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Jul 17, 2022
Nadia is gripping from the start, tightly constructed, easy to lose yourself in, and very interesting if you're familiar with Anno's other works. However, its masterful beginning leads into a clumsy, seemingly neverending sea of filler, where character development occurs only to be reversed the next episode. It is clear that the additional episodes requested due to the show's success were unnecessary and only by the very end does it regain the tone and overall engagement its beginning has.
I will mostly discuss the filler in this review. At first, I was surprised that it wasn't too bad, and thought that people on here and otherwise
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were just over exaggerating. Lots of people just don't like when a show slows down or gets lighthearted for a bit. Nadia's stranded island arc is definitely not the worst offender of the filler, and at quite a few points isn't filler at all, progressing the story, both in regards to plot and the romance of Jean and Nadia. But its climax leads not into the final episodes, but more of the filler we just left behind, this time with a lazy, emotion baiting, frustrating love-triangle that makes the audience question Jean and Nadia in the first place. The crux of the issue is that it undoes climatic, romantic developments made during the island arc and leads us to believe Nadia does not care whatsoever for Jean, which lingers over the show's finale. The first half of the show gives us a clear picture of the intended development. Jean is persistent, Nadia is skeptical, they butt heads, but persistence pays off, and Nadia as a result becomes a warmer, more likable person. The filler arcs depict Nadia as unchanging, obnoxious, and make her easy to dislike, dampening the sacrifices she makes at the very end for Jean's sake.
I would recommend that if you do watch Nadia, you see about skipping some of the filler episodes. I would recommend jumping from the climax of the island arc to the 35th episode. This avoids the Africa arc and keeps the mystery and suspense going, while keeping intact Nadia and Jean's relationship.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jun 8, 2022
This Doan's Island movie feels, overall, out-of-place. While the episode it is adapting has a self-contained plot, pulling it out of Mobile Suit Gundam and stretching it to the length of a movie has resulted in an empty experience. This movie would have been better off as a shorter episode in an OVA of reimagined 0079 escapades.
Character animation is emotive and interesting, but very exaggerated, just like The Origin OVA's. The writing and characterization is also just as exaggerated.
Mobile Suit combat is done in stylized CGI. This looks pretty good at points but also has awkward moments where you notice the anti-aliasing on faraway models.
In
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regards to the plot, the movie can't seem to decide whether or not it needs to justify itself or not. The stakes are sometimes played up unrealistically or literally raised in comparison to 0079's Episode 15. At other points, it tries to feel like the episode should; a moment of downtime and an exploration of Doan's dilemma. A Zeon pilot deserting to look after war orphans; what does this teach Amuro?
Maybe I'm just pessimistic about modern imaginings of the Universal Century, but I did come in with a positive outlook. I won't say this is a bad movie by any means, just a sort of disjointed thing. It doesn't fit as a replacement for the original Episode 15 and it isn't a good follow-up for the Origin OVA's.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Aug 15, 2021
The third part of Kaiji surpasses the second part in regards to its ending and the way it finally moves the narrative forward (or seemingly does), but it flounders in regards to the actual gamble. Fukumoto falls back on his old faithful, Mahjong, for this part's game, and while it is an interesting spin on Mahjong, it is still Mahjong. What I mean is that this Kaiji arc feels more like Akagi then Kaiji - it's an endless labyrinth of tiles and hands and clever complexities that Mahjong players are sure to appreciate.
While I enjoyed Akagi, despite having very little knowledge about Mahjong, and I
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enjoyed this part too, Minefield Mahjong just isn't as interesting in Kaiji. The first part of Kaiji has Restricted Rock Paper and Scissors, followed by games where the contestants are literally balancing themselves on a beam, and then concluded with a simplistic, but psychologically complex card game and Kaiji's rigged lottery. These are all simple games, explained thoroughly and very easy to follow for the reader. Fukumoto shows just how good he is at coming up with these gambles. Part 2 keeps this up - the dice game and the pachinko machine are just very easy to understand.
But Mahjong, on the other hand, is a lot more to process. The chapters started to blend together for me, and I was getting deja-vu of Akagi's antics, and, well, I'm only going to remember the most exciting moments of the game. Kaiji's solution is very satisfying, though.
I was honestly hoping that they'd play Uno...
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jun 13, 2021
Hathaway's Flash is meant to be a sequel to Char's Counterattack, the greatest mecha movie ever made (tied with Ideon's Be Invoked and End of Evangelion, in my opinion) so one would expect the movie to try and be like CCA.
Maybe it's trying. I don't know. The music sounds very same-y, it lacks the kind of character that CCA's soundtrack has.
The character redesigns don't feel like they belong in the Universal Century. The action - operator gunplay like you're watching John Wick - also feels out of place.
The CGI works sometimes but other times, not at all.
Is this movie BAD? No - it's leagues above
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Genocidal Organ, the other movie I've seen by this director. The dialogue here is usually sparse and enjoyable. You can thank Tomino's novel for that, though. The overall plot, the way things play out, is interesting.
But the execution? It feels like Gundam wrapped in 2020 checklists. It wants to be a film, not an anime film - but CCA achieved this all the way back in the day. It didn't need to sacrifice the expressive nature of anime to accomplish that, though.
I'm very iffy about this movie. It ends without a conclusion, as they want to make a trilogy. Well, I hope the next two are better.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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May 28, 2021
Genma Taisen is thoroughly gorgeous. Its visuals are just what you'd expect from when it was made and whose behind it. The animation carries this movie, really bringing a lot of its concepts to life. I wonder why it has a 5.15 on here, though I'd estimate that because while the visuals are well done and interesting, the story probably doesn't hit for most people. I'd say the story here is only just decent, and most of the characters, besides the protagonist, are pretty flat. Still, the movie is a long, winding journey full of interesting visuals and scenes, so I wouldn't pass up on
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watching it if you're interested in anime movies from this period.
I imagine that Genma Taisen's weaker links are a result of its format. It's a movie, and like many anime movies from this period, it's more then 2 hours long. Also like other anime movies from this period, it's trying to fit a lot more then it can into film's more limited format. While with a series like an OVA or a TV show, you have anywhere from 10 to 50 episodes to work with, movies rarely exceed two hours and twenty minutes, and when they exceed two hours to begin with, there's a good chance they'll start to drag.
Considering how many characters this movie has, and how only one of them, our protagonist Azuma Jo, gets any real development, I believe they just didn't want to cut out anything. They came up with these characters and especially wanted them in place to make the story seem more globally significant, since the other characters are from places like Taiwan, India, New York City, etc... Basically, they had these characters designed and mostly thought out, but struggled to make them do anything but just appear in the story. Only one of these characters gets an introductory scene - the rest are just basically flung into the plot.
But even these weakly developed characters are better then the plot, which is presented in a rather dreary, apocalyptic fashion, but is basic and predictable underneath that prophetic window-dressing. Bad guy energy wants to destroy everything, the universe's life energy intervenes to make sure that doesn't happen, and so our story begins... in the end, something about love being greater then hate; you know, typical feel-good messaging. The movie comes off as quite New Age. The New Age movement is where it gets its psionic abilities, its global nature, and its basic spiritual themes of love conquering all, yadda-yadda. Maybe since I'm normal and don't subscribe to any New Age spirituality, and instead rely on hierarchal Catholicism, this wishy-washy message comes off as boring. Don't get me wrong, pure dualism can be thematically interesting, but not here. The plot itself is a device; a device to give us the movie's stunning visuals and animation.
And since it gives us that, I can't say it's so bad it isn't worth watching.
When we look at anime and even film, half of it is plot, characters, writing, and the other half is visual. A movie can be mediocre on one half if the other half excels. It won't be a masterpiece, but it'll be "good." And that's why I'll call Genma Taisen "good."
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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May 10, 2021
Char's Counterattack is a masterpiece. It's one of the best mecha anime movies ever made, up there with Ideon: Be Invoked and EoE. People who disagree with me on this do so because they were expecting an anime series - like an OVA or a show - instead of a MOVIE, which was always the intent of CCA. CCA was written as a FILM, and it shows. It tells the audience everything they need to know without exposition dumps, for example. It focuses on short, concise dialogue and showing instead of telling.
I can't get into the characters or the story, since we're supposed to avoid
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writing spoilers in our reviews here on MAL, but I will say this. Second to wanting some kind of series instead of a movie, CCA detractors are often obsessed with the idea that Char's character is assassinated in this movie. They claim that his actions and motives make zero sense. Well, if you paid attention during the original Gundam and Zeta Gundam, it should be obvious once you watch CCA that they're wrong. People only say this about Char if they're in denial that at the core of his character is not a good person, but a rather misguided, petty one. This reality of Char's character - that he can be considerably petty - is what makes him so interesting throughout the Gundam franchise, especially during the climax at CCA.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Sep 28, 2020
Xabungle is a Tomino mecha anime that is fully light hearted, it does not take itself seriously. This is a good thing and makes it very enjoyable. There are roots to concepts seen in more serious Tomino mecha anime - like Zeta Gundam - within Xabungle, and the same beats are hit... but while this normally causes the show to feel repetitive if you've seen other mecha works of Tomino, Xabungle is different enough that it doesn't suffer at all from this. I've seen a lot of Tomino mecha anime and while almost all of them are good, they do hit on the same characterization,
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the same themes, the same dynamics, the same plots... and for shows like Gundam, Dunbine, and Ideon, which are more serious, it becomes necessary to take a break before starting - or else you'll get deja vu every other episode. Xabungle covers up this deja vu with a different tone and every episode you end up having fun with.
I'm giving Xabungle a '9' and L-Gaim a '9' because both of these shows break from Tomino's formula and prove more engaging because of their humorous characterization. However, Xabungle is far sillier. Tomino's other serious shows are just as enjoyable but they don't stick out as much, which can be unfortunate.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jul 5, 2020
Bubblegum Crisis looks beautiful, sounds beautiful, and generally speaking, feels beautiful. However, its writing leaves much to be desired. This is an anime best enjoyed with your brain turned off. Watch for the characters, aesthetics, and action.
Now, there are episodes that are extremely well written, such as the cool ass car episode. What I mean by poor writing is that the overarching story itself never really goes anywhere. If you go into it knowing that, you'll probably be less confused when you've finished the last OVA. I was certainly a little puzzled.
Why? Because there are mysteries set up about certain characters, well, one in particular,
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that I expected to be wrapped up by the end. The last episode is cute, but not a finale. Definitely a good episode, but - again, perhaps I expected something I shouldn't have in Crisis.
I haven't seem Bubblegum Crash yet, but from a cursory glance of reviews, I doubt it answers the questions I have about Crisis.
Oh, and now that we're farther into the review, I won't spoil per-say with my next comment, but I will let it be known. There is an episode that tries desperately to make the viewer care about some newly introduced characters - and while other episodes achieve this quite easily - this episode does not. The episode after it continues the narrative, but failed to make me care even then, though the antagonist certainly uplifted the experience tremendously. Those two episodes, while as pretty as the rest of the show, definitely felt like the weakest link, only held up by the crazy shit the new bad guy introduces.
And before I close off this review, Bubblegum Crisis has disappointing bad guys. The antagonists feel too easily defeated, kept along for an episode or two. Only one of them makes the protagonists struggle, but not for long at all.
Still, I tend to overanalyze that side of fiction.
Anyway, it's still very good. And you should watch it, if you haven't already.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jun 21, 2020
Aura Battler Dunbine, besides some stunted death scenes (I forgot one of the characters had died and was waiting for them to show up during my binge) is solid. The ending does come at you fast, and while it definitely delivers, Tomino has done some better endings (Controversial, but I liked how Victory's ending played out.)
The concept, worldbuilding, characters and so on should be experienced blind by the viewer. Take my word on it and hop into Dunbine. It's an older, episodic anime but it's worth 'battling' through.
This is probably the most unique fantasy mecha out there. I am actually glad Tomino wasn't allowed to
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adapt this without mecha. Only because of how it plays into the story. Dunbine could work without mecha, but it would have needed another plot device to play with industrialized warfare arriving in a fantastical medieval-esque landscape. This dynamic seems to be born from the forced mecha (by the network) and while I normally hate networks forcing things onto creators, Dunbine would be boring without it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Mar 29, 2020
AT VOTOMS is hit or miss. The first arc can bore you out of continuing it, while the second arc will force you to finish it - the third and fourth arc's being better then the first, but nowhere near the second arc in terms of quality... the best time you'll have in VOTOMS is when you're in Kummen!
VOTOMS has two things going for it: characters and designs. The Scopedogs, the 'Fatties.' Chirico, Fyana, Ypsilon. Mecha designs and the main characters define what is good about AT VOTOMS. The side characters like Vanilla, Gotho, and Coconna? They get old fast and are definitely a weak
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part of the series.
Chirico is stoic. He's quiet and capable, and we know little about him - this mystery keeps him interesting. Fyana is both a woman and a super-soldier. Her arc has largely been misunderstood by other reviewers here. Fyana is a capable fighter throughout the entire show, from start to end, but some may think she reverts to a 'damsel in distress' at certain points... it's a non-criticism, as Fyana develops a distaste for fighting and even a fear of it. Ypsilon's character is simple, but tragic. I won't go into any further details as it's better to see this all unfold for yourself... if you can't pull through the first arc!
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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