Mamoru Oshii's The Sky Crawlers.


They bill this as Oshii's best work since Ghost in the Shell - note not GitS II lol - this is easily Oshii's best work since Patlabor I & II (he is thankfully not responsible for the walking still birth that is WXIII).

The reason I say you might NOT want to see this movie is that it's Oshii, and his movies are difficult. They are often slow to the point plodding, and when they do talk you get a chunk of exposition or philosophy that may or may not make any sense in English. Yet! and yet the movies are uniformly stunning. The attention to detail boggling.

So I recommend The Sky Crawlers, I actually DO. But be prepared for some slow stretches and difficult dialog.

Also be impressed that Oshii held of for 3/4 of the movie before busting out the fisheye effect! You nerds know what I'm talking about.

Tags: anime, video

Hopefully it has more of a point than the OVA and is not as tedious as the series.

Tags: anime, video

Watched the first disc of Aquarion, the first disc of Avatar vol:3, and episodes 12-14 of Macross Frontiers.

Aquarion surprisingly doesn't suck. It doesn't break the gestalt mecha formula much but it also doesn't feature pre-teens whining about their existential angst. Check the Aquarion web site, they have free episodes you can watch. Also if you want to pick me a up a SoC GE01 Aquarion toy figure, I wouldn't complain.

I'm not certain how I missed the entire Fire Book of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Avatar is definitely one of the best animated shows out of the US. Great action, characters with depth, simple and complex humor.

Macross Frontier continues to be what the sweeping space opera of veritech battles and love triangles that is the hallmark of the franchise. It's not Shakespeare and the characters not as well rounded as Avatar, but VF-25 in strike armor attacking giant bugs in deep space? A Macross that can move and fight as well as any veritech? Check out the slip from episode 7 and tell me what's not to love?

Tags: anime, macross, video

Watched the first episode of Macross Frontiers this morning. Set around 2059 it takes place after Macross Plus and features the veryhot VF-25. Like all Macross there's a singer, a teen pilot, and an evil force.

Honestly I'm really impressed with Frontiers thus far. Maybe it's because I'm sick to death of folks sitting around talking for 27 minutes and fighting for 3. Even Fairy Fighter Yukikaze, which has great planes and battles only pits one or two fighters against four or six enemies.

Seriously, when was the last time an air battle of note involved 4 planes? Never. It's been way too long since missile swarms and fleet-wide battles really ruled an anime. So even with the repetition in basic themes, I welcome Frontiers to the Macross family.



Oh,and the highschool that is shaped like the SDF-1 in firing mode? WOW. I want to go there.

Tags: anime