Mecha Talk

Over the years, many fans have suggested series that they think I should review. Now, I never review a series just because people ask me to, but I will certainly check out a series if it's recommended. After that, I decide whether or not to review a series based on its quality. With that in mind, are there any series you would suggest that I screen for potential reviews? A couple of guidelines to keep in mind:

-It must originate from Japan (no Transformers, sorry).

-It must be mecha/sci-fi.

-It can't be part of any section we already have on the site (i.e. Brave).

-Please don't make any mentions of fansubs or bootlegged DVDs. Just the name of the series and a basic description are good enough.

Like I said before, I won't review something just because it was mentioned in this thread. Each title will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. That's enough babbling for me, so get those suggestions started.

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"What did catch my eye, however, was a podcast named Gundamn!. At first I thought it was a podcast about firearms and [rednecks] discussing their collection, but after looking at the episode titles I was sold." - Xhavalor

PSN: amuromsz006

TEXHNOLYZE. Licensed by Geneon.

The show takes place in a dystopian future and mainly focuses on four characters. The plot? There is none. Know only that they all are in LUKUSS, a massive underground city for the scum of the surface. It's a really, really, REALLY enthralling series with little dialogue in the initial episodes, excellent animation, etc, etc.

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Starblazers (Space Cruiser Yamoto) Produced by YOSHINOBU NISHIZAKI in 1974

In the year 2199, life on Earth was threatened with extinction by the mysterious planet, Gamilon. In the middle of the twenty-first century, this mysterious stellar nation, from a planet far outside our solar system, declared war on Earth. They bombarded Earth with deadly planet bombs.
The surface of the Earth became uninhabitable, as the deadly radioactivity cause by the bombs covered the world. People could only survive my moving to underground cities, miles below the surface of the Earth.
The people of the world united against a common enemy. But, one-by-one, Earth's defense fleets were wiped out. There was no defense against the bombing. The Gamilons would accept nothing less than total surrender. But the Earth Defense Command refused to yield. And the Gamilons continued their siege.

In one year's time, all life on Earth would become extinct as the deadly radiation sank deeper into the Earth.
But one day, a spaceship crashed on Mars bearing a message from Queen Starsha, of planet Iscandar, 148,000 light years away. She offers CosmoDNA to Earth, a machine which can rid it of the deadly radioactivity. So planet Iscandar must be reached. But, it is 148,000 light years away, in a time when man had never even ventured outside the limits of the Solar system. Is it possible to travel there and back, in just one Earth year?

AHAHHAHAHAHAHAH!! Er, don't hurt me. Um, Neon Genesis Evangelion (plus EoE) and I think that you should expand your guys' manga reviews. And if you do that, Full Metal Panic's pretty cool and so is Akira.

I know people who can have you killed.

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"What did catch my eye, however, was a podcast named Gundamn!. At first I thought it was a podcast about firearms and [rednecks] discussing their collection, but after looking at the episode titles I was sold." - Xhavalor

PSN: amuromsz006

I will survive just for the fact I have an old picture of Heero and a picture of Mu. You can't kill me now! Muahhahahahaha!!!

In other news, You should review Evangelion. It's a "classic".

Not agree. While NGE is great, MAHQ strongly state there won't be NGE section here. Changing the policy might encourage people to spam Chris with "section request" e-mail once again...

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We, the big brother type lolicons, are sensitive folk.

Oops. Sorry.

You rang?

FULL METAL PANIC!

Though we would need technical specs for Bonta-Kun...

I also recommend ?FULL METAL PANIC!?, I?ve seen both it and ?FMP: The Second Raid.?

I found them both to be very well done Mecha series. I?ll simplify my opinions of them for the sake of expediency.

FULL METAL PANIC! is made of Win.

FULL METAL PANIC! The Second Raid is made of both Win and Gold.

I haven?t seen Fomofu(sp?) but I hear it is funny.

To argue the point against NGE. It makes no bloody sense, and technically the EVAs aren?t mecha since they are made of dead angel bits.

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Everything I know about rock music, I learned from K-ON!!

Would Zoids be any better?

Well it is "Sifi". And it makes sense when you research it, like I do with most series. And the only part that makes NO sense is Eoe. I'd like to see what Chris's opinion is on the series. And I've shown the "popping people" part to people over at my house. And I've lost all the episodes of Eva from the start to the introduction of Asuka.

AHHHH!!!! THE ADAMS FAMILY GIANT DOOR OPENER GUY!!!!

I wouldn?t know, I haven?t seen it.

I cluster NGE in the same category with Rah Xephon since, although there are mecha elements, they the anime itself is more about some otherworldly interference or divinity. Meaning they are based more on metaphysics.

So far the only Mecha series I?ve seen that pulled off a balance of metaphysics and Mecha would be Fafner.

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Everything I know about rock music, I learned from K-ON!!

Other than Full Metal Panic, I suggest Gasaraki, and Nadesico. I also just started watching Mars: Day Break, which so far is pretty cool. I thought it was pretty original.

Eureka 7, Anyone? Manga and/or Anime.

Similar to NGE, MAHQ already state that there won't be Zoid section here. (see FAQ page. And even worse...


I think Full Metal Panic series and Nadesico would be great addition though.[/url]

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We, the big brother type lolicons, are sensitive folk.

The "Gunnm" manga is something you might want to look into - it's better known in many places as "Battle Angel Alita", but I prefer to use the original names as I've learned them... in this case even the mais character got hers changed, something the originall author, Yukito Kishiro, eventually parodied later on in the series itself.

It's not a traditional "mecha" series in the sense of having people piloting giant robots in it, although mechanical designs are ever-present (the leading character is a cyborg herself, her head being the only non-built part of her body, and most others characters aren't that different in that regard - there's even a subtly-mentioned paralel economy around that in the scrapyard city where the story begins), but there are indeed some big mechs in the mix - Gally, the leading character, actually specializes in fighting those, and even if such fights don't happen that often, they do tend to be memorable (Den's certainly comes to mind).

The story can slap you around emotionally rather hard at times, there's some fine humour in there too - Kishiro has pretty much taght me the importance of the moment of page-turning due to the ways he takes advantage of that to affect the reader.

It's probably rather hard for me to try and do justice to the series here, but I do certainly reccomend it.
If you pick it up, start from the beginning - the series' success has lead to a new series/sequel, "Gunnm: Last Order" that works as the true ending/extension the original (which was somewhat rushed back in the day due to Kishiro having health problems), but from what I read of that so far the original is still preferable - this new extension is having some gimmicky moments and probably should be one's first experience of the story.

Ghost in the Shell (series and movie) I guess. If you made a section on it, I could provide lineart and what not. (Interesting mechs BTW) :S

And manga! Need me some good-quality Fuchikoma lineart! :)

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---GEC
It will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine.