Spring 08 Impressions PART III

three is a magic number~~

Macross Frontier

I’m a Macross nub, I’ll admit. I only just saw Do You Remember Love a month or so ago and have yet to see the original series. I did see one or two episodes of that Macross Zero thing a few years back, but I guess that doesn’t count. Anyway, what I’m trying to get at here is Macross Frontier is my first proper Macross series. I put off watching the original airing of episode one (the “Deculture” Edition) until after my viewing of DYRL because I didn’t want to be like a new Gundam fan who only watches 00 and forgets the original series and movies exist. But I digress.

I watched the Deculture Edition and the proper TV airing back to back, so I got the whole story of episode one down. I’m pretty fucking impressed. I’ve had this fucking annoying itch for well produced and engaging SF anime for a while now, and Macross F does a fucking good job of scratching that itch. The world design alone would have been satisfactory, but Macross F goes above and beyond by delivering dogfights that are actually exciting. A rarity in anime. Not only that, but they were rendered in 3D and actually looked not shitty. Sure, it’s not fucking Pixar grade or anything, and the movements did look awkward at times (you cannot reproduce the Itano Circus faithfully in 3D, I am sorry), but damn. I was fucking on the edge of my seat. I should note that this hardly ever fucking happens to me.

Anyway, aside from violence and spaceships, the character animation is pretty good and everything else in general is well rendered. The character designs are apparently done by a porno-game designer, and I’m not sure how I feel about them. Nyan Nyan girl is cute, but her eyes aren’t big enough so she’s not MOEEEEEEE. But the dance is nice.

So yeah, watch it.

Zettai Karen Children

…or Absolutely Lovely Children, in our archaic and simple Engrish ranguage. Though you may just want to keep it Zettai Karen for when you’re speaking in public, to attract less suspicious looks.

Yeah, this one is a big ol’ “I GUESS IT WAS OK.” This first episode had a crazy Hard Gay wannabe as the main villain. I dunno, maybe I’m just too old to appreciate a gay man shooting lasers out of his dick, but this wasn’t really funny or not funny. It was just there. Anyway, gay men shooting lasers out of their dicks aside, the show features some psychic lolis, which are clearly better than normal lolis, because they’re psychic. They could probably jerk you off with their minds, or something. One is voiced by Hirano Aya doing her Konata voice, and her character basically is Konata except more perverted. I’m not sure what to make of the character designs here. On one hand they’re kind of cute, but on the other hand they look like the stepped out of some show made in that awkward period where anime was becoming moe but was still not moe. Like 1999 or early 2000, or something.

This show is apparently directed by the Hayate director, which is confusing since that same directorial brilliance isn’t here. However, a quick gander at this guy’s other credits almost convinces me that Hayate’s brilliance doesn’t really lie in the direction so much anymore. I guess that guy just does lol otaku shows. Also, this is meant to run for a year. Not sure if I’ll be able to stick with it.

Allison to Lillia

Uh, I’m not really sure what to say about this one. Episode 1 was well done, but I’m not really sure if this kind of show is my thing or not. It certainly was fun and had a great sense of adventure helped by an ambitious musical score, but it’s so not-anime that I’m almost put off. I guess I’ll watch it until I get sick of it.

The animation is pretty good. I really like the use of colour.

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