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Review: Kishin Taisen Gigantic Formula (機神大戦ギガンティック・フォーミュラ)

Posted by ranpha on 23rd December 2008

Posted in: anime review. Tagged: Kishin Taisen Gigantic Formula (機神大戦ギガンティック・フォーミュラ). Leave a Comment

Some of the reused scenes in this anime.

This review of Gigantic Formula should be the last for this year. So, I want to take this opportunity to wish all readers of this blog Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Gigantic Formula is a 2007 anime, so this is just the latest challenger of Nodame Cantabile for the Anime of the Year 2007 title.

Story:-
Sometime in the future, humans has excavated the heads of the ancient Greek gods from locations around the world. Not knowing what to do with the heads, one of the Gods become angry and calls upon a terrible natural phenomenon called the Equatorial Winter, which easily halves the population of the humans. Under threat by another Equatorial Winter, humanity was forced to build giant mechas (or idols) with the excavated heads as their power source and then fought each other for world domination.

This anime features yet another of those near-bloodless wars you can see in other titles like Dual! or Yamamoto Yoko, only that those two anime mentioned did not call their wars with corny names like ‘Wisest World War’. This anime is also heavily influenced by a variety of other mecha anime titles (and non-mecha alike) such as Gundam, Evangelion etc. I want to call this a coincidence, but there are so many similarities to dismiss. For example, the two-pilot configuration taken from Zegapain, the negative conformity factor taken from Dual!, the conformity factor and the age of the main male protagonist himself (14-years old) is similar to what you can find in a certain very famous mecha anime and many more.

A central object in the anime is the resonance sympathy system, used by the main protagonists as an intelligence-collecting tool in the idol war. The writers of this anime use this resonance sympathy system for two main things. First, it helps at character introductions and development and secondly it was used to advance the not-so-stellar story forward, especially in the first two-thirds of the series. The results are mixed; the resonance sympathy system was immense for character developments but it affects the flow of the storyline negatively. This happens because this plot device was overused (the resonance sympathy system was used to explore almost all of the other nation’s idol pilots and their fights) without any consideration of using other techniques of storytelling.

The ending is drawn way too long for my liking, with many dialogues and not enough action. And the dialogues can be contradictory at times. For example, when the America’s pilot says that humans is strong enough and do not need useless Gods, and the main protagonist countered it saying that Gods has hearts too. Meanwhile in the last episode, the main male protagonist was then caught repeating the America’s pilot talking points. This is one of the most stupid turnaround I have ever seen in a anime, proof that the writers do not check their plots.

One of the hilarious attempts at speaking English by the Japanese voice actors/actresses. Really have to be seen (or heard) to be believed.

Character Design:-
The character design of this anime is average; even Macross Plus has better character designs. No complaint for hair color, for all it’s worth, Equatorial Winter may have changed people’s hair for all I care. Mecha design is excellent, better than the ones in Macross Plus. This is definitely a positive point for this anime.

Voice Acting:-
Unfortunately, just like Macross Plus, the voice acting in this anime is just plain average, like the story itself. There are no outstanding characters either in this villain-less shounen mecha anime. And I think I better keep my mouth shut about those Japanese voice actors/actresses’ pathetic attempts of speaking English/Russians/German etc.

Music:-
This anime totally failed at this section. The OST is almost non-existent, which is fatal for an action-oriented title like this and the OP/ED themes are underwhelming at best.

The not-so-seamless integration of CGI and 2D animations

Animation/Direction:-
For a 2007 anime, this anime has average animation quality. There is a lot of stuttering especially in character animations and some fast-paced scenes. CGI and 2D animation are not seamless enough unlike Dragonaut the resonance, but fortunately there are not many of those here. Choreography for battles is distinctly unimpressive; with the pilots’ over-reliance with their idols armaments (those idols probably may have stripped cognitive thinking right after they entered the cockpits – those people cannot think tactics and strategies). The same can also be said about the directing, especially with the resonance sympathy system’s usage as a primary plot device.

Conclusion:-
6 out of 10. Basically, just an ordinary mecha anime that has been swatted by Noda Megumi into the ever growing heap of failed 2007 anime titles that tried to challenge the hegemony of Nodame Cantabile. Macross 7 will be delayed as I decided to watch another series before returning to the Macross franchise.

I have been rewinding two or three times, just to confirm whether the character really say the dialogue above in English.

Review: Macross Plus (マクロスプラス)

Posted by ranpha on 19th December 2008

Posted in: anime review. Tagged: Macross (series), Macross Plus (マクロスプラス). Leave a Comment

This renegade AI acts more like a ghost than, well, a renegade AI.

Diverted by various commitments that comes up near the end of the year, it is only now I managed to watch (and wrote this review of) the second installment in the Macross series, Macross Plus. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as good as its predecessor. Read on to see why.

Story:-
With the dawn of the age of space travelling after the first Macross (having to watch nearly all Macross titles in chorological order sucks), humans and Zentradis (is that the correct plural form?) together are spreading out across the galaxy. In one of the colonized planets, a renegade space pilot is demoted to test pilot status. At his new workplace, he meets two of his childhood friends and a triangle love story is rekindled. BTW, the ANN synopsis says something about a renegade AI, but you do not have to worry about that in this Spanish telenovela anime series because it wasn’t important.

I am this *CLOSE* at putting this anime under my romance genre tag that will ensure that this anime will be judged with a higher standard than usual. A reversal of Macross, the romance subplot becomes the main story while the juicy parts where we can see battles are relegated to the darkest corner of the room. But what really kills this OAV is the fact that the quality of both main plot and the subplot is also reversed, from the excellent storyline in the first series to the just about average storyline in this sequel.

Even with only four 40-minutes episodes, character developments are done very well, albeit with no outstanding character(s). I really miss the excellent main male protagonist in the first Macross. Additionally, the crappy story still moves reasonably well, has good presentation and the usage of flashbacks is impeccable. The ending is presented better than the one in Macross, but it was cheesy and predictable.

Much better character design than the ones we see in its predecessor.

Character Design:-
The character designs in this anime has vastly improved, so much it is like watching two completely different anime that did not come in the same series. Lack of black hair will be ignored considering the settings of this anime. The mecha design is decent, but I have started to think that the Macross series in general, unlike its contemporary rivals like Gundam or Evangelion, did not focus much on the design aspect of the mecha but more upon the stories behind its pilots. This is definitely a positive point of this anime.

The Macross that travels from Pluto orbit in the first installment of the series. Japan sure tried hard to make it similar to the look at the first season.

Voice Acting:-
Unfortunately, unlike the first Macross that was created more than a decade before this one, the voice acting in this anime is just plain average, just like the story. There are no outstanding characters either.

Music:-
The OST is still excellent, and the songs performed here by the renegade AI are better than the ones performed by Lynn Minmay. But from the OP/ED themes, only the theme used at the start of the first episode and the ending of last episode (and as inserts too) is of any good.

This is how it looks like inside a fold or hyperspace. For the sake of consistency, I hope the next iterations of the series will keep this consistency.

Animation/Direction:-
Just like character design, the animation in this anime has improved considerably. No problem even in fast-paced scenes either. Choreography has improved a lot too; here you can actually see some excellent mecha dogfights and hand-to-hand combats when the anime get away from the cheesy love triangle main story. The directing, which is an improvement compared to the first Macross, is decent and does his works well.

Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. Not being categorized as ‘romance genre standard‘ helps this anime immensely. Gigantic Formula, downloaded by my sister will come next before I watch the next installment of the Macross series, Macross 7 that has 51 episodes.

One of the two main male protagonists, should have been up there instead.

Review: Super Dimension Fortress Macross (超時空要塞マクロス)

Posted by ranpha on 22nd November 2008

Posted in: anime review, perfect score. Tagged: Macross (series), Super Dimension Fortress Macross (超時空要塞マクロス). 1 comment

Consistency is not the virtue of this anime.

After the 2 Urusei Yatsura reviews that really takes a lot of my anime-viewing time (is it 3 months?), I should be able to make more frequent postings from now on. For starters, today I will review another anime that I have watched during my elementary school years, Super Dimension Fortress Macross (just like Genesis Climber Mospeada). This is the first of many Macross reviews that will come, as it seems that you need to watch everything from the start if I were to watch Macross Frontier later on.

English in this anime seems to up to par with mine, or is it?

Story:-
A mysterious but highly-advanced giant spacecraft crashed onto Earth, and it takes Earthlings 9 years to restore it, naming it Macross in the process. During its maiden flight, an alien force called the Zentradi stormed the party and attacked the spaceship. Left with no other choice, the captain of Macross decided to enter hyperspace but this caused them to be diverted towards Pluto's orbit. From there on, the crew of Macross has to fight their way through wave after wave of Zentradi's space fleet in their bid to return to Earth.

Let me get into the strong major positive point of this anime first. The story in this anime is excellent, better than many mecha anime I have watched before. If I were to make comparisons, Macross is better than any Gundams I have watched (Wing, the two SEEDs and 00), Mospeada, Heroic Age and can easily match the story in Neon Genesis Evangelion. It has some problems with scene transitions and story presentation (these will be commented below), but overall the story expanded and flows very nicely in a good pace. Unlike the titles mentioned above, this anime also has within it a great romantic sub-plot involving the main male protagonist and two other major female characters. This sub-plot helps negates the negative effect brought by the time-jump plot device that happened in the last third of the series. The ending is decent, although probably it can be expanded into 2 or 3 episodes instead of just one.

Character development is also where this anime has done very well, with the main male protagonist being the best characters in this series. Unlike many other mecha anime out there, the main male protagonist is being conveyed as a normal mecha pilot in a normal mecha instead of a God-like one like in Heroic Age or SEED (not going berserk ala Shinji Ikari is also a big plus). One of the negatives in this anime is that some of the actions performed by him, especially in the early parts of the series, are unbelievable even with suspension of disbelief. Examples include saving a girl free-falling in mid-air and also being able to re-enter Macross with his Earth-only propeller plane in deep space near Pluto orbit. The latter is truly jaw-dropping, as it bends the law of physics beyond what is acceptable even in a Japanese mecha anime (I would have accepted it if he is a superhuman, but he is not). And the less said about the hero's attempt to pull a tuna into Macross from deep space without a spacesuit and oxygen supplies, the better it is for this anime.

With unbelievable actions come unbelievable scenes and events, which is another drawback for this anime. For example, it is really astounding that the space vacuum and intolerable hostilities of Pluto's orbit did not instantly kills the refugees that were transported (or folded) with Macross. Somehow, I do not really think the bomb shelter they were in was designed to withstand vacuum and air pressure from within the shelter. Some of the scenes are also bizarrely constructed; for example, when the Vermillion team punched a hole on the alien spaceship as the genius glass-wearing pilot throws out Britai (episode 10), they did not use the same hole to escape, opting to create another hole instead (and they were captured for this utter stupidity). For all the outrageous scenes before this, it is strange that they did not use the same hole regardless of the dangers.

What did people do in a Rest Rant?

Character Design:-
The character design in this anime is not bad, although it can be better because Urusei Yatsura that has been reviewed here before this have it better. Lack of black hair can be forgiven in the setting this anime is in, and for its time, mecha designs is good.

This Zentradi guy is hilarious!

Voice Acting:-
Meanwhile, the voice acting in this anime is excellent, with Lynn Minmay and Misa Hayase being the best of them all. Definitely a positive point of this anime.

And they can be perverted too! Just look at the Zentradi guy at the background! Hahahaha!

Music:-
The OST is excellent but only the nostalgic ED theme is of any good. The ED theme really takes me back to my forever-lost youth, watching this anime dubbed in Malay.

You have to watch this fighting scene to realize how awful choreography in this anime is.

Animation/Direction:-
Even with a 5.5 million yen budget per episode (as claimed in ANN), the animation quality is awful. Urusei Yatsura that was aired in the same period has better animation. Strangely, this awfulness only happened in slow-paced animation, not the fast ones such in action scenes. Choreography is best described as below average, applies to mecha battles or real-life ones (see above screenshot). Space battles is nowhere as good as, let's say, in Legend of Galactic Heroes.

The directing is definitely the major weakness of this anime. Many of my comments about unbelievable scenes/events applies here, but what really takes the cake is presentation of key events. A glaring example that makes me go WTF is the destruction of Earth by the Zentradi in episode 23 or so, which happened in less than a minute and with so little fanfare, the significance of the event was massively downplayed.

Only in Japanese anime you can see how an ISBN entry can become a telemetry signal.

Conclusion:-
10 out of 10, despite the numerous weaknesses I have listed above. The story is really that good, nearly matching Stellvia of the Universe in terms of impact. Macross Plus, Macross 7, Macross Dynamite and finally Macross Frontier should complete my Macross journey, although do not be surprised if you see other anime titles being reviewed between them.

A tuna from outer space. The way the main male protagonist obtains it is unbelievable.