The Energon Pub

robofreak wrote:Shadowman thinks I'm right about something?

I wasn't comparing the stories becuase those are 2 different things. What I was comparing was that they both have the elements needed for a great story, but lacked people needed to make it a really good story.

Oh, I thought you meant claiming to be something while only vaguely resembling it; like Vampires that sparkle in sunlight and don't have Vampire weaknesses, or a Gundam Fighting Tournament featuring ridiculous MS designs.

I mean, okay, Zeon had some ugly Mobile Suits, I'm not denying that. But my God they never once had something as ridiculous as anything G Gundam produced. You only get away with mech design like that if it's a comedy series.

Actually in the Gunpla world, the Seed designs are considered the goofy over the top designs. G Gundam designs tend to be favored with Wing.

I'm looking at this from the perspective of someone who builds a lot of Gundam kits.

Also, sorry about the confusion with my previous post.

robofreak wrote:Actually in the Gunpla world, the Seed designs are considered the goofy over the top designs. G Gundam designs tend to be favored with Wing.

I'm looking at this from the perspective of someone who builds a lot of Gundam kits.

Huh? Over-sized backpacks aside, the MS in SEED are more inline with those of 00 or Zeta, and are actually pretty simple, basic designs. In fact, many One Year War designs were reused in Destiny, including the Gouf, Dom, and Zaku. In fact, the only really strange design was the Mobile Armors used by the guys in the desert. (And I don't call them Mobile Suits for the one obvious reason: A Mobile Suit is humanoid,m and Mobile Armor isn't)

And I don't once recall a single unit in SEED designed to resemble a Windmill or School girl, or whatever the Rose Gundam is supposed to be.

Shadowman wrote:

robofreak wrote:Actually in the Gunpla world, the Seed designs are considered the goofy over the top designs. G Gundam designs tend to be favored with Wing.

I'm looking at this from the perspective of someone who builds a lot of Gundam kits.

Huh? Over-sized backpacks aside, the MS in SEED are more inline with those of 00 or Zeta, and are actually pretty simple, basic designs. In fact, many One Year War designs were reused in Destiny, including the Gouf, Dom, and Zaku. In fact, the only really strange design was the Mobile Armors used by the guys in the desert. (And I don't call them Mobile Suits for the one obvious reason: A Mobile Suit is humanoid,m and Mobile Armor isn't)

And I don't once recall a single unit in SEED designed to resemble a Windmill or School girl, or whatever the Rose Gundam is supposed to be.

It's kinda hard to explain. If you got into the hobby, you'll understand why the G designs are preferred over the Seed designs that tend to have oversized weaponry. I know a lot of Gundam hav oversized guns and backpacks, but Seed sometimes pushes it.

I do like the Astray and Freedom designs though. The Strike is also my personal favorite.

robofreak wrote:It's kinda hard to explain. If you got into the hobby, you'll understand why the G designs are preferred over the Seed designs that tend to have oversized weaponry. I know a lot of Gundam hav oversized guns and backpacks, but Seed sometimes pushes it.

I do like the Astray and Freedom designs though. The Strike is also my personal favorite.

Oversized weaponry? Care to elaborate? The bigger weapons in SEED aren't all that much bigger than a lot of UC, AD, or even AC weapons.

Honestly, I don't know how to elaborate. I'm just telling you what I generally hear when I'm on BAKUC or other mecha moedling forums. I personally think the Seed designs are okay, but there are a lot of modelers that don't like them for being "Over the top". I guess stuff like the Gold Frame's wings bug them or something.

Hang out on some Gunpla forums for a while and you'll see what I mean. It's hard to figure out exactly what's to hate about Seed.

robofreak wrote:Honestly, I don't know how to elaborate. I'm just telling you what I generally hear when I'm on BAKUC or other mecha moedling forums. I personally think the Seed designs are okay, but there are a lot of modelers that don't like them for being "Over the top".

Well then you heard wrong. Or there are a lot of modelers who don't understand what "over the top" means. For the most part, SEEDs MS are pretty nondescript. I don't mean it's boring designs, I mean they can really be described best as "Green Gundam with large beam cannon" "Grey Gundam with big backpack and funnels" "Mobile Armor that looks like a Zoid" "purple Zaku-clone," etc.

Better yet, if anyone tells you SEEDs designs are ridiculous and G Gundam's aren't, either they haven't seen either series, or they're smoking crack.

robofreak wrote:I guess stuff like the Gold Frame's wings bug them or something.

The Gold Frame? Just the one suit? It wasn't even featured or mentioned on the show.

robofreak wrote:Hang out on some Gunpla forums for a while and you'll see what I mean. It's hard to figure out exactly what's to hate about Seed.

The problem was too much of a focus on the personal relationships. Gundam has had it's fair share of romances, but SEED tended to take it a bit too far.

Destiny didn't help either. While that was a bit lighter on the romance, it had a tendency to have large number of flashbacks. But the fact that Kira pretty much replaced Shin as main character half-way through (As opposed to Amuro being a major character, but otherwise still second-fiddle to Kamille) wasn't a great idea.

As far as design goes, my favorite will always be Wing Zero Custom from Endless Waltz. The angelic nature of the design is just so amazing and beautiful, yet it is insanely powerful.

I also like the Tallgeese III, but that's mainly because I like Zechs and I guess that adds a little biasn to it.

Shadowman wrote:Better yet, if anyone tells you SEEDs designs are ridiculous and G Gundam's aren't, either they haven't seen either series, or they're smoking crack.

Hm, perhaps something's being snuck into my food...

I found Both Ghost In The Shell movies on a used store in my city and am wondering if the tv series worth a purchase and is it in actual english?

Coughler wrote:I found Both Ghost In The Shell movies on a used store in my city and am wondering if the tv series worth a purchase and is it in actual english?

There is a dubbed version of Stand Alone Complex, and the voice acting is *GASP* really really good. Like how Cowboy Bebop's dub was good.

It's funny, Since i got into anime heavily about 1996, the level of quality in english dubs has really increased and there are shows out there where even some of the Japanese crews have said that the english cast did a better job than the original japanese casts. (Duel and El Hazzard OVAs from pioneer are some of the better examples of these.)

There are shows where the english dub is done well, and fits the show better. (Big O, FMA)

There are shows that even with some bad aspects of dubbing that I would also prefer to watch dubs for. (gundam seed, eureka 7, Kuji-Un)

Saddly yes, we do have the horrors of 1/2 of ADV's titles, and 4Kids that shame dubs but there are a lot of good ones out there.

And remember that until the 80's the japanese didn't put alot into the audio side of production. The turning point came when a number of people who had worked on Macross saw the level of work that Harmony Gold's production team was putting into the vocal work for Robotech.

Strange sidebar to that, Last August I was talking with HG's Kevin McKeever about Robotech: SC, as previously I had asked him if they were going to try to distribute SC in Japan. I asked if they had been able to as he had said that it would be cool if they were able to. So far, they have not been able to set up distribution but is a wierd role reversal, Fans in Japan have made fun-subs and releasing it as a sequal for Genesis Climber MOSPEADA.

From what I understand, most animes after 1996 were made with the intention of having an english version. That's why the english cast is sometimes a lot better.

I know Code Geass was made with the intention of being in english. It's almost impossible to keep up with the sub titles when you here it in Japanese, but it's understandable in english.

o_O

I don't think that's true. Maybe in the case of series that were commissioned by a company like ADV but otherwise...

I kept up with the subs on CG just fine.

robofreak wrote:I know Code Geass was made with the intention of being in english. It's almost impossible to keep up with the sub titles when you here it in Japanese, but it's understandable in english.

I was able to keep up with the subs quite nicely. It wasn't hard. If you really want to train yourself with subtitles, watch Excel Saga, original Japanese, English subtitles. Excel talks way too damn fast, especially when other people are talking.

I may be wrong but I think that it was more due to the expansion of demand that really started in the late 90s that japanese producers knew that the likelyhood of foreign pick-up was so much more likelier (beyond the addition of ADV and others getting on shows at the creative level to ensure their licences rather than bidding for them later) that they shifted the ways production was handled.

- adding credits as layers in post-production initially cost more but was done to ease overlay of credits in foreign languages.
- altering audio mixs to easily replace Japanese with other vocal tracks.
- reducing some of the more japanesee aspects from storys taking place outside of japan to ease localization.

As for the english casts doing better jobs, that depends on the show and how the dubs are produced.

A lot of Viz, Bandai and other companys started using Ocean Studios a while back who is well known for quality work, and vocal directors that take time to know the shows so they can direct their talent rather than just have them record what the translators have given them.

With shows like El Hazzard and other projects from Pioneer, the difference is that the original japanese vocals were done the traditional way in japan of recording before the animation is finished and in many cases in many Pioneer shows without the actors truely knowing the characters or the situation. In the localization rather than ahearing to the script (which the crew has admitted was lacking emotion) the voice acters for the english dubs were encouraged to ad-lib, change reactions and stuff to match the feel and actions of their characters on the screen. The result is clear, if you watch the japanese tracks there is a lot heart, energy, and emotion that is misapplied, or outright missing.

Man I really can't find War In The Pocket

*edit*

Found it..hopefully it works. Now I need to find Stardust Memory.

I'm really enjoying Mobile Suit Gundam though. I am really shocked at the body count though. In the first 3 episodes the body count is probably close to a hundred.

In the episode "Vote to Attack" I was really shocked when Bright wanted to attack Char's ship. I was even more shocked that Amuro went along with it. The violence is freaking awesome and goes along with the storyline. Can't get any better then that!

I think Char might be a new favorite character of mine.

You are experiencing why the man in change of much of UC Gundam is known as "Kill em all Tomino"

If you think that is bad, watch Victory Gundam or even worse Ideon. In Ideon he pretty much kills everyone. Tomino is worse mass murderer than Gainax's Anno.

Editor wrote:You are experiencing why the man in change of much of UC Gundam is known as "Kill em all Tomino"

If you think that is bad, watch Victory Gundam or even worse Ideon. In Ideon he pretty much kills everyone. Tomino is worse mass murderer than Gainax's Anno.

Victory Gundam is really good... and violent... and good.

Oh, and I'm glad to hear you're enjoying Mobile Suit Gundam OS! When it comes to Gundam, it and Zeta really are the best. I also think Char rocks.

Editor wrote:You are experiencing why the man in change of much of UC Gundam is known as "Kill em all Tomino"

If you think that is bad, watch Victory Gundam or even worse Ideon. In Ideon he pretty much kills everyone. Tomino is worse mass murderer than Gainax's Anno.

"Pretty much kills everyone?" At the end of Ideon it's supposed to be implied that Ideon caused caused the apocalypse, taking "killing everyone" it it's most literal level.

And if you think MSG is violent, wait until you see what Zeta does...

So I was thinking "Now what am I going to watch now that Gundam 00 is over?" I check my usual source, and lo and behold, the new series of Full Metal Alchemist.

Well played, Anime Gods. Well played indeed.

Now I have to find Conqueror of Shamballa...

The two aren't related so you don't really have to.

Tekka wrote:The two aren't related so you don't really have to.

Wait, really? I mean, I wanted to see the move anyway. But I know pretty much nothing about the new series, except that it will have alchemy.

From what I understand, they're just restarting to follow the manga story instead of the anime story.

Tekka wrote:From what I understand, they're just restarting to follow the manga story instead of the anime story.

It seems so. Bradley is still in power, and the opening shows Ed and Al fighting the Homunculi. (I haven't watched the episode yet, I just skimmed through a few sections) So either this is a retelling, but closer to the manga, or it's a side-story like Star Wars: Clone Wars. The latter seems more likely, though, since it seems a bit early to retell half the story. Ed also mentions having just gotten tickets to Liore, so at least part of it could be a prequel.