The Shade

I'm currently watching the Universal Century series in chronological order. If you don't mind watching a show that starts slow, but finishes rather well, I would watch the original Mobile Suit Gundam. Mind you, my impression of it is that the first 30 episodes, while not terrible, were somewhat slow. The payoff is episodes 31-43. Once you reach this point, it picks up rather well. Most Gundam series are like this, the first 20 to 30 episodes are usually the establishing episodes (setting up the world, characters, mecha, etc). Once they pick up, they usually do so rather well. I have not yet watched the movie trilogy. These are compilation movies. They are composed of footage from the TV series and contain some new animation. While I can't give you an opinion of them, my impression from various reviews are that they flow pretty well, for compilation films that is. As for the side series (8th MS team, 0080 War in the Pocket, MS Igloo, and 0083 Stardust Memory), watch them only if you are a completist. My opinion of them is that, while they contain nice animation (certainly much nicer than the original TV series), they never really did it for me at all (8th MS Team being the best of the lot). As for the next major TV series, Zeta Gundam, I'm still in the process of watching that. My review of it will follow. Oh, and don't follow Mr March's suggestion. If you start with 0080 War in the Pocket, you may end up castrating yourself in order to make sure you never have children as annoying as the lead in this show.

Boooooo

Just finished the Dirty Pair OVA. It was ok, but nothing special like the TV Series or Project Eden. Next stop: Zeta Gundam (no spoilers please)

Finished Baccano. Even though the story was a bit confusing, I whole heartily recommend this series.

Finished episode 6 of Bacanno. The plot is slowly starting to become clearer. So far, it was worth waiting the extra week for the DVD set to arrive by mail. The cast seems pretty well rounded so far and that's helping the show stay fresh. I am starting to understand why so many people were talking a lot about this series last year.

Finally got my Bacanno DVD's through the mail (thank you Canada Customs for holding them up at the border). Watched the first 2 eps. I'm confused , but I've heard that that is the reaction you're supposed to have at this point in the series. It's got my interest (what with the, um, very interesting & varied cast), and I'll keep watching.

It did take its time to get moving, but once it did... As for the theme song, it changes every 13-14 episodes.

Probably for 2 reasons: 1) The remaster R2 DVD boxed set hasn't been out for that long yet (2008), so Bandai/Big West probably want their stock to sell out as much as possible. 2) As M+ was animated (?) on 35mm, it would probably require a new transfer. Maybe the wait is just to make sure that the money spent on a new transfer would translate well into sales. Tying back into 1), in order to maximize profit, they would wait until they knew they could squeeze as much of out of new BD set as they can.

You get another recommendation for Planetes. The hard sci-fi aspects of it were so well handled, that it's a wonder we don't see more shows following what they did.

Good to know I wasn't the only one who didn't like Gundam 0080. Yeah, the parts involving the adults was well handled, but it's unfortunate that the majority of the OVA focused on an 11 year old kid. Oh well, I'm done with it. Canada Post still haven't delivered my Baccano DVD's , so I've decided to start watching the Irresponsible Captain Tylor OVA (that's I've been putting off for a few months now).

Just finished watching Mobile Suit Gundam 0080 War in the Pocket. Somebody shoot me. Arrgghhh!!! This OVA sucked. Next show: hopefully my Baccano DVD's can arrive by mail soon. Darn Canada Post and their slowness.

The first 3 were officially released by Tokyo Pop, but the series fell victim to their downsizing a couple of years ago and they stopped releasing them. There are fan translations out there for books 4-10: a Google search might help.

Thanks Jason. Please keep us updated.

Hi Jasonc. Not to sound impatient, but how's the project going?

Finished Gundam 08th MS Team. I liked it for what it was: a side story to the one year war. But I have to ask: wtf was up with episode 12? I realize this was just an epilogue, but it really added nothing at all to anything. Next stop: Gokusen live action season 2. Let the wackiness continue!!!

Currently watching Gundam 08th MS Team. I must say that, after the really lackluster MS IGLOO, this is like a breath of fresh air. 08th MS Team started off really well for the first 2 eps, then slowed down. I'm up to ep 8 and it looks like things are starting to pick up again and move towards the climax. Hopefully, for a side story to the 1 year war, this still delivers the goods (at least by the standards of a side story OVA).

Sweet. Please keep us posted.

When you're done making your case art, can you post samples? I might be interested in them. Also, are you going to do 16 standard DVD cases, 8 double cases, 16 thin packs, 8 double thin packs? Just wondering.

Turn A was a good enough show, but yeah, that theme song really brought the show down a notch or 2. If you want to know whether or not you should watch it, do what I did. Skip the theme song each episode and be patient for the first 20-25 episodes. It will be slow, but the wait will be worth it.

I went a bit retro (now that we're in the 2010s, is the 1990s now considered old school?) and decided to watch "Now and Then, Here and There" from 1999. I've watched 6 episodes so far. It's good, but sort of depressing. Can't wait to watch more.

I'm Misa Hayase. (If my wife sees this, she'll probably want to ask some questions)

Thanks, and thanks for the quick reply.

How good were the VIP subs? As good as the PsyKorps/Central Anime ones?

Really? Then I'm counting myself lucky that I never bought the old set. Oh, and this series just keeps on being funny.

Have watched 6 episode of Irresponsible Captain Tylor so far. Man, this series is hilarious. A note, I'm watching the Right Stuff Remastered DVDs that were sourced from the remastered Japanese DVDs. While I love having a remastered product, and the video looks crisp & sharp, I think the Japanese firm that remastered this series also worked on Macross DYRL. The video is pretty grainy, even on my 31 inch old CRT screen. Aside from that, I'm loving this series and am looking forward to the next episodes.