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[Frumple]

Does kinda' sound like it, looking at the wiki page. Huh.

[Tack]

Wait, Girls und Panzer is neither Moe nor Harem?
That has actually intrigued me.


Also, last I remember Darker Than Black had some interesting politics behind the scenes.
That being said, I haven't seen it in ages, and Season 2 was basically mindfuck central.


Lastly, just started watching JoJo's.
It is... incredibly over the top. That's all I really can say.

[majikero]

Girls und Panzer is a SPORTS anime. Said sports just involve tanks.

[ggamer]

Spoiler: for the last half of GATE season 1 (click to show/hide)

honestly the most tense fight in GATE is when they're planetside and there are a clusterfuck of spec-ops groups trying to kill/capture the protags, where you actually believe that shit's getting fucked up until the crazy boobs girl kills all of them. The problem is that it's combined with the wankiest part of the whole fucking show shoehorned into this wierd sideplot about Japan getting fucked by everyone (including America who literally bankrolls most of the JSDF IIRC) and other right-wing "Japan must conquer EVERYTHING" shit.

Honestly I agree with Frumple: most of the reason I watch GATE is to see the interactions between characters and cultures.

also there's a small part of me that wants this show to get taken over by a writer who realizes that the natural counter for a large well-organized enemy who out-techs you is guerilla warfare, instead of them continuing to straight up adapt mr right-wing wanksalot's story, where he won't let the evil empire get smart until i assume ole kenpachi mcselfinsert literally murders the entire empire

GuP is one of those anime where the fanservice lies in the extreme attention to detail of weapons, rather than the sexualization of underage girls

on that note i'm about finished with MSG 008 MS team and wow i love this story. I love that (spoilers) there is no preference shown to either idealism or cynicism: the higher ups on both sides are shown to be quite a bit too jaded for their own good, and the MC and his love interest's idealism is shown to not coexist beautifully with the fact that they are soldiers; one of the best character arcs IMO is the MC reconciling his desire to stop inflicting bloodshed with his need to protect his team.

[Frumple]

Now hold up on that agreement thing. I didn't actually say the interactions between cultures and characters was worth watching, or that I actually still did. Got through the manga up to the point they had reached translating it at the time (spending most of the time boggling at the thing more than anything), and have not had the singlemost iota of remaining interest in partaking of the series since

Mostly just curious at this point to how the mediums differ, really, because the manga was not TV (/B12 forum guidelines) safe and apparently the LNs (assuming FD's actually read the things, because gods know I won't be doing it) are even worse.

Its premise is faintly interesting, and the art is pretty decent, but I'd roughly call everything else about it either incredibly bog-standard milwank or just kinda' bad. And the anime is probably the only thing it's offering that doesn't violate the forum ToS, ha.

... speaking of which, now that I remember that it's probably time for me to stop talking about the thing.

[Flying Dice]

... being fair to gate, at least re: the manga, the JSDF involved battles kinda' aren't the point. They're curbstomps, over quickly, and with frankly little focus even in regards to their impact on the general socio-political situation. There's some shock and awe, but not much actual screen time/page space. Beyond the fanservice, most of the actual interactions and whatnot are social/cultural/character interactions, at least up to the point I reached. Well, and the wanking, but the wanking doesn't involve particularly much direct use, which is usually over quite quickly (there's a terrible joke there about the reaction of readers that enjoy that sort of thing a bit too much, but I'll abstain).

Wish I could remember the book I've got laying around somewhere that had a tech vs. magic smash together with both sides largely being OCP to each other and fairly well matched. There were portals and lightning cannons and... trains? I think. I vaguely remember it being pretty interesting, but stopped reading part way through because of... something. Been years, book's probably shoved somewhere unfindable.

Hell's Gate.  I was going to bring it up since I mentioned the author originally in the context of other milwanks, but I didn't because the tech side has a bit of "magic" of its own (psionics, specifically, one of the biggest Golden Age sci-fi pieces of magic outside of FTL itself).  I think it's one of my preferred Weber works, inasmuch as I still read his works; I'm mostly reading Honor Harrington now because of sunk costs, and his Safehold series...I am not that fond of Safehold at all, to be honest, but that would just be a complete derail if I pursued that line of thought further.

The two Hell's Gate books are among the few things of Weber's worth reading, and are an excellent example of how to do this sort of scenario properly. I can't help but wonder if they turned out as well as they did because Linda Evans was verbally beating him over the head every time he tried to derail the flavor.

For those unfamiliar with them:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Picture the jump point chains from Starfire (the tabletop itself, Weber's novelizations of the same, or Aurora, which developed from it). It's like that, except instead of wormholes in star systems they're immense (as, hundreds of meters in diameter at the small end) portals leading between parallel Earths.

Exploring down one chain is a formation of light infantry from a magitech unified Earth with medieval-level nonmagical technology but magic capable of (somewhat crudely) approximating handheld computers, mag-lev trains, lightning bolt cannons, and with dragons used both in the roles of air superiority fighters, ground attack craft, and helicopter transports. Average joe still wears mail and carries a crossbow, though. Three(?) major factions among them: not-Rohan warrior society based in the North American Great Plains, nebulous republic in an unknown location, and caste-system magocracy based in Africa (with a kickin' academy at Queen Victoria Falls, IIRC).

Exploring down another is a private prospecting group from a nonmagical Earth with ~WWI level technology and psychic powers which manifest in about 20% of the population, typically focused on one to three of a substantial range of deep but relatively inflexible specializations, ranging from mental satellite mapping through long-distance telepathy to (rarely) outright precognition. They've got more divisions and only a pseudo-UN rather than a unified world government, but the dominant power is an old empire based out of Ireland which was wise enough to retract its borders when it started losing control. Other major players include a state in central-east Asia, and that's the only one I remember.

A forward scout from the former encounters one of the members of the expedition from the latter, and spoilers happen. Both sides have a lot of nasty shocks, and both are wracked by internal conflict and scheming.

It's pretty cool stuff, even if we're unlikely to ever see it continued.

[Furtuka]

Spoiler: Oh dear god Macross Delta is going to go full Idoru (click to show/hide)

Link to teaser trailer

[EnigmaticHat]

... being fair to gate, at least re: the manga, the JSDF involved battles kinda' aren't the point. They're curbstomps, over quickly, and with frankly little focus even in regards to their impact on the general socio-political situation. There's some shock and awe, but not much actual screen time/page space. Beyond the fanservice, most of the actual interactions and whatnot are social/cultural/character interactions, at least up to the point I reached. Well, and the wanking, but the wanking doesn't involve particularly much direct use, which is usually over quite quickly (there's a terrible joke there about the reaction of readers that enjoy that sort of thing a bit too much, but I'll abstain).

Wish I could remember the book I've got laying around somewhere that had a tech vs. magic smash together with both sides largely being OCP to each other and fairly well matched. There were portals and lightning cannons and... trains? I think. I vaguely remember it being pretty interesting, but stopped reading part way through because of... something. Been years, book's probably shoved somewhere unfindable.

Hell's Gate.  I was going to bring it up since I mentioned the author originally in the context of other milwanks, but I didn't because the tech side has a bit of "magic" of its own (psionics, specifically, one of the biggest Golden Age sci-fi pieces of magic outside of FTL itself).  I think it's one of my preferred Weber works, inasmuch as I still read his works; I'm mostly reading Honor Harrington now because of sunk costs, and his Safehold series...I am not that fond of Safehold at all, to be honest, but that would just be a complete derail if I pursued that line of thought further.

The two Hell's Gate books are among the few things of Weber's worth reading, and are an excellent example of how to do this sort of scenario properly. I can't help but wonder if they turned out as well as they did because Linda Evans was verbally beating him over the head every time he tried to derail the flavor.

For those unfamiliar with them:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Picture the jump point chains from Starfire (the tabletop itself, Weber's novelizations of the same, or Aurora, which developed from it). It's like that, except instead of wormholes in star systems they're immense (as, hundreds of meters in diameter at the small end) portals leading between parallel Earths.

Exploring down one chain is a formation of light infantry from a magitech unified Earth with medieval-level nonmagical technology but magic capable of (somewhat crudely) approximating handheld computers, mag-lev trains, lightning bolt cannons, and with dragons used both in the roles of air superiority fighters, ground attack craft, and helicopter transports. Average joe still wears mail and carries a crossbow, though. Three(?) major factions among them: not-Rohan warrior society based in the North American Great Plains, nebulous republic in an unknown location, and caste-system magocracy based in Africa (with a kickin' academy at Queen Victoria Falls, IIRC).

Exploring down another is a private prospecting group from a nonmagical Earth with ~WWI level technology and psychic powers which manifest in about 20% of the population, typically focused on one to three of a substantial range of deep but relatively inflexible specializations, ranging from mental satellite mapping through long-distance telepathy to (rarely) outright precognition. They've got more divisions and only a pseudo-UN rather than a unified world government, but the dominant power is an old empire based out of Ireland which was wise enough to retract its borders when it started losing control. Other major players include a state in central-east Asia, and that's the only one I remember.

A forward scout from the former encounters one of the members of the expedition from the latter, and spoilers happen. Both sides have a lot of nasty shocks, and both are wracked by internal conflict and scheming.

It's pretty cool stuff, even if we're unlikely to ever see it continued.

The idea of writing that sounds like a nightmare.

"Hey, you've heard of those authors who build fantasy worlds?  I'm going to build more than two in one book!"

[Orange Wizard]

"Hey, you've heard of those authors who build fantasy worlds?  I'm going to build more than two in one book!"

Obviously he used a time machine to recruit infinite copies of Tolkien.

[Neonivek]

Heavy Object is... I wouldn't say good exactly. Probably above mediocre. The whole stereotype division with silly names. Super lolis everywhere. Super competent protag but at least one of them is an actual soldier.

Also they actually DO commando raids, sabotage, supply disruption but the nature of the super weapons makes it almost suicide since they are never defenseless. Unless your a harem protag.

It would help if our main character was an actual damn human being ALL of the time.

Sometimes the anime actually cares enough to make sure each person's beliefs and motivations match up to their personalities and you will see characters agree, disagree, or begrudgingly go along with something.

But no matter who it is they are all 50% alien.

Either with our main character and his boobphobia and obsession to the point where he has personally calculated the boob size of every female he met (No, not joking)
Or our female lead who treats any soldier who is not her like total garbage because "THEY don't put their lives on the line" who acts completely stoic for "reasons".

Ohh yeah by the way Heavy Object DAMN YOU! Damn you soo much for that spiel... damn you so much.

watching Heavy Object is liking a really good, if not great, anime with a very good idea that it tries to explore... While watching a offensive harem anime... at the same dang time.

[Kobold Troubadour]

Spoiler: Oh dear god Macross Delta is going to go full Idoru (click to show/hide)

Link to teaser trailer

Its somewhat logical/predictable since its been the trend recently that they'd go full idoru since its like the next step from their usual singing divas.

Although from that picture, I'm somewhat annoyed by the boys group is already & rubbing me the wrong way, like they're some angsty boy band that's on the verge of singing.

[BigD145]

Spoiler: Oh dear god Macross Delta is going to go full Idoru (click to show/hide)

Link to teaser trailer

Its somewhat logical/predictable since its been the trend recently that they'd go full idoru since its like the next step from their usual singing divas.

Although from that picture, I'm somewhat annoyed by the boys group is already & rubbing me the wrong way, like they're some angsty boy band that's on the verge of singing.

They took the singing diva of the past and put pants on them, then put the girls in control of the planes. Looks like a role swap. I don't think Macross needed that.

[NullForceOmega]

Spoiler: Oh dear god Macross Delta is going to go full Idoru (click to show/hide)

Link to teaser trailer

I think that might very well be the most idiotic Macross advert I have ever seen, and I hope Shoji dies for it.  (Even if he isn't on the creation team, which he almost assuredly is.)

[IronyOwl]

Maybe they finally decided to go all the way with War Is Bad Let's Sing, and the jets are just there to make their concerts more impressive.

[Furtuka]

Supposedly it was confirmed on the livestream announcement that the idols will not be pilots, though the plot summary does mention a "tactical sound division"

Translated version of the trailer seems to indicate that Kawamori is bringing back his old idea for a colony world where kingdoms are fighting each other with valkyries. (His first attempt wound up mutating into Escaflowne before it could go anywher other than concept art.)