Basquash! – Terrible or Worth Watching on Style Alone?

When I first heard about Basquash! my immediate thought was that it was either going to be mind-blowingly stupid or completely awesome; there’s just not much room for middle ground when the premise is giant robots playing basketball. However I may have been wrong. I forget to consider the possibility that it might be both incredibly stupid and awesome all at the same time. 

Let’s start with the stupid part. Our protagonist is a spiky orange and scarlet haired kid named Dan JD who lives on the planet Earthdash. He hates the popular sport Bigfoot Basketball because one of the Bigfoots (they look like car frames with legs and arms) somehow injured his kid sister, reducing her from a great b-ball player into a cold computer nerd in a wheelchair. Then there’s the childhood friend Miyuki whose character design allows the animators to completely outdo the Gainax bounce by focusing the camera on her enormous jiggling breasts for a full 10 seconds. She also shows Dan how to pilot a Bigfoot… all while making it sound as much like having sex for the first time as possible. Oh and did I mention that Dan, using the alias Dunk Mask, regularly goes out and ruins Bigfoot basketball games while wearing a mask made out of a small blue monster voiced by Aya Endo (Sheryl Nome)? I swear I’m not making this stuff up.

Not a Bust After All, New Gundam Series Announced!

Since this year is Gundam’s 30th anniversary many of us have been hoping that Sunrise would announce a new anime addition to the franchise. For a while there were rumors of an OVA in the works but it turned out to be just an upcoming PS3 game. However I have good news, everyone! After following some links on 2chan I found that Gundam Ace magazine released a special issue today in which they announced an upcoming, 50 episode TV series that will air sometime next year. I’m sure I’m not the first to announce this news but I thought I’d translate a portion of the article for you guys. My Japanese is not perfect but I did the best I could:

This new, as yet unnamed series will be unlike anything fans have seen before says Yoshiyuki Tomino, the original creator of Gundam who will be helming this project. “A lot of fans want to see more of the Universal Century, the timeline that the original TV series was set in, but we also have new fans who got into the franchise by watching shows that have nothing at all to do with the UC. So we asked ourselves, how can we appeal to both types of fans at the same time?”

The answer was an unexpected one: bring back the old characters from Mobile Suit Gundam but place them in an entirely new setting, in this case the AF or After Fighting timeline. What does this mean for Amuro, Char and the rest of the cast from Mobile Suit Gundam?

“They’ll be getting a makeover” said Tomino. “In this economy selling model kits to guys just isn’t enough. We have to appeal to girls too and what do they want? Pretty boys that you can easily mistake for women. Amuro is just goofy looking, he has no sex appeal. So we’re bringing in [Gundam 00's character designer] Yun Kouga to make him beautiful.”

Moments of Oda Madness: One Piece and Drag Queens?

One Piece is a manga in which the character drama and the world itself – a fantastical place where adventure doesn’t so much find the characters as get in their faces and rough them up a bit – is impossibly larger than life. Even after you figure out the basic storytelling formula (get to an island, fight successively harder enemies, move on) it’s still impossible to guess just what is going to happen next.

This is because Eiichiro Oda is extremely creative and not at all above throwing the readers for a loop. Take for example what I like to call Moments of Oda Madness. You’ll know a MOM when you see it because it will make you stop reading, slap your hand to your forehead and shout aloud “Dammit, Oda, you mad genius!”. You’ll probably then wonder what he’s smoking and where you can get some.

Take for example in the Alabasta arc when Usopp and Chopper fight against two of evil Sir Crocodile’s agents: Mr. 4 and his partner Miss Merry Christmas. Miss Merry Christmas once ate a devil fruit which turned her into a mole human and so, since they’re out in the desert, she starts burying herself in the sand to attack from below. At this point Usopp whips out one of his weapons – a giant hammer – and starts doing this:

Even the Stepford Wives are Jealous of Belldandy

Oh My Goddess! would’ve made a great horror series. You’ve got the hapless victim Keiichi who attempts to order take-out but dials the wrong number and reaches a ”goddess helpline” instead. Then there’s the goddess Belldandy who comes out of his mirror like a scene from The Ring except instead of trying to kill him she opts for a more devious scheme to ruin his life: moving in and staying forever.

This is where the real horror begins. You see, Belldandy is perfect. She’s cheerful, kind and warm. She loves to clean and cook. Every day after school she brings Keiichi homemade cake and other snacks. She even sits in his class and hands him school supplies whenever he needs them. And the worst part? As long as he wants her around, Belldandy will never leave his side. In fact the universe itself will bend just to make sure they are never separated. Ah, how terrible! What sick and twisted individual came up with something so frightening?

Oh wait… this is supposed to be an otaku’s ultimate fantasy? Keiichi isn’t going to crack from the pressure of living with someone so perfect and hack everyone to bits with a cleaver? Oh. Damn…

It’s a Good Time to Become a Gundam Fan

Once again it’s been a month since I’ve posted anything here. I wish I could say I’ve been too busy doing something incredible to bother with silly Japanese cartoons but no, I’ve been watching just as much as usual. In fact I’m in deeper than ever thanks to ghostlightning (fast becoming the guy I go to for all my recommendations) turning me into a fanatic for anything relating to Gundam, that highly influential and ever popular mainstay of mecha anime.

I never thought I’d get into Gundam. For one thing, I had the idea that it was all merely a marketing ploy by Bandai to sell toys to little boys. I know better now; it’s a ploy to sell to boys and full-grown men (and women if I break down and buy those Dynames and MS-07B3 Gouf kits I’ve had my eye on, but I digress). 

However the real reason I didn’t want to get into Gundam is that the sheer size of the franchise is utterly overwhelming. As if the incredible number of TV series, OVAs, novels, manga, video games and more wasn’t enough to scare off newcomers there’s the alternate timelines to worry about. Universal Century, Future Century, After Colony, After War, Anno Domini… it all sounds more complicated than millions of years of real human history. At least until you realize that each timeline exists in its own bubble and you really don’t need to know about anything except for the timeline that the particular Gundam you’re watching takes place in.

Instead of being turned away by the dizzying number of Gundam shows I now view each one as an exciting possibility. It’s like sitting down at a table piled high with food for a feast. You might try the turkey only to find out that it’s stringy and overcooked or you might end up with a slice of delicious apple pie. That’s all part of the fun. Stay at the table long enough and you could also find yourself engaging in a vicious food fight with the people around you, each side pelting the other with mashed potatoes and insisting that the other has no taste. That’s all part of the fun too… I think.

The one question that remains for newcomers like myself is, where to start? Allow me to recommend Mechafetish and ghostlightning’s Finding Your Gateway Gundam guide. As for me I’ve only just wet my feet with the original Mobile Suit Gundam compilation movies (which are a bit dated but still highly worth it and deserving of a post of their own), Gundam 08th MS Team and the currently airing Gundam 00. My feelings for 00 will depend on how it ends but I can say that I’ve been enjoying the hell out of it and reports of train wrecks have been greatly exaggerated.

I might be looking at this with the rose-tinted glasses of a newborn fan but I don’t think there’s a better time to get into Gundam than right now. As we approach April 7th, 2009 which marks the 30th anniversary of the original Mobile Suit Gundam it means not only that there’s 30 years worth of shows to go back and watch but also at least one new, recently announced addition to look forward to. Not to mention Bandai’s plan to build a life-sized, 59 foot tall Gundam at Tokyo’s Odaiba island. I know I’m really far gone because I don’t think this sounds like a ludicrous endeavor in a failing global economy… it sounds awesome.

20th Century Boys Is Just like Rock n Roll

Hey, remember the turn of the century? New Years Eve, 2000. I was only 11 at the time and I remember being glued to the TV, waiting anxiously for the clock to strike midnight at the first place in the world. Waiting to see if the Y2K bug – which was probably some kind of computer problem but could just have easily been an enormous rampaging alien bug – would bring about the end of the world. Or if the bug didn’t show, maybe a giant robot would destroy us all instead… hey, it was a new millennium. Anything could’ve happened.

So what if it had? Who could have fought to save humanity?

Xam’d 25 and 26 – Making Sense? Of the Ending

It’s been nearly a month since I’ve posted here but if there’s one thing that can shake me out of my apathy it’s the finale of Xam’d: Lost Memories. Although I expect to do a review of the series later, for now I’m just writing about the ending. It goes without saying that this post contains massive spoilers.

Space Pirate Captain Harlock as a Live Action

No, I don’t have news of an upcoming Space Pirate Captain Harlock film but now that I’ve shamelessly grabbed your attention just watch the following (it’s best if you click on the video to view it in a bigger size):

This fan-made trailer is by Miguel Mesas who as far as I can tell from his website is an independent filmmaker from Spain. Apparently he released this in March of 07 but I only just stumbled across it while browsing Youtube.

Now if this were a real movie there’d be things to nitpick about: Daiba is too old, El Capitán isn’t sexy enough and I can barely see his scar, Mime looks like she stepped out of The Ring, and so on, but because it’s from a fan I can easily forgive all that and see that it perfectly captures just how grandly dramatic the anime is. Not to mention that the CG is amazing. The Arcadia is simply beautiful, especially when it sails off around the Earth at the end – a shot lifted straight from the anime.

In fact this trailer is so good that it actually makes me want to see a Harlock live action even though news of anime adaptions or at least those done by Hollywood usually fill me with dread. Just look no further than the possibility of Keanu Reeves starring in Cowboy Bebop (please no! There’s a difference between being laid back and being as emotionless as a plank of wood) to see why.

NANA Rocks – This is How You Do Drama

It’s been nearly three weeks since I posted here. I wanted to take a break over the holidays, not only from writing about anime/manga but from reading and watching it too. Of course being the addict that I am, I couldn’t entirely stop myself from indulging.

One thing I have been reading is NANA which is so addicting that I couldn’t help going beyond Viz’s volume 13 and catching up to the latest chapter in Japan which is at about volume 20 (I will of course still be buying it in English as it comes out). In retrospect, I probably shouldn’t have read all seven volumes in one day but let me tell you – it was a glorious ride. When it was all over the only thing to do was put on some black eyeliner and a leather jacket, light a cigarette and moodily strum my guitar in the rain… and by rain I mean sun because it never rains here and by leather jacket I mean t-shirt. Never mind that I don’t smoke either, it’s the thought that counts.

In all seriousness, though, what NANA does really well is angst. That seems like a negative word nowadays, perhaps because it conjures up images of Youtube video bloggers reading poetry about how at 15 years old it’s already too late to live. Trust me, NANA is nothing like that. A better comparison would be to teen television dramas in the way that all the characters’ relationships, break-ups and feelings are so incredibly dramatic. As if their entire lives are hanging in the balance. Yet where these shows often become nearly indistinguishable from soap operas, NANA always remains classy. 

But I may be getting ahead of myself here. If you haven’t heard of it, NANA is a shoujo manga by Paradise Kiss author Ai Yazawa. It revolves around two girls named Nana who happen to meet on a train ride to Tokyo. One is Nana Komatsu, a flighty and quick to fall in love girl who is moving to Tokyo to be with her boyfriend. The other is the tough Nana Osaki, a singer who wants to make it big with her punk band Black Stones or BLAST for short. The two end up sharing an apartment and living together in room 707 (“nana” means “seven” in Japanese).

NANA is the story of the Nana’s close friendship, of the increasingly convoluted relationship between BLAST and their rival band Trapnest and of both bands’ musical careers and ambitions. In the hands of a less skilled author the story of young people becoming big rock stars could easily be cliché and unbelievable. It works here because Yazawa creates complicated, three-dimensional characters. It’s not hard to really care about them even when, or maybe because, they show their weaknesses to the reader. 

I mentioned earlier that the character’s have a lot of angst. Well, there’s certainly humor as well but NANA is best when it’s tugging at the heart strings. Such as whenever one of the Nanas narrates the beginning or end of a chapter it often hints at something tragic that will occur in the future. This lends a bittersweet feeling and a sense of transience to everything, as if the characters are fragile and may very well break in an instant. In essence, NANA is beautiful people in beautifully heartbreaking and sometimes heartwarming situations. And I can’t get enough.

For more on NANA, I recommend reading Melinda’s excellent post: Why you should read NANA.

Girls Can Pilot Giant Robots Too You Know

My sister is home for the holidays so I forced her to watch a few episodes of Gurren Lagann with me. I think she sort of enjoyed it although her first impressions were pretty funny, like calling Kamina an idiot and his dad an ass for abandoning him at an early age.

Then she turned to me and said, “so the robots are powered by testosterone… can girls pilot them too?” 

“Of course they can! It’s not testosterone, it’s fighting spirit” I said, desperate to keep her from forming a bad opinion of her first mecha show. But let’s be honest here, in Gurren Lagann piloting giant robots is a man’s job. Sure, Yoko and Kittan’s sisters pilot a couple of times but it still comes down to the girls providing backup for the guys. This is an important job – just look at how Nia was the catalyst for everything that happened after episode 8 – but it’s just not as cool as ripping a giant pair of sunglasses off your robot and cutting down the opponent with them.

Mind you, this doesn’t bother me. I love Gurren Lagann and frankly my tastes are so “manly” that I’m told people think I’m a guy (that’s probably what you get for thinking that the chauvinism in Golgo 13 is funny). Even so, there’s times when I really do wish there were more anime with girls in the cockpit. In fact I can only think of two with female pilots as main characters: Gunbuster and Gunbuster 2. I do love both of these but there’s only so many times I can re-watch them before hungering for more.

What I really want is a full length TV show revolving around a female mecha pilot, and she can’t just be a moeblob or fanservice character. Unless she’s cute and has a badass-goggle-wearing-planet-sized version like Nono. Have you seen through to what this post really is yet? Yes, it’s a shameless request for recommendations. So if you know, please tell me. Are there any anime that fit the bill?

Oh and I am somewhat optimistic about the upcoming Ride Back which has a girl riding a motorcycle mecha… or is it a mecha motorcycle?