Started Macross Frontier on a whim, and by "whim" I mean that it's been sitting on my computer for years and I finally decided to punch up what was left of the Macross series on the secondary monitor due to it being a mecha classic. First episode...well, let's say the only reason I continued is because I've been assured that the series is supposed to live up to the original, and because I recognized the OP as having been sung by my favorite singer. Really, the first episode reminds me of the time a friend recommended Hanasaku Iroha to me, in which my response was "hit episode 3, and what the heck did you recommend to me?"
So far, about the best I can say is that the "pineapple cake" incident in this series was actually amusing by contrast to the original series, which isn't saying much since the original series tried to play it as dramatic. On the other hand, the series has definitely ramped up the fanservice to ridiculous degrees, which is a huge minus. A decent plot might make me overlook that, but incidents like the handling of the
coup attempt (which were pretty...unintelligent) make me wonder how well the main plot will be handled now that I'm up to the last few episodes.
I mean, seriously, what kind of people decide to confront an officer planning a putch by walking into his office, unarmed, and throw the evidence right on his desk - dramatic, but stupid as all get-out. Naturally, he immediately calls in armed soldiers from behind them, which means they'd have had to walk past them to reach Leon in the first place. They didn't even warn the President of the coup being planned against him, when they had a perfect in that wouldn't have raised suspicion (one of the two involved in getting the evidence was literally the President's daughter, making "family reasons" fairly trivial), which resulted in him walking right into an ambush and getting killed anyways.
Basically...I've not been impressed at all. Cute little shout-outs to past shows, but the reliance on fanservice makes me wonder if they knew they'd have to use that instead of story to draw otaku in (and I suppose, strictly speaking, those "cute little shout-outs" would also be considered fanservice of a non-sexualized sort), certain key elements of the plot doesn't seem to have been well thought-out. It does seem to play the power of music and love triangle story elements traditional in Macross, along with the
non-evil adversaries if the little hints about the Vajra so far are carried through, and I still have five episodes left, but we'll see how it goes.
Alright, now, that little bit of foolishness aside, new mecha shows? Let's see...
1. I actually like the mecha designs here, but that's because it's rather novel compared to more staid designs. Yes, cars with arms, but the show looks like it's trying to be Initial D (at least, as far as I know about that show from old AMVs; sorry if Initial D doesn't actually stay about racing all the way through) with mechs, so it's actually kinda cute. That said, a simple cover on the back, or even a seat belt would be enough to prevent blatant foolishness like that bit where
one person gets knocked out of their mech just by getting sideswiped. Character designs are...very anime, and rather uninspired: generic shounen protagonist, big-breasted female lead/romantic interest whose art direction suggests she was thrown in as a R34 magnet, and cocky secondary male lead. It depends more on how they play it out
2. I'm pretty sure I saw this back when it was called Fafner in the Azure (but only because I haven't seen Eva or Aquarion). Generic generic is generic. That isn't to say it would be bad automatically, but when you're retreading basic plots, the bar for a successful execution tends to go up quite a bit.
3. I'm probably not qualified to speak much on this, so I won't; I strongly prefer the real sub-genre to super sub-genre. That said, generic protagonist with chuunibyo who secretly was a hero but had a mysterious (and likely plot-relevant) case of amnesia - whoo, boy, the changeling fantasy is strong with this one. Expect special snowflake syndrome out the wazoo when this is your entire character précis, though I suppose it says something about their target audience.
4. Hmmm, I actually like the designs. Including the lack of feet. Generic falling into cockpit start (hey, it works to give an excuse for audience info-dumps since your protagonist is getting it dumped on her as well). Also, 50/50 on the big plot-twist (that we're all supposed to treat as surprising) being either that the attackers were responsible for the fall of civilization or that the attackers are actually humans as well forgotten due to the fall of civilization. Or both, given some of the scenes.
5. Sounds like the writers realized they could cut out the middleman, since a lot of people watch just for the suits, and make the mecha the main characters outright. That is actually amusing enough to make this my primary vote, and the designs don't look half bad.
EDIT:
That's Genion, the Z3.1 Banpresto Original 
On that note, Anyone know where the mech with the "buster sword" and the cool angel wings at around 10:30 is from?
I can't really get a good look at the suit, but from the pilot's name (and lovely sideburns) and the choice of weapon, I'm pretty sure that's from Diebuster. Nicola Vacheron, piloting Buster Machine Vingt-Sept
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Topic: I like anime, do you like anime? (Read 3135582 times)