my love of the series I still haven't gotten around to watching everything, but I'll say for the ones I have:

Spoiler: Series to watch

0079- Classic that I'd recommend watching dubbed. People recommend the comp movies but I disagree as it skips too much.
Zeta- Watch subbed, it's one of my favorites because of Kamille but it's also really depressing. The comp movies are non-canon because it changes the ending.
ZZ- In the process of watching this one, enjoy it's lighter tone even if it does eventually go back into the more traditional serious tone later in.
08th MS Team - Good short that leans more into grunt stuff, though I'll say the love story is a bit meh. Some great fights. Can't remember if the sub or dub was better so you can probably go with whatever you normally go to.
War in the Pocket - Short but incredibly painful, probably one of the best of the OVAs that focuses a lot on the toll of war.
Gundam Unicorn - Personal favorite that I know a lot of people would disagree with. While I enjoyed both the sub and dub, would still go with the sub.
Gundam SEED - The guilty pleasure to be sure, but I can't help but love it since it was the first series I did watch. Would highly recommend if you do watch it to it with the old dub (Half of my enjoyment comes from it) and don't bother with any of the remaster shit. Even if it did fix up the animation it also changed some plot stuff to make Kira more innocent.
Gundam 00 - I loved both seasons (and the movie) so I might be outside the norm. First season is a lot more serious than the second which can get campy feeling at times, but it also has Ribbons who is one of my favorite villains so it evens out and I think it manages to stick the landing. Would recommend going with the dub on this one as it has a pretty great cast (Setsuna is voiced by Amuro's english VA).
Gundam Age - Now this one gets a really bad rap, but I'd say that the first two arcs are worth watching while the last one can just be skipped. Particularly the second arc I found the most interesting with showing how fucked up the main character from part was and the focus being on his son. Suits are pretty decent too.
Gundam Build Fighters - Absolute first class series, amazing fights and a real love for the Gundam series. Definitely watch this later after you've watched a bunch of other gundam or you'll miss a lot of the references. May make you want to get into building gunpla.

Spoiler: Series I'd personally say to avoid

Gundam IBO - Almost killed my entire interest in the franchise, you might like it better but I just couldn't stand how mean spirited it all felt.
Gundam 0083 - I have tried several times to watch through this and every time I bounce off because of Kou and Nina. Can't stand either. Your mileage may vary.
Build Fighters Try - Just don't it really sucks.

 

[TerminalTryHard]

Decided to start One Piece from the beginning. I'm just surprised by the nostalgia I'm feeling not for One Piece itself but just for the art and animation style it just reminds me of Saturday day morning anime.

 

[Trombonista]

Decided to start One Piece from the beginning. I'm just surprised by the nostalgia I'm feeling not for One Piece itself but just for the art and animation style it just reminds me of Saturday day morning anime.

In Japan, it's a Sunday morning anime.

 

[Fat Tub of Lard]

Gundam IBO - Almost killed my entire interest in the franchise, you might like it better but I just couldn't stand how mean spirited it all felt.

And opinion disregared.

I don't care how many top hats I get, any cocksucker who thinks "mean-spirited" is a legitimate complaint is a whiny faggot who ought to hand in their sex organs.

 

[Str8Bustah]

And opinion disregared.

I don't care how many top hats I get, any cocksucker who thinks "mean-spirited" is a legitimate complaint is a whiny faggot who ought to hand in their sex organs.

Allow me to tell you why it's shit without whining about if something is a meanie anime; It's written by Mari Okada and has all of the really gay drama that she loves to put in her series.

I know gundam likes to kill off important characters all the time as a staple part of what it is but not even Victory had deaths that were this unsatisfying and uncalled for; nothing feels like it happened for any discernable reason other than to piss off everyone watching the show (like it does in every other show okada has written), with the worst offense being lafter's death at the hands of the space colony mafia towards the end of season 2.

Never has a Gundam made me so mad or disappointed that I just dropped it outright until IBO. It feels like she was trying to re-write 00 Gundam including everything that was wrong with it and then forgot that she can't write war drama so she just substituted everything for standard drama and then replaced all the 'gets hit by truck' deaths with 'gets shot by the common soldiery'. It's like at times she actually forgets that the show is a Gundam show and then she just lazily slaps some conflict-related death or destruction on at the end of a given episode because the director stepped in and said 'Mari what the fuck are you doing, this isn't a teen relationship drama, this is Gundam.'

IBO as an anime exists to pander to fujoshi and nothing else. The model kits sell fine without it and will continue to do so as the mechanical designs are actually pretty good in-spite of everything else about the show being a steaming pile of shit.

 

[Radical Goodspeed]

I didn't know we had an anime thread.

Platinum End is the biggest piece of shit I've watched in a long time.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

I'm gonna do it.

I'm gonna start the Gundam franchise for the first time.

I told myself years ago that I was going to spend an entire year watching it, but haven't felt the need until recently after I bought Wing on DVD kinda on impulse. I'd have started on New Year's but I was on vacation, and I just looked at my calendar and realized "Oh shit, I need some anime to watch", and alongside some goals I have in mind for this year, I figured Gundam all year will do it. Might watch other things here and there, but the meat and potatoes of my anime watching will be Gundam.

Given I've watched 700 episodes of One Piece in four months, I can do this.

Just want to say good luck.

In fact this year, I made a goal wanting to watch M.D. Geist and the Macross series in full for the first time.

Between that and starting/finishing up Go Nagai’s, Junji Ito’s and finishing reading/watching To-Love-Ru’s series for the first time, it’s a safe bet to say that not everyone has to watch anime made in 2022 if they don’t want to.

 

[Fat Tub of Lard]

Allow me to tell you why it's shit without whining about if something is a meanie anime; It's written by Mari Okada and has all of the really gay drama that she loves to put in her series.

I know gundam likes to kill off important characters all the time as a staple part of what it is but not even Victory had deaths that were this unsatisfying and uncalled for; nothing feels like it happened for any discernable reason other than to piss off everyone watching the show (like it does in every other show okada has written), with the worst offense being lafter's death at the hands of the space colony mafia towards the end of season 2.

Never has a Gundam made me so mad or disappointed that I just dropped it outright until IBO. It feels like she was trying to re-write 00 Gundam including everything that was wrong with it and then forgot that she can't write war drama so she just substituted everything for standard drama and then replaced all the 'gets hit by truck' deaths with 'gets shot by the common soldiery'. It's like at times she actually forgets that the show is a Gundam show and then she just lazily slaps some conflict-related death or destruction on at the end of a given episode because the director stepped in and said 'Mari what the fuck are you doing, this isn't a teen relationship drama, this is Gundam.'

IBO as an anime exists to pander to fujoshi and nothing else. The model kits sell fine without it and will continue to do so as the mechanical designs are actually pretty good in-spite of everything else about the show being a steaming pile of shit.

Allow me to blow you mind:

Mari actually SAVED a lot of the characters.

Apparently, the director wanted to go scorched Earth and kill all of Tekkaden, feeling they deserved it, by Mari and the others said "no", forcing rewrites to spare at least some of the cast.

And as someone who enjoyed IBO, let me just say this: IBO wasn't really a war show. Really, it was more a mafia show, and guess what? Shitty things tend to happen to people in mafia works. Ever seen Scarface? As far as that goes, it works. Clearly, the people in charge were trying to do something different, NOT, as you put it, just trying to make people mad at the internet. Every writer who makes a controversial decision is not Rian Johnson. I though people knew this shit.

Honestly, I found the idea of characters dying not in battle, but by being shot by mafiosos, was actually just as effective, if not moreso, than the usual deaths, because that's one of the overall themes of the anime.

 

[Str8Bustah]

Allow me to blow you mind:

Mari actually SAVED a lot of the characters.

Apparently, the director wanted to go scorched Earth and kill all of Tekkaden, feeling they deserved it, by Mari and the others said "no", forcing rewrites to spare at least some of the cast.

And as someone who enjoyed IBO, let me just say this: IBO wasn't really a war show. Really, it was more a mafia show, and guess what? Shitty things tend to happen to people in mafia works. Ever seen Scarface? As far as that goes, it works. Clearly, the people in charge were trying to do something different, NOT, as you put it, just trying to make people mad at the internet. Every writer who makes a controversial decision is not Rian Johnson. I though people knew this shit.

Honestly, I found the idea of characters dying not in battle, but by being shot by mafiosos, was actually just as effective, if not moreso, than the usual deaths, because that's one of the overall themes of the anime.

The show would have been better if this had happened because then it would have been an actual gundam show, not what we ended up getting. When I watch Gundam I think of things like Zeta, Victory, 0089, CCA, Hathaway's Flash, 08th MS team and to a lesser extent G Gundam and the build series. I don't think of a bad copy of 00 without any of the actual gravitas or buildup that 00 had. It's exactly the same problem that I have with AGE; it's just a really bad retelling of a story that doesn't need to be retold by someone who is woefully unqualified for the job.

I don't care that characters died, I care that the way that they were treated leading up to their death (and their subsequent death) was outrageously disrespectful, which is typical of literally anything written by Okada. Don't believe me? Go and watch Nagi No Asukara, Aquarion Evol, Kiznaiver, Anohana etc. it's all the exact same shit with a slightly different coat of paint. Mari Okada is not a good mecha writer and the best show she ever worked on was Toradora, which is evidenced by how she treated IBO. She's not even that good at drama in general as both Nagi no Asukara and Anohana are also complete garbage that coincidentally get felated by MALniggers and ANN spastics because 'oh the characters aren't supposed to be likeable and their actions aren't supposed to make sense'; what's the point of a show if both the plot and the characters suck? masochism?

I'm just going to assume that you don't usually watch much Gundam. That's fine, but please don't treat IBO as if it's a decent Gundam, because it's not even by AU standards; it's not hammy enough to be as memorable as G, The stakes aren't high enough for it to be on par with 00, which is its closest comparison by a long shot, even Wing is better than this pile of shit because in addition to the mech designs being on par with IBO's, it actually has moments that you can let loose and laugh at because of how incidentally stupid they sound.

IBO doesn't even have Wing's incidental comedy because, as you literally just mentioned, Mari phoned in all of the director's attempts to at least try and give it something that makes it feel like Gundam, and then when she tries to do it herself of course she fucks it up because she has absolutely no idea what makes Gundam tick outside of 'oh, important characters need to die, right? I guess we'll just kill some off here and there and it'll all work out haha.' The only characters whos deaths wer actually handled well are the fat guy who I can't remember the name of and the cyber newtype who gets put inside of the giant graze, and that's across two seasons with the majority of the main cast being wiped out.

TL;DR - Your taste is garbage, don't @ me.

 

[Zbk3VmLfujjzjxBd43tL]

Gundam Age - Now this one gets a really bad rap, but I'd say that the first two arcs are worth watching while the last one can just be skipped. Particularly the second arc I found the most interesting with showing how fucked up the main character from part was and the focus being on his son. Suits are pretty decent too.

It would work if the first arc wasn't a bunch of laughable garbage with absolutely bland characters except for characters that are really bad ripoffs of Amuro and Char targetted explicitly toward shotacon fujoshi thanks to the character designer IIRC mostly doing things aimed at shota-loving fujos (or otherwise ripping off things that are aimed at shota-loving fujos). The concept of the show was interesting, but flawed from the absolute beginning compared to, say, Gundam SEED Destiny which presents an interesting idea and seems like it's doing something with it before deluging you in 'WTF is this shit' moments.

Since this topic came up, are there actually unironic fans of SEED Destiny?

Allow me to blow you mind:

Mari actually SAVED a lot of the characters.

Apparently, the director wanted to go scorched Earth and kill all of Tekkaden, feeling they deserved it, by Mari and the others said "no", forcing rewrites to spare at least some of the cast.

And as someone who enjoyed IBO, let me just say this: IBO wasn't really a war show. Really, it was more a mafia show, and guess what? Shitty things tend to happen to people in mafia works. Ever seen Scarface? As far as that goes, it works. Clearly, the people in charge were trying to do something different, NOT, as you put it, just trying to make people mad at the internet. Every writer who makes a controversial decision is not Rian Johnson. I though people knew this shit.

Honestly, I found the idea of characters dying not in battle, but by being shot by mafiosos, was actually just as effective, if not moreso, than the usual deaths, because that's one of the overall themes of the anime.

There was no point in saving any of the cast given the ending which was straight up LOL YOU LOSE oh but BTW the bad guys just decide to be a little less bad, it's a Rian Johnson-tier SUBVERTED EXPECTATIONS ending no matter which way you put it.

I think the core problem with the show was that it just wasn't a Gundam show, it felt like a totally different mecha show Sunrise told to put Gundams in. And then when it actually does try and act like a Gundam show like with a Char clone who out-Chars Char, it doesn't have nearly the sort of crazy shit you'd expect, he mostly just spergs about how he's the greatest revolutionary ever thanks to this mobile suit he's taking for a ride.

I'm just going to assume that you don't usually watch much Gundam. That's fine, but please don't treat IBO as if it's a decent Gundam, because it's not even by AU standards; it's not hammy enough to be as memorable as G, The stakes aren't high enough for it to be on par with 00, which is its closest comparison by a long shot, even Wing is better than this pile of shit because in addition to the mech designs being on par with IBO's, it actually has moments that you can let loose and laugh at because of how incidentally stupid they sound.

Nah, I watched the entire franchise through before I watched it, I'd still take it over Wing, SEED/SEED Destiny, AGE, and those shitty Unicorn spinoffs. Even if it went nowhere in the end, I still liked the entire first season and like half the second season and enjoyed the grittier atmosphere even if it felt like some other mecha show.

 

[Moguro Fukuzou]

And opinion disregared.

I don't care how many top hats I get, any cocksucker who thinks "mean-spirited" is a legitimate complaint is a whiny faggot who ought to hand in their sex organs.

I think describing something as mean spirited is a perfectly valid way of quickly telling someone what to expect going into something. Someone can enjoy mean spirited works, but not everyone is interested in them. There's a very big difference in my mind between misery porn (a genre I don't mind) and mean spirited works of fiction. For me with mean spirited works there's no catharsis, there's no real anything but frustration/bitterness and it'll often take me out of the work rather than engage with it. I just don't get any enjoyment out of them normally.

It's not even really a complaint, more just a describer of what kind of things to expect. They aren't really my cup of tea besides some exceptions and I think it's worth sharing for others that might not be in the mood for fiction like that or also don't enjoy it. It's a pretty common term used with horror films anyway.

It would work if the first arc wasn't a bunch of laughable garbage with absolutely bland characters except for characters that are really bad ripoffs of Amuro and Char targetted explicitly toward shotacon fujoshi thanks to the character designer IIRC mostly doing things aimed at shota-loving fujos (or otherwise ripping off things that are aimed at shota-loving fujos). The concept of the show was interesting, but flawed from the absolute beginning compared to, say, Gundam SEED Destiny which presents an interesting idea and seems like it's doing something with it before deluging you in 'WTF is this shit' moments.

Oh Gundam Age is definitely lower tier gundam, my main like of the series is the second arc which I think is the best of the lot (still not amazing by any stretch). Outside of that I think it had pretty neat suit designs and the kits are pretty solid except the shitty AG line. Third part I couldn't even finish.