Anime - Magical Girl Anime Thread, hajimarimasu!

[Bartimaeus]

19 hours ago, majestic said:

Sailor Moon's attacks were at least colorful and ridiculous, here you get emo stuff like SCHWARZE WIRKUNG (translated as Black Impact).

DEAD SCREAM.

Sakura, episode 62:

Spoiler

Half-surprised Tomoyo didn't mail Sakura a picture she'd taken of Sakura when it shouldn't have been possible for Tomoyo to have been filming her. Getting a card with her actually on it is surprising...even if she's still filming her in the picture.

I'm not sure if enemies calling Sakura "monster" would either invite bloodthirsty wrath and their subsequent doom or get her so flustered that she'd accidentally defeat herself. Lmao, the sound she made when he called her a monster again as they were heading out the door was...unique, to say the least.

Nadeshiko is about as demented as ever, I see... My goodness, does no-one else ever think it strange how Tomoyo is ALWAYS filming Sakura? She's not exactly subtle about it! Does anyone ever call Tomoyo just "Tomoyo" besides her mom? It sounded strange to me when she said it without the "-chan".

"Just one person." Kind of creepy way to phrase that, Eriol. "Great luck! And it says that my wish will come true."

That's about the appropriate response to that, Sakura. Guess she's at least a LITTLE aware here...

Yukito visibly starting to die in Toya's arms is very uncool.

"Tomoyo suggested that we should come say hello to you." Yeah, I could tell from that small troll-ish smile when it panned to her. Her eyes lit up a little when he said thanks to her, too.

Sakura remains the the worst at recognizing people in her dreams.

 

[majestic]

48 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

DEAD SCREAM.

Look over there, it's a three-headed monkey... yeah, right, I actually really did not think of Pluto's attack. In my defense, she uses that what, three times in all the episodes she's in?

In the manga she also uses DARK DOME CLOSE, but nothing beats Saturn's DEATH REBORN REVOLUTION.

50 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Sakura, episode 62:

 

Spoiler

Poor Yukito, if this wasn't Cardcaptor Sakura one could actually begin to worry about his future in the show (to be fair to the writer, she knew that the suspense wouldn't really be there except for young watchers, and it's really about how everything is resolved, but you'll see).

I forgot the next episode that's coming up when I said the "weaker" part is over, I think. It's not a bad episode by any means, but it feels a lot like an episode that's simply in the wrong season. So much so that there's speculation about it being an unused script from the first arc that was reworked for Sakura Card. It also goes directly from showing Yukito being really weak and fading away to him working someplace with Toya where the two of them "accidentially" meet with Sakura, which they haven't been doing since, what, almost 20 episodes.

's a bit weird, all in all. Kind of like that ice skating one in the first arc. I wouldn't otherwise mention it, but seeing your pictures and the post, yeah, that was a bit of a weird break from what is going on.

 

[Bartimaeus]

23 minutes ago, majestic said:

Look over there, it's a three-headed monkey... yeah, right, I actually really did not think of Pluto's attack. In my defense, she uses that what, three times in all the episodes she's in?

It's like the best attack in the entire series...in terms of name and theme anyways. I'm otherwise fond of the Love Me Chain, of course.

Roger that regarding the weird/weaker Sakura episode.

[majestic]

18 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

It's like the best attack in the entire series...in terms of name and theme anyways. I'm otherwise fond of the Love Me Chain, of course.

Oh, no, I really like Dead Scream. I really like Pluto, even... or especially Crystal's version. Hey Toei, here's an idea: I'd totally watch a Sailor Pluto spinoff. I just thought of all the colorful attacks in Sailor Moon and Dead Scream didn't come up at all. Ms. Book of Darkness as Nanoha calls her could easily cast DEAD SCREAM without it being weird, that's all. Although she'd probably use TODESSCHREI, or since that would be a decent translation, probably something like TOTER SCHREI (literal translation of DEAD SCREAM).  

27 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Roger that regarding the weird/weaker Sakura episode.

Some more Sakura talk:

Spoiler

Yeah, I hope that wasn't too much of an expectation spoiler, but since you also liked the ice rink episode more than I did, maybe it'll just work. The placement is certainly strange.

I, uhm, also need to point out that Tomoyo's mother is called Sonomi, Nadeshiko was Sakura's mother. The only other person that calls Tomoyo without honorific is Shaoran, but he doesn't use her first name, just Daidouji, and that barely counts because he's never using any honorifics at all. I guess he gets away with it because he's a gaijin.

Generally there aren't many characters that address each other without honorifics in Carcaptor Sakura. It's a bit more widespread in modern anime, which is a reflection of Japanese culture. It's also something that is very noticable here, even people ten years younger are much less into formally addressing people regardless of their standing, and I can imagine the same holds true for Japanese youths.

For Sonomi that might just be a family thing, because Tomoyo always uses okasama to address her mother. In terms of formality, that's the most formal you can be without being part of the royal family that has special honorifics. It's a reflection of Tomoyo's high class upbringing (she is always excessively polite too, except when talking to Sakura) and leaving out the -chan that for instance Fujitaka uses to address Sakura would make sense in context.

Not 100% sure, but that might just really be less to express Sonomi's familiarity with her daughter as much as her role as family matriarch. Aristocratic families used to do the same here, not that long ago. Parents would address their children with pronouns expressing familiarity (and superiority of status, albeit not as much as they would when talking to peasants) while the children addressed them formally. It's also present in the German dub of Lady Asuka.

Every now and then it would be really nice to have some Japanese posters here to ask such things.

So close to finally being able to post about episode 66. So close.

 

[Bartimaeus]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

I, uhm, also need to point out that Tomoyo's mother is called Sonomi, Nadeshiko was Sakura's mother. The only other person that calls Tomoyo without honorific is Shaoran, but he doesn't use her first name, just Daidouji, and that barely counts because he's never using any honorifics at all. I guess he gets away with it because he's a gaijin.

Lmao, whoops, I SORT OF knew that. I say "sort of" because I did know Nadeshiko was Sakura's mom, but I had no idea what Tomoyo's mom's name was. As has been proved numerous times now, I am the bad with names...especially Japanese ones.

Well, if someone's said Tomoyo's name without the "-chan" or some other honorific before now, it was probably a long while ago and I didn't notice. Silly Japanese.

1 hour ago, majestic said:

I'd totally watch a Sailor Pluto spinoff

I mean, sure, but I'd also watch...you know, Sailor Moon, if it were good. I think it's the "if it were good" that's the problem here, .

Edited November 6, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

22 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Lmao, whoops, I SORT OF knew that. I say "sort of" because I did know Nadeshiko was Sakura's mom, but I had no idea what Tomoyo's mom's name was. As has been proved numerous times now, I am the bad with names...especially Japanese ones.

Some are worse than others. I'm pretty sure there are posts where I wrote Fujikata instead of Fujitaka when talking about Sakura's father. Yuzuriha from X was a huge issue too, and even though I've rewatched 20 episodes of Attack No. 1 I still can't remember half of the team's names, but they don't really matter anyway, it is mostly about Kozue, Midori, Mr. Hongo and Tsutomu... *shrug*

Binge watching shorter series is also rather bad for character name retention unless the series was particularily memorable for some reason. Madoka's character names weren't an issue, and neither were Violet Evergarden's (but those weren't Japanese).

Blood-C on the other hand, yikes. Saya, Fumito, Nene and Nono (the twins) and that's about it. The others? Yeah, nah. It's kind of odd, I can find 5 year old posts based on sentences I remember verbatim, but I can't for my life remember EmoMcEdgelordface's name right now. Gotta look that up. Shinichirō. Yeah, okay, now I'm not even sure anyone used that name. *shrug*

22 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Well, if someone's said Tomoyo's name without the "-chan" or some other honorific before now, it was probably a long while ago and I didn't notice. Silly Japanese.

No, not with Tomoyo. Toya and Yukito address each other without honorifics, I think (not 100% certain). I also don't remember if Toya ever calls Sakura by name instead of, well, just saying kaiju. Odd. Does he?

22 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

I mean, sure, but I'd also watch...you know, Sailor Moon, if it were good. I think it's the "if it were good" that's the problem here, .

Crystal is so bad it hurts. I'm not sure what's worse, Crystal or Clear Card. Hm. Why do all my favorite franchises go down in flames like that?

Edited November 6, 2021 by majestic

[majestic]

I idly browsed through the Steins;Gate wikipedia page.

It sort of told me that critics think I am wrong:

Quote

Steins;Gate was well-received by critics, who praised the characters, story and writing, however some criticism went towards pacing of the first half; it is considered one of the best anime series of the 2010s.

As usual, the first half, criticised for it's slower pace, apparently, is what I liked the most (overall, not single scenes, the best ones were near the end, before everything went back to being super fast paced time travel madness), at least until Okarin became intolerable, and even Mayuri started being, well, odd. I mean, odder than usual with her cosplay stuff.

Anyway, so for no particular reason at all, I ended up watching:

Steins;Gate: The Movie − Load Region of Déjà Vu

Yeah, so that is the actual title of the film. It picks up one year after the series ends, and it begins with everyone being terrible as per the series. Kurisu comes back to Japan after being a year in the US, Okarin pretends to not care but secretly plans a welcome back party for Kurisu, Kurisu complains that he didn't bother to write her even once in that year but then doesn't care and goes straight back to blushing whenever she interacts with him causing the others to call her a tsundere... again... been there, done that.

Daru calls people B-tards and realfags and plays hentai games, Mayuri is her usual, loveable if a bit slow self, and I was already dreaming up a post where I endlessly complained about the film being just as awful a continuation as the Love Live! movie was (same writer, after all).

Then the plot kicks in, and it is even flimsier than that of the original series and makes even less sense. Basically, warning, real spoilers in that tag:

Spoiler

Basically Okarin's Reading Steiner malfunctions so hard due to all his timejumps that he starts skipping between the Steins;Gate-worldline and a worldline called the R-worldline that is really, really close, with a divergence of 0.000001%. One day after Kurisu's return he shifts permanently, and it is if he never existed in the Steins;Gate-worldline. Kurisu feels as if something went wrong, and rebuilds the time leap devices with memories from a different worldline, goes back and sees Okarin...

Then something magical happens.

Everyone in the film suddenly starts acting like real people, except for the parts where Feyris is around. She's as annoying as usual, and nyans up the place really hard, but she has like five minutes of screentime and it barely matters. With the characters suddenly behaving normally, the interactions start being great, the dialogue is fine and it really is a neat film, in the end. It ends, of course, with them being as stupid as they ever were, but I can let that slide, it's just the final scene of the film and a minute or so long.

The film is, by far and large, what the series is when it focuses on Kurisu and Okabe behaving like actual people, talking to each other, and accepting each other's quirks. If you're like me and thought Kurisu sewing the hole in Okabe's lab coat and them just talking to each other was one of the highlights of the series, then... definite recommendation. Very much worth watching.

Edited November 7, 2021 by majestic

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Stardust Crusaders 1-6

I've been watching this over the last few days. I think it has a similar problem as Phantom Blood, in that the protagonist isn't particularly interesting and gets overshadowed by the villain. But where Johnathan was just boring....Jotaro is an ****. It does benefit from a larger cast of JoJo friends and much more insane villains per episode, Tower of Gray and Dark Blue Moon are more memorable than the majority of mooks that got blasted with Hamon.

29 minutes ago, majestic said:

Steins;Gate: The Movie − Load Region of Déjà Vu

I didn't know there was a movie. I'll have to check that out sometime, along with Violet Evergarden.

[majestic]

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's: Finale

This fully turns into an animated, non-interactive JRPG by the end. Fate reappears after pushing through her perfect dream world and she and Nanoha fight the Book of Darkness long enough for Hayate to reboot its operating system. She decouples the defense program and the Belkan Knight programs from the system, restoring them and summoning the final boss fight, a properly JRPG looking something that's like a cross between a tentacle hentai monster and an angel from NGE, just with less intricate art.

This looks a bit like Pharao 90, doesn't it?  By the way Fate, Cloud called, he wants his sword back...

Hello, I'm the secret boss of Final Atelier: Fantasy Trails in the Fire Sky XXI: DARKNESS RISING.

Unlike most JRPG final bosses, the fight is over relatively quickly, if you can even call it such. I'm not sure if they ran out of time for a "suspenseful" action sequence or if the writers realized that they don't have the time to waste on an entire episode of fighting this thing, so they just proceed to blast it out of existence with the most ludicrous attacks imaginable, then teleport its remains into space where the Space Cop battle cruiser is using its Sivar phase-transit main cannon (actually in universe it's called Arc-en-Ciel, but it is what it is ) to obliterate the protection program.

Once that is done the final episode of the season begins, with the now rebooted Tome of the Night Sky, redubbed Reinforce by Hayate turns out to be a total bummer because JRPGs always end on a bittersweet note. She says that the protection software is already rebooting and there's only one thing to be done to stop it for good: Destroy the Tome of the Night Sky once and for all, leading to a protracted and teary goodby between characters that literally just met each other half a day ago.

With Alisa/Arisa and Suzuka having seen Fate and Nanoha fight, they decide to come clean and the episode quietly fades into an epilogue where they're properly confused and shocked looking as Fate and Nanoha recount the events of the last two seasons, Nanoha's family reacting in an equal manner to having actual aliens sitting at home (good thing they decide to not have Yunno around, that would be really awkward to explain).

The episode fast forwards six years to now ninth graders Hayate, Nanoha, Fate, Alisa and Suzuka going off to school. Captain Mercury quit her job and joined Nanoha's family after adopting Fate, Chrono is now captain of the Space Cop battlecruiser, there are small hints at a romance between Nanoha and Yuuno (I bet that got a whole lof of Fate x Nanoha shipper's knickers in a bunch). Fate is a junior enforcer with the Space Cops, Nanoha a combat instructor and Hayate and her Knights are still on probation and community service.

Overall, I was positively surprised by the second season. It still has the silly fanservice (and there's a scene where the tentacle monster Book of Darkness wraps its tentacles around Fate) but it doesn't suddenly vector off into lolicon territory. Still, it has not much going for it to really recommend it. If you have seen at least one other magical girl anime series and played any JRPG before you don't really need to see this. Props to the writers for being able to actually fool me with their Tuxedo Mask. Never expected that to not be Chrono's father. In all fairness though, what's actually going on is pretty much an asspull without really any prior setup.

The third season has 26 episodes, and according to wikipedia... is going to be a bit more action with more team based battles and less character rivalry. Now isn't that great. Yeah... and twice as long to boot. Yay... everything is awesome...

Everything is awesome!

 

Edited November 7, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

6 minutes ago, majestic said:

Overall, I was positively surprised by the second season. It still has the silly fanservice (and there's a scene where the tentacle monster Book of Darkness wraps its tentacles around Fate) but it doesn't suddenly vector off into lolicon territory. Still, it has not much going for it to really recommend it. If you have seen at least one other magical girl anime series and played any JRPG before you don't really need to see this. Props to the writers for being able to actually fool me with their Tuxedo Mask. Never expected that to not be Chrono's father. In all fairness though, what's actually going on is pretty much an asspull without really any prior setup.

I gots too much other stuff to watch to spend my time on mediocre magical girl animes! ...I mean, unless it's a really good mediocre magical girl anime, that is!

Tell me...the characters, how do you feel about them? Are you particularly fond of anyone, does a single character even compare to Sakura or Sailor Moon characters?

[InsaneCommander]

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

Well, this one I barely remembered. Worse, I actually had some images in my head that are not from this anime, despite what I thought.

I found it better than Laputa but I agree with @Sarex, there is a point when it kinds of drags on more than it should.

18 hours ago, majestic said:

With the characters suddenly behaving normally

[Bartimaeus]

1 hour ago, InsaneCommander said:

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

Well, this one I barely remembered. Worse, I actually had some images in my head that are not from this anime, despite what I thought.

I found it better than Laputa but I agree with @Sarex, there is a point when it kinds of drags on more than it should.

I love the imagery of Nausicaa, and the themes are good. The plot and dialogue...are alright, I guess. Always felt like it was a film that had some...odd scene timing that makes a lot of scenes feel a bit unnatural, plus some general pacing and character issues/deficiencies that you don't really find in other classic Ghibli films. Strangely, I like it a lot more than Laputa, but I think Laputa is probably the better-constructed film.

Edited November 7, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[InsaneCommander]

[Lexx]

Oh wow, I completely missed that there was a trailer for Stone Ocean. And I just learned it will release on Netflix next damn month. Great news.

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Stone Ocean is going to be weekly though.

[majestic]

32 minutes ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

Stone Ocean is going to be weekly though.

That's cool, at least that means I'll finish it in an appropriate timeframe. I'm almost done with Stardust Crusaders, only DIO left.

[Lexx]

44 minutes ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

Stone Ocean is going to be weekly though.

Noooooooooooooo.

[Sarex]

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

I love the imagery of Nausicaa, and the themes are good. The plot and dialogue...are alright, I guess. Always felt like it was a film that had some...odd scene timing that makes a lot of scenes feel a bit unnatural, plus some general pacing and character issues/deficiencies that you don't really find in other classic Ghibli films. Strangely, I like it a lot more than Laputa, but I think Laputa is probably the better-constructed film.

It could be because Anno worked on it.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

32 minutes ago, majestic said:

That's cool, at least that means I'll finish it in an appropriate timeframe. I'm almost done with Stardust Crusaders, only DIO left.

After DIO you've got 78 episodes though.

....IGGY!

21 minutes ago, Lexx said:

Noooooooooooooo.

Edited November 7, 2021 by KP the meanie zucchini

[majestic]

3 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

I gots too much other stuff to watch to spend my time on mediocre magical girl animes! ...I mean, unless it's a really good mediocre magical girl anime, that is!

Tell me...the characters, how do you feel about them? Are you particularly fond of anyone, does a single character even compare to Sakura or Sailor Moon characters?

That is a question that is much harder to answer than you might think. No, I don't think any of the characters compare to Sailor Moon's (at least it's 90ies version) or Cardaptor Sakura's. That is in part because the focus after the first three episodes of the first season shifts towards rivalries between Nanoha and Fate, and in the second season between Fate and Nanoha on the one hand, and the Belkan Knights on the other.

There's not enough runtime for both a focus on character development and storyline, which makes any side characters that aren't Space Cops disappear harder than Naru and Umino in Sailor Moon S, and outside of an episode and a half of Fate and Nanoha going to school together in the second season, there's not a lot of screentime dedicated to it. What is there I enjoyed, but there's always the caveat that this is really, really serious. There are some lighthearted moments, but they're far and in between.

Season one tried with the character moments. Nanoha's parents have some nice moments, as do her brother and sister. There's the Alisa and Nanoha are fighting over Nanoha keeping secrets from them subplot that's just petering out after Suzuka confronts Alisa about it. For season two it was mostly having a rather unique set of villains (in terms of what villains usually are, not in terms of character tropes present), until it went full JRPG weirdness at the end.

The voice acting is fine, although Nanoha's narration in the second season is really borderline forced melancholic, at least in its original Japanese. It fits the dialogue she's reading, but there's no way a nine year old actually says things like that. Which is the other thing that's a bit strange, the characters waffle around between age appropriate and way too mature for how old they are, well, something commonly found in JRPGs.

All of that probably still tells you nothing at all. I also kind of lied when I said that there's nothing this has going to recommend it over other magical girl shows. It is fairly unique in one thing - it is serious, has more action than most (roughly on par with what is there in the Sailor Stars filler* arc, I'd guess, more in A's though) but it's still played as straight as they come. If that doesn't turn you off, then give it a spin. There's a chance you'll at least semi-not-hate the first three episodes of the first season and you'll see quickly enough if you can enjoy what there is even with the mood being what it is. Whether or not that's enough to make you interested in Nanoha as a character or the actual storyline is another thing.

Other serious magical girl animes are usually subversions, but this isn't. The transformation scenes are too graphic, really, and I've said all there is to say about episode five. I definitely would not recommend to delay watching the rest of Sakura for it, or even skipping K-On!, because that has a much higher chance of actually appealing to you your alter ego.

There's als a more condensed movie of the first series that I haven't watched yet. There's enough superflous material in the first season to see how that could be a decent idea, but I'm also afraid that the character development suffers and that it's just be a condensed action packed piece (I'll obviously watch it at some point).

As far as being fond of someone goes, I really like Fate, but that feels like she was written for me to like her.

 

*It's perhaps really a bit like this. It feels a lot like the Sailor Moon Sailor Stars filler arc. Except with characters you care less about beacuse they didn't get nearly as much development, and some really JRPG-ish tropes like suddenly appearing Space Cops in a space battle cruiser. 

edit:

Wikipedia sure wasn't lying about the team action stuff in StrikerS, the opening is balls to the walls action when it's not showing nude girls (whatever, this is going to be the last time mentioning it unless it gets really, really bad again) and geez, a girl in hot pants with roller blades dodging laser blasts from drones and hitting them with her power first, and another girl with a... laser gun.

What? Huh? What. When did this stop being a magical girl anime and became sci-fi action schlock?

Edited November 7, 2021 by majestic

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Samurai Champloo 13 and 14

We get a 2 parter about some folks from Mugen's past, and there are guns. God damn this show is great.

JoJo Stardust Crusaders 7 and 8: Forever's Strength and Devo's Ebony Devil.

The former makes me think of the worst part of Sailor Moon. The latter was creepy.

If only Pedosus was beaten to death like Forever was. Oh well.

[majestic]

Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha: StrikerS, episode 2.

So far this is more like a spin off series where the original main characters act as mentors, instructors and superior officers to what looks like two four new main characters. The interweb told me this will go even further with the subsequent seasons (called Vivid) to a point where almost none of the original characters are in the show, but that's sort of far off. So far the third season continues the pattern of A's of having one action packed episode followed by a less action packed one. The first episode had the two newbies on a training course for a promotion from "C" to "B" rank, just in case it was unclear: We're still in an animated JRPG.  

Hayata wants to form a elite team with Fate and Nanoha, and is trying to recruit the newbies (Teanna, or Tia for short and Subaru). Nanoha, now combat instructor, kindly informs them that they, while finishing the training course on time and with excellent combat results, failed the examination due to their reckless behaviour. Now isn't that something else. They're assigned a special safety training course and a new date for a reexamination.

A flashback to a rescue effort four years ago serves to explain why Hayate wants to form an elite response unit and finally gives out something we've all been waiting for: Fanservice (beyond Subaru's fighting "armor" consisting of a crop top and hot pants, that is)! At least they're all 19 now.

Well, it was worse already in the first season, so this is a welcome change... no, really.

This happens directly after the three spent an evening trying to rescue trapped civilians from a fire at the aiport, or space port, on the home planet of the Space Cops. I'm not sure if that's meant to show that they were exhausted and fell asleep, in that case they're entirely too clean, or if that was meant as food for a whole bunch of shippers... sigh. Yeah, I'm going with the former in my mind, and just imagine they're all still sweaty and grimy instead of the latter. Why else would they still wear shirts.

The newbies are 15, or thereabouts, except the two other newbies that'll complete the new main cast, by the looks of it. Those are good deal younger. I wonder, really, is there no age limit for joining the miliatry? Well, who knows, maybe they're part of some miltary academy.

The introduction of the two younger newbies has them fall over each other, a bit like Rei and Shinji in Rei's appartment, just with more clothes on (and in public). Their names are Erio and Caro, although I'm not really sure if those are supposed to be their first or last names. The boy introduces himself as Erio Mondial in that order, but Erio seems like the first name, but it's entirely not Japanese to go with the first name first... erm, whatever. I mean they're aliens, so... like. Whatever, really.

Caro has a pet baby dragon. I don't think the Space Cops have an elite dragon force, but hey, maybe.

Fate ominously asks Nanoha if everything is all right with her, and the episode ends with showing the Belkan Knights fighting some rising threat. The pieces are on the board, and I'm curious what's going on, I like new newbies so far and it's all... not so bad for something that moved from an Earth based Magical Girl series with super advanced technology to outer space sci-fi action with schlocky elements.

 

Edited November 8, 2021 by majestic

[Amentep]

Supēsu Kobura aka Space Cobra aka Space Adventure Cobra - Episode 1: "Fukkatsu! Saikogan" aka "Resurrection! The Psychogun!"

So my context for this series is the 1982 movie.  The movie assumes you know Cobra, and moves on from there, so I've been interested in trying to watch the tv series that preceeds it to get more information on Cobra and Lady Armaroid as characters.  Its a bit like, if you only know Lupin III from Castle of Cogliostro, you miss out a good bit on the characters; I've always felt like if I knew more about these characters I'd like the movie more than I do.

Stylistically, it happily reminds me of the 1982 movie on a tv budget, but with some of the same trippy neon-light visuals that the movie had still firmly in place.  From a stories perspective, you can tell that Buichi Terasawa was a fan of Philip K. **** and he uses his interests to mix together a number of sci-fi elements into something new.  

Spoiler

The obvious PKD reference is to the "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" story; in this case Cobra has taken to hiding from space pirates (the leader of which, Vaiken, has a personal grudge against him) by reprogramming his memories.  Bored as a galactic salaryman, though, he decides to buy a mental vacation that triggers his original memories.  This leads to a showdown with Vaiken who proves no match for Cobra's Psychogun

I'm a sucker for older styles in anime, and so really enjoy the aesthetic and even some of the rough animation.  All in all a happy start to this series for me.

As an aside, is it just me, or...

Spoiler

does Vaiken make one think of an evil wizened Harlock?  Not sure if Terasawa was a fan, rival or detractor of Matsumoto, or if they're just pulling from the same sea pirate stock characters, either could be the case.  But some of the way Vaiken was framed with his bird reminded me of Harlock and Tori-san

 

[Bartimaeus]

14 minutes ago, Amentep said:

Vaiken

...then Harlock...

...then Crusher Joe...

Here we see the three necessary stages of turning from ridiculous monster to upstanding young man, . ...Well, Crusher Joe isn't entirely upstanding himself, but he sure looks the part.

14 minutes ago, Amentep said:

I'm a sucker for older styles in anime, and so really enjoy the aesthetic and even some of the rough animation.

Although Space Adventure Cobra wouldn't necessarily be my ideal representative for ye olde anime art, it just means you have good sense and taste, .

1 hour ago, majestic said:

The interweb told me this will go even further with the subsequent seasons (called Vivid) to a point where almost none of the original characters are in the show, but that's sort of far off

The more pertinent question is how far are you planning to go, methinks, .

Edited November 8, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

At least they're all 19 now.

Pegasus and Daru are disappointed.

This show sounds like an adaptation of a jrpg that got canceled. Which reminds me I was hankering to play one after all the talk about deicide. I think I'll look for Ogre Battle.

Edited November 8, 2021 by KP the meanie zucchini