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Saw the movie, it wasn't bad. Very nice action scenes and it was decently paced. The movie wrapped up most of the remaining plot points and salvaged what it could from the, in my opinion disappointing, second season of Gundam 00. While watching the movie I had some flash backs to scenes from 2001: A Space Odyssey and Terminator 2. On the whole Gundam00 was rather enjoyable but I hope that after Seed and 00 we will get new Gundam series that will rely a bit less on recycling the plot of a previous Gundam show.

Indeed, Isao Takahata was the director of Grave of the Fireflies. Bit hard to blame the director as the movie is an adaption of the novel by Akiyuki Nosaka.

Pen and paper: in case I wake up with an idea for the current article I'm working on. Mobile phone which doubles as my alarm clock "Kafka on the Shore" by Murakami "Unseen Academicals" by Pratchett

For it's My neighbor Totoro. I haven't seen any other film that manages to capture the way children experience the world like this one does. The wonder, the imagination, the fantasy it's all so well done.

I'm not very critical when it comes to Macross. Sure, a few things bug me but nothing to make me dislike any Macross show. The worst moment for me is the times that I realize that when Frontier's movies are done it could take years before we see another Macross anime.

It's not so much being tired of the topic but I don't like Alto very much so I'm fairly indifferent about who he ends up with. I hope that the triangle wont overshadow the events of the second movie as I hope to see more of the events surrounding the Macross Galaxy and aftermath of the war. For the triangle resolution I don't see a SDFM like situation happening where Hikaru made a choice between the two girls. My guess is a choice by default like Alto staying on the Varija homeworld and either Sheryl having to return to Macross Galaxy or Ranka leaving for a galactic music tour. Especially Sheryl is quite a popular character based on character rankings so I doubt the producers want to risk fan backlash by any too serious a relationship.

The Patlabor movies are much darker and political then the TV-series and OVA. The latter are more comedy/slice-of-life type shows. WXIII is the weakest movie of the three but I like Patlabor II the least (which comes chronologically after WRXIII) as the main cast lost much of their sparkle when moving beyond SV2.

I'd buy it. The scheme is nice enough, besides I want to keep my line-up of Hikaru valks complete.

May'n x God knows is a pretty divine combo.

Nothing really picked my interest from the winter season charts except Fractale. First episode of IS: Infinite Stratos did not really make an impression, seems to be cliché harem with mecha. On the bright side, I will have time to dig into the classic Super robot shows. Not quite sure where to begin, but Mazinger Z seems like a nice starting point.

For me it's Hikaru with Basara as a close second. While pretty much opposites both have a grumpy kind of determination I really appreciate in characters. Neither is particularly sociable but lack the cruel streak that I find unappealing in some of the other pilots.

Likewise the movie has been on my mind lately.

Can't agree more. Received mine yesterday and just wow. It was everything I hoped it to be and then some.

Best: Anime Series: Giant Killing - It understands what football means. The absolute star in a lacklustre year for anime. Film: Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya - 100% epic. OVA: Gundam Unicorn Ep2. - It's UC gundam, nuff said. Science Fiction Film: Inception by lack of competition TV Series: Hardly ever watch TV but best show I've seen this year was Madmen PC/Video Game: Starcraft II - RTS heaven Consumer Electronic: Heatbox - Not having to remove frost from my car windows at minus 15 makes me love this device. Toy/Model/Action Figure/Plushie/Nendoroid: Yamato VF-1S Roy Focker TV 1/60

Appleseed!, I so hope it will get the adoption it deserves. Fingers crossed.

Santa with a little help from Amazon was so kind as to drop off the new Japanese version of the Haruhi Suzumiya BR box at my doorstep. It's nice upgrade over the already lovely up-scale from the DVDs. It comes complete with subs and dub.

Camille and Amuro are bishonen in the original definition of the word, but I was talking about bishonen-tropes. Modern bishies based on shoujo type manga: aka feminine, long tall characters who look like they have a personal stylist on call and have a need to share their dark brooding nature to the world. Think Twilight. Often accompanied by a sempai or best friend character for Fujoshi fanservice. Camille and Amuro cannot really be mistaken for teenage girls, otherwise Char would have nailed them on the spot Same way as Minmay is "moe" before the term was coined. However she is not a moe-stereotypical character like Ranka, who starts of as a standard airhead type moeblob with fixed set of behaviours (although she improves in time). As for where Eva comes in: it is often credited with starting off the change in anime from primarily plot driven shows to character driven works. It also set off character cults. Kaworu Nagisa is imo the first true modern bishie in anime. Gundam Seed really "perfected" the principle for mecha with Kira and Arthran.

I'm not a big fan of the love triangle of Frontier but I like the Vaijra and the MF storyline. The "bug" like nature of the Vaijra was essential to dehumanize the enemy and pull off the DYRL plot inversion with the human forces now in the role of the Zentradi. A difference is that post-evangelion mecha shows often have pilots that are effeminate and fabulousin addition to being angsty. These bishonen tropes date back to the increased influence of shoujo mange on anime in the late 90s. The new Bones mecha Star Driver takes the Bishi concept to a whole new level of testosterone estrogen fueled epicness. When have military organisations been portrayed as positive in anime? At best they presented as bureaucratic, wasteful, corrupt institutions and usually ineffective against any major threat. It's always one group, unit or ship including a number of high-school aged kids that is different from the norm and save the day, nothing new or different in MF there.

Character designs by Enami Katsumi (Bacanno). The studio Bones look of characters works well with Macross imo. (From Jikai Blog): Chelsea Scarlett: Pilot at the private military provider S.M.S. (Strategic Military Services) Apollo platoon. A pure-blood Zentradi, her strange background has her viewed as an idol above all. Good at reading others, and a talented pilot. Hakuna Aoba: A Frontier Colonial Fleet “Island 15″‘s old VF-1 Valkyrie Racer. Also the SMS VF-19 in VF-1A cannon fodder scheme is pure win.

True, didn't think much of P&S at first as it was so similar to early cartoon network shows. However since Ep 4. it got better and better. Gainax did it again.

Awesome picture, ugly has it's own beauty. Somehow I can see the A-10 survive it's replacement.

Watched the first three epsisodes of Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai . Really enjoyed it. Otaku centric show about a protagonist who gets introduced to the world of anime fandom through his little sister with otaku-like tendencies. Hilarious was the real life meet up in episode 2 with the mahou shoujo and bishonen fan trading insults.

If Macek was so serious about opening up animation to older audiences, why the need for dumbing down Robotech by adding narration and simplifying relationships? Would his so called adult audience not be able to grasp concepts aimed at young Japanese? I don't buy it. Robotech has never been more then a hastily put together project to cash in on the success of Transformers. Macek just got lucky that a high school/college crowd picked it up, but I don't believe it was intentional. I think you both make a good point here. Gubaba describes the difference between an animation fan and a anime fan. Still, if Einherjar's point holds. What then was the difference between 80s animation (like Transformers, G.I.JOE and Thundercats)that were produced in Japan and 90s localized Japanese shows (like Pokemon, Sailormoon and Dragonball Z) that really triggered the western anime boom?

Finished the Blu-ray yesterday evening. I'm very happy with the way the movie turned out. The pacing is faster then in the TV-series but it did not feel rushed to me. I like that they established Ranka, Alto, Michael,Luka and Klan as an already pre-existing group of friends. This fixed many of the problems I saw in terms of character connections and motivations from the early TV-series. Sheryl, no longer mentor/support character turned rival, is now introduced as the exciting wild-card. On the whole, character progression felt a lot more natural to me. With the focus more on Sheryl, Alto is no longer the self-centered main protagonist but more a friend. Making him a lot more sympathetic. The visual quality is turned up a notch with the movie often having fantastic backgrounds. The CGI are nicely integrated for the most part. The only issue I have with the movie, is the way the characters don't seem to blend in with the background. Somehow the colors and lighting don't seem to work well. This is very noticeable when you compare Itsure no Utahime to other movie/film productions like Rebuild of Evangelion and Garden of Sinners where the blend of character and background is extremely good.

The guy is a rock star, I'm sure his needs will be met. No wonder he ingnores pushy would-be-girlfriends. Besides he's got Clore's fleet to work through, not surprising he never returned to Macross 7.