#also as someone who at one time considered kira and lacus to be their all-time gundam otp...

[anthurak]

You know what was actually my BIGGEST issue watching Gundam SEED Freedom?

Watching Kira and Lacus get a Big Damn Kiss(tm), post-victory-sex, and most importantly, getting to co-pilot a Gundam into the big final battle together, and thinking to myself...

'Man, Suletta and Miorine TOTALLY should have gotten all this TOO, dammit!' XD

[archer3-13]

mobile suit gundam seed episode 6-10 fast thoughts

been a bit since i did this huh. I covered the first 5 episodes a bit ago so to briefly summarize those ones i thought episodes 1-5 were: i thought that despite all of the shows later problems and some early problems in terms of pacing and repetition they were fairly solid episodes for what they were, being referential to the original 0079 without being overly reliant on replicating it beat for beat. this is also kira at his most tolerable as a character ironically because its also kira at his most overtly scared and dissatisfied creating the early impression of someone who proclaims to pacifism less out of genuine belief in its values and more because of a deep seated fear of killing or dying.

6-10 episode thoughts time, with inherent pattern or play by play:

-flay starts to be more of an actual character with prescience here and i'll admit i actually rather enjoy her usage as a character during this early stage as someone who inadvertently complicates things and whos privilege of wealth and popularity has inoculated her from consequence until now. shes daddies lil rich girl and has an appropriately coloured view, well also having yet hit her soap opera scorned woman phase as it were. which in retrospect is probably going to be when all this nice believablity of character gets tossed out the window.

-im kinda surprised how much i actually like sai? he definitely feels like the most important of kiras friends/secondary character undertaking a sort of parallel development along with kira at the moment. it also cements in my mind that sais probably should have been the friend athrun kills later on instead of tolle. tolles fine mind you but his relation to kira feels a lot less significant compared to sai and it would have naturally jelled with the on going 'flay tries to manipulate people for her gain' subplot to have sai be the one insisting on pilot lessons and eventually getting killed in combat right infront of kira. and if ya really wanna have that dereka miriallia thing you can have the archangel sustain damage that ends up killing tolle because of dereka giving more significance to that plotline as well.

-given what i remember of her later on, lacus feels remarkably like a human being when ya first meet her being portrayed as fairly clueless about the negative feelings of others [such as when she starts signing the one pop song she knows in the middle of a battle until flay yells at her] and somewhat lost in her own world wandering the ship seemingly without a clue on how tense the situation is. you can see the issue with her character as it were however pop its head as early as episode 10 though when she suddenly turns on 'stern authoritative politician voice' to diffuse the immediate situation because it feels too tonally dissonant with her portrayal as flower child newtype character until that point. its not that it couldn't have worked, having a character thats all soft frills new age psychic on the outside only to reveal astute politician and leader on the inside could make an interesting subversion of expectation especially given how lacus also plays off idol culture in japan and idols are typically expected to act a certain way [it can be a scandal for idols to have romantic partners for instance because it pollutes the pure uwu i can be your girlfriend image they're expected to have]. further if we're to consider her the equivalent of the laylah for seed it adds an interesting arguably progressive inversion of that dynamic where lacus more so wears the pants compared to athrun so to speak. where it stumbles I think is that its not really treated as an opportunity to express character its more so treated as a mechanical device to get the plot moving which as a consequence results in lacus not really having a character of her own. we need to have a tense build up and moment of holding her hostage for ethical questions moments so she'll be hippy flower child here, but we need to get rau to fuck off so not only will he arbitrarily obey her orders despite otherwise being an agent of chaos lacus herself will suddenly switch to a authoritative and stern voiced politician leader. flower child well helping kira heal and steal the freedom or getting athruns ass in gear, stoic war leader for when we actually get into combat. it makes her come across as needlessly manipulative for a character that i really dont think is suppose to come across that way. which only gets worse once destiny comes around and you have natural and talented leader lacus fucking off to play hippy flower child as zaft cautiously rebuilds itself only to eventually take control of zaft at destinys end anyways.

-again a pacing issue here where we probably coulda condensed everything that happened into half the time. mood and atmosphere are important to stories dont get me wrong, but brevity is the breath of wit [i know i ramble a lot myself but i stand by this] in writing a lot of the time and we really didnt need to have lacus sing that same fucking song 4 times in a row to get the point and atmosphere across. 2 times would have sufficed fine.

-i like scavenging ice from juinius seven it has an appropriate sombre atmosphere to it, i like the imagery of the space paper flowers for a drive by funeral, and i like the unease with their own morality it inspires in the earth alliance regulars even if its just a question in the moment as it helps lay down the idea that maybe the right thing to do is abandoning their side. like everything related to juinius 7 and the earth alliance as a whole though it just lays down this comically stupidly evil impression of the earth alliance that it becomes impossible to accept any claim of moral relativism or a grey area in terms of this war when the enemy zaft is fighting nukes its political enemies into submission and refuses to recognize its opponents as even being human on the upper levels of command. or in other words, like a lot of gundam fans we're confusing and treating the earth federation as the titans when the earth federation in 0079 and other tomino works was mostly just incompetent as opposed to stupidly evil. like the titans. which i suppose is why zaft has to go all neo zeon on everyones asses near the end if we're to pretend to any amount of grey morality in terms of this war.

[ultra-violet-heart]

top five: anime/manga

*anon why the tough questions what did I do to you please tell me I’m so sorry T.T *

OK as I’ve been in anime/manga fandoms for almost all of my life now I’ve kinda pegged around factors to judge anime/manga: plot + direction, animation, characters and how they were written and completion rate. I have separate lists for anime and manga [which I will not discuss as they can change easily depending upon the season and what is still available], so this list will only include franchises with anime + manga, and which have been completed one way or another.

OK, so here is my (current) top five take:

5. Gundam SEED series (includes Destiny, etc)

Gundam SEED is not my first mecha anime [the honor belongs to Daimos, thank you] nor will it be my last, but even after all this time it stayed on the list as it was the first series I discussed in depth with my friends back in elementary/high school [they are still my friends, and we all read the manga despite judging it as a stationary version of the anime]. My very first rival-to-lovers ship was there as well [Cagalli x Athrun scenes still make me swoon]. I’m just happy despite the Earth Forces getting busted, Durandal’s plans with ZAFT were foiled, and the Lacus faction + Orb Union saving the day, all my ships in this series GOT TO BE CANON [raising a glass or three to Lacus x Kira and Cagalli x Athrun YASSS!] and they are trying their best to have a better future.Also this ED introduced me to the genius that is Yuki Kajiura:

4. Assassination Classroom

I have a love-hate relationship with ��殺教室, as THIS IS THE SERIES WHERE MY LOVE OF RAREPAIRS CAME FROM. Like I was the only one in Tumblr [along with a few peeps] who were on NagiKae/KaruMana/even AsaRio abyss [I’m still there send help]. I also fought the most intense shipping wars here to the point I needed to quit Tumblr for a while or else I might do illegal stuff due to plain anger lol. However, I can say Matsui’s writing and meticulous planning was one which made me love this series [like every chapter has a small hint one way or another], and it is also coherent and even consistent all throughout. Lerche’s animation and direction managed to capture that as well, and I still want to hit myself for not noticing even the smallest details on the second season’s OP:

3. Koe no Katachi

This is my top slice-of-life manga. As a journo who worked with people with disabilities, even they said that聲の形 has one, if not the only, of the most respectful and most honest portrayal of PWDs [even a deaf JP politician has invited people to watch the movie]. I agree, and the manga was nothing short of a genius, with all characters having A+++ character development. The animated movie in 2016 is something I consider as Kyoto Animation’s best work, with the voice acting top notch [I have nothing but praise for Saori Hayami for voicing Shouko], having a magnificent OST, and this is still the best directed scene I’ve ever seen in an anime movie [spoiler/trigger alert though]:

Whew, this scene still makes me shiver.

2. Ouran High School Host Club

*Wait, I thought you said the anime was supposed to be completed to be on your list?, someone might ask*Well, that’s probably the only thing that made this number two on my list. That’s how good Ouran is. Ouran was probably the barrier-breaking manga of its time [another would be Furuba] with its twists on the reverse harem genre, its over-the-top-comedy, its portrayal of gender dynamics and family dynamics, as well as its gags. I DARE ANYONE WHO WATCH THE ANIME/READ THE MANGA NOT TO LOVE Tamaki, Haruhi, Kyouya, Hikaru, Kaoru, Hani-senpai and Mori-senpai. I PLAIN DARE YOU. 

Also everyone who has been an otaku at some point knows this OP by now:

1. Fullmetal Alchemist (manga) and FMA: Brotherhood (anime)

Alas, there is no such thing as perfection in anime, but Hiromu Arakawa’s manga and Studio Bones’ 2009 animation came pretty close. [I still hate the 2003 anime BTW] Female characters who are not sexualized for fanservice, not maternal but still on the side of good? Check! A well-planned, coherent and consistent plot? Check! THE MOST BADASS TEACHER EVER??? Check! Its grey portrayal of humanity at every point, with the villains and protagonists sometimes exchanging roles? Check! OTPs WHO ARE NOT SHOWY BUT TRULY LOVE, SUPPORT AND RESPECT EACH OTHER, and without kissing scenes at that? Check! Honestly I love all things in FMA!manga and FMAB I can’t even criticize it. Also, Winry is my most favorite character in the STEM sector, I tell you. 

This is my most favorite ED BTW:

Well I hope this list is all right. It’s kinda subject to change in the future though [except probably no 1 and no 2]