caragnafog dog wrote:The abandoned steak was the only part of Macross that made me cry.
Runner is where it's at. Still one of the best ED's ever. The regular version is bad enough on its own but I'm hopeless against one in finale not to speak of the duet in end of 2012. Oh god that duet...
After War Gundam X
This series was overall positive surprise. It wasn't
great, it had a very weak start and some deep running issues but on the other hand it eventually became quite engaging, cast was fine and for the first time since Zeta (or CCA) the franchise actually did something with the absolutely central SF concept of Newtypes
and I can't stress how overwhelmingly positively impressed I was by how After War dealt with it.
While I would've preferred more Fallout apocalypse After War was still very fascinating "what if" take on UC Gundam. Jamil was essentially shellshocked adult Amuro (with his Char counterpart making small appereances towards the end) while battered UC expies from Fed remnants to cyber newtypes run around the setting merrily. I found this very interesting experience that was nice on its own but extra interesting seen as mirror of UC.
I warmed up slowly to the cast but eventually ended up rather liking it. Garrod is stereotypical 90s shonen lead but I found him tolerable/likeable enough and it was really fresh change of pace to have a MC who very pointedly was NOT Newtype nor angsty ball of teenage autism but rather a happy go lucky guy who waned to Save The Girl. It would've been hard for me to remain utterly indifferent to such positive chap. As for others, Tifa remains passive and underwhelming post-Rei heroine for majority of series but I liked those merc guys (the episode dedicated to duo when they left home was one of the best) as well a blonde Misato. What really impressed me was the obligatory Psycho Bitch character eventually getting development that turned her into decent human being instead of badly written clichebeast destined to die horribly a la Tomino. The least convincing characterization comes from the villains because Frost brothers were seriously lame overall and kind of retardedly written in terms of actions and motivations behind those actions. They could've been ok early- to midbosses but as main antagonists they're...uhh, yeah.
Animation is decent for the era and doesn't abuse recycling beyond point of welcome and mecha designs were fine. I was rather fond of X Gundam and its cool special move. Dibs also for the Bit Mobile Suit system that was fairly interesting next step from funnels of which I got utterly sick of already back in ZZ.
As for story it has its problems - a bit rushed towards end, weak beginning, Newtype Dolphins don't make much sense - but overall I found it pretty engaging and interesting ever since the New Feddies started to take central role. I especially enjoyed the short arc set in East Asia's independent kingdoms.
So yeah, pretty decent anime I enjoyed unexpectedly much which is more interesting SF than any other Gundam I've seen in long while and had fairly interesting story to boot. It doesn't really do any single thing particularly well but overall I found it enjoyable enough to consider this score a bit too harsh but nevertheless
6/10
. But to my surprise.... it's actually not so bad. It gets little cliche, but the demon battles make up for it.
