Alright it’s time for the ultimate super robot wars experience. I have never seen animation like this before in an SRW game. Some of the action looks just outright drawn and the moves look more forceful and smooth than ever before. During this PV there were times that I just sat there in awe. Most of the robot favorites will be returning in this, including but not limited to:
UC Gundams
Getter Robo Armageddon
Aim for the Ace: Gunbuster
Dancouga/Dancouga Nova
Full Metal Panic/Fumoffu/The Books
Armor Trooper Votoms
And many many more.
It’s actually really impressive what they are doing here because it seems that the roster is staying about the same in terms of size, but the fight animations are just getting a complete overhaul. They are really pushing the graphics on this one. This looks like it will truly be the best Banpresto can make so I’m more than looking forward to it.
Super Robot Wars Z3 Tengoku-Hen will be released April 2.
It’s time for the resident robot show of summer and well, this one actually holds up pretty well.
So yes the robots are CG…
But some of the designs are cool.
But the action is really cool
And this leads exactly into what you think it does.
So yeah this show is extremely promising. The action is satisfying and if that alone continues, it’s a successful robot show. The show has already been licensed by Sentai Filmworks, and is being simulcasted on CrunchyRoll. Check it out, it’s worth your time.
The cover isn’t final, but the announcement is! Discotek Media, the people who license all the cool, old anime, live action Japanese movies and also that one box of GCCX, have announced that they’re bringing over Shin Mazinger over sometime in 2015. You can now get a full on copy of the first real foray into classic super robot territory in years. More support means that we may actually see a Shin Great Mazinger one day. I know I’m delusional, but super robots!
That’s right, Banpresto really doesn’t know how to not be in the middle of making a Super Robot Wars game. This time their ending off the Masou Kishin series with a game that has an obsurdly full title, Super Robot Wars OF Saga: The Lord of the Elemental F Coffin of the End, or SRWOGF for short, or whatever other shortening of the title you want to call it by. Here’s the PV:
So does anyone else feel like the fighting is just really off? I know that they want to try new things from time to time, but with the way the animations look here it’s really weird. It’s like they’re going for a faux 3d prerendered/hand drawn look and it just doesn’t work because the movement doesn’t flow as well and the various robots don’t feel like they are actually connecting when one hits another. This is a really big issue because the main draw of SRW has always been the aesthetic which as time goes on has been less about getter and mazinger fighting together and more about making totally sweet battle animations. It’s the reason SRW is so popular and well, if that’s not present it’s actually more so a really hard and repetitious RPG.
Either way, this is definitely worth a look because it’s both the end of a saga and a bit of an experiment. Plus you get Masaki Andoh and Shu Shirakawa fighting together alongside the entire Ra-gaes group from the other Masou Kishin games, which is always good.
Look forward to Super Robot Wars F Coffin of the End coming out for PS3 on august 28th.
Gainax is putting Gurren Lagann on stage as the new compilation play Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann ~Honougeki-Hen~. Of all the things you could make into a stage play, GL is not among the first things to come to mind, but whatever you have to do, company of weirdo anime nerds that make up Gainax.
There’s unfortunately not much information on this other than it exists. The front page links are all currently gray including cast. But that makes sense because the one link that does work is open auditions. If you ever wanted to be part of a robot show and happen to be in the right part of Japan, you have a chance. You have to submit this application with a bust shot and a full body shot. They are currently looking for men between around 18 to 35 and women between around 18 to 30.
I love robots shows. I err towards supers because I prefer the overly ridiculous stuff that comes with them, but that distinction between reals and supers doesn’t usually matter that much. They tend to mix and match, and thus here we are with Captain Earth.
Captain Earth, which probably won’t contain anyone destroying the environment out of spite, is this season’s new robot show. It comes to us from the same people who made Star Driver. Star Driver wasn’t exactly a great show in story telling, but it was goddamn beautiful to look at, and Captain Earth continues that. The show is outright gorgeous. The animation is fluid, the colors are rich, the lighting is pretty, the robot designs are good as are the general mechanical designs. Character designs leave a little to be desired in that they also brought over Star Driver‘s ridiculous tits. So far, the fanservice has only been the one character, but it won’t stop there. It never does.
Other than that, there’s actually not a lot to say. That the first episode is efficient and standard is probably the best way to put it. The main character, Daichi Manatsu, has his back story divulged through a mixture of flashbacks and present day events that lead him gloriously into the cockpit of a robot so he ca colorfully fight other robots from another organization probably headed by evil jerks in suits. There’s also something about glowing rocks from space. He meets a mysterious naked girl, has a pendant from his dead father who was also a Captain. Captain is the name for pilot along with all the other jargon the show throws blatantly into your face over the course of the first episode along with various mysteries and boobies. It’s all very normal
It might sound like I’m down on the show because of the simplicity, but I’m not. This is a robot show. I’m here to watch a big colorful fight with people yelling the names of super moves as they punch lasers at you. Whatever facilitates that is enough plot for me, and it’s not like what we’ve been presented with is bad. It’s basic setup, but it’s done well. Daichi’s father dies in a particularly spectacular way, Daichi himself gets the passion needed to pilot a robot well, we establish enough characters to keep things vague enough to be interesting. It’ll work even if it doesn’t break too many molds.
Captain Earth is airing on Saturdays late night. Give it a shot. The colors might just be enough to bring you in.
This show is pretty. The coloring, the art, the flow of motion, the fact that I think the robots aren’t CG. Ooh. If they manage to keep that up and funnel some of the coolness of that one Star Driver fight into this show’s fights, this show might be a winner purely on a visual standpoint. I do appreciate the Macross cluster missiles, but I do hope we get some punching. Even the music sounds solid. People don’t seem to have the ridiculous breasts from Star Driver anymore. This show has some potential.
I mentioned when this show came up before that this is must be what it feels likes to be a fanboy. Were you to describe this show to me in passing assuming I know nothing about the source material, a group of three girls fight a group of monster of the week girls who attack them at the behest of crotchety set of eyeballs in their house with inane fanservice because there has to be so people will buy the figures, I’d probably punch you for wasting some of my braincells. Hell, I’m not sure I don’t want to punch someone even being familiar with the old shows in question, and yet here we are. Not only am I actively watching the show, but I’m actually going to vouch for it. Somewhat.
Super Robot Girls Z is a madcap set of cartoon shorts centered around moe anthropomorphized versions of characters and robots from the various properties in Toei’s vault initially seeming to be born out of the idea if it’s not up a skirt or down a blouse, no one wants to see it. There’s not really any other reason to make the Castle of Black Iron and it’s progeny into vaguely teenage girls with schoolgirl skirts, but Toei actually seems to be trying to make this series of zany cartoon shorts a series of zany cartoons. If you took out the normal style OP and replaced it with something like:
with the logo replaced with one of the girl’s faces, I could see this being the quick short that plays before the Mazinger feature film. The gags are quick, punchy slapstick like a building falling over like it’s a big block of jelly, or silly visual gags like Great Mazinger cutting up Doublas’s laser causing it to fall apart like a chopped zucchini, or both like Garada or someone getting blown backwards into the Jack and Mary King Burger Stand that subsequently explodes while Jack yells in his particular version of English.
That’s also a nice point the show has in that the side references don’t feel overwrought. We don’t linger on the King Sibling Burger Stand while the show elbows us going, “Huh? Huuuh?!” It’s there and gives you a quick chuckle, then it’s time to move on. The third episode blends these together all quite well. The girls are on a fishing boat for a throwaway reason and get to experience a few fishing gags like the shrimp mechanical beast girl being pecked at by passing gulls all at the behest of enormous fishermen who all look like someone tried to make a meat sculpture of a person but couldn’t bring themselves to break down the symmetry of the original meat cube. It makes a good contrast off the waif sized main characters and is a worthwhile visual gag, and this would be the best of the 3 shorts that have been put out.
Would be, but this potential for cartoon goofiness is in a constant tug-o-war with the other side that comes with the moe territory. Does the show stick to being a series of quick, funny shorts, or do we throw off all pretension of making something with potential entertainment value and shove some tits in the audience’s face? After the first two episodes were reasonably mild, even having a panty moment that actually felt a bit like an old style underwear gag where the character is just embarrassed because their underwear has some silly print, I was ready to let my guard down. The third episode starts with all the girls being shown off in swimsuits, but my teeth weren’t quite on edge. It wasn’t until we get underwater and Grendizer starts getting molested that I had to make sure no one was about to come in and ask if I’d like some tissues or a sock because there is no joke. We don’t even get the incredibly easy breast missile joke they could have made. It’s just a teenage anime girl getting her butt rubbed and her tits squeezed into the camera because the show is worried you might be distracted if it doesn’t keep a death grip on your libido.
So the show is half and half. There’s some legitimate laughs to be had in the gags, and the animation is actually all right in some places. If you’re a fan of the grandaddies of super robots, then there’s some good references that are decently used without feeling like your love is being exploited for easy YouTube hits. But there’s also the dark side where you just know that at least one of the candies you got from trick-or-treating at the Toei house is going to be half Tootsie Roll and half dog shit. It’s just that they’re the only ones giving out that one candy by Go NaWonka that you really like, so you can’t help but want to ask. Whether or not you can stomach the show comes down how much you’re willing to put up with for some super robot themed fun.
It’s finally been announced. The third in what is probably the most prolific of Super Robot Wars sub-series. Super Robot Wars Z3 is here with quite the extensive cast list for just the first PV. I mean, freaking look at it:
Yeah, that’s a big list. Not that Super Robot Wars isn’t known for having a metric ton of robot series that it pulls from, but this is only the first PV. It’s filled with a lot of mainstays and faces you’ve seen from SRWZ before. You have your Getter, your Mazinger, your Gundams upon Gundams, the old super and the old reals, and a few new faces both to the Z sub series and the overall series. Full Metal Panic! is coming up from W and the black sheep J, and while the original Z had Aquarion, Z3 is bringing EVOL and its ilk to the table. I look forward to banana punching and Andy finally getting to lead the helm.
Super Robot Wars Z3 will be coming out on April 10 2014 for Vita and PS3. That’s the signal for region free, so everyone get ready.
This must be what it feels like to be a fanboy. Deep down, I know this show isn’t going be worthwhile. I’m justifying it to myself entirely by saying, “Well, it doesn’t outright offend me, so I guess it’s ok. I guess.” But I can’t help it because super robots. I mean, there’s going to be a Getter one and Jeeg one and a Gaiking one and a Gakeen one and a Baratak one. How many out there even knew what those last two were without having to look at the links? So I can’t help but want to watch it while also recognizing that this is a really stupid thing.
Outside of that, the show is going to run on Toei’s online channel as a series of ~10 minute shorts. It’ll be packed to the gills with super robot references that Toei has the rights to and is likely to be a long form toy commercial. That doesn’t make it that different from most other robot shows, so that’s not a big deal. I’m frankly surprised that the animation looks like they put some effort into it. I guess being a series of shorts means they can stretch that money further. If it stays as a zany, slapstick comedy and the fanservice is kept under control, it should at least be harmless.
One Pixel Jump 