I should mention that the show is fairly easy to spoil, so you really shouldn't click open the posts in this thread if you plan to watch it first. On a related note, stay the hell away from its Wikipedia page. I just went there to check a character name, and quickly had to close it.
Insane_Megalomaniac wrote:
Sounds interesting. Do I need some torrent program to download it?
Eh? For
this page? There are fancier clients available, but these days I just use
Bittorrent itself, since includes a GUI unlike the earliest versions. And it doesn't try to cheat on the upload like some clients (See, I'm civic-minded about my illegal copyright infringement).
On
Veoh you can watch it immediately on the site Youtube-style, or register (with a junk email account, as I assume they spam you to death afterwards) and get their video player to download the original high-quality video. It downloads a regular .avi file, so you can play it back in whatever you want once it's done.
Kest wrote:
Why that dirty little bastard...
[spoiler]Heh. Dung Beetle or Kaku? If the latter actually tries to rape Chizu in the next episode, I'll be hoping for his quick death... luckily the show has a quick way to deal with unlikable characters :) It's kind of like Titanic in that sense, where you know your wish will likely come true (I hated both the lead characters in that, as any sane person should)[/spoiler]
Kest wrote:
Just watched all five currently out. How often are these being released?
About every week I think, as it's currently airing in Japan.
Kest wrote:
[spoiler]Figure some of them might die without piloting the robot first? Kako looks like he's going over the edge.[/spoiler]
[spoiler]That would certainly put them in a pickle with the whole "15 enemies" thing. I suppose they'd have no choice but to rope Kana in at that point. One wonders if her brother would stop being a little bastard for once and object, or just jump at the chance.
I find it interesting that during battles, the chairs seem to be high up enough up that the kids have no way of physically reaching each other. Which means if the pilot decides to take the opportunity to go on a rampage and settle some old grudge, the others couldn't do anything to stop them. Giving a half-kilometer tall walking death machine to an unstable teenager isn't the best idea to begin with, let alone when they've got nothing to lose.
Since I'm all spoiler-protected, a couple other things I like about the show:
The way both the opening and ending animations gain more impact as it goes on.
The way it plays with audience expectations. Waku was your typical Shonen Jump-esque "I'll never give up, always get stronger for the good of the world!" character, which is why it's hilarious when he dies in the second episode. It was obvious from the beginning that Kodama's turn as pilot would be bad, but instead of leaving it hanging over the proceedings, them deal with him in the third fight. Then the fact that the government's already involved and knows what's going on, which would typically wait until they needed to shake things up later in the season (like in
24, when someone new comes in to take control of CTU about 3 different times per year).
What I don't like is the rather boring look of the 'mechs, but I'm not really watching for the fights anyway. And I can't really tell the characters apart until "their" episodes, although in an odd way it works for the show as they die right when you've gotten to know them.[/spoiler]
actor_au wrote:
Is it similar to Enders Game?
Sort of, except the kids aren't geniuses. And my guess is the twist at the end will be exactly opposite the one in Ender's.
I thought about describing it as
Lord of the Flies meets
Voltron originally, but the mental picture was unintentionally hilarious.
Ezelek wrote:
Wandering Idiot wrote:
It's basically a deconstruction* of the whole mecha genre, probably the best since Evangelion.
I want you to stop watching anime and stop posting about anime right now.
Really, WI. That is the most disgusting thing you have ever said, ever.
Yes, yes, you hate Eva with a fiery passion. What can I say? I rather like the show, at least when it's paired with the movie. I should note that what I say "mecha genre" above, I'm referred to "Super-robot fights monster of the week" shows (mecha-kaiju?), not Gundam/Macross-style large fleets, which tend to be more thoughtful and less subject to the same treatment. I don't take it as seriously as some people, but Evangelion seemed like a pretty clever twist on the usual genre tropes in the way it pointed them out and gave actual reasons for their existence (The city is built with the idea of giant robot battles in mind, the Angels always attack the same city because Adam/Lilith are being held there, the Evas can't draw the Angels away due to their power limitations, etc.) I should note also that I'm talking about
Evangelion: The TV Series, rather than
Evangelion: The Subsequent Internet Discussion, which is all some people tend to think of when they hear the name.
Is there a better recent example I missed of a show that takes a critical look at the genre conventions without being an outright parody? The only ones I can think of offhand are copying Evangelion to some extent.
And for what it's worth, I can't tell half the characters in Bokurano apart either until the episode(s) focusing on them. There are like six black-haired girls, for instance. It's less of a problem as the series goes on.
Shinigami wrote:
The mechs are powered by the heart of an orphan.
Nah, they just siphon
love straight out of the universe.