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Sentai Filmworks licenses Broken Blade
Sentai Filmworks announced today that they have licensed the mecha anime film series Broken Blade. The series contains six movies, each one about 50 minutes long.
In Cruzon, children are born with the ability to control quartz. This power allows them to levitate simple objects—or control enormous and complex mobile battle suits called Golems. But when an ancient Golem is discovered during the height of a brutal war, a young king and his beautiful queen turn to Rygart Arrow. Though an “un-sorcerer”, Rygart can miraculously pilot this ancient and powerful weapon. But in war, school friends can turn into bitter enemies and allies have suspicious motives. Strap yourself in, power up, and prepare for the heavy metal mecha action of BROKEN BLADE!
Sentai Filmworks will have the first movie streaming on The Anime Network later this month, with a home media release on DVD and Blu-Ray to follow in 2012.
Stuff I Bought This Week – May 6th
Jinki: Extend Vol. 1-3
Plot Synopsis: “In Aoba Tsuzaki’s world, everything seems normal. An over-the-top modeling fanatic, she spends her days locked in her room, happily building plastic robots. But there’s rumbling beneath the surface: an evil enemy of mankind threatens to destroy the Earth. And when a cross-dressing kidnapper brings Aoba face-to-face with a real fighting machine, her robot dreams give way to frightening nightmares. She is unwittingly recruited into Angel, an elite fighting force which pits its giant robots not only against the ancient Jinki, but against an unseen evil that is working behind the scenes.”
This is something else that I bought when Crunchyroll had it has a deal of the day. It was like $5, and I figured what the hell, gotta justify that premium subscription somehow. I’ve actually watched the whole thing. I don’t actually remember any of it. Like, that entire plot synopsis up there? I don’t even remember any of that stuff. At all. It was just thoroughly uninteresting to me, presumably because a mecha show featuring a cast of young teenage female pilots doesn’t really grab my interest. Though apparently someone in Japan felt like this show about young teenage female mecha pilots didn’t have nearly enough hardcore fucking, because it’s since been adapted into an eroge.
Purchase Jinki: Extend at RightStuf. Or don’t. I certainly wouldn’t recommend doing so.
Manga Review: Mobile Fighter G Gundam
The Gundam series is known for being a truly epic series, spanning the length of many, many anime series. So, would this historic mecha brand do as well in manga form? I think it’s very possible, but unfortunately Mobile Fighter G Gundam slightly misses the mark with one potentially fatal flaw.
In the universe of G Gundam, Earth has become an almost uninhabitable battlefield and people now mostly live in space colonies. In order to keep peace, every four years there is a tournament held, where each country picks one Gundam fighter to represent them and fight. The winning country then gets to rule over the other space colonies and Earth until the next tournament comes around.
The main character, Domon, is the fighter for Neo-Japan. He isn’t fighting for the pride of his country, however; the government is holding his father in a cryogenic sleep for a crime he didn’t commit, and so Domon is using the Gundam fights to hunt down the man truly responsible while fighting to win the tournament and his father’s freedom. The story is about his quest for the truth and the government conspiracies that are uncovered along the way.
If you have heard of G Gundam before reading this review, you probably know it best for being a very eccentric story, to say the least. Each Gundam is based off a fairly blatant stereotype of its home country, which can make it hard to take the story seriously at times (Don’t believe me? Go check out Neo-Holland’s Windmill Gundam or Neo-Mexico’s Tequila Gundam!). It doesn’t help that the ending is pretty cheesy for a Gundam story (It’s still very satisfying, though!).
Patlabor Movies 1 & 2: A Blast from the Past
It was a dreary Sunday afternoon. A torrential rain was downpouring outside my window and a loud thunder was booming in the distance. Going outside was clearly not an option, so I opted to dig into my anime DVD backlog a bit. From having constantly heard nothing but praise for the series, my choice was clear: I was going to watch the Patlabor movies.
Being not too familiar with the Patlabor series, I’ll give as much of a background information as I can. Patlabor is a mixed media franchise that spans across a manga, a TV series, several OVAs, and three movies. The series takes place in an alternate late-’90s era where mecha known as “Labors” are used by the police, military, and in construction. The first two Patlabor movies are directed by the famed Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell, The Sky Crawlers).
The Gundam Chronicles: 003 – Gundam Wing Part 1
So far things have been going well in my “Gundam Project.” I have successfully finished watching Part 1 (episodes 1-25) of Gundam Wing. Part 2 is being shipped to me, and hopefully it will arrive soon.
I’ve been enjoying the show so far. I do have some issues with it, but first the good stuff. The fight scenes are really cool, as expected from a mecha series. Of course, they’re not nearly as visually appealing as today’s visuals, but given the time that the series was made, I’d say they did a pretty good job. The characters are all pretty like-able for the most part. My favorite character thus far has been Duo. I really like his positive attitude about everything, and I think he has a good voice actor too. I like Zechs too, though I think he looked a lot cooler with his mask on. Now he just looks like some generic bishounen character.
The story has been pretty good, though there are definitely pacing issues. Some of the conversations just seem to drag on for too long. I understand that Gundam Wing is meant to be partly political, but unfortunately that kind of stuff just doesn’t interest me. Aside from that, I am greatly enjoying the scenes where there is plot development. For example, I loved in episode 10 when Oz unveils and executes their plan to take over the Earthsphere Alliance. That was certainly something I was not expecting.
So far I have been watching the show dubbed. Some of the voice actors are downright terrible. I understand that the standards for good voice acting weren’t as high back then, but really now! For example, General Septum’s voice is so outrageous, I actually laughed every time he spoke. I guess I should pretend that’s a good thing.
So far, the show has been mediocre. I realize that I may not be appreciating it fully because I just can’t pay attention to the long drawn-out conversations. Thankfully, the narrations in each episode and the next episode previews are helping me stay on top of the story. The archaic visuals may also be affecting my enjoyment of the series, and I’ll admit that I’ve been spoiled by today’s anime. It’s tough for a “new anime fan” like me to fully appreciate an older series because of this. At any rate, I will continue to watch and will finish Gundam Wing. After that, G Gundam will be next. Since it’s a comedy, I think I will have an easier time appreciating it.
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