#studio xebec

[they-have-the-same-va]

Bass.EXE from MegaMan NT Warrior shares a voice actor with Ed from Ed, Edd n Eddy.

Voiced by Matt Hill

requested by @zombiemollusk

[radargrind2091]

Lan Hikari - Megaman NT Warrior Icons

-“Megaman NT Warrior” (c) Studio Xebec

[maguro13-2]

Shattered Hero Rekindled ~ Origins of the Ink Demon : Episode Maka Pt.22 ~

[Tornado Defense Act 2 by Fumie Kumatani]

"BABYLON GARDEN"

Nozomi : This must be it, we finally reached Babylon Garden. Now all we have to do is figure it out when did this island risen from the depths of this planet. Tails, how far is the landing point?

Tails : The landing point should be here right about now. You two ready to rock some skydiving on those boards?

Nozomi : At least I'm not afraid of heights, I just jump off to the extreme and it will be amazing.

Sonic : Nozomi, look over there! It's Eggman! He's heading to the treasure on his way!

*cues Sonic Speed Riders*

Nozomi : And he's on his Extreme Gear Bike. You know what to do. Mr. Sonic. Without wings we can still fly, right?

Sonic : Yeah.

Nozomi : Don't forget, Since I have the Original Blue Star, I wonder how your new will look like? I have it right.

*Gives the Blue Star II to Sonic*

Sonic : Thanks. This is a newer one? What is it?

Nozomi : Remember what Tails said back at the tournament, He invented a modified version of the board and it will give you the super speed. I hope those bird brains can learn their lesson for jeering you.

Sonic : Thanks for that. I won't forget. Ready, Kaminashi?

Nozomi : Ready! LET'S GO SKY HIGH DIVING!

*the two skydives to Babylon Garden*

Nozomi : Hop aboard!

*the get on their Extreme Gear boards*

Nozomi : We have cleared for landing!

*Jet appears on his Extreme Gear*

Nozomi : So we meet again?

Sonic : Jet.

*the three of them lands perfectly*

Jet : You two again!? I have to get to him, he's mine to catch up! Get out of my way?

Nozomi : Is that so, Angry Bird?

Sonic : Alright Nozomi. Here me this one out. We'll show him what true speed really is

Nozomi : Right! Let the final rivalry begin!

*Three of them heading towards the palace*

*Scene cuts*

Tails : We finally made it alive.

Knuckles : Hey, guys. Glad you can make it.

Sayaka Miyata : Mr. Knuckles, Tails. Looks like we're not in bit of a pickle after all.

Non Toyoguchi : It took us hours to get to this place, but man oh man...*stretches* that really hit the spot.

Kazane Aoba : I hope you didn't forget, we made it here so that we could get to backstabbing for cheating at the race. Where are those fools that like to cheat?

Hiru Vol : Looking for these guys.

Do Vol : We had to tie them up pretty quick.

No Vol : Hope they have a lot to learn to pick on someone their own size.

Wave : Untie us this instant!

Storm : No fair! Who says cheating in Sportsmanship was stupid?

Wave : [To Storm] Quiet, Storm! You're lucky that we didn't get arrested by the local authorities. It's so obvious that Eggman double crossed us like a bunch of morons. So glad that we were able to get here by there ship.

Hiru Vol : Yeah, yeah, we get it all along. So...Mr. Tails, Mr. Knuckles. It's pleasures doing business with you, the finest heroes and comrades of the legendary hedgehog. We are the great Vol Brothers.

"THE VOL BROTHERS...ROGUES OF THE TYLOR FAMILY"

Tails : The Great what?

Knuckles : Oh...I get it, you must be the new guys from Yuji Naka's ideals, you're from the new Phantasy Star Universe?

Hiru Vol : Well...Yes, of course we are. We are Phantasy Star Universe.

Do Vol : And let's not forget, we always support Sonic the Hedgehog on his birthday, Mr. Waber told you about being in the race, we watched it lively.

[Comedy by Hideaki Kobayashi]

Sayaka Miyata : Huh? Wait a minute, you guys knew the whole thing? How did you know about this?

No Vol : We monitored the whole situation going on and to find out that these bird brains had been stealing the emeralds from your island.

Tails & Knuckles : WHAT!?!

Keijo Girls : WHAT!?!

Sayaka Miyata : So does that mean....

All : ....?

*outburst+rumbling*

Knuckles : [To Storm & Wave] YOU NIMRODS!!! HOW DARE YOU STEAL THINGS FROM MY ISLAND! THE CHAOS EMERALDS ARE NOT YOURS!!!

Wave : *twitches eye* [To Storm] Storm! Why didn't you tell us that we stole these emeralds from that Red Guy who lives on a Floating Island?

Storm : [To Wave] What? Eggman told us that he wanted to steal emeralds from that red dude and that's exactly what he did.

Knuckles : After all of that Sonic Riders business, you two birds have been stealing jewels from my island for races just to make this island float again? What kind of idiots wanted to steal the jewels from the shrine of the Master Emerald.

Storm : Uhh, I think it was that Egghead's idea to get those emeralds from you.

Wave : [To Storm] We told you that was a stupid idea for robbery.

Knuckles : Why ought to...I'm gonna tear you apart limb from limb for stealing my emeralds, this is all the credit for your stupid ways.

Hiru Vol : Hey, no need to get all a little to hasty right now. First things first, we are waiting on the other guys, the boss and his, uhh, companion. Liina!

Do Vol : Right, right, right! Liina, the sister of that GUARDIAN? Yeah that's right, she was one of the orphans at the orphanage along with her brother but after the two got separated, she met our boss Tylor and became the companion of the Rogues.

Hiru Vol : Ahh, it was love at first sight.

No Vol : Since we got things working out for us, rogues. We've been thinking that the scientist from the Gurhal System have been captured by this mad man, so it wasn't us this time, it was the other guys, I wonder what their name was...The Endrum Collective's guy Renvolt Magashi. He's the mysterious bad guy who deals with Photon reactors and has a connection with the SEED.

Hiru Vol : Wonder what that one-eyed cyclops star thinging wanted something from this Galaxy? He has a purpose of possessing people as his own vessels becoming more poweful and less uglier. Can't get the details out of our head, but it's good that we found out that one has a one weird name to the Dark Matter family.

Sayaka Miyata : Dark Nebula? The Ruler of the Underworld. Yeah he was supposed to be impriosnment and said that his prison is to be at the museum by world famous treasure hunters.

No Vol : Rhetorical question, young lady. But you are quite a foxy person...

Do Vol : And kinda pretty. *chuckles*

Non Toyoguchi : Hey, who are you calling "Foxy" for? But thank you for calling me pretty

Sayaka Miyata : Is that all you can say? What a relief! We're just told what were told to do. It's our duty to save the world, this planet, and the galaxy itself.

Liina : Not just the Galaxy, but the universe itself.

Alfort Tylor : Your words are absolutely right. Saving the world, the planet, and the galaxy itself along with the universe that needed to be saved.

Tails : Oh, you must be Alfort Tylor...Leader of the Rogues?

Alfort Tylor : Correct.

"ALFORT TYLOR...LEADER OF THE TYLOR FAMILY"

Alfort Tylor : You must be Sonic's friends. Where's the pink one with the hammer?

Tails : We forgot...She's still with Eggman, who stage the EX-World Grand Prix for the Treasure of Babylon and we find out that he told the Babylon Rogues to steal the Emeralds from Angel Island, which Knuckles was suppose to keep an eye out. And now...we're in the middle of situation going on here.

Alfort Tylor : No need to worry about it. Everything's taken care of.

Leo : Same goes to us.

Tails : Leo. Lou!

"LEO & LOU...COMRADES OF ETHAN WABER"

Leo : Long time no see, guys. I heard that you were in the race. That was some pretty good entertainment with those skills of yours.

Lou : You quite amazed at your performance as sportsmanship. Perfect skills for a perfect setting. Don't believe a CAST who knows about Sportsmanship? I do. We all believe Sportsmanship, the EX-World Grand Prix was such a beautiful display, It hardly to announce that both Sonic, a human girl, and your leader Jet has won the tournament in a Tie. Making them winners of the EX-World Grand Prix.

Tails : Uhh, thanks. You too.

Leo : Hey, you three. Untie those rogues immediately.

Hiru Vol : Yes sir. We're untying them right away!

*Unties Storm and Wave*

Wave : Took ya long enough to do it. Thanks for releasing us by the way and keep your hands to yourself. You should learn some respect on how to treat a lady fairly.

Storm : Best be back on our feet. But we have a strong sense of humor going out of style. So...Back to square one?

Knuckles : Right again.

*Knuckles and Storm about to fight*

Leo : Hmm? What's going on here? Lou? Are you reading something?

Lou : Yes, there is. I believe we have unwanted visitors. There in front of us.

E-10000R : TARGETING. TARGETING. GET THOSE PUNKS.

*An army of E-10000 robots led by E-10000R appears

[Theme of Babylon Garden/Sky Road by Fumie Kumatani]

Leo : Damn! It's an enemy raid attack. Looks like the robots in the race are actually real threats, guess the those guys might've done it to him a little too much! Lou, prepare for battle!

Lou : Understood!

*Leo and Lou prepare for battle*

Alfort Tylor : Liina, you go with the others, We'll handle these guys with the help of the GUARDIANS.

Liina : Aye aye, captain! Alright, everyone! Let's make a run for it! Get to a hiding place fast to get these tin-cans off our tails! That means you, friends of Nozomi! We gotta leave the battle scene!

Sayaka, Non, and Kazane : OK!

Hiru Vol : We won't be mincemeat out of us, but we'll make mincemeat out of those machines!

Do Vol : We always have a back up plan, but It's gonna take more than that.

No Vol : I won't lose to a bunch of nuts and bolts to give them few screw loses.

Alfort Tylor : Alright, men. Engage in Attack Formation! Attack the robots with all your might!

Vol Brothers : YES SIR!

Leo : This is going to be one heck of a party.

*SA2 SFX : Intruder Alert/Alarm Blaring*

"EMERGENCY ALERT! EMERGENCY ALERT!"

"PREPARE TO REPEL INTRUDERS...REPEAT"

"EMERGENCY ALERT! EMERGENCY ALERT!"

"PREPARE TO REPEL INTRUDERS"

Nozomi : Huh? That voice...Where did it come from?

Sonic : Hey, isn't that...

Nozomi : Oh no! That sounded like the island's security defenses has been activated! Looks like we've been caught up into the fray!

Sonic : That means Babylon Garden...is no garden at all. Does this means it's really...Whatever that is, we gotta catch up with Eggman, Nozomi! focus on losing Jet to win! Can you try to keep up with me?

Nozomi : Of course, I can finally try to keep up with each other again! But we have to find a way to clear out it's defenses.

Sonic : We'll elude them! I'm gonna go put a stop to this! I'll find eggman and put him out of our way to get to the treasure! You get Babylon Garden's defenses attention.

Nozomi : Hai!

Jet : Stay out of my way, blue hedgehog!

Nozomi : good luck, Mr. Sonic. I'll get the defenses attention! Hey over! I'm wide open! Sonic! I got the defenses attention! I understand that this entire floating island, isn't an island at all. It's some sort of hi-tech spacecraft that buried in the sands for a long time? Why on earth would Babylon Garden hide all of it's defenses to protect itself? Doesn't matter, I have to grab onto those things and get to the castle safety! There! A Turbulence! If I could get onto turbulence, I can finally fly through the sky, but it's going to be a little tricky through that storm! I know...I can get it's attention when I can get off the Turbulence, then I'll catch up to Sonic in the lead! Here goes!

*Rides on the turbulence*

Nozomi : Hold on tight, time to make a break for it!

*flies off the Turbulence*

Nozomi : Eh? Uhhh...Uh-oh! This could be a problem!

*CARTOON SFX : ZOOM!*

Nozomi : WAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!

*Sees a Babylonian fighter Jet*

Nozomi : I got it! *Grabs onto the fighter jet* Now the real fun begins! WOAH-HO-HO-HOOOOO!!!

Sonic : Time to increase my speed! I won't loose to you, Jet!

Jet : Same to you!

Nozomi : Hey, Sonic!

Sonic : Kaminashi-san!

Nozomi : Isn't this great!? This is really fun to ride! I'm in the lead! I can finally catch up with you! But just to be sure that I just wanted to say it loudly.

Sonic : Okay...?

Nozmi : *breathes in+yells out* IT TURNS OUT THAT BABYLON GARDEN WAS NO ISLAND AT ALL! IT'S A HI-TECH SPACECRAFT BELONGING TO THE PEOPLE OF BABYLON! AND JUST MAY HAPPEN THAT WE SAW SOMETHING ON THE MURAL FROM THE GIGAN ROCKS AREA! WE DEPICTED THAT BABYLON GARDEN IS THE DIVINE WINGS ON THAT MURAL!

Sonic : So in which it means...

Sonic & Nozomi : [together] BABYLON GARDEN'S REAL NAME IS ASTRAL BABYLON! THE HI-TECH SPACECRAFT THAT HAILED FROM THE COSMOS!

Jet : That's a cute thing to say that Babylon Garden's-WHAAAAAT!?!

Sonic : So this entire island is a spaceship! So it turns out that the powers of the Chaos Emeralds triggered something greater than the power of the emeralds. What activated the ship that was cast down into the depths of the planet?

Jet : Oh no! I forgot about something from Babylon. The ARK of the Cosmos! I forgot about those units! The Ark of the Cosmos, could they really be the key to...

Sonic : Ha! Made you distracted!

Jet : WHAT!?!

*WHOOSH*

Jet : YAAAAAAAAHHH!!!

*Sonic and Nozomi crosses the finish line*

Nozomi : And that's game! *peace sign*

Sonic : But even without wings...

Nozomi : We can still fly! But we do have wings to fly to the sky!

*cues Sonic Speed Riders*

Nozomi : Hurry, Sonic! We don't have much time left! I found Eggman's location! He's at the door!

Sonic : Got it!

*cuts to Eggman at the door*

Dr. Eggman (Eggman Nega) : Hee! Hee! Hee! I'm almost at the door to reach to that treasure!

Nozomi : Not so fast, Robotnik!

Sonic : We won't let you get away!

Dr.Eggman : Ahh, Sonic and friend. Congratulations on making it this far, but you're too late. I've already achieved my plans on reaching the treasure of Babylon. But you wouldn't mind to save your precious girlfiend, would you? *pulls Amy from the bush*

Nozomi : Hey, let her go!

Amy : Oh, Nozomi! Whatever you do! Do something!

Dr.Eggman : Now then...stay were you are.

Nozomi : Ngh! I won't just give up now, do I? I must figure a way out...Okay, doctor I can let you open the door...

Dr.Eggman : Why thank you, kind person. *about to open the door*

Nozomi : BUT I WON'T LET GET YOUR HANDS ON THAT TREASURE! NOW SONIC! SHOW HIM WHAT WE'RE MADE OF!

Sonic : Now!

*DBZ SFX : BOOST*

Dr.Eggamn : Rats! Where did you go?

Nozomi : Up here!

*DBZ SFX : Surprise*

Sonic : Ready?

Nozomi : Onward!

Sonic & Nozomi : [unison] LET'S TRY TO KEEP UP!

*DBZ SFX : Blast off*

Dr.Eggman : ...Mommy?

*DBZ : STRONG KICK+BOOST*

Dr.Eggman : GAAAAAAHHH!!!

*Eggman and Amy are blown away in a vortex*

Nozomi : Oh yeah! We won!

Sonic : That was sweet! *Sonic and Nozomi fists bumps*

Nozomi : I knew we could do it! Mission Accomplished!

[The Shout of Victory by Michiru Yamane]

Announcer : Sonic and Nozomi...WINS!

"Rank : A"

Nozomi : You're in for a hero's welcome!

~ Level 21 : Battle for Babylon Garden ~

[wanderersrest]

An Abbreviated History of Mecha Part 4.2: A Grand Glorious Gathering (1996-2000)

Welcome back to An Abbreviated History of Mecha! Last time we left off, the Lost Decade had just begun, Gundam got a radical makeover, CLAMP came onto the scene, Takara created a replacement for Diaclone, and Evangelion would begin its run on television. What we'll see now is the rise of a lot of fan-favorite shows in this era, but we will also see the sudden appearance of a third honorary mecha series. We will also see why [adult swim] is going to play a big picture in all of this, as they will begin to get more involved with the production of anime. With all of that out of the way...

Big O!

Showtime!

Pocket Monsters/Pokemon (1996, honorary mecha show 3)

Pocket Monsters, or Pokemon for short, is a multimedia series created by Satoshi Tajiri and the folks at Game Freak, Creatures, and Nintendo that would round out the four anime that would make anime mainstream alongside Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, and Gundam Wing. The reason why Pokemon is worth mentioning in a series about mecha is due to the nature of a lot of mecha stories, primarily those involving giant robots: Pokemon would grow to eventually become the single largest franchise OF ALL TIME. And as it is a franchise that is aimed primarily at children, this would prove to be one of many things that would help in the decline of giant robot stories, as a lot of the giant robots of old relied heavily on merchandise sales (namely in the form of toys) in order to be successful. Now that Pokemon is in the picture, there is competition, especially since Pokemon's video games would be published by a little company known as Nintendo.

Fortunately, Pokemon wouldn't become the highest-selling franchise of all time just yet. It would take a couple of years for that to happen.

Martian Successor Nadesico (1996) & Martian Successor Nadesico: The Prince of Darkness (1999)

Produced in 1996 by Xebec, Martian Successor Nadesico would be the first series since the original Gundam to really take a swing at subverting and/or deconstructing the giant robot. Primarily a screwball comedy, Nadesico is known for its extensive use of its show-within-a-show Gekiganger 3 (a pastiche of shows like Getter Robo) to foreshadow events that would happen later on in the story.

Nadesico proved to be popular, but that chance of becoming something more would peter out with the release of the Prince of Darkness movie in 1999.

After War Gundam X (1996)

Also releasing in 1996 was After War Gundam X, a series that would suffer from the fact that it would be the fourth Gundam series in a row on television. Not helping things is the fact that Gundam X would infamously have its episode count reduced from the then-standard 50 episodes to 39, and then it would also be moved to the Japanese equivalent of the Friday Night Death Slot.

It would remain in obscurity for years until 2013 when Gundam Build Fighters would feature a protagonist whose primary gunpla kit would help to bring the series back into the spotlight.

The Vision of Escaflowne (1996)

When one thinks of older mecha isekai shows, they are usually thinking of 1996's The Vision of Escaflowne. Escaflowne, unlike its older sister series Magic Knight Rayearth, would feature its giant robots more openly in a truly even blend of mecha action, fantasy adventure, and romance.

Armored Core (1997)

1997 would see the release of legendary game development studio From Software's Armored Core. Featuring mechanical designs by Shoji Kawamori of Macross fame, Armored Core would see the player navigate through a world of high speed mecha action and hair-tearing difficulty that would become a trademark of FromSoft's future games.

Cowboy Bebop (1997)

Cowboy Bebop would be the brainchild of one Shinichiro Watanabe. Released in 1997, Cowboy Bebop would take Japan by storm due to its mix of science fiction with the aesthetics and tropes of the western. Part of Cowboy Bebop's legacy has less to do with its popularity in Japan and more to do with how well it did in the west: which was very well.

Like "Cowboy Bebop was part of what made [adult swim] successful in the early days" well. If the quartet of Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, Gundam Wing, and Pokemon made anime mainstream, then Cowboy Bebop would be the one that would prove to the mainstream that anime wasn't just for children.

The King of Braves, GaoGaiGar (1997)

Speaking of anime geared for children, 1997 would also see Takara's Brave franchise peak with its final entry: The King of Braves, GaoGaiGar. Acting as an homage to the original Brave Exkaiser, GaoGaiGar would go down in legend as one of the most hot-blooded mecha shows of the 90's, second only to fellow Sunrise production Mobile Fighter G Gundam. Unfortunately, GaoGaiGar would see its viewership falter due to the success of the Pokemon anime, which would bring an official end to the Brave franchise. But it would not be the end of GaoGaiGar's story just yet, as the production staff got to work on another series that would serve as a spiritual sequel to The King of Braves.

Full Metal Panic (1998)

In 1998, the light novel Full Metal Panic! would be published by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Written by Shoji Gatoh, Full Metal Panic would blend elements of giant robot sci-fi with elements of the romance, slice-of-life, and comedy genres. The series would eventually branch out into manga and anime at the turn of the millennium and prove to be one of the big hits of the early 2000's.

While the original light novel along with its manga counterparts would wrap up their stories eventually, the anime would ultimately be abandoned after the release of its fourth season, Invisible Victory, in 2018.

Dai Guard (1999)

What if you took Getter Robo, made it adhere to real-world physics as much as possible, and then have be piloted by a trio of office workers who have to also navigate a lot of corporate red tape on top of the military trying to undermine their endeavors? That's more or less 1999's Dai-Guard in a nutshell. And don't let that fool you: the giant robot is still as cool as any other giant robot, regardless of the hoops the main cast have to go through just to use the damn thing.

Turn A Gundam (1999)

Meanwhile at Sunrise, Yoshiyuki Tomino would return to the directing chair for 1999's Turn A Gundam as a way to celebrate Gundam's 20th anniversary. Turn A would feature a very unique set of mechanical designs courtesy of Syd Mead, who was known for his work on Blade Runner, Tron, and Aliens. This series would also mark the end of Gundam's use of cel animation, as the next Gundam series would be the first to use digital animation. As a result, the animators went all out on Turn A Gundam's animation as a proper send-off to cel-animation.

Unfortunately, while Turn A is often regarded as one of, if not the, best Gundam series, its lackluster performance during its initial run would not be enough to help Gundam out. It wouldn't be until 2002 when Gundam would become a major hit again.

Xenogears (1999)

Directed by Tetsuya Takahashi, Square Enix would release the JRPG Xenogears in 1999. Xenogears would differentiate itself from the competition by combining a combo-based JRPG with giant robots and Gnosticism. A lot of Gnosticism. Unfortunately for Takahashi and company, Xenogears would prove to be a tad bit more ambitious than expected, and boy is that oversimplifying what happened to Xenogears. Suffice it to say that what happened to Takahashi and company to form Monolith Soft under Namco. But, like a lot of other things covered here, that is a story for another time.

Betterman (1999) & The King of Braves, GaoGaiGar FINAL (2000)

Reuniting for a spiritual sequel to The King of Braves, GaoGaiGar, the same animation team would create Betterman. Taking a turn to being darker and edgier than its older brother GaoGaiGar, Betterman would be the basis for the OVA finale The King of Braves GaoGaiGar FINAL adding things like a darker storyline, fanservice, and, weirdly enough, more HOT BLOOD.

Unfortunately, plans for the two series to have a crossover would fall apart as Takara shuttered the Brave franchise for good after GaoGaiGar FINAL. It wouldn't be until about 2018 that the two would finally get to meet in The King of Kings: GaoGaiGar vs Betterman.

The Iron Giant (1999)

Released in 1999 by Warner Bros., The Iron Giant would be the directorial debut of one Brad Bird (the guy who did The Incredibles, among other things). Set in the 1950's, The Iron Giant would tell a story similar to that of the original Godzilla, though in the case of The Iron Giant, the titular character would be treated with much more sympathy due to his earnest attempts at trying to not destroy the town.

The Big O (1999-2003)

Created in 1999 by Sunrise, The Big O was a mecha show influenced by American media like Batman. Helmed by most of the people who worked on the Giant Robo OVA alongside the controversial Chiaki J Konaka, The Big O was supposed to be a more commercial spin on Giant Robo. Which is wild, because the series was cancelled after its first season in Japan.

Fortunately, that little American channel called [adult swim] would come to the rescue and produce the second season, as The Big O was a big success in the US.

For more on The Big O, I'd recommend Argonbolt's video On The Big O.

Throwbots (1999)

And finally, LEGO would release the Throwbots series of toys for their Technic line in 1999. Throwbots would prove to be moderately successful, but it's legacy is most known for being the predecessor to BIONICLE.

Conclusion

And that's a wrap on the 90's. As we have seen, the last two decades have been a big boon for mecha, though this would be soon to pass in the following decades. What we will begin to see in the following decades is a change to how anime in general is produced. You can even see it as early as 1999 with some shows such as Dai-Guard using digital animation as opposed to cel animation. The 2000's will see digital animation become the primary way shows get animated, though there will be growing pains. It should be interesting to note that cel animation doesn't go away in its entirety until 2015 when the last holdout, one Sazae-san, finally gave up the cel-animated ghost.

"The journey was long, but soon I found myself accompanied by a strange man in a black tuxedo. I couldn't tell if he was friend or foe, but he looked like he was about to faint from starvation. I think I remember him saying his name was Van... Van of... I don't remember what his title was anymore, he kept on changing it every time I asked him."

[secretsofdbz]

Kubota conference and live drawing in 10 minutes, I'll transcribe as much as I grabbed ;)

How did he start working in animation:

As a child he loved anime and manga and the Dragon Ball boom in general really took him (Kubota is 46, so he was 6 when it started publication and 8 when the anime started)

He drew Goku to be popular in school.

He wanted to do dragon ball, it was his ultimate goal, and become adult already to get closer to his goal.

In the magazines for animation, he applied to a staff position despite being in high school, but he wasn't hired ("obviously").

Despite failing his interview, he still trained and entered the Toei animation school after high school. There was so much demand for animation that he got a job while doing his studies, and stopped the studies after one year to start full time at Xebec.

Each studio had its own specificity and as such there was little or no competition.

The first animation with his name is Kidou Senkan Nadeshiko (1998), the movie not the series (which he didn't care about).

Love Hina and other anecdotes:

Amazing experience because it was a young company, and gave a shot to everyone regardless of experience. He expressed he felt very lucky to be in such environment.

He expresses a lot of sympathy to new animators because there's no tutoring anymore, they give you a scene or thing to do, it gets corrected, but you don't get feedback or help anymore. No growth.

"Back then they made mistakes and error was fine and could make to the final show, but now mistakes aren't allowed anymore, so youngsters don't get to make important scenes anymore". Lack of responsibilities and unforgiving ambiance.. and the fact that the correctors don't show the beginners what needed changing and why.

Digital tools create an immense gap between beginners (aka people who don't know much about it get left behind, and he expresses it's sad because they just aren't taught / mentored).

The switch to 1080-HD-4K made the anime fans less forgiving as well.

The fact that people stop every other frame to nitpick... but since he knows they're doing this for DBSSH and Daima, it's why he worked SUPER hard on the Z flashbacks so he wouldn't be flamed by otakus online lol

As illustration they showed the Mahoromatic ED

It was his first job as animation director (but from season 2 onwards, not for season 1)

Since then, he believes his art improved (2001). He realizes now he couldn't draw certain things at the time, but now he says he wasn't good at it then (aka he didn't know he wasn't good then)

Since each studio was a different ambiance and work culture, Mahoromatic came right after Eva and co, and everyone at Gainax was very familial and friendly and welcoming overall.

At the time, you could enter any studio as is, but now you have cards (badges..) and super serious work ambiance with ports and co. Especially for freelancers and outside workers...

(There's a rumor that at Toei they throw shit at each other because some freelance/outsider animators showed up to turn in their work but they were celebrating something with Kubota (a Setsubon) and there were peas thrown to chase away demons, you know traditional party kind of thing, so the poor guys who showed up during that...)

"Can't feel pressure when you're just working non stop without looking up" was his response when asked about whether he felt overwhelmed or overworked.

He was chosen for Meca animation director but he was anxious about it because it wasn't his thing at all compared to his colleague who was ALL about Meca (crazy glint in the eye foam in the mouth kind of guy when he drew Meca). It was surprising his boss gave him that job.

They showed the OP for Gurren Lagann and he pointed out which parts of the OP he did himself.

Difference between working in an OAV and something that's based off a manga:

The difference is of course having materials as a basis from the publisher, compared to not having anything from them for OAVs. The artistic freedom was appreciated (but also stressful).

With Gainax it was awesome to work on original work (OAVs or original IPs), because there were incredibly talented people in the studio.

Scaling in Gurren Lagann:

Gainax used to go with the "it looks super cool" for scaling purposes instead of taking actual people and pictures for accurate proportions. Gainax just winged it like "whatever" and it worked. Rule of cool (with talented people) wins.

They showed the trailer for The Girl who leaped through time, as one of the non Ghibli movies that came out in theaters (in France) for a different aspect of work flow.

He worked in it because he worked with Hosoda (the producer) since they shared common work projects and Hosoda asked him to work with him.

Hosoda and Kubota worked on the movie because they knew each other from Doremi and a few other projects as coworkers (One Piece was mentioned here too)

Hosoda "knew he wanted a girl heroine" and likes softer stories, so he wanted a female director animator as well, but she left... so Kubota was left as the sole one lol

Basically they did the movie with 3 animators (and the occasional external or genga artist giving a hand)

"A girl doing a cute character isn't the same as a boy doing a cute character" (feminine touch). Sadly the Girl Who Leaped doesn't have that feminine touch since it's "three dudes doing the thing" (roughly)

OPM: the love for the first season. Kubota really liked the manga. Originally the team for OPM is the same as the team who did Space Dandy (they just switched studios)

Space Dandy was super freeing because you could do whatever and was interesting to work on, with an amazing team that got along.

They (animators) all had strong and crazy personalities, energizing and everything, so Kubota really liked that ambiance.

They all got along very well so they all followed the animator director (Natsume) when he left. So when MadHouse called Natsume for OPM, they all came along as a full package

He was hired as character designer when Natsume and Kubota went to get ice cream and he handed him a paper with all the jobs and names filled except for "character designer".

"We're just missing your name here to start this project"

Kubota hesitated to take the job because he wasn't sure he could be that good to respect the Mangaka's work.

He only acceped because he saw the team and thought "yeah with these guys we can do it"

The change of studios for S2: his reaction was "eeeeh T_T" (that high pitched disappointed quiet cry)

DBSSH shenanigans with 3D stuff as being one of the first movies with that kind of techniques:

"It wasn't too hard at the time, because once you're working digital, all people around me were 3D specialists and they all understood I wasn't that good with the new vocabulary, so they taught me."

It was already decided there were going to be 3D at the time before they hired him, he wanted to refuse, but he thought "ok but they're going to hire someone who don't know DB as well as me so...."

By the end of the project, the finalized 3D scenes "didn't look half as bad" so he was pleasantly surprised despite not being fully on board initially and he's proud of it. "But fans want 2D so I did the first 2 minutes" (it's 5 minutes ish tho?)

"We added the intro 2D animation because we wanted to surprise spectators, who were expecting 3D only"

Question about freelance vs salary;

He chose to stay freelance instead of entering a studio because he didn't have a choice (studios wanted freelancers and not commit to full employees).

Nowadays with independent studios and projects (Netflix, prime..), animators can now get with better conditions as employees,

He's greedy and wants to still be able to change jobs and projects whenever he feels like it, this is why now he remains freelance and not employee. But he's happy employees can now get poached /hired with better conditions because the power isn't as unbalanced as it once was.

Day two!

day 2, live painting on iPad and questions ^_^

He uses CSP.

"Nothing like a table to do animation work" RIP NOOOOO Kubota my beloved

(He sat down on the floor because he prefers working on a table, the organizers went and fetched him a table because JFC)

He was asked who was his aspiration as an artist and he said Shisho at Gainax, his senpai. I think that's Honda Takeshi (Shisho - boss was his nickname)

His live drawing is actually a live animation of the con's mascot

He first draws the lines of what's not going to move.

Between Vegeta and Goku, he's team Vegeta.

He liked the dark aspect of Vegeta when he showed up because he followed DB as it was coming out in Japan.

The host asked if Vegeta was "Goku's sidekick" and he went "issh" (disagreement)

"Overtime he became Goku's sidekick..." (faire-valoir > the one that's there to make the MC look amazing)

After drawing the lines that won't move, he adds the parts that will move on different layers. Here the clothes / cape for the mascot that will get animated.

Kubota says he used to play video games in the 90s (he doesn't play as much anymore) and he said "now it's called retro" (with pain lol)

When asked about Nintendo or Sega, he said he's neither Nintendo nor Sega, but PlayStation (like a boss).

He did Storyboard work for Tales of Symphonia (when asked about whether he was approached by video game companies).

He uses different colors to show what's he's going to animate and then hides the layers of what's not moving to work easier

He sketches the animation segments first, before going in with final lines.

Animators still work with 24 images per second even if games have much higher frame rates. He explained briefly how it works with a line /wave

His advice to new animators is to draw all the time and train and practice and make animation scenes in full and not just the initial drafts. He also insist to draw by imitating a ton of other artists to be able to do any style.

He insists that "your own style won't be enough" (to go pro)

He's a huge fan of Ys, and would've loved to animate it!

To animate bangs he says one should animate each "strand" on its own to make it look more natural.

Initially he wanted to be a Mangaka but knew he'd need to come up with stories so he quickly gave up on that

Question about whether he has a say on OPs for the anime where he was animator director (OPs in his resume being bangers)

The answer: in general he has no influence on storyboard at all, but he has a say in animation and finishing touches (more impact here, etc)

He says he doesn't have a healthy working rhythm (too much work) and doesn't do much to fix it, sadly. He says it's also his colleagues and all animators in general.

He used to drink a lot of energy drinks. There was a competition of who drank the most of those caffeinated energy drinks to show who worked harder...

It's not the case anymore; he says "when he was young" (he's 46).

He's "complaining" about the mascot's cape lol

He uses an IPad since 2020.

He always worked digital for colors back at Xebec and Gainax.

He also says a lot of animators use CSP because it's cheap and very versatile, so it wasn't industry imposed buuut it's accepted / default now.

Until now which character was the most enjoyable to draw/animate?

He thinks about it for a while, and eventually says "can't answer this question, every single character has hard moments even Saitama so they're all hard... (suffering)"

Whenever he thinks of a character he worked on he only remembers the suffering involved with animating them (and for Saitama it seems the cape was his nemesis).

He uses a game controller in his left hand with shortcuts for erasers, etc to ease his work on the iPad. ~15€ for the controller.

He also said his company bought him the iPad (not himself)

Because the unmoving parts are hidden so sometimes animators hide little Easter eggs behind the moving layers 😆

He said it's his first time animating in public and he was very nervous about it, but we were all nice to him (regarder bien sagement) so he's grateful about it.

I went and got some autographs the two days and got to take a few pictures with him and his family (his son made a heart hand with me aaaaaa)

And I did the fusion dance with him! Bragging is maximum.

About GOHAN. Soooooo I was shown something I wasn't supposed to see ("you didn't see anything" lol) so I won't speak about it BUT. What I can say is the following: there was a translating error with the translator because he said Gohan was "hidden in the OP", but that's not the case: Kubota had prepared Gohan (in terms of design) but Toei requested a change.

So sadly Gohan doesn't seem to be much of thing in the story itself (which he can't comment because Kubota is only the animation director, not the script or decision maker).

Daima is peak. But if Kubota had had the artistic freedom from what I saw, we would've had the Everest.

[skiesofaquaria]

hi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Reposting with tags this time Am Killy, 22yo not-girl from Argentina I’m very nice and cute I’m a pretty princess, cute housewife, evil king, super friendly aviator, avatar of Nyarlathotep, the one heavens blessed, and thusforth I like -mecha -drawing sometimes -guitar n bass -games that i don’t know how to play -webcore, internetcore, animecore, all that stuff -nijiura maids, by extension -anything “obscure” (it’s a psychological complex don’t question me) -visual novels I don’t like -user WattSynchron -studio xebec -Yuuki Yuuna is a Hero -power scaling Here’s a map of Argentina with all my favorite works and a drawing i made some few months back

Not really sure if i’ll post art here or in another blog or whatever, we’ll see

[rockmiyabideusexmachina]

Megaman Production Art Scan of the Day #649:

Rockman.EXE Stream Episode 4 Storyboards [Cover, Title/Page 0, and Page 1]

Title Page Translation:

Episode 4 Storyboard “Salad Anniversary!?” ~ Part B

Directed by: Takao Kago Screenplay: Masaharu Amiyama Storyboard: Masahiko Ohta Staging: Son Seunghee Animation Director: Akira Takahashi Color Specification: [Studio Coral] 3D-CG: SMDE Drawing Studio: Studio Dub Production Progress: Meikan Yuuko Animation Production: Xebec

Starting today, switching it up from settei, I will try to bring you one new page from this set of storyboards I received last week. This is the 2nd half of Ep. 4, after the eyecatch. Posting 3 pages to start out, because the cover and title page aren’t all that interesting, art-wise.  Touchup will probably be more minimal on these, than I have been doing with settei. While I have translated the cover, I probably won’t do so for all of these pages, as they are mostly just descriptions of the panel’s art, or camera technique notations. If I see anything of major note, then I might.  I do have few more storyboards on the way, as they have been up for auction from this same seller quite frequently the past month or so. 

Full Resolution Scans: Cover ~ https://imgbox.com/8xIsVjSP Page 0 ~ https://imgbox.com/sTmFK0MW Page 1 ~ https://imgbox.com/1NxfILE0

[karigarihakase]

Drive Head and Earth Granner were not flops in Japan

Let me start with a small disclaimer. I’m not writing this because I’m a big Tomica fan and I don’t like seeing their anime slandered. I’m also a big Spider Riders fan and have no problem telling you that it was a flop of epic proportions. I’m also not writing this to slander Shinkalion. I think it’s a great show.

This seems to be an ongoing misconception, mainly outside of Japan though I’ve seen some Japanese fans too that assume this (and usually get shot down right away because this is just not true).

I should start by addressing the elephant in the room, which is Shinkalion, as it’s often the context for this discussion coming up in the first place. Shinkalion was a smash success in Japan. It was the perfect storm. Trains are huge, so a series devoted to them, packed with accurate train facts and detail, was going to be big. The work was targeted at young children, but attracted an audience of older railfans as well. The series had a ton of popular seiyuu, so it attracted older otaku who watch for seiyuu. The series had Google as a sponsor, so it had big money behind it from the getgo. It had collabs with hugely popular properties, including Vocaloid, Evangelion and Godzilla. So yes, it attracted fans of Vocaloid, Evangelion and Godzilla who weren’t going to watch it for any of the other reasons listed above. So yeah, there’s no denying Shinkalion was a big success in Japan. But there’s no denying Frozen was a big success in the west (and Japan, and all over the place.) An argument that Drive Head and Earth Granner weren’t successful because they never reached Shinkalion’s level of popularity is like saying Tangled or Big Hero 6 were flops because they weren’t as big as Frozen. (And to be honest, I’m not in Disney fandom. Maybe there are people that argue that? But if there are, they’re idiots.)

Let’s start by talking about the origin of Drive Head a bit, because it’s rather important for explaining what happened. Drive Head was the first TV anime made to promote the Tomica brand of die-cast cars. It was neither the first Tomica anime, nor their first TV series. But it still was something of an experiment, given the brand has existed since 1970. Drive Head was billed as a co-production between OLM (a.k.a. the Pokemon studio) and XEBEC. But as anyone who takes the time to look through the credits can tell you, OLM had very little actual involvement in it. And XEBEC was on its last days. Drive Head had a dismally low budget, with constant off-model animation and two recap episodes, which is another reason that western anime fans were not impressed. Ignoring the fact that the series was aimed at children in Japan as a vehicle to sell toys, not sakuga fanatics.

And the reason that the creators just didn’t care? Well, besides the fact that it was experimental in ways, and that it was just made to sell toys to pre-schoolers? Because Drive Head was merely designed as a placeholder for Shinkalion while it was in production. Takara Tomy wanted Shinkalion to be big. Drive Head was a throwaway. Even the toys themselves were just retools from the Hyper Series line in the first wave.

But Drive Head was a big surprise to the Takara Tomy execs. Because it was big with its target audience. Now, the target audience of Drive Head is not on social media. They’re not the type pouring out fanart on Pixiv. Probably, they can’t even draw (some of the fan-submitted art on Drive Head News Channel, the live-action variety show it spawned proves this.) They’re pre-schoolers! That being said, Drive Head does have aspects that can appeal to adults (as long as they care about more than sakuga). Yeah, I did write that essay and a million fanfics about the villain/heroine romance straight out of Megamind that probably wasn’t written with the target audience in mind. Drive Head did somehow manage to trend on Twitter whenever new episodes aired. Heck, the series character designer posts fanart on Twitter that often treads NSFW territory and has an audience for it. But, Takara Tomy also doesn’t care about that audience, nor should they. They care about selling toys to kids.

Now, the first wave of Drive Head toys went out of print pretty quickly, when the robots were replaced in-universe by their mid-season upgrades. And the price of Sonic Interceptor, the main character’s first mech spiked up right away. There was still a demand for it. This probably should’ve been the first sign the toyline was doing well. Takara did take notice, and this placeholder show that was originally only planned for 37 episodes (an unusual amount when most kids shows run for 4+ cour) was expanded to have a sequel web series and movie. It has been officially stated from the staff that the series was planned to end at episode 37, and changes did have to be made to expand the plot. It must have been early enough in its run for this to be decided. However, given that the web series was primarily recap episodes (and even the entirely new ones were short episodes) and the movie was about an hour long and didn’t have significantly higher production values than the TV series, they clearly still rushed to get these made. The success of Drive Head was said to be unexpected. Even with the movie, they were still surprised. They had planned for two interactive Drive Gear linked screenings (the Drive Gear being a toy that made certain sounds in response to the show itself). Drive Gears were available for loan at these showings. Not only were these showings sold out so quickly that they set up a few more, but many kids brought their own Drive Gear from home, not needing to borrow one. The movie itself was also shown only in limited theaters, which led to enough complaints that they were forced to expand locations (and it still wasn’t enough). Though the movie wasn’t a box-office topping success and it’s actual revenue remains unknown barring in Korea where it seemed to indeed be a flop, it still proved popular with (once again) its target audience. Two theatres even kept playing it for a couple months after all the rest stopped.

Drive Head has continued to be rebroadcast on satellite networks and various streaming services. It is -still- popular with its target audience. You get posts on Twitter like, ‘my kid loves Drive Head and is asking for the toys, but they’re $200 on Amazon. Help!’ There’s still that much demand for these toys.

Unfortunately for these kids and parents, Drive Head hasn’t seen a single re-issue on the toys since its end, and has barely been acknowledged by Takara Tomy at all. There are a number of reasons for this. One is Shinkalion itself. The show that Drive Head was designed as a placeholder for and that Takara Tomy expected to be successful was so successful that it ended up running for longer than planned as well. It held onto the timeslot on TBS where Drive Head once aired until it was prematurely cancelled itself thanks to TBS wanting that timeslot to promote the ill-fated 2020 Olympics. So while there was talk from reliable sources about a Drive Head season 2 happening, it never got its chance to happen. The next reason is TBS itself. They screwed over all their anime programming, barring late-night fare, and it wasn’t until Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury came out in 2022 that they would even consider daytime anime again. So all of Takara Tomy’s properties jumped ship to TV Tokyo. And Drive Head, unlike Shinkalion, is so intrinsically tied to TBS that the likeness of their headquarters and even some of their staff members are featured in the anime. Though, given that real-Sasagawa no longer works for TBS, and has expressed interest in reprising her role one day, it could be feasible to get her on board if a TV Tokyo sequel ever happened. But for a time, there would definitely be some messy legal hoops involved, and there still could be for all I know. Thirdly, XEBEC. While Drive Head could be given to another studio easily enough (perhaps Studio Mother?), XEBEC is no longer of this world. A sequel under a new studio could lead to a radical staff change which might help or harm it. That and well… time’s passed. The time Shinkalion had the timeslot, Covid screwing with anime production after that… Despite new kids discovering the show through streaming platforms, the original target audience is older now and has moved on. It’s the kind of show that could get a nostalgia sequel 10 years from now but for a direct sequel at this point, that ship has sailed, for better or for worse. Even when Shinkalion got its long-awaited sequel, it was mainly focused on new characters and mecha, with the old cast reduced to cameos. And Takara has been releasing toylines with similar gimmicks and aesthetic, such as the currently-running Jobraver. So for that reason, the coveted re-issue of the Drive Head toys is basically doomed.

But now, Earth Granner. The special anime released to commemorate Tomica’s 50th anniversary. I mentioned above that the Tomica brand was born in 1970, so you do the math. You should see right away why that was an unfortunate year for a big 50th anniversary celebration.

When Earth Granner’s toys first hit the shelves, late April 2020, the biggest of the lockdowns were happening worldwide. While Japan’s lockdowns were not as long lasting or extreme as some countries (barring its extreme embargo on foreign tourism), they did happen, and toy stores were certainly deemed nonessential and were shut down for a brief period. So while yes, you could order the toys online on Amazon or the like, right from the get-go Takara Tomy lost their chance to have kids see the big cool $50 robot toy in the store and beg their parents for one. When it was revealed in a first-quarter sales report that the Earth Granner toys sold less than expected, there was almost gloating from a certain section of Shinkalion fans (-not- the target audience of either show) who were not happy that a new Tomica anime debuted before Shinkalion’s season 2 did. Despite the fact that new Shinkalion toys were still being produced and the brand was still very much alive even without a currently airing anime. This clearly ignoring the global crisis which was quite likely to blame for this new line to not have stellar sales from day one. And note that these low sales were quite temporary. Come December, Earth Granner was -the- hottest toyline for young boys. According to lists of the top Christmas toys, it was outselling both Rider and Sentai. That does not seem like a flop to me.

Earth Granner actually appeared to be a quite ambitious project from Takara. They’d learned from the success Drive Head had and planned all sorts of things for it. This included having tokusatsu-style costumes designed in real life of the two main heroes, who would allegedly appear at events and perform stage shows. But again, this was 2020. There was never one stage show. The costumes were only used for a few special events late into the anime’s run where they had drive-in advance showings of new episodes and Raiga and Kuga would be around to greet the kids though their car windows, assumedly. It’s unknown if there were ever plans to make suits for the remaining three Granners, or exactly what would’ve become of the franchise if it had the chance to be what Takara Tomy clearly wanted from it. But Earth Granner simply ended after its year run without even getting a movie like Drive Head and Shinkalion did, and it’s gimmicky extra-packed Blu-Ray box was canceled, having done poorly on the crowdfunding. Clearly, the show was again not a huge hit with adult fans, perhaps even less-so than Drive Head in Japan which did get a BD release. But the toys were still a top seller that year, despite the circumstances they had to deal with.

Again, Takara Tomy barely acknowledges the franchise anymore, and the toys are out of print. However, it also seems that Takara Tomy is going in a direction of less new anime, given their toys themselves prove to be more successful than the probable cost of the shows that promote them. With Tomica’s current Jobraver line, it’s clearly doing well enough that it’s survived for over a year. Its anime is merely sporadically-released all-CG-animated episodes on Youtube. The other currently airing Takara Tomy works include Go! Go! Vehicle Zoo (2-minute long episodes that air sporadically, and cross-promoting three toylines at once, including Tomica), Bouken Tairiku Ania Kingdom (10-minute episodes, and entirely done in stop-motion), a rebroadcast of Punirines (an all-CG 10-minute-episode anime from last year), Duel Masters (which has been running near-endlessly since 2002), and Beyblade (another long-running franchise which only recently made its return to TV after being relegated to streaming only for a while). Shinkalion may be a special exception due to its massive crossover appeal, but even that has no anime currently, rumors of an upcoming new series aside.

Tldr; Drive Head and Earth Granner did great with their target audience despite being screwed over by outside circumstances. You just don’t hear about them because you don’t chat with too many 4-year-olds in Japan.

[over-the-time-flow]

Super Robot Rollcall: Gai Daigoji

Gai Daigoji

"A true ally of justice doesn't let himself get dragged down by the past! Muster your courage, and let's carry out justice together!!"

Source Material: Martian Successor Nadesico Age: 18 Height: 185 cm Hobbies: Biking, Karaoke Favorite foods: Curry, Steak Voice Actor: Tomokazu Seki Character Designer: Keiji Gotoh

The TRUE main character of Nadesico, Gai Daigouji is a central character to the show, its plot, its themes, its sex appeal, its comedy, and most of all, its heart.

Characterized by his burning passion for mecha anime, Gai Daigoji is a man of the people. He'll share the tapes for episodes that were long thought to be gone, he'll educate you on the highs and lows of the classic Super Robot Anime, Hot-Blooded Robo Gekiganger (both 3 and V, though he's not as big of a fan of the V's design), the sort of trivia that only hardcore fans could divulge (such as the existence of the Dragon Ganger!)... If the topic is super robots, Gai's got your back.

Gai was the original pilot of Akito's Aestivalis, but had to relinquish it to the inexperienced cook due to a grievous injury he suffered during his training. As Gai was being wheeled away to safety, he asked Akito to retrieve his dearest treasure from the cockpit of the machine; just then, the enemies attacked, and being in the cockpit already, Akito had no choice but to deploy. Though no match for Gai's skill, he held his own decently enough to earn Gai's respect, and once his injuries healed some, they would fight side by side on multiple occasions.

Though after the first few episodes Gai seemingly loses relevance in the story, this is only the impression you get from a passing glance. By the time this shift occurs, you have already been trained to ask yourself where Gai is whenever he's not onscreen, and once you start asking yourself that, you start to notice that his presence and influence are directly driving the story forward, and this only becomes more apparent as the narrative unfolds. It's no exaggeration to say that Gai is quite possibly the most important character to both the greater narrative of Nadesico and to Akito himself.

if you've seen nadesico and you think i'm joking you might wanna rewatch it

Also, he's my second favorite character present in this game!

Gai's stats are all solidly alright. He's better at Melee than Akito and he's the most sturdy of the Nadesico crew, but these are both rather low bars, all things considered. His Defense specially is very strangely low for a Super pilot. But his Spirit Command learnset brings it all together; he gets absolutely EVERYTHING a Super pilot would like to have. Of note is Valor being here from the very start, making him a potent bosskiller.

He does suffer a bit from the Neo Getter Team issue of a lack of survivability Commands, but much like the Gekiganger trio, the Nadesico crew works best together, and with Akito at his side, he'll show the mettle any true Super pilot ought to be able to display. Couple that with the Gekiganger 3's versatility, and you'll find Gai able to both tank hits and dodge them effortlessly.

Fun Fact: Gai has a cameo in episode 23 of Dai-Guard, another banger mecha anime also made by Studio Xebec!

Gekiganger 3

Source Material: Hot-Blooded Robo Gekiganger 3 Material Constitution: Gekiganium Alloy

Built based on ancient cave inscriptions left by the Super-Ancient-Race, it was designed to protect the freedom and brilliance of humanity from the ambitions of the Kyoakkians. Utilizing the skies, the sea, the land and mankind's power, its three distinct forms allow it to adapt to different situations. The Gekiganger 3 is what gives humanity the strength to heed their dreams which call for tomorrow. Now muster your courage and shout with me:

LET'S GEKIGA IN!!

You'll have to forgive the strange adaptation of the design. The GBA must have not been able to handle the Gekiganger's more traditional look, so they had to make design changes.

Much like the Neo Getter, the Gekiganger has three forms; one for Air, one for Land, and one for... Space, strangely. the Umiganger IS traditionally meant to be the aquatic one, as the name implies, but perhaps for balancing reasons, it's adapted into a Space-use form here.

Also perhaps for balancing reasons, the Gekiganger can only change forms inbetween stages. It's a baffling decision, but it's likely in order to keep it standard with the other Nadesico pilots' Aestivalis units. This standardization is necessary because the Gekiganger (and the Umiganger, but NOT the Rikuganger) has a secret weapon, the Double Gekigan Flare, which can only be done alongside Akito's Aestivalis, a representation of Gai and Akito's unshakeable bond.

Though it has noticeably low Armor for a Super in all forms but Rikuganger, it makes up for it in all forms thanks to its signature Gekigan Field, which ends up allowing it to display far more hardiness than you'd expect it to, given proper investment. Coupled with Gai's high level of Potential, lategame it's rather common to see it at 25% health, dodging everything and deflecting what does hit it entirely without taking any damage. Do not underestimate the Gekigan spirit.

Fun Fact: In-universe in SRW R, Gekiganger 3 (the TV show) is over 100 years old, implying that the Getter Robo's design was either inspired by it or, strangely, predicted by it. A different SRW game (Impact, i believe?) goes further and outright acknowledges this by having it stated outright that when Gekiganger was made the technology seemed far off and unrealistic, but by the time the game takes place, technology had naturally advanced far enough that such a concept was doable. For a real world comparison, think of all the old cartoons that basically predicted smartphones and tablets.

[lestcat-de-lioncourt]

Wild. I started way back back at Pandora Hearts all that time ago and Jun brought us then The Case Study of Vanitas with Studio BONES. It made me so happy when they were able to return again. People I watched Pandora Hearts way back then barely could remember it, but it was probably an anime that stuck for me. Chains, B Rabbit, Alice, Oz, Gilbert Nightray… and dear Xerxes Break and Emily… here’s some very old fanart I drew of Alice with a Snapchat text box thing attached to it aaah. An anime that pretty much taught me the word “abyss”. Mostly trying to pronounce initially it, aha.

If you love The Case Study of Vanitas, you may enjoy Pandora Hearts which was produced with Studio Xebec, and their first~ it was gripping, and if you enjoy horror/Alice in Wonderland-esque things, you’ll probably enjoy this.

Both are taking place in XIX Century but Pandora Hearts isn’t based in our “world” though it is based in England, and Vanitas is based in France.

Sadly Pandora finished but, Vanitas introduces himself and Noé as Vincent and Gilbert, so, their souls live on with them it’s seems~

[yuukiwarashi]

Oh I read somewhere that Glyde can pull rare chips out of nowhere or some equivalent of it. Studio Xebec and Capcom can't handle Glyde's power.

I'm in love with this absolutely out of context ask thank you for supplying me with this info. I would assume that Glyde's rare chips stock came from Yaito considering. she's rich af. Who the fuck knows where she puts them tho. On another topic the concept of battle chips and how they're stored is absolutely interesting like in Higureya(??????) and Numberman's debut episode a chip's info was apparently put into a blank battle chip he had. So did that imply that the data was transferred but not copied. Wack

[they-have-the-same-va]

Yai Amano from MegaMan NT Warrior shares a voice actress with Penny Ling from Littlest Pet Shop.

Voiced by Jocelyne Loewen

[radargrind2091]

Tory Froid - Megaman NT Warrior Icons

-“Megaman NT Warrior” (c) Studio Xebec

[maguro13-2]

SHATTERED HERO Rekindled ~ Origins of the Ink Demon : Episode Maka Pt.13 ~

~ White Acropolis ~

[Shadow Infiltration by Tomoya Ohtani]

*Eggman Mech searching for someone*

Shadow : Hmph!

*Shadows bashes his way through the mechs*

*DBZ SFX : Loud Explosion*

Shadow : Not even a challenge.

*Radio Buzzing*

Man : Transmission from HQ, there's an S.O.S coming from Dr. Eggman's Base. Our Last contact with our agent. We expect an immediate rescue, Shadow the Hedgehog.

Shadow : Understood. Initiating the mission now. Nailed it.

"Shadow the Hedgehog : Now Agent of G.U.N"

[White Acropolis (Snowy Peak) by Mariko Nanba]

Shadow : Rouge. Can you hear me?

Rouge via radio : Shadow, it's been 26 hours since I'm at the base. Looks I'm heavily off guarded with a bunch of Guards. You sure your playing this part alone?

Shadow : I am playing your part and you play yours.

Rouge : Well, okay. If you insist, but I need to find Omega, he had been at the jungle since our first meeting with him three years ago.

Shadow via radio : Nothing's a big shot, but wonder what Omega's up to anyway at the jungle. Despite the 06 being a not so goodie game, we hardly recognized how 2006 would be a great year would be.

Rouge : Can't believe after the whole opportunity of saving the world thing. It might be delicate that I have successful ways on finding the answer

"Rouge the Bay : World-Famous Treasure hunter and G.U.N Agent"

Shadow : So it's basically, regardless that the Doctor has some research about a project that has ended in a fatal accident. If I meet you at where you are. But first I need to get pass through the doctor's security!

Rouge via Radio : Copy that.

Shadow : So it's best on what you're doing is wrong, I wonder what you're hiding from me, Doctor.

*one blasting through White Acropolis later*

Rouge : Okay, we managed to break into security, now all we have to do is find something where to find.

Shadow : Typical. This whole winter wonderland is a frozen wasteland. Pretty cold base for the doctor alone hear.

*Eggman Mechs arrived*

Shadow : Damn! So the security of White Acropolis has arrived!

Rouge : I bet the doctor got something for you.

Shadow : Time for me to give it a go.

*Egg Cerberus appears*

*Egg Cerberus roars*

[Egg Cerberus & Egg Genesis by Hideaki Kobayashi]

Shadow : That must be the doctor's Guard Dog! But on what occasion?

Heartless : Cryptic Metaphor!

*DBZ SFX : Surprise*

Rouge : Where did he come from?

Shadow : Do you seriously to think that this fair?

Heartless : Just fight the dog whatever.

Shadow : Okay!

Master Hand/Announcer : SHADOW AND ROUGE...VS...EGG CERBERUS.

Shadow : Okay! It's time to put that thing on a leash!

Heartless : Only a mere fool would surpass the night alone, I am shall receive the angel of death towards to you, my thirst for power shall ever strike, I want you get pass this. If you ever put the dog on a leash, I will award you something greatly beyond your journey. this artifact what I found is the Scepter of Darkness! It is an important item that contains a mysterious and powerful being sweeps the darkness from the light. Defeat this hound and the artifact will be all yours.

Rouge : Now I understand what he meant, Shadow destroy that hound.

Shadow : Got it! *Grabs onto it's antenna* Now to ram it's face...to the wall!

*MGS Sound : Exclamation Mark*

*DBZ SFX : BOOM!*

Rouge : Boom shaka laka! Right in the face!

*Shadow lands on the pillar*

Shadow : Aced!

Heartless : Very intriguing. But you're still no match for the greater goods, you will be feast upon the night, and once we take control of the night, victory is ours for the taking!

Shadow : Worthy of it too much! Speak the night for the yourself!

Rouge : Careful with that thing, Shadow. It looks like hasn't been potty trained.

*SA1 : Tire Screech*

Shadow : ....Gross.

*Egg Cerberus continues to run*

Shadow : *grabs onto into it's antenna and rams itself into the wall*

*DBZ SFX : Boom!*

Shadow : Perfect! His face can see clearly!

Heartless : This is worthy of what your bloodshed can do. But I see that that I have turn the tables for you. Watch this hound may crush those onto the soils of the earth that scorched them like bugs.

Shadow : W-What? Where did the Guard Dog go?

*looks into confusion*

Heartless : Up here!

*they look at the Egg Cerberus that is going to jump*

Heartless : Die!

*Egg Cerberus jumps*

Shadow : Rouge, get down!

*both of them evades the waves*

Shadow : So...It's all coming towards this to end it! Hey, you mutt! I've got something right here!

"SCANNING..."

"SCANNING COMPLETE"

Shadow : Here, you want thhis? have at it! Fetch!

*Defeats the Egg Cerberus+causing it to shut down*

Heartless : *laughing* This is only the beginning!

Master Hand/Announcer : VICTORY!

*Smash Audience Uproaring*

[Round Clear by Jun Senoue]

Master Hand/Announcer : This winner is...

Shadow : Hmph! Perfect!

"SHADOW"

Master Hand/Announcer : SHADOW!

[Will you Continue by Jun Senoue]

Master Hand/Announcer : Final Results.

"RANK...S"

Master Hand/Announcer : WOW! INCREDIBLE!

Shadow : Ultimate Victory!

*Scene changes*

Shadow : So now, what are you going to give us.

Heartless : Take this here scepter, this will be your only prize. Hopefully, it will be the return ticket of your life. But you aren't lucky that you weren't getting this. *holds out a Chaos Emerald*

Shadow : Another Chaos Emerald!

Heartless : Hopefully, this will be only a limited time offer for the lucky winner.

Rouge : Hey, I found that emerald first! Give it to us!

Heartless : Hahahaha...Never begone with you!

Rouge : AAAAAAAAH!!!

Shadow : NOOOOOOO!

*DBZ SFX : Energy Wave*

Heartless : There will be room for one more, one more and the vicious night shall be ours.

Silver : Uhh, is this where I can receive that prize?

Blaze : We need that emerald into finding some evidence.

Silver : Is there something that I needed to fight something.

Heartless : One lucky winner will reclaim this jewel and it will be all yours.

Silver : Then it's a deal. I wanna fight the puppy.

Heartless : That one got disabled.

Silver : Then I want to fight another guard.

Heartless : Then I suggest you should fight this one.

Silver : Eh? *looks up at something*

*The Egg Genesis Appears above them*

Silver : Ahh, Darn it! Why did I even face that! (sighs) This is even way worse than putting all of those stupid balls into the hole at the Dusty Desert Level.

Blaze : Don't worry, we'll get used to this one.

*Meanwhile at the Desert*

[Get Ready for the Big Event (Tutorial) by Tomonori Sawada]

~ SAND RUINS ~

Eggman : Welcome to the Sand Ruins Area! The Final Race begins here at Sand Ruins. Get your food and drinks, boys and girls, the tournament will be claiming victorious by the lucky winner, with the final two chaos emeralds in all together!

Omochao : Okay, sports fans! Get ready for the final race of the EX World Grand Prix! The finalists are in, the seats are ready, and...[to the guy] Can you give him some mustard on that? First up, the final racers of the tournament have arrived.

Sonic : [To Nozomi] Alright, Nozomi. We gotta play it cool. You sure that you can even. So how did your friends go?

Mysterious Racer/Nozomi : Likely as we planned. But a little noticed, I found something that those bird brains has a sneaky little trick.

Sonic : Whatcha' mean?

Mysterious Racer/Nozomi : They put an explosive device that is going to sabtoage your board, Sonic. Jet was going to cheat you out of the race.

Sonic : What? Why didn't you tell me this before, Nozomi?

Mysterious Racer/Nozomi : Don't worry, I'll make him prevent you losing...

Sonic : But how are you going to save my life?

Mysterious Racer/Nozomi : We'll both winning in a tie. My friends decided that those cheaters will never win.

Sonic : You'd do that for me?

Mysterious/Nozomi : Trust me.

Amy : Hey, Sonic, Congratulations on making it this far! I look forward of seeing you in the race! I'll be cheering you and your racer friend from here on!

Sonic : You too, Amy!

Mysterious Racer/Nozomi : Thanks, Mrs. Rose. I'll be looking forward of saving this race, but the race is what needed to be done.

*scene changes outside the colosseum*

Leo : Hmm? This is the place, but what's going on? Why is that female swallow doing? It appears she's using some kind of device that sabotages people's boards. Better make sure we better put a stop to this.

"Leogini Santosa Berafort : Member of the GUARDIANS"

Lou : Perhaps we need to take action on their crimes.

"Lou : GUARDIANS CAST Unit"

Leo : Be on guard for those fugitives. No need to harm, we're just going to take a look.

Lou : Understood, Leo.

*Scene changes back to the group*

Eggman : So...the final race of the EX World Grand Prix begins.

Sonic : Let's prove that we're the best, Nozomi. Let's show him what were made of. Let's try to keep up!

Eggman : *chuckles* Guess you weren't expecting this much fun, Sonic. Let's see if you really clever about my robot's return to see your face again. He hasn't seen you in three years since the Dreamcast Era, let's see if he really wants a return then that's just what he will get.

Eggman Nega : Is that really clever of you, Ivo Robotnik, or should I say past Eggman and past relative of me.

Eggman : Huh? W-What!? You...You again!

[Tension by TAI-HEY]

*DBZ SFX : Shock*

Eggman : Eggman Nega!

Eggman Nega : Long time no see. Remember when we fought Sonic and that flaming princess back at Rush. It appears that your so-called robot Metal Sonic would be no match for Metal 3.0

[Mistery by Seirou Okamoto]

Eggman : Metal 3.0? You built another Metal Sonic that can outmatch my own robot? Why are you doing this?

Eggman Nega : Revenge from the Rush Incident. For you see...

*flashback to 2005*

"After debuting as the doppelganger in 2005, I've finally realized that I was coming from the future and would easily fooling you out into helping me out on invading both Sonic's World and Blaze's world, we could've made the best duo in the world. I stole the Sol Emeralds to get to your world, and what we did, we had to take the blame on ourselves, we switched on our enemies that we mistaken as us. It was all part of my plan to get rid of the blue nuisance once and for all. I was going into stopping the princess with the copies of our own machines, but after Egg King was demolished, we decided to combine our efforts of creating the machine that holds attention to the Exception, A zone that is between both our worlds that are linked as the north and south magnetic pole."

"However, following this after my defeat, I had no choice but to escape back to Silver's Future where I have installed a device that trap anyone within their souls. It's called the Card-Turning Camera, it has the power to turn any objects into cards and it would be the perfect crime to make everything happened in Silver's world"

Eggman : OHHH!!! You crazy, Eggman Nega!? That device will capture anyone's soul! You driven yourself mad with power! If you do that to Sonic's world, Mobius will be in Danger and the Mobian Death God Grim, will be angry if he finds out that you are going to turn everyone into card, but not the planet itself!

Eggman Nega : That's what I was going to do, but if this fails, I might as well plan on awakening fiery demon from another dimension, it is a creature that feeds on Chao that dwells within the powers of the Chaos Emerald. It's very relative to the Flames of Disaster that happened 10 years ago in Soleanna. It's name, the great and powerful Ifrit!

Eggman : My Goodness gracious, Eggman Nega. You're too pitiful...and you're insane like my grandfather that tried to commit genocide back in Adventure 2!

Eggman Nega : Oh come on, our grandfather was lost to time after the contact he did with the Black Arms, that happened at the same time when I got debuted a year ago. It's not like that I'm not involved with that alien menace that trashed downed Mobius.

Eggman : Is that so? That makes us geniuses for the reasoning that the Dreamcast Era has been long gone, our company has lost it's hardware business and do you know what killed the Dreamcast?

Eggman Nega : Please don't say the Playstation...

Eggman : The Playstation!

Eggman Nega : Grrrghhh! I knew it!

Eggman : Let's just face it, Nega, your ridiculous plans on stopping both Sonic and Blaze are futile, they're on their on separate ways, but hey, at least we can do it to meet them again, by doing pirates in the next game by the year 2007.

Eggman Nega : Great idea, that's brilliant. But I'm afraid that I'm holding the cards now.

Eggman : Hope you're eating a sandwich in two years, but I will see you in the Olympics by the year 2009 and 2010

Eggman Nega : That's wonderful. Hey, Doc...Say "cheese".

Eggman : What?

*Sound Camera about to flash*

Eggman : Hey, what are you doing with that Camera!? No! Not my face! GAAAAAAAAAAH!

*ZAP+FLASH*

Eggman as a Card : Nega! What are you doing!? Get me out of here! Release me!

Eggman Nega : *chuckles* This will be in very use! Once you're out of my way, I can finally have my revenge on the blue menace once and for all!! Say good bye to your precious planet, Robotnik.

Eggman as a Card : Sonic, Shadow, Save me! I've been turned into a trading card! Eggman Nega's back and he wants revenge because of me! Help! Somebody! Where are my reinforcements! I need my robots to save me! Metal Sonic, where are you!?!

Eggman Nega : And now for the final touch

*Disguises himself as Eggman*

Eggman : Perfect! HO-HO-HO-HO-HO-HO!

~ Level 12 : Revenge of the Mad Scientist ~

[wanderersrest]

An Abbreviated History of Mecha Part 7: The Witching Hour Is Here!

Spoiler Warning: This post contains spoilers for one Brave Bang Bravern. I'd recommend watching at least the first episode of Bravern before continuing.

Welcome to the final installment of An Abbreviated History of Mecha! Last time, we had some technical difficulties due to the Lich screwing things up with its time shenanigans covered what many would consider to be mecha's "Dark Age." Now, we will see how the genre has recovered. It remains to be seen how this decade will go down in history, but so far mecha shows have had a minor bit of a rebound. Though that insipid line of thinking (you've probably heard it at one point: "mecha shows are about the robots, not the characters") is still doing a bit of harm to the general reception of mecha shows, the canon is doing better than before. Not well, like it was in the 90's, but it's not in dire straits.

Victory is never decided by mobile suit performance alone.

Nor by the skill of the pilot, alone.

The result itself is the only proof!

Kyoukai Senki/AMAIM: Warrior At the Borderline (2021)

Kicking off the decade, 2021 would give us a new franchise in the form of the former Xebec, now Sunrise Beyond series AMAIM: Warrior At the Borderline. Sporting smaller robots in a setting similar to Code Geass but Japan was split into three by three world superpowers like it was Post-World War II Germany, AMAIM would be one of the few new mecha shows to come out that would be animated entirely in 2D.

Megaton Musashi (2021)

Developed by Level-5 Studios, Megaton Musashi is a game series that pays homage to the mecha stories of old, particularly that of Getter Robo. The game itself would suffer in terms of marketing, as Level-5 would end up shuttering their US studio in this decade. Which is wild, because this series would also get an anime adaptation that's only started airing this year.

Also, Megaton Musashi has a lot of crossovers with older mecha shows like Getter Robo and Combattler V.

SSSS.Dynazenon (2021) & Gridman Universe (2023)

Returning in 2021 would be Studio Trigger with the follow-up to SSSS.Gridman, SSSS.Dynazenon. Based off of the Dyna Dragon from the original Gridman the Hyper Agent, SSSS.Dynazenon would carry on the energy from its predecessor in terms of energy and heart.

2023 would also see the worlds of SSSS.Gridman and SSSS.Dynazenon collide with the movie finale Gridman Universe, bringing the casts of both shows together for one last hurrah for Trigger's Gridman trilogy.

Back Arrow (2021)

While 2021 was a good year for mecha in general, one show that doesn't get talked about more is Goro Taniguchi's Back Arrow. Set in the walled world of Lingalind, Back Arrow would give us a story where the mecha are powered by a character's convictions.

That's right! Back Arrow is quite possibly the single greatest series in terms of highlighting what piloted giant robots are all about. These stories were never about the giant robot itself; the giant robots were living extensions of the pilots who controlled them. Hence why the breiheights of Back Arrow are based purely on a character's core beliefs.

Getter Robo Arc (2021)

2020 would also see the surprise announcement of an adaptation of the unfortunately unfinished Getter Robo Arc. With the goal of wrapping up the story as best as possible without the guiding hand of series creator Ken Ishikawa, Getter Robo Arc's anime adaptation would finally release in 2021. With this, the Getter Robo saga can finally come to an end.

If you've already watched his video on Getter Robo, Cheese GX also has a follow-up covering Getter Robo Arc specifically.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway's Flash (2021) & Cucuruz Doan's Island (2022)

And in case you didn't believe me when I said 2021 was a good year for mecha, let me remind you of something: Gundam was featured as part of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Gundam would see the creation of the now-disassembled RX-78-2 Gundam in Yokohama as part of the celebration of the games. The RX-0 Gundam Unicorn would also make a cameo in the background during the Olympic Rock Climbing event, as Gundam Front Tokyo was the venue.

Most important of all for us, is that 2021 would see the release of part one of a trilogy of movies based on the Hathaway's Flash novel. And as if that wasn't enough, 2022 would also see the release of a movie based on the infamous episode of the original series known as Cucuruz Doan's Island. And as a reminder: Gundam's not done yet. I haven't even gotten to the other big Gundam series yet. These were just the two major series released for the Universal Century in this decade.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury (2022)

Where Gundam made really big news in this decade was with the release of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury. Set in the Ad Stella timeline, G-Witch would bring awareness to the franchise that hadn't really been seen since it's heyday in the 90's. G-Witch would also differentiate itself from the rest of the Gundam series by presenting us with Gundam's first female main protagonist, the very tanuki-coded Suletta Mercury (and that depends, because if we're saying Gundam protagonist, then I'd argue technically War in the Pocket's Christina McKenzie has Suletta beat by a couple decades; this isn't even getting into Ecoile du Ciel). And not only is she the first female protagonist, Suletta is also Gundam's first queer protagonist!

Bullbuster (2023)

If there is any series that I wish I had caught while it was airing last year, it would definitely be Bullbuster. Cut from the same cloth as Patlabor and Dai-Guard, Bullbuster presents to us a construction robot is used to fight... aliens?

LEGO movie, is that you?

Okay, seriously though, I do think Bullbuster got drowned out due to being in a year that also included The Witch From Mercury.

Brave Bang Bravern (2024)

Man, if you thought The Witch From Mecury was gay...

2024 would open with Cygames Studio's Brave Bang Bravern. Directed by Masami Obari (a man who I have somehow failed to mention until now), Bravern would manage to capture the joy of the Brave franchise of old (and really mecha shows on the whole), all while making it very gay.

And I mean it. Bravern is quite possibly the single gayest show to come out in the 2020's. Maybe even of all time.

And that's really a wrap on pretty much everything that's come out, but there is one upcoming series set to come out next month...

Grendizer U (Airs July 2024)

Not seeming to want to be left out, the Mazinger saga would also get a surprise announcement in 2023 with a teaser for Grendizer U. Set to air in 2024, Grendizer U is going to be a reboot of the original UFO Robot Grendizer series, though some changes have been made (namely, Kouji has now brought along both Sayaka and Professor Yumi; more importantly, Kouji will now be piloting Mazinger Z instead of playing a support role like he did in the original Grendizer).

You can bet that I will be covering this series, especially if it's picked up by Crunchyroll this coming summer.

Looking Beyond Grendizer U & 2024: Live-action Gundam, Hathaway Parts 2 & 3, Gunbuster 3, and Patlabor EZY

Going beyond 2024, there are also other series that are set to be released some time in this decade. 2016 saw the release of the Patlabor Reboot promo, which is supposedly a test run for a new Patlabor series: Patlabor EZY. Supposedly set to air sometime in 2026 (at least last I saw), I'm as excited about this as Isao Ohta is about any type of gun that comes across his path.

Studio Gaina (again, not to be confused with the now-closed Gainax) also has plans to release Gunbuster 3, though that will probably be on the shelves for now until Grendizer U wraps up.

And of course, Gundam still has two more parts of the Hathaway movies to work on. There's also a live-action Gundam series that is also in the works at Legendary.

Conclusion

And that's a wrap, folks. Finally, after ten whole posts, I've covered an incomplete history of mecha! Yes that's right! Incomplete! Why did you think it was called abbreviated?

Jokes aside, I thought this would be a relatively simple project. Just cover a handful of mecha shows from the decades since their inception, say a thing or two about them, and move on. It turns out that, even when I cherry-picked the shows to talk about, there were still a lot of them.

Do I regret doing it, though? No. Well, maybe that bit about Valvrave specifically. Outside of that, I think it is important that this series of posts still exist. I tried my best to be as impartial as possible, and hopefully you, dear reader, have caught that. I really don't want this project to turn out to be identical in tone to Professor Otaku's Complete History of Mecha video series. Man literally cannot hide his disdain for shows he doesn't like very well, and I think it does a massive disservice to both his series and himself.

What I want you to take away from this series of posts is: every show I covered on here is someone's favorite. I've seen at least one person go to bat for every series I named here. I've done it for G Gundam and Patlabor, and I plan on doing it for a couple more series on here. The real important thing here is that this post helps in dismissing that wrong-headed claim of "mecha shows are just about the robots and not the characters." Which is a thing I will talk about soon.

But not right now. Now I want to rest. And by rest, I mean throwing my wrist out while playing The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

God Groose is such a great character.

[askfullmetalpanic]

Sorry if this has been asked before, but do you think there is any chance of this series being taken on by another studio one day and being animated start to finish entirely? Sort of like what happened with Fruits Basket

It's always possible! AFAIK, Kadokawa holds the rights, so they either need to commission a studio, or have a studio approach them with the request to buy the right to animate it. How much they animate would be a result of that conversation.

It sucks that Xebec went out of business before finishing the series like they were gonna 🙃 That could have put the rights to it on a bit of a legal freeze and prevent anyone else from picking it right back up while it still had momentum. Hopefully someone will at least FINISH it.

I don't know if the series is enough of a money maker to get picked up for a full reboot like Furuba, but it's always always possible.