02.08.10
Posted in Anime, Reviews Tags: anime classics, Ginga Eiyu Densetsu, Legend of the Galactic Heroes, OVA, sci-fi anime, space opera anime, 銀河英雄伝説 at 10:00 am by reversethieves
Random warning: Never watch the previews, NEVER, they are full of spoilers. And so are the episode titles, so never look at them, NEVER.
Legend of the Galactic Heroes can be one of the most intimidating series to start in all of anime with 110 episode in the main OVA series, several movies, and 52 OVA side story episodes it can seem like madness. But this is the definitive space opera inside or outside of anime. There are dozen of reasons to watch Legend of the Galactic Heroes: the complex politics, the epic space battles, and just the overall maturity of the the whole production. But the only reason any of that matters is because the characters are so compelling that they make you care about everything that happens. This is why I never cared for Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series despite how good it might be it never connected me to the characters. I had considered starting Legend of the Galactic Heroes on my own several times but thankfully Narutaki and my roommate decided to join me in watching this series once a week otherwise I would be watching this at a much slower pace. Even if you have to brave it alone know that it few series will reward for your effort and dedication. This review is for the first arc of the series with 26 episodes.
So perhaps you don’t know anything about Legend of the Galactic Heroes. Well, let me tell you, it’s infamously epic and quite long. And no we didn’t write that wrong, it is a 110 episode OVA. You might be saying to yourself, well 110 episodes sounds long but compared to many a shonen fighting show it’s not too crazy. But this isn’t a shonen fighting show, these 110 episodes are a dramatic, political, and strategic running narrative with a cast that swells with significant characters. But don’t worry, as the title implies, you can quite easily break the show into parts. You can even take a break between parts, but I promise you won’t want to. That is what makes it so amazing! Space opera has never been done better than Legend of the Galactic Heroes.
The Galactic Empire and the Free Planets Alliance have been dead locked in intergalactic war for centuries. The Galactic Empire is a decadent monarchy and the Free Planets Alliance is a corrupt democracy both so weakened from within that they cannot conquer the other. But there are two rising stars, one on each side, whose actions will forever change the balance of the galaxy. Admiral Reinhard von Lohengramm plans to overthrow the corrupt regime of the Empire where as commodore Yang Wen-li merely wishes to keep the democracy he loves alive. Reinhard is disgusted with the decadent nobles who stole his sister from him and vows to gain power through the military to get his revenge. Yang on the other hand keeps rising through the ranks despite his best efforts and in the process drawing the attentions of the vile Patriotic Knight Corps. Countless men and women will dedicate themselves to helping or stopping these two men. As a man who studies history, Yang realizes that this story has happened before and will happen again.
Yes, there are huge space battles, we are thrown into one in the first episode where numbers like 300,000 get batted around when discussing the loss of soldiers in an attack. People get blown up, set aflame, impaled, and everything else but LotGH likes to throws these moments at you sparsely, so much so that you get surprised by the graphic nature of things each time it happens. This story is about a huge war that has been waged and never ceased but something about the clash of these two men, Yang and Reinhard, is about to change the course of the war. The ideas they represent, the moral ground that is tread, and the ability to show two sides, each with a set of values that are not demonized is what gives LotGH a unique flavor.
Everyone in LotGH comes off as someone to either root for or hate on both sides of the conflict. Yang and Reinhard are amazingly charismatic each in their own way and the similarities and contrasts between the two of them in the first arc are brilliant. Reinhard with his ambitious and upstanding goals but morally gray motivations and methods perfectly flank Yang with his slacker charm, easy genius, and upstanding character that is seasoned with a realistic view of the world. They are both tactical geniuses but both are remarkable strategists with their own distinct style. Reinhard is able to set up situations where he cannot lose and Yang is able to come up with brilliant strategy on the fly to survive in hopeless moments no matter how horrible the hand he is dealt. I definitely felt myself leaning towards Yang but I was still enthralled by Reinhard’s story. Both Reinhard and Yang strive to make the galaxy a better place but their ideals make it destiny to clash time and time again. Each time they meet it is not only a clash of their military strategy but of their world views. Reinhard wants to burn away the corrupt nobility of the Empire and feels only he has the vision and strength to reform the galaxy. Yang wishes just to keep himself and the people under his command out of trouble but we see that he has deeper and more grand ideals than just survival. Yang just knows you have to survive to make them a reality. As the first arc goes on both of them must also deal with internal struggles within their respective governments which exposes the strengths and weaknesses of both of their philosophies as well. When this part ends both men have changed themselves, their organizations, and the very course of human history itself.
Yang, Yang he’s our man! If he can’t do it no one can! This poor guy clearly comes off as the underdog in the series because not only does Reinhard just have more resources, his own government is constantly getting in his way. The Alliance seems to flip-flop from thinking Yang is the hero of the hour to thinking he is going to plot a coup to overthrow them. This actually stems from their own greed and corruption, they just can’t understand that a man exists who doesn’t want power and dominion, especially one has military and strategically capable as Yang. And this is what makes Yang such a contrast to Reinhard. Reinhard is trying to do all those things! However, Reinhard also has noble ideals and grand dreams for the Empire he so desperately wants as his own. Both of these men are plagued by the deceit, arrogance, and disregard for the people by their respective factions but their personalities and ways of dealing with it couldn’t be more different. Yang has sort of accepted that the democracy that he defends is rotten from the inside, but he doesn’t believe in using military might to fix it. Reinhard on the other hand believes the only way to cure the downward spiral of the Empire is by becoming the Empire himself. They are two sides of the same coin and as such they are perfect rivals.
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08.10.09
Posted in Anime, Reviews Tags: Animal Treasure Island, anime classics, children's anime, Doubutsu Takarajima, Miyazaki, movie, どうぶつ宝島, 宮崎 駿 at 6:53 am by reversethieves
We usually stick to talking about things we love because not only we like the stuff but because it lets us write better reviews. Nothing gets the reviews flowing on to the page like something you love. But sometimes we find some unique and interesting enough but perhaps doesn’t fall into the love category. They might not be as good as the things we love but for one reason or another they are so fascinating they have to be talked about. This vintage anime movie has many unique oddities worth discovering and examining if you are interested in the roots of Japanese animation.
There are many different ways to approach a work and for the most part we tend to put a lot of emphasis on characters, their development, and the relationships presented. However, those are not the only things that we can appreciate and they are not the only things that can give a work merit. For Animal Treasure Island we take on something perhaps we rarely do here on the blog, we are looking at style and direction and its context in anime history.
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04.06.09
Posted in Anime, Reviews Tags: 0079, anime classics, Gundam, movie, Tomino, TV series, 富野 由悠季, 機動戦士ガンダム at 6:38 am by reversethieves
Gundam. That is a word that means so much to anime fandom in Japan. There were realistic robot anime before Gundam but almost every real robot show after Gundam either borrows from Gundam or goes out of its way not to be Gundam. I have watched most of the recent Gundam series but I have always wanted to see the origin. Every other part of the franchise has in some part paid homage to its founder. Anime of all genres have made reference to the series. Revered by many fans as the pinnacle of the franchise to which all later iterations are mere hollow shadows. It is required viewings for anyone who wants to fully understand what anime is all about. So here we go. We shall try and tackle one of the giants of anime once again of for the first time.
With the 30th anniversary falling in 2009 it seemed appropriate and also a solid reason for me to finally sit down and watch the series that kicked off a franchise I am coming to enjoy more and more. To be honest, I never really felt comfortable calling myself a Gundam fan, and have refrained from doing so, until I watched the beginning. So now that I have solidly planted myself in Gundam history I plan on watching more of the grandiose back catalog of shows because original Gundam is as good as boasted. I’m not sure if you are reading this because you want to know if you should watch original Gundam or if you have already watched it and just want to know what we thought, but either way it should be interesting!
Gundam 0079 starts in the middle of a most horrific war that will become a mainstay of the franchise. Several space colonies lead by the principality of Zeon have declared bloody independence from Earth. Due to atrocities on both sides, half the population of humanity has been wiped out. Gundam begins during a lull in the fighting. Amuro Ray was just a nerdy kid into electronics on the orbital colony Side 7 until the day that the Zeon forces, lead by the mysterious ace pilot Char Aznable, attacked the colony. During an attempt to steal the Federation’s newest technology, Amuro winds up defending the newly created battleship White Base with the revolutionary robot called Gundam. When most of the command staff of the White Base is killed in the raid civilians, low ranking military personnel is forced to man the ship. So a team of mostly untrained survivors must try to get the most highly sought technology back home to Federation controlled territory. What effect will this untrained crew have on the war? Who will survive?
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08.26.08
Posted in Anime, Reviews Tags: anime classics, Macross, mecha anime, movie, music anime, robots, sci-fi anime, おぼえていますか, 超時空要塞マクロス 愛 at 8:26 am by reversethieves
Macross: Do You Remember Love? is a movie remake of the first arc of the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross. DYRL starts off in the middle of the action with the Macross already fighting the Zentradi in space; Hiraku is already a pilot; Minmay is already a star. This is mostly a condensed retelling of the original Macross series. All the major scenes, deaths, defeats, and triumphs are revisited but now they play out a little differently than they did before. Canonically DYRL is supposed to be a movie made in the Macross universe based on the events in the TV series.
In fact, we start off in the middle of a Minmay concert. However, Hikaru and Minmay haven’t met yet. When they do meet it is much the same as the original though in the original the situation seems much more dire. All of the other relationships are already established, like Roy and Hikaru’s brotherly bond and Misa and Hikaru grating on each other. Oh and Kaifun is there too, though if you hadn’t seen the TV series you would be clueless of who the heck he is. They seriously don’t even say his name in the movie. Not that we care.
It’s rather odd they never even try to explain who Kaifun is because if you did not watch the TV series you would have no idea who this strange guy who is oddly familiar with Minmay is. They just assume you already know who he is or don’t need to know. He does not appear a lot but he is present for some pivotal scenes. Oh well it’s Kaifun. The less Kaifun the better.
So while we jump in with a lot of action, a lot of the relationships are not fleshed out to their necessity. It does rely on your knowing at least a little about all of these people already. But as popular as it was, that isn’t a bad assumption. Though I do feel if you were just going to watch DYRL without the benefit of the TV series you wouldn’t be lost. I just felt this was sometimes difficult to understand Misa’s point of view without knowing her backstory and family history. Also her friendship with Claudia gave many insights in the TV series which we miss here.
They have a rather long series to condense into one movie so I will forgive them on many things. I think that they did good with conveying all the major elements of the series even if they miss some of the subtle nuances. They made this movie for fans of the original Macross series. They assumed you loved Macross when you went into the theater so they did not have to waste time explaining anything. You can enjoy this movie without seeing the original series but you are more likely to love this movie if you have seen the TV run.
The music in DYRL is super fantastic, I really love Minmay for all the singing she does and not much else. We of course get all the popular songs from the TV run but we are also graced with what I consider one of the best songs from the franchise and where the title of the movie comes from.
Do You Remember Love? is clearly the name of the movie for a reason. It is the song that the turns the story around and is just the perfect song for the movie as a whole. Since this is a fan-service movie for fans they have to give you musical fan-service as well. The concerts are just fun in DYRL. I would even say they rival any later concerts in Macross Plus and Frontier which is not faint praise. If I remember correctly An Angel’s Paints that Minmay sings during the end credits is rather famous as well.
This isn’t surprising but the animation is super terrific and obviously puts the TV series to shame. It is certainly at the height of animation at the time. Everything from the people to the ships to the fights is detailed and fluid, it is still impressive looking even now. And once compared to the original well it looks even better.
This was a labor of love and it is reflected in the unmistakable quality that pours from every scene. Gone are the constant animation mistakes of the TV series. Every scene is a gorgeous banquet of spectacle. Every fight scene is a grandiose display of amazing dog fighting and epic clashes of capital ships. Everything looks more futuristic due to coming out several years after the original series. The city and the technology in the movie just looks nicer and more how I would envision the technology on the Macross to actually look.
Yes, I think they finally got rid of the phones with cords. That always cracked me up in the original. The future is now!
If you are curious how much people were effected by DYRL just listen to the episode of Anime Wold Order were they talk about it. It’s not as much a review as a love letter to the movie. They each recount how much this movie meant to them and how much it effected anime fandom when it was released. To AWO Do You Remember Love? is the avatar of 80s animation and one of its greatest triumphs.
Do You Remember Love? takes everything that was great about the original and removes everything frivolous. It also enhanced everything, not only with its animation but with its storytelling. The pace immerses you within a few minutes and you don’t want to part with these characters you come to love. A plus to this movie is that our three main characters all have a role to play in the final climax. In original Macross, Minmay was the real person to end the war but here we get Misa discovering something significant, Hikaru defeating someone important, and Minmay singing to the Zentradi. It is also more definite in its conclusion about the relationships for which I was eternally grateful.
You should watch this movie just to see Minmay get slapped right across the face as so many fans wanted. The happiness in Narutaki’s eyes when that scene happened was one of utter, ferocious joy. Come for Minmay getting her comeuppance but stay for the love. The love of between Misa and Hikaru, the love of the animators for the fans and animation, and the love of the fans for Macross.
Top 5 Favorite Macross Songs
5. Macross Opening (Macross)
4. Holy Lonely Night (Macross 7)
3. The Hush of 200 Million Years (Macross II)
2. Information High (Macross Plus)
1. Do You Remember Love? (Macross, Do You Remember Love?)
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