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This movie is simply awful. If you're an older fan like me, your tolerance for poor storytelling becomes lower and lower. Nothing about this felt like a Gundam property - the returning cameos from Unicorn are barely seen and look awful without YAS's guiding hand - Mineva Zabi looks okay, but mostly because she stays seated in a chair and doesn't turn her head or change expressions. The rest of the characters look like turn of the century central casting - the female lead looks like low-budget Faye Valentine, the flashbacks to the kids ... look like Elfen Lied. And everything has a bad fit and finish to it - even the promotional stills for this have a grainy, digipaint quality to them - nothing like the high polish of Unicorn. Oh yeah - and did I mention that there's this time travelling golden 3rd Gundam that looks like a throwaway concept from Zoids? Everything about this is a weird revival of the worst tropes of late 90s/early 2000s anime - fisheyed cockpit views of maniacal unglued evil guy while he cackles being the thing I keyed in on. Anyway, this was just a giant disappointment and in the Fathom Events showing I was at, there were people from 5 to 70 watching and NONE of them seemed to be very enthused by the time the credits rolled.

Although I liked many things about this series - character designs, music, PG-13 fan service that was derriere-centric instead of boob-centric - it is pretty pointless. I recommend that people watch episode 1 and then skip to 12 & 13. The core story and relationships are so throwaway that you literally do not need them to understand the series.
Minor spoiler - just once, I'd like to see an anime where the main characters actually exercised some agency over their own outcomes. The resolution of the story (which ostensibly has been about the human ... spirit and "taking off the training wheels") is provided through non-living, non-human intervention. You could go on for hours about what this kind of storytelling says about Japanese society in general.

You read it again and again: Goro Miyazaki is not Hayao Miyazaki. But is that necessarily a bad thing? There is enough to this movie that has Ghibli DNA in it: every heroic character is Nausicaa but with different hair and clothes, there is an infantile attempt to establish a ponderous nature-based moral worldview, and we're given a cast of generally unlikeable people cast against breathtaking beautiful setpieces. To my eye, the only discernable difference is that this movie does not end in Hayao style - that is to say that ... a giant monster does not appear to destroy everything in the 3rd act. I've not read Ms. LeGuin's novels, but her butthurt over deviations seem pretty ridiculous given the Japanese inability to adapt Western narrative (apparently her handlers didn't revisit Howl's Moving Castle?).

I'm kinda disappointed by this show. I knew of it's pervy reputation, but the first episode was so delightfully messed up and has such good production values, that I slogged on. But aside from it's Elfen-Lied-levels of misogynistic collateral damage, there is nothing remotely special about this. Just another sexually-charged anime that takes delight in systematically brutalizing it's female leads and tieing up a convoluted plot with an 8 minute conclusion and some headscratching exposition. And the paint-by-numbers presentation of fetish material was hamfisted - ballgags, check - rape, check - lesbian domination, ... check. Sigh.

Never has a story so petulant and juvenile been given such adult and mature artistic treatment. Visually speaking, this is probably one of the most inspired short OVAs I have ever seen - especially considering that it doesn't feature gunplay, tentacles, or car chases. It plays like a time capsule of 1990 - baggy suits, club dancing, euro-sounding pop. But where it all falls apart is the predictable clumsy handling of relationships - freighted with the confusing (to us gaijin) baggage of Japanese dating and gender culture (and it's unfortunate but predictable misogyny). ... I found the ending to be an unsatisfying and headscratching as any of the worst in anime history, and makes no sense given the evolution of the main character from the story's beginning.

This is truly a powerful film with a gripping story and lots to unravel and think about afterwards. I only wish that the character designs had gone in a different direction - the uncomfortably-Miyazaki-esque art really hurt what the film accomplishes and kidify a movie that is much more mature and adult than its appearance suggests. The artwork is level of detail is really a benchmark, even in the digital era. The sound of cicadas, Anri Kumaki's haunting theme, splashing water - everything recorded and presented perfectly. There are also some real moments ... of action/terror in this thing - the bridge attack is more Saving Private Ryan than it is anime - makes me wish anime presented action this way more often.

Despite it's obvious visual splendor and amazing fight choreography, Macross Zero never achieves the high concept that Shoji Kawamori aims for. Even ten years later, the visuals and cinematography still hold their own and aren't the least bit dated. But the ret-conned plot (Roy Fokker was an anthropology student in college?!?!?!!?) is downright silly; introducing tribal cultures, creation myth, and a mad scientist thread. But my real issue comes with the pacing - Kawamori's real downfall. As with Macross Plus, 140 minutes of exposition and narrative are tied up and concluded in the ... final 10 minutes. And in true anime fashion, that amounts to lots of people dying, some giant thing stomping around, and some head-scratching moralizing.

Dear lord, what a missed opportunity. Like many anime of this era, we are presented with opening episodes that promise amazing animation, world-class action choreography, and an intriguing story. Then, by episode 7 or 8, you realize that it is all just smoke and mirrors and the director and staff reveal that they have nothing more to offer but a shoehorned and forced final act. The first 2 episodes of this anime have a Bebop level of promise and what you end up with is a weaksauce Madlax imitation. Special thanks to ... Beretta and Fabrique Nationale for providing the not-so-subtle advertisements for handguns, though.

I see many younger otaku refer to this series as a modern classic, which makes me weep for the crap they must be watching for this to rise to the top of their lists. To me, it is just a lazy, low budget production that cloaks itself in a controversial mantel of brutalized children, naked pre-teens, and eviscerated security personnel and scientists. When you think about it, the character designs are all identical but with different hair, Kazama spends 90% of his onscreen time with glazed glasses to save having to animate his eyes, and the sheet count ... for the blood effects take a nosedive after the first 9 minutes of episode 1. And they never go anywhere - office interiors, teahouse interiors, the same beach, a zoo . . . they literally just went to the "background art" stockpile and plugged in stock art. And I can't be the only one who wanted Kohta and Yuka to die within 5 seconds of their introduction. A major disappointment.

I had no preconceived notions going into this series. It was a random Netflix stream and I had never heard of the series. I was hooked from the beginning - a rarely explored historical setting, jaw-dropping fight choreography, high quality animation, serious plot but not overbearing - it was great. We're so jaded as otaku into expecting the usual WWII whitewash from Japanese mass media - but it reads pretty true to events (aside from psychic powers and the narrative conceit of the Japanese mysteriously inventing a protypical A-Bomb). Unfortunately, the crazy choreography ... of the fights disappears quickly and true to most anime, the script loses its way and can't seal the deal in the end. But it is still a great achievement and shows much promise in terms of Japan dealing with its controversial past.