Everything Under The Sun... And Then Some!

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Reign of Chaos Episode 12

MACROSS MANIA

We're back from hibernation and ready to kick off another episode! We're starting a new review series this month with my take on the transforming fighter-plane franchise, Macross! There will be planes and singing and more awesome than you can shake a stick at!

EPISODE BREAKDOWN-
Intro (0:00:00-0:10:53)
Commercial - Gundamn!@MAHQ.net (0:10:54-0:12:23)
Segment 1 - Super Dimension Fortress Macross (0:12:25-1:05:35)
Commercial - MacrossWorld's Macross Speaker-Cast (1:05:37-1:06:43)
Commercial - Utah Jobs Radio! (1:06:45-1:07:39)
Outro (1:07:41-1:11:44)

MUSIC IN THIS EPISODE-
Opening sting from ADV's Macross dub
Macross by Kentaroh Haneda & Yoshiki Fukuyama
We Are Celestial Being!! by Kenji Kawai, from Mobile Suit Gundam 00: A Wakening of the Trailblazer
Dog Fighter by Kentaroh Haneda, from Super Dimension Fortress Macross
Watashi no Kare wa Piloto (My Boyfriend is a Pilot) by Mari Iijima as Lynn Minmay, from Super Dimension Fortress Macross
0-G Love by Mari Iijima as Lynn Minmay, from Super Dimension Fortress Macross
Love Drifts Away by Mari Iijima as Lynn Minmay, from Super Dimension Fortress Macross

Check Out My Webzones!
White Phoenix, the blog with Everything Under The Sun!
DayDream Jedi
Reign of Chaos Facebook Group

Other Podcasts
http://gundamnmahq.blogspot.com/
http://chaostheater.blogspot.com/
http://fightersready.freeforums.org/index.php
http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=36874

ALL EPISODES AVAILABLE ON iTUNES

Monday, November 5, 2012

End of an AGE

Episode 11 - End of an AGE
At long last Gundam AGE is over. Join Arbiter and guest host MektonGM aka the Great x 6 grandpa of HOWARD MAAAASSSOONNN!!! as we discuss how this series crashed and burned. Up next on the docket we celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Macross!
Segment Breakdown-
1. Intro (0:00:00-0:01:35)
2. The End of Gundam AGE w/ MektonGM (0:01:36-2:26:17)
3. Outro (2:26:17-2:27:47)
Music Featured in this episode-
Real by Vivid, from Mobile Suit Gundam AGE
Aoi Er by Aurora, from Mobile Suit Gundam AGE
Asu He by Galileo Galilei, from Mobile Suit Gundam AGE
Age-2~Unmei No Saki He by Kei Yoshikawa, from Mobile Suit Gundam AGE
Check Out My Webzones!
White Phoenix, the blog with Everything Under The Sun!
DayDream Jedi
Reign of Chaos Facebook Group
Other Podcasts
http://gundamnmahq.blogspot.com/
http://chaostheater.blogspot.com/
http://fightersready.freeforums.org/index.php
http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=36874

ALL REIGN OF CHAOS EPISODES AVAILABLE ON iTUNES.

Growly Bale Batman

Episode 10 - Growly Bale Batman
We finish up our reviews of the modern Batman movies with the Nolan Batman trilogy. Look forward to our final episode on Batman and the Macross-palooza coming in the next few weeks!
Segment Breakdown-
1. Intro (0:00:00-0:04:33)
2. Commercial -Gundamn!@MAHQ- (0:04:35-0:05:41)
3. The Nolan Batman Trilogy (0:05:43-1:57:18)
4. Commercial -Macross Speaker Podcast- (1:57:20-1:58:45)
5. Outro (1:58:47-2:01:51)
Music Featured in this episode-
Opening sting from Batman Begins
Imagine The Fire by Hans Zimmer, from The Dark Knight Rises
Code Name: Heero Yuy by Kou Otani, from Mobile Suit Gundam Wing
Introduce A Little Anarchy by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard, from The Dark Knight
Rise by Hans Zimmer, from The Dark Knight Rises
Dog Fighter by Kentaroh Haneda, from Super Dimension Fortress Macross
The Fire Rises by Hans Zimmer, from The Dark Knight Rises
Check Out My Webzones!
White Phoenix, the blog with Everything Under The Sun!
DayDream Jedi
Reign of Chaos Facebook Group
Other Podcasts
http://gundamnmahq.blogspot.com/
http://chaostheater.blogspot.com/
http://fightersready.freeforums.org/index.php
http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=36874

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Reign of Chaos Episode 9

Episode 9 - Rage For AGE
In this episode, we're strictly devoting ourselves to the latest and not-so-greatest from Gundam AGE. Episodes 39 to 44 are reviewed with a vengeance as AGE prepares to wrap up in late September. Also we pay a small tribute to the passing of Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, The First Man on the Moon. Next week: MOAR Batman! Enjoy. Download on iTunes.  :)


Segment Breakdown-
1. Intro (0:00:00-0:05:54)
2. Commercial -Chaos Theater!- (0:05:57-0:07:31)
3. Gundam AGE, Eps. 39-41 (0:07:33-0:37:45)
4. Commercial -Gundamn!@MAHQ- (00:37:47-00:38:55)
5. Gundam AGE Eps. 42-44 (00:38:56-01:10:12)
6. Commercial -Fighters Ready!- (01:10:14-01:11:38)
7. Outro (01:11:40-01:16:56)

Music Featured in this episode-
Apollo 11 Landing audio-The Eagle Has Landed
Main Title by James Horner, from Apollo 13
Super Mario Bros. Theme by London Philarmonic and Andrew Skeet, from Greatest Video Game Music
Asu He by Galileo Galilei, from Mobile Suit Gundam AGE
Code Name: Heero Yuy by Kou Otani, from Mobile Suit Gundam Wing
AGE-2~Unmei No Saki He by Kei Yoshikawa, from Mobile Suit Gundam AGE
AURORA by Aoi Eir, from Mobile Suit Gundam AGE
End Titles by James Horner, performed by Annie Lennox, from Apollo 13
One Small Step, featuring Astronaut Neil Armstrong and Walter Kronkite, from Apollo 13

Check Out My Webzones!
DayDream Jedi
Reign of Chaos Facebook Group

Other Podcasts
http://gundamnmahq.blogspot.com/
http://chaostheater.blogspot.com/
http://fightersready.freeforums.org/index.php
http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=36874

Friday, August 24, 2012

Thoughts on Gundam Evolve

As part of my quest to watch more mecha anime, I'm trying to finish up my loose ends with Gundam. I started last year by watching G Gundam (loved it) and Victory (those Shrikes, man). Now, I've finally finished Evolve and am currently watching Stargazer. But here's some thoughts on the Evolve shorts.

1. RX-78-2 Gundam
Not much to say here, it's a glorified clip show.

2. RX-178 Gundam Mk. II
Nice to see the good 'ole Mk. II back in action with angry Kamille. Seriously dude, the camera pod was your own damn fault. :)

3. GF13-017NJII God Gundam
As nice as it was to see the G Gundam and the Rising Gundam back in pretty good CGI, I really don't think that Rain could beat Domon in a straight fight. What really would have been fun would be in the Nobel Gundam had shown up and Allenby and Rai started duking it out with Domon in the middle.

4. RX-78 GPO3 Dendrobium
This one was pretty interesting. We see why the GPO3 was on lockdown and it's not 'cause of milquetoast Kou. Seems like 'ole Jamitov was trying to keep the GPO3 out of the picture so his plans for the formation of the Titans could go ahead.

5. RX-93 Nu Gundam
Now this was pretty darn awesome. I've always like the Nu Gundam and to see it in such glorious CGI was a real treat. I also like how Tomino actually came back and rewrote a part of Char's Counterattack to give it somewhat of a more hopeful ending... even if I actually do want Quess to die horribly. I just wish a little more focus had been put on the Gundam, instead of the Alpha Azeiru.

6. YMF-X000A Dreadnought Gundam
I'm not at all familiar with the SEED side stories, so I didn't have a single clue what was going on here.

7. XXXG-00W0 Wing Gundam ZERO
Ah, good 'ole Wing Zero, blowin' crap up and Heero doing his Solid Snake thing. And even brief cameos of Dr. J and Relena to boot. (Just to be clear, I like Relena Darlian, not the Peacecraft version). Now, I hear tell that this Evolve has actually been added to the story of Wing and takes place in Spring, AC 196. I don't see how that would work as Dr. J would have been dead by then...

8. GAT-X105 Strike Gundam
As much as I love the frak outta the Strike, Matrix bullettime-ing it just looks lame. I wonder who was piloting it, Kira or Mu. Probably.................................. Mu. :twisted:

9. MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam
Technically the last and the best of the Evolve shorts. Not just one but three Zeta variants show up here, with one being piloted by 'ole Amuro Ray and another being piloted by MSV icon Shin Matsunaga. The girl Yurii was also pretty interesting for having just this one short to get to know her, although I thought it was just a little cliche that she had a childhood encounter with Amuro. The Psycho Weapon was pretty awesome and I loved how it took all three Zetas to take it out. Take that Titans!! :D

10. MSZ-010 ZZ Gundam
The ZZ's new backpack looks pretty cool here and since I haven't seen ZZ yet, it was kinda of cool to see Judau motherfrakin' Ashta in animated action. Nice of Judau's old friends to get a new top for his ZZ but I wonder how they paid for that? And I wonder who that Qubeley pilot is? A surviving Puru clone?

11. RB-79 Ball
Nice to see something as lowly as the Ball get some love. This short was done particularly well, as the Ball is stalked through the shadowed recess of A Boa Qu by the lone Zaku and the surprising revelation that the Zaku's pilot was a girl not much older, I think, than the male Ball pilot. Also, I think this one of the extremely rare times that Gundam has strayed towards the horror genre.

12. RMS-099 Rick Dias
You know they had to include Char at some point. The action was pretty good with Char's Rick Dias facing off against his old Zaku II and the Hyaku Shiki versus the RX-78-2 but I'm not sure what the point of the scene in the bar was. And was that Ikeda doing the VA?

13. RMS-108 Marasai
This was also very well done; we get to see the AEUG's Jaburo drop operation from the eyes of a Titans pilot and why am I not surprised he has issues. Just about every Titans member seemed to have issues except Emma. Still, it was pretty well done and that Johnathan kid better be grateful that he missed the nuke. :)

14. Rekka Musha Gundam
I've never seen any of the SD Gundam stuff so this was sort of surreal. I take it that it was based on old Samurai and Kurosawa movies?

15. Newtype Challia Bull
Since I'm in the middle of reading the MSG novels, this was pretty interesting to see the redesigns of the Gundam, Braw Bro and White Base flying around and blowing stuff up. The Braw Bro looks much more intimidating than the original but I wish it did a little more than fire all-range attacks that the Gundam constantly dodged.

So that's Gundam Evolve. For a buncha shorts, it was pretty darn good. 4/5

Reign of Chaos Episode 8

Episode 8 - It's A WestKeatonKilmerClooney Thing 
 Hang on to your Bat-Chairs and put on your Bat-headphones (or Bat-Earbuds), 'cause Arbiter_Gundam and Harlock are back with more Batman. This time we talk about the Batman movies, starting with a brief mention of the short films in days of yore and then on to the Adam West movie and then the Burton/Schumacher movies. The Nolan trilogy will be next week. Have fun!! Download on iTunes.  :)

Segment Breakdown
1. Intro (0:00:00-0:02:06)
2. Commercial -Fighters Ready- (0:02:07-0:03:34)
3. The Batman Movies pt. 1 (0:03:34-01:58:40)
4. Commercial -Gundamn!@MAHQ- (01:58:41-01:59:49)
5. Closing Comments & Outro (1:59:51-2:13:52)

Music Featured in this episode-
The Batman Theme by Danny Elfman, from Batman (1989)
Like A Dog Chasing Cars by Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard, from The Dark Knight
Code Name: Heero Yuy by Kou Otani, from Mobile Suit Gundam Wing
Finale by Danny Elfman, from Batman (1989)

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DayDream Jedi

Other Podcasts
http://gundamnmahq.blogspot.com/
http://chaostheater.blogspot.com/
http://fightersready.freeforums.org/index.php
http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=36874

Reign of Chaos Episode 7

Episode 7 - Reign of Batman
 In this episode of Reign of Chaos, Arbiter_Gundam and special guest host Harlock discuss Gotham's Dark Knight in his comic book incarnations. Enjoy The Dark Knight Rises everyone! Download on iTunes.  :)

Segment Breakdown-
1. Intro (0:00:00-0:02:28)
2. Batman -The Comics- (0:02:43-01:42:11)
3. Outro (01:42:11-01:45:15)

Music Featured in This Episode-
Opening clip from Batman: The Animated Series
Molossus by Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard, from Batman Begins
Like A Dog Chasing Cars by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard, from The Dark Knight
Birth of the Batman/Main Theme by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, from The Music of Batman

Check Out My Webzones!
DayDream Jedi

Other Podcasts
http://gundamnmahq.blogspot.com/
http://chaostheater.blogspot.com/
http://fightersready.freeforums.org/index.php

Monday, July 9, 2012

Reign of Chaos Episode 6

Gundam AGE-3RoC
1. Intro (0:00:00-0:04:14)
2. Kotaku Rebuttal (0:04:16-0:27:19)
3. Gundam AGE reviews (0:27:21-01:04:36)
4. Outro (01:04:39-01:06:07)

Music Featured in this episode-
Back to the Future by Alan Silvestri, from the film of the same name.
FINAL MISSION-QUANTUM BURST by Kenji Kawai, from Mobile Suit Gundam 00: A Wakening of the Trailblazer
Broken Mirror by Boom Boom Satellites, from Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn, Episode 5
Real by ViVid, Gundam AGE OP3
Age-2~Unmei No Saki He by Kei Yoshikawa, from Mobile Suit Gundam AGE
Gallant Char by Takeo Watanabe & Yuji Matsuyama, from Mobile Suit Gundam

Check Out My Webzones!
White Phoenix, the blog with Everything Under The Sun!
DayDream Jedi

Other Podcasts
http://gundamnmahq.blogspot.com/
http://chaostheater.blogspot.com/
http://fightersready.freeforums.org/index.php

Download this episode on iTunes as well!

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Spiritual Thought 6/17/12


"I wouldn't get between those two Captain. They wield incredible power; they're basically gods."
"There's only one God ma'am. And I'm pretty sure He doesn't dress like that."

--Black Widow and Captain America, The Avengers

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Reign of Chaos, Episode 4


Episode 4 - Shepard. Commander Shepard. 
It's time for our series on Mass Effect to end with a review of Mass Effect 2. Shepard rides again!

Segment Breakdown for this episode-
1. Intro (0:00:00-0:06:26)
2. Commercial -Gundamn!@MAHQ.net- (0:06:28-0:08:02)
3. Segment 1, Mass Effect 2 (0:08:04-0:51:40)
4. Commercial -Chaos Theater- (0:51: 42-0:53:16)
5. Outro, Peep The Sites! (0:53:18-0:58:35)
Thanks for listening!
Arbiter_GUNDAM
rocpodcast475@google.com

Music featured in this episode-
Iron Man by Black Sabbath
Take-Off by Kenji Kawai, from Mobile Suit Gundam 00
The Normandy Reborn by Jack Wall, from Mass Effect 2
Suicide Mission by Andrew Skeet & The London Philharmonic Orchestra
Super Mario Bros. Theme by Andrew Skeet & The London Philharmonic Orchestra
Shoot To Thrill by AC/DC
Scientist Salarian clip from Mass Effect 2

My Websites
www.whitephoenix06.blogspot.com
http://reignofchaos.podbean.com/

Check out these podcasts too!
http://gundamnmahq.blogspot.com/
http://chaostheater.blogspot.com/
http://fightersready.freeforums.org/index.php

Reign of Chaos, Episode 3

Episode 3 - Gundam Effect 2
In the third episode, I'm doing lots of catchup! There's lots to talk about as we cover Gundam AGE and Mass Effect 1. The Reign of Chaos has come at last!

Segment Breakdown for this episode-
1. Intro (0:00:00-0:11:29)
2. Commercial -Gundamn!@MAHQ.net- (0:11:31-0:13:04)
3. Segment 1, Mass Effect 1 (0:13:06-0:43:38)
4. Commercial -Fighters Ready!- (0:43:40-0:45:05)
5. Segment 2, Gundam AGE Ep. 29-33 (0:45:07-1:40:38)
6. Shout Out! -Gundamn Fan Chat 1- (1:40:39-1:41:29)
7. Outro, Peep The Sites! (1:41:31-1:45:01)
Thanks for listening!
Arbiter_GUNDAM
rocpodcast475@google.com

Music featured in this episode-
Commander Shepard by Miracle of Sound
Take-Off by Kenji Kawai, from Mobile Suit Gundam 00
Mass Effect Theme by Sam Hulick and Jack Wall, from Mass Effect
M4, Pt. II by Faunts, from Mass Effect
Asu He by Galileo Galilei, from Mobile Suit Gundam AGE
Age-2~Unmei No Saki He by Kei Yoshikawa, from Mobile Suit Gundam AGE
UNICORN by Hiroyuki Sawano, from Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn

My Websites
www.whitephoenix06.blogspot.com
http://reignofchaos.podbean.com/

Check out these podcasts too!
http://gundamnmahq.blogspot.com/
http://chaostheater.blogspot.com/
http://fightersready.freeforums.org/index.php

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Episode 2 of Reign of Chaos

Episode 2 - Avengers Assemble!
In the second episode of Reign of Chaos, Arbiter_GUNDAM discusses the recently released Avengers movie. Superheroes and AC/DC? Ysplz. The Reign of Chaos has come at last!

Segment Breakdown for this episode-
1. Intro (0:00:00-0:04:26)
2. Commercial -Fighters Ready!- (0:04:28-0:05:53)
3. Segment 1, Marvel's Avengers (0:05:55-1:04:37)
4. Commercial -Chaos Theater- (1:04:39-1:06:23)
5. Outro, Peep the Sites! (1:06:25-1:10:32)
Thanks for listening!
Arbiter_GUNDAM
rocpodcast475@google.com

Music featured in this episode-
Shoot To Thrill by AC/DC
The Avengers by Alan Silvestri, from Marvel's Avengers
Assemble by Alan Silvestri, from Marvel's Avengers
Grand Theft Auto IV-Soviet Connection by London Philharmonic Orchestra & Andrew Skeet, from The Greatest Video Game Music
Back In Black by AC/DC

My Websites
www.whitephoenix06.blogspot.com
http://reignofchaos.podbean.com/

Check out these podcasts too!
http://gundamnmahq.blogspot.com/
http://chaostheater.blogspot.com/
http://fightersready.freeforums.org/index.php

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Jules Verne's Gundam, pt. 2


Okay, well things came up so we're just going to go straight to the halfway point here.
Lots of things happening here by the halfway mark but first I gotta say, after seeing all these other Gundam series, I can't believe these guys hang out of the hatches of their mobile suits as much as they do! Why none of them have been killed by doing this, I have no idea.

Anyway, things move along as the Moonrace invasion continues and Guin tries to negotiate with them. I guess all he's interested in truly is their tech? Why do I have this feeling that he may secretly want to gather as much advanced tech as possible and take over the world?
I get the feeling that the Moonrace's general plan was to do a shock and awe invasion so that the primitive Earthlings would be intimidated into doing basically whatever they wanted bu now that Militia has the Turn A and then digs up all those Kapools and then the Borjarnons, that plan gets kinda ruined. Plus it seems that a lot of the Moonrace civilians don't want to get caught up in a war and even end up helping the Militia.

As far as the characters, it's a little difficult to keep track of Dianna and Kihel but once I got 'em sorted out it made more sense. Dianna gets some great development as she sees what happens with her war. Again why do I get the feeling that this armed invasion was more Agrippa and Gym's idea than hers? She also gets some tragedy by meeting the descendant of this Will Game guy who she was in love with. The guy instead falls for the charms of would-be Dianna assassin Teteth Halleh and joins up with the Dianna Counter. This leads to him having a pretty gnarly death, about as bad as some of the deaths we got in SEED and the way Shinn's parents went out. Dude, redheads are hot and all but in this case ya shoulda went with the blond. :) Speaking of Teteth, it seems her ancestors were taken to the Moon and mistreated there, which is why she hates Dianna so much. I really feel sorry for her in a way, because even though she's trying to kill Her Hotness, Dianna, she could possibly be redeemed... until this creepy guy puts a bullet through her skull. Now this gave me bad flashbacks of when Cate Todd from NCIS was shot through the head at the end of the second season. I didn't see that coming and it absolutely floored me, the same with Teteth's death. I actually had to rewind to see when exactly she had been shot. Poor Teteth, she wanted so badly to be part of the Moonrace but ended up getting betrayed by them one last time. I guess you should never trust people who treat you like dirt.
As for Loran, it was pretty funny when he found out who "Kihel" really was. I'm still a little fuzzy on why he's fighting with the Militia. I guess he just wants to make sure the Power of the Turn A doesn't fall into the wrong hands.
I'm also still liking Sochie. She still hates the Moonrace but seems to not resent Loran anymore. On the contrary, I think the only reason she accepted Gavane Goony's offer of "Hey let's get married so we can have 'no regrets'" (joke), was to see if she could make Loran pay attention to her more. I can kinda get that, she's probably pretty lonely with her dad dead, mother crazy and few opputunities to talk with her "sister."
Gavane Goony is awesome solely because he made busted up Zakus awesome. :D
I could type for hours about the rest of the characters but for now I'll just say that none of them annoy me right now. Oh but I almost forgot psycho Corin. I guess he didn't die but I'd very much like to know why he hates Gundams so much.
And Harry Ord's "civilian disguise" was hilaribad.

So the series is hanging on a pretty precarious point with Dianna Counter trying to prevent the Militia from becoming more powerful and excavating the spaceship they found and the Militia not wanting the Moonrace to bully them into giving stuff up to them. Why do I have this feeling that something really bad is going to happen when they get this ship dug up? But there are still a lot of questions like what this Agrippa guy's agenda is and exactly how much stuff is buried on Earth. And when the frak are Gym and Harley Quinn gonna show up?! All in all, I'm enjoying Turn A Gundam a LOT more than AGE right now. Don't know if I can say it's better than Unicorn.

There are some negatives to it though. The dialog in this series is kinda clunky and sometimes makes the characters sound not all that bright. And I do think they should have brought in Gym and Agrippa by now but we'll see.
This isn't really a complaint but I kinda wish that they'd dug up some more MS so that this could be Revenge of the Grunt Suits, with Zakus, Leos, GMs, Nemos and Daughtresses blasting the fancy-schmancy Moonrace suits.
I'm also getting tired of seeing Loran's butt at the end of the credits every time. And I want Lily Borjarno to disappear.

Other than that, bring on the next 25 episodes!! 8)

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

The Reign of Chaos Has Come At Last

That's right boys and girls, Arbiter_GUNDAM has his own podcast, the one with everything under the sun! This is a jack-of-all-trades podcast that talks about anime, movies, books, video games, TV and other topics, so expect plenty of Gundam and especially mecha anime as I work to broaden my mecha horizons this year!

You can find the Reign of Chaos at http://reignofchaos.podbean.com/
We're also on iTunes! Just search for Reign of Chaos under the podcasts tab. Currently we have three episodes up, two of them covering the Mass Effect series and the first 2/3 of Gundam AGE and the third covering The Avengers! Come check it out!
Extras may also be found here at this blog.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Jules Verne's Gundam


Friends, Gundams, Countrymen.

Forasmuch as there is only one full-length Gundam series that I have never seen... I am now going to watch Turn A Gundam, which I have never seen before. And I shall record here my impressions. I am looking forward to it and am anticipating it being one of the best Gundam shows I've seen.

I'll be writing every 5 episodes or something.

Okay so first episode. What a departure. Only about the characters and barely a mobile suit in sight! What a nice change of pace from... well just about every Gundam show ever. Obviously Tomino wasn't getting as much pressure or static or whatever from Sunrise and wasn't strong-armed into putting the title Gundam right in the very first episode.

Why is Loran so lucky that the very first river he falls into is populated by a pair of naked babes? :D Speaking of naked, there seems to be a lot of random nudity in this show and not even really fanservice either (except for Kihel and Sochie)

Guin Lineford: already getting creepy vibes from this guy. Please make him go away. :P

Other than that, although this episode was paced a little fast, it wasn't so fast you became lost. The characters and locations look awesome and I can already tell this is going to be another awesome Yoko Kanno ost.
As far as the mechs go, I'll have to see the FLAT in action before I can offer opinion and I've actually always liked the Turn A Gundam. Variety people! It's all about variety. Probably the only Gundam in recent years that even comes close to the Turn A's uniqueness is 'ole Six Eyes Harute.

Seriously, after suffering through Victory a few months ago, this show is like a breath of fresh air. Oh and the many disapointments of the second arc of AGE. It doesn't look good for the future of Gundam when the Heim's head serving woman or whatever she was has more personality than Romary Stone. 

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Don't worry, I'm not dead. There are big changes coming however.

Monday, March 5, 2012

National Shepard Day

To start off the celebrations for the arrival of Mass Effect 3, I went over to GameStop to pay off my pre-order and stopped by a certain store in the mall and bought myself an N7 t-shirt. Check it.


Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Another Top 10

I was asked what were my favorite non-Gundam mobile suits so here they are.

--OZ-00MS TALLGEESE

--RGC-83 GM Cannon II (White Coral)

--MSA-007 Nero

--RGM-79N GM Custom

--ZMT-S28S Gengaozo

--DT-6800A Daughtress

--MS-07B-3 Gouf Custom

--SVMS-01O Over Flag

--ZGMF-600 GuAIZ

--MVF-M11C Murasame 
 
   

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Monday, February 13, 2012

The Galaxy Is Calling Me!!

Fire Bomber Rides Again

Well, here we are at last. Even though it’s probably been 7 or 8 months since I first watched this, I’ve finally gotten around to writing down my thoughts on it. Now I’m not really going to go into a summary of the plot; I’m assuming that if you’re reading this you already seen Macross 7: The Galaxy is Calling Me! or are at least curious. So, here it goes.

Galaxy, as I’ll be calling it, is a movie sequel to the original Macross 7 TV show. Calling it a movie is a bit broad though as it’s only about ten or so minutes longer than a standard TV episode. It’d be more proper to call it a short film and that maybe why it was played on a double bill with the Macross Plus movie in 1995.
The basic plot is that Fire Bomber, consisting of Space John Lennon, uh, I mean Basara Nekki, Mylene Jenius, Ray Lovelock and Veffidas Feaze, along with Dr. Chiba are practicing with Sound Energy. They get a strange reading from the equipment and Basara runs off to find out what it is, finds another daughter of Max and Milia, fights more Protodeviln space monsters and saves the day. No, I’m not kidding, that’s pretty much it. Like I said, it’s only a half-hour. In any case, the strength of this short isn’t in the battles or fight scenes but the music and the way the characters interact. That said… WHO’S FRAKKING BRILLIANT IDEA WAS IT TO INCLUDE THAT GUNDAMN HIGH-VOICED BRAT IN THIS SHOW??!! I DON’T WATCH THESE DAMN CARTOONS TO BE ANNOYED BY SCREECHY-VOICED KIDS!! IT WAS BAD ENOUGH WHEN I HAD TO SUFFER THROUGH THE BABY IN VICTORY GUNDAM!! Ouch, gotta drink some water now. But seriously, the reason I’ve only watched this twice is because of that damn Pedro kid. Japanese already has a tendency to be high-pitched for some of its speakers but having a freakin’ five-year old following Basara around is the absolute limit. Some might say that he was put in there to make little kids pester their parents into buying toys and Fire Bomber albums but really I think they just wanted to give some character, ANY character an excuse to use Emilia’s macronized breasts as giant bounce bags. Who’s Emilia you ask? Why, she’s one of Max and Milia’s  seven daughters that we barely hear about. For whatever reason she’s macronized herself back to proper Zentradi size (meaning she’s probably around the size of her mother, about 27.8 feet tall) and is on this ice planet called Veil, practicing her singing. Because she’s full size, her voice carries on the winds and sounds like the wailing of demon, leading the planet’s colonists to think that the mountain she lives on his cursed. Basara isn’t intimidated in the least, and takes off in his Fire Valkyrie to find out what’s up. With the damn kid. (insert gnashing of teeth). He meets up with Emilia in her customized Queadluun-Quilqua Battle Suit and ends up having a sing off with her. 
Flash in the Dark!!!

Here we get to here one of the two new songs made up for Galaxy, “Flash in the Dark,” and I have to say, I actually prefer Emilia’s singing voice (Mica Okudoi) to her little sister’s. I dunno, I just never have thought that Chie Kajiura’s voice matched up that well with Yoshiki Fukuyama’s. Anyway, I really like the way Basara and Emilia interact, especially when Emilia takes Basara and Pedro back to her cave-house. We get to see a few interesting things, like Emilia’s home photos and her explanation of why she wants to sing. 
 Family Photos! In the top one, Emilia is either with her older sister
Miracle or her dad Max. In the bottom she's with one of the twins, either 
Muse or Therese.
Top: Emilia in some sort of training simulator.
Bottom: A photo taken soon after Mylene's birth. From left to right and down,
Komilia Maria, Milia and Max, Miracle, Muse and Therese, Miranda, baby Mylene and Emilia.
Moaramia isn't present because this movie was made before the Sega 
Dreamcast game Macross M3.
 
She was inspired by Lynn Minmay, but because she’s macronized, she can’t sing in town, so she lives up in the mountain. She can’t believe that someone small like Basara can outsing her, but Basara tells her that there’s no winning or losing in singing and just try to be the best she can be. And just like that she gets all doey-eyed and leans into to kiss him, which promptly is ruined by Pedro, damn him. For all of Basara’s flaws, you have to give him credit, any woman (except Milia) who spends more than two minutes talking to him, seems to fall in love with him!
 Her lips are almost the size of Basara's head!
I don't think she likes you kid. I certainly don't.
The stars and hearts are interrupted when Gavil or Glavil or whatever his name is shows up, also in search of the mysterious song energy. Now I gotta take a moment to go over something that I didn’t put much detail into in my Mac7 review and that is the Protodeviln. They are one of the reasons I just don’t like Mac7 as much as the other series. The PD just aren’t scary or intimidating. If they were more like the Reapers from the Mass Effect series or the Zerg from StarCraft, then yes I would be impressed. But they’re not. I’ve said before that original Macross was like Top Gun, Battlestar: Galactica and Transformers mixed with a dash of Star Wars but Mac7 and its sequels are more like Star Wars meets Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. Gepelnitch is too pretty in his human form to take seriously, Gigile isn’t much of a threat as he becomes something of a hero, Sivil is too sexy to be scary with her alien dominatrix thing, Gavil or whatever is A JOKE etc. etc. In fact I would give Gavil the Lynn Kaifun Award of Worst Character of the Series, what with his beauty of this and beauty of that. Hey man, how about the beauty of losing? Or the beauty of falling for the same trick of Gamlin’s every damn time except once? Ugh, I really mean this when I say that the Protodeviln are the kinds of villains I would expect out of a Power Rangers series. They only time they’re ever truly threatening is when they reveal the Spiritia Farm and when Gepelnitch’s true form threatens to suck all life out of the galaxy.
In the case of Galaxy is Calling Me! we have to deal with damn Gavil and his pet space monster again as well as a Protodeviln we've never seen before. This is a pretty big plot hole. What happened to this guy after the events of Galaxy? Of course the real life answer is he couldn’t show up again because he was created after the series was finished but in-universe it’s a pretty big stumble. This is also why you don’t create characters after the fact. Anyway, these guys all do a big Gattai with each other but get beat back by the power of HEART AND SSSOOOOOOOUUUUULLLLL!!!! 
 This is why I play Guitar Hero.

At least this whole sound energy thing seems to only work on the Protodeviln and isn’t brought up in the other Macross series that follow. Having said that, Heart and Soul is a great song, especially as sung by Emilia. For a moment there, you think she buys it in the final confrontation, but she does survive. Too bad she doesn’t go with them to the Fleet but I guess she couldn’t with her Quedluun destroyed.
We’re about at the end here, so some last comments. Basara is much more tolerable in this than in some episodes of the TV series. I honestly think he’s at his best when he’s out adventuring and not cooped up on the Fleet or just going out to sing at the Protodeviln. The colonists and the rest of Fire Bomber and Gamlin don’t get much screentime, but that’s okay. The spotlight on Emilia and her interactions with Basara are more than enough. I also like his reaction when he finds out that Emilia is Mylene's Onee-san.
Because this was meant to be movie quality if not movie length, the animation in Galaxy is MUCH much better than the TV series. The characters look crisp, the Valks and Queadluun are beautiful, Emilia is gorgeous and even Gavil and goons look great. Along with EmiliaxBasara, this is one of the high points of Galaxy.

All in all, while it may be short, Galaxy is a nicely done return to the world of Mac7 and is definitely worth a watch, if just for Emilia alone. Now if we only knew what happened to the rest of her sisters…


See you next deculture.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Valkyrie Colors

I've been messing around with Photoshop and I've come up with these color schemes for some of the famous Macross Valkyries. These are only first attempts so not all of them are that good, but I am particularly proud of the green and white VF-1J.
VF-1J Valkyrie

VF-1S Strike Valkyrie (Battroid Mode)

VF-19A Excalibur

 VF-1J Battroid

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Gundam AGE Episode 15


Gundam AGE Episode 15:
Those Tears Fall in Space
It's been a somewhat long journey from October 9, 2011 to this, the last episode of Flit's arc. It is here that we finally learn who the mysterious Unknown Enemy are... they're martians. No not the ones from War of the Worlds or Mars Attacks or any of that other stuff, but humans who had emigrated to a group of colonies which had been built in the Mars Sphere, which is a fairly new term for Gundam as we usually just deal with the Earth Sphere. 
For those who might be kind WTF on what a Mars or Earth Sphere is, it is basically everything orbiting Earth and its five Lagrange Points, or in Mars' case, the martian Lagrange points. As for what a Lagrange point is, go look it up on Wikipedia, I aint your papa!  :)
These martian colonists, who call themselves the Vegans, were abandoned out at Mars by the Federation (why are we not surprised?), or so explains Yark Dole, when the Diva  crew confronts him inside Ambat's control center. 
It seems that some kinda cosmic rays produced by Mars' electromagnetic field or something caused a disease amongst the martian colonist's population. The Federation then abandoned them and they were forced to survive on their own. Now they have returned to the Earthsphere to claim Earth for themselves. How spending 14 years blowing up colonies and such is supposed to help them achieve such a goal is a little confusing at this point but it's nice to know who the UE finally are, even though I think it's a tad early for that revelation. Maybe if this was a more linear show, but AGE's nature seems to be playing this off well enough for now.

Other things in this episode: Flit's palpable rage is nice, giving the character a bit of an edge that he's been lacking. Would he have really shot Yark if Grodek hadn't done it first? Well , earlier he did try to beam saber the guy 
so I'm thinking he might actually have done it. But Grodek technically had the prior claim so he saves Flit the burden. 
I also like how immediately afterward, Yark's son comes in and sees his murdered father and Grodek just gets up in his face and is like, "Yeah, I'm the motherfrakker who shot your dad for revenge. Welcome to my world." 
I'm sure Grodek knew that with this kid seeing what he's done, that he'll have to accept the consequences of his actions as the UE have been made to feel theirs.
Flit's fight against Yark's Defurze mobile suit aka T-Rex Arms was a little disappointing but also goes to show how pumped up Flit is on anger.
Largan Drace actually not dying was pleasantly surprising. I'm glad AGE is avoiding at least a few tropes. Wuulf also isn't dead but there's yet another arc, so we'll see.
Also, the mention of this Sir Ezelcant, who's supposed to be the leader of the Vegans, has me a bit intrigued, as I want to know what this master plan of his is that's still kind of vague.
Emily and Flit also miss an opportunity to talk but I'm pretty sure she heard him mention Yurin. I have to wonder how this is going to affect their marriage in the future?

And now, the finale. In the aftermath of the Ambat operation, Grodek finally lets himself be arrested. During his court martial, he states emphatically that he threatened the Diva crew into going along with his plan and basically puts all the blame on himself. He's sentenced as a traitor and locked up and the Feddies take all the credit for Operation: Ambat Capture and it becomes know as the War of Bat Extermination. Um, what? WTF? The frak kinda name is that? Lastly Millais comments that this attitude of the Feddies' is what has caused this situation in the first place. 
We close the episode with a shot of some Vegan superstructure in Mars orbit and a new Vegan ship heading to the earthsphere with two new Vegan characters that comment about Ezelcant's plan.

All in all, this was definitely one of the best episodes of AGE so far, following on from the last episode and keeping the pace going. And having just watched episode 16, I can now say that I'm extremely confident in AGE's future. So to all the haters and trolls: STFU (shut the frak up) and peace out!  :)