Ep. 130 - A Bromance for the Ages

[Soul Bro Ryu]

Gundamn! @ MAHQ Ep. 130 - "A Bromance for the Ages"
- Download Now!: 64 kbps - 153 min., 20 sec. (2:33:20) - 70.2 MB

Episode Summary:
The Long-Awaited Return to the World of Gundam Age with our review of the OVA, "Memory of Eden". Then, it's ladies' night as we discuss the positive & negative examples of female characters in mecha anime!

Join the Conversation about this episode @ Gundamn.net!

Segment Breakdown for this Episode:

01. Intro: "Neo's News/The Hopers & Dreamers Corner/The Old Timey Drama Hour"
Runtime: 0:00:00 - 0:35:20

02. Anime Addicts Anonymous (Podcast)
Runtime: 0:35:20 - 0:35:54

03. Pretentious Internet Theatre (Podcast)
Runtime: 0:35:54 - 0:36:23

04. 1st Segment: "Anime Spotlight - 'Mobile Suit Gundam Age: Memory of Eden'" (OVA, 2013)
Runtime: 0:36:23 - 1:15:48

05. Second Opinion Games (Podcast)
Runtime: 1:15:48 - 1:16:46

06. SSAA Podcast: The Ass-Backwards Anime Podcast (Podcast)
Runtime: 1:16:46 - 1:17:37

07. 2nd Segment: "One for the Ladies! - The Ups & Downs of Female Roles in Mecha Anime" (Roundtable Discussion, Topic Submitted By Saber)
Runtime: 1:17:37 - 2:00:49

08. I Thought They Smelled Bad on the Outside (Podcast)
Runtime: 2:00:49 - 2:01:39

09. "WSBR's 'Judau & the Junkyard Kids!'" (Commercial?)
Runtime: 2:01:39 - 2:02:28

10. Outro: "Closing/The Gundamn Mailbag!/Peep the Websites!"
Runtime: 2:02:28 - 2:33:20

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[Arbiter GUNDAM]

Did you guys bleed from the eyeballs while making this episode? In any case, you have my sincere condolences for having to touch anything AGE-related again.

[The Fowl Sorcerous]

Five Fists of Science is an actual comic. it's pretty good. I suppose it qualifies for a gundamn review as it does feature Tesla and Twain using a giant robot to stop Lovecraftian monsters summoned by Edison.

[Chris]

Five Fists of Science is an actual comic. it's pretty good. I suppose it qualifies for a gundamn review as it does feature Tesla and Twain using a giant robot to stop Lovecraftian monsters summoned by Edison.

SOLD.

[Arbiter GUNDAM]

Plus Neo, Sayla does get her own custom GM in Origin, so she's even MORE awesome.

[hawk of endymion]

Did you guys bleed from the eyeballs while making this episode? In any case, you have my sincere condolences for having to touch anything AGE-related again.

No bleeding here and everyone should view this, its the last of an era.

[Vent Noir]

Keep in mind that the Bechdel Test isn't everything with regard to portrayal of female characters - in fact, it's main "use" is to point out the number of movies that fail to do something that should be quite easy.

Since you brought up Pacific Rim, I should point out two things about that: First, it does pass the "Bechdel Test for People of Color" (which is passed even less frequently than the standard Bechdel Test), in that it has two non-white people who have a conversation about something other than a white person.

The other is that a "Mako Mori test" based on the movie has been proposed as an alternative to the Bechdel Test:

The Mako Mori test is passed if the movie has: a) at least one female character; b) who gets her own narrative arc; c) that is not about supporting a man’s story. I think this is about as indicative of “feminism” (that is, minimally indicative, a pretty low bar) as the Bechdel test. It is a pretty basic test for the representation of women, as is the Bechdel test. It does not make a movie automatically feminist.

See here for more.

[YokozunaBulldozer]

When I saw the title I was thinking you guys were going to review the many bromances within various mecha titles. As much as I liked some of the mobile suit designs in AGE, I guess some things just can't be saved. Oh well, at least I got Build Fighters to look forward to as of October.

By the way, LBX is from the show/video game series Danball Senki from Level-5. It is one title where Hino played the mecha game right while others may hate him for AGE. I personally recommend the current title Danball Senki WARS if you guys are interested.

[Chris]

Keep in mind that the Bechdel Test isn't everything with regard to portrayal of female characters - in fact, it's main "use" is to point out the number of movies that fail to do something that should be quite easy.

Since you brought up Pacific Rim, I should point out two things about that: First, it does pass the "Bechdel Test for People of Color" (which is passed even less frequently than the standard Bechdel Test), in that it has two non-white people who have a conversation about something other than a white person.

The other is that a "Mako Mori test" based on the movie has been proposed as an alternative to the Bechdel Test:

The Mako Mori test is passed if the movie has: a) at least one female character; b) who gets her own narrative arc; c) that is not about supporting a man’s story. I think this is about as indicative of “feminism” (that is, minimally indicative, a pretty low bar) as the Bechdel test. It is a pretty basic test for the representation of women, as is the Bechdel test. It does not make a movie automatically feminist.

See here for more.

I've had this discussion elsewhere recently, so I'll basically repeat those same points. Yes, I'm aware that the Bechdel test is not meant as a be-all, end-all about the depiction of women in film, but too many people treat it as though it were. You can have two really awful female characters in a conversation about something other than men and thus it passes, but they're still bad characters. I'd read about the Mako Mori test before and forgot to mention it in the show, and personally I find it to be the better test. Or rather, the Bechdel test is the one you start with as a minimum level, but the Mako Mori test is the one you move onto after that.

[TheSuspiciousRedLamp]

So the Toyota Auris is an equivalent of the Matrix / the Old Corolla Hatchback.

Yes Neo, the Auris is also an hybrid like the Prius, BUT, you can also get it with a diesel engine or a good old petrol engine. It's not fast, but at least, even the non-Char version looks better than the terrible Prius/Matrix/Corolla we have here in North America.

[Vixy]

SRC Genesic?
http://blog.yahoo.com/cybergundam/articles/1281877
http://tendoutoys.blogspot.com/2013/08/ ... nesic.html

[Vent Noir]

Maybe I just wasn't paying attention, but I don't remember Noriko Takaya of Gunbuster getting mentioned in the segment on female mecha leads... surprising considering how many other female characters in mecha shows seem to be inspired by her.

[Kaioshin Sama]

The commentary and ratings on AGE seems pretty consistent with a feeling that I've always felt from the Gundamn crew that while Soul Bro and Chris recognize and are pretty vocal about some legitimate issues with the script of Gundam AGE that the true hate for the series rests with the generals disciple in Neo. I'll probably get around to checking out that OVA, but not in a huge rush right now myself.

Regarding the second topic, it's actually something I've been pondering recently myself as I find myself digging female characters in anime a little more again after the moe boom basically gave us a lot of cookie cutter one note personalities for anime characters in general. A couple of recent examples of quality characters just off the top of my head and keeping it brief are Leila Malkal from Code Geass Akito The Rebellion who shows herself to be very much focused on her work and trying to maintain some form of control over the EU's push towards trying to exploit Japanese ex-patriots with a massive hate-on for Britannia as suicide soldiers. She's also proven to have a keen intellectual mind for strategy and capable of carrying on a conversation with series lead Akito Hyuga in her own right as he grills her on her status, ethnicity and true motivations and manages to reply with some pretty good answers that win him over in the end. Next episode shows her leading an operation in a mecha of her own in her own right too which I look forward to and hope manages to continue to build her interesting character.

Another albeit arguably not mecha related is Mikasa Ackerman from the recent Attack on Titan who is pretty much the highest potential soldier in her entire graduating class and a very hardened person with a rather stoic personality, but in spite of this and her obvious capabilities kind of struggles at times still because of her desire to look out for her close friends essentially holding her back at times which is a point of discussion in some key scenes and episodes. Overall very interesting stand out female character though.

Another one is Kuroyukihime from the recent Sword Art Online sister series Accel World who unlike her character counterpart in that series Asuna Yuuki never suffers from the character decay that hits her and leads her to essentially become a damsel in distress who needs to be rescued by the male lead Kirito and who's sole contribution to the plot from about the 1/3 mark ends up being pining after and showcasing her everlasting undying love for him by using her mastered cooking skill stats or being literally locked up in a birdcage waiting to be rescued for pretty much the entire second half of the story. Rather Kuroyukihime is acts as the leader of the protagonists legion and mentor character to it's members and is generally seen giving advice, leading the charge in battles with her near max level character AND has struggles and her own things going on in the second half of the series when she's separated from the core group who have to essentially learn to hold down the fort without her there to help them as the sempai. Probably the most interesting aspect of her character for me which you don't see a lot from female characters because they tend to be in the background or forever overshadowed by the men is her trying to quell her overwhelming ambitious desire for victory and the thrill of combat that comes from playing the Brain Burst game the series revolves around and her fear that it will ultimately destroy her and those she cares about. It's sort of brought up in how the MC Haruyuki admires her for her positive traits and obvious beauty, but is kind of scared shitless of her blood lust at key points as are the antagonists.

This is just a small sample, but Gundam AGE's aside I think female characters in anime are on the right track for the most part in this decade after a questionable turn to appeal more directly to the more bashful sort of otaku that arguably now makes up the core consumer base of anime in Japan.

By the way, really important question, what is that one Patlabor song that keeps popping up as an outro to a lot of discussion segments in Gundamn that was used again at the end of the female characters segment. I recognized the intro as Konya Wo Hurricane from Bubblegum Crisis and thought I knew my Patlabor themes, but this rather swank one eludes me.

[Soul Bro Ryu]

By the way, really important question, what is that one Patlabor song that keeps popping up as an outro to a lot of discussion segments in Gundamn that was used again at the end of the female characters segment. I recognized the intro as Konya Wo Hurricane from Bubblegum Crisis and thought I knew my Patlabor themes, but this rather swank one eludes me.

Honestly, I've never heard this track in any incarnation of Patlabor I've actually watched, so I'm curious where it was actually used (assuming it's not just bonus music material). It could have been a rejected theme for the TV show but it sounds like the perfect theme if Patlabor was a Super Robot show! Here's the info:

Song Title: "Kidoukeisatsu Patlabor" (Track 2)
Artist: Miyauchi Takayuki
Album: "Patlabor CD Box Deluxe Disc 1: Infallible"
Year: 1992

Hope that helps!

[Kaioshin Sama]

By the way, really important question, what is that one Patlabor song that keeps popping up as an outro to a lot of discussion segments in Gundamn that was used again at the end of the female characters segment. I recognized the intro as Konya Wo Hurricane from Bubblegum Crisis and thought I knew my Patlabor themes, but this rather swank one eludes me.

Honestly, I've never heard this track in any incarnation of Patlabor I've actually watched, so I'm curious where it was actually used (assuming it's not just bonus music material). It could have been a rejected theme for the TV show but it sounds like the perfect theme if Patlabor was a Super Robot show! Here's the info:

Song Title: "Kidoukeisatsu Patlabor" (Track 2)
Artist: Miyauchi Takayuki
Album: "Patlabor CD Box Deluxe Disc 1: Infallible"
Year: 1992

Hope that helps!

That did the trick buddy. Thanks.

[NastyNate]

I was so glad Chris remembered the OZ uniforms. I said it outloud in my car when I listened. I was surprised Neo did not say treize's uniform first thing. But I can understand forgetting on the spot and all.

Some point at the beginning of the second topic I did not get what the actual topic was. I had my assumptions but I finally found out at the end in the summary.

[hawk of endymion]

The commentary and ratings on AGE seems pretty consistent with a feeling that I've always felt from the Gundamn crew that while Soul Bro and Chris recognize and are pretty vocal about some legitimate issues with the script of Gundam AGE that the true hate for the series rests with the generals disciple in Neo. I'll probably get around to checking out that OVA, but not in a huge rush right now myself.

Explain how I truly hate Age? Just because I gave the OVA a low score? Because I know Chris' hatred of Age surpasses mine.