Back in this thread, Valles asked
Stellvia: Shina Katase is a new student at Stellvia, a space station built to protect Earth from the effects of a nearby supernova. When the supernova's "Second Wave" finally reaches Earth, a few months into the first semester, and the operation to save the lives of everyone still on Earth goes wrong, Shina and her classmates are the only ones available to make things right ... and then the real problems emerge.
Shojo space opera done right, with a logical extrapolation of current trends in human rights and social awareness. The Fenspace folks know how much I liked this one...
Gatekeepers: It's 1969, and there's a shadow war going on between the Invaders (who could be anyone before they drop their disguises) and the Gatekeepers (teenagers with metahuman powers). But the Invaders are starting to gain the upper hand in Japan, so there's a push to find more Gatekeepers... some of whom aren't cut out for the job.
A pleasant way to while away a few afternoons, and the athletic girl and the Chinese girl would be great people to be around if they were real. (And the acerbic girl actually berates the annoying ditz for being an annoying ditz!) Alas, they had to find a way to put giant robots into the story, and those don't quite mesh with the "secret powers" setting.
Rumiko Takahashi Anthology: What the name says - an anthology of single-episode stories, all written by Rumiko Takahashi.
As with all anthologies, the stories in this series varies in quality. The first and final stories were among the weakest, in my opinion, while the strongest entries were almost exactly in the middle of the collection.
Gatekeepers 21: Gatekeepers updated to the turn of the millenium, with a smaller cast and different toys.
I liked Gatekeepers. I wanted to like this sequel, really... But they took the least-likable stereotypes from the original TV series and gave them an angst-filled updating (how could those two Gatekeepers possibly have produced a daughter like her?), altered the setting's backstory in a way that made both the protagonists and the opponents less complex, and -- worst of all -- hit the reset button at the end. On the up side, no giant robots... but that's small consolation.
Mahoromatic: With only slightly over a year left to live if she never fights again, a combat android chooses to become the maid of a particular junior-high-schoolboy. But even there, her past comes back to haunt her.
Post-Evangelion GAINAX tries to be light and fluffy. They don't succeed, but they do tell a pretty good story in the attempt, with a central conflict that wasn't at all what I expected. And Mahoro is a dream girl... (Not to slight the other female characters, most of whom would also be wonderful people if they were real.) The ending was a bit off, though -- they dedicated an entire episode to the near-requisite "where are they now" bit, which was so different in tone from the rest of the series that it felt like watching a bad "continuation" fanfic. (And it was missing at least two-thirds of the cast, too.)
Starship Operators: The space warship Amaterasu returns home from its shakedown cruise only to discover that its home planet has been invaded by, and surrendered to, a vastly superior force. The officers abandon ship, but the cadets who were on board use a legal loophole to take possession of the Amaterasu and continue the war against their foe. The only problem is that they have no way to re-supply ... until they sign a deal giving a television network exclusive rights to broadcast their battles.
Damn, but this is a good story. (Is there any genre Ryo Mizuno can't write well?) Despite what the premise implies, it's not "reality television in space"; instead, that subplot is an exploration of the role of embedded journalists in wartime and the packaging of news as entertainment. Excellent writing, excellent directing, excellent animation, good characterizations, a thought-provoking story woven into and around the space opera battles, and a soundtrack by Kenji Kawai... what's not to like?
I have two more series left from this order, and three from the previous one. Next up: Mermaid Forest, Serial Experiment Lain, Haibane Renmei, Black Heaven, or Tiny Snow Fairy Sugar? (Yes, I do have eclectic tastes. Why do you ask?) Decisions, decisions... but probably Lain, since I've watched the first half of the series already.
-Rob Kelk
"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Quote:("This" being the latest RightStuf 25-Geneon-discs-for-$100 sale.) I may as well go first, despite being only halfway through the stack. (Since I also took advantage of Right Stuf's previous big Geneon sale, I have a larger stack that most folks do...) So, in the order I've watched them:
So, folks, what do you think of the loot you netted from this?
Stellvia: Shina Katase is a new student at Stellvia, a space station built to protect Earth from the effects of a nearby supernova. When the supernova's "Second Wave" finally reaches Earth, a few months into the first semester, and the operation to save the lives of everyone still on Earth goes wrong, Shina and her classmates are the only ones available to make things right ... and then the real problems emerge.
Shojo space opera done right, with a logical extrapolation of current trends in human rights and social awareness. The Fenspace folks know how much I liked this one...
Gatekeepers: It's 1969, and there's a shadow war going on between the Invaders (who could be anyone before they drop their disguises) and the Gatekeepers (teenagers with metahuman powers). But the Invaders are starting to gain the upper hand in Japan, so there's a push to find more Gatekeepers... some of whom aren't cut out for the job.
A pleasant way to while away a few afternoons, and the athletic girl and the Chinese girl would be great people to be around if they were real. (And the acerbic girl actually berates the annoying ditz for being an annoying ditz!) Alas, they had to find a way to put giant robots into the story, and those don't quite mesh with the "secret powers" setting.
Rumiko Takahashi Anthology: What the name says - an anthology of single-episode stories, all written by Rumiko Takahashi.
As with all anthologies, the stories in this series varies in quality. The first and final stories were among the weakest, in my opinion, while the strongest entries were almost exactly in the middle of the collection.
Gatekeepers 21: Gatekeepers updated to the turn of the millenium, with a smaller cast and different toys.
I liked Gatekeepers. I wanted to like this sequel, really... But they took the least-likable stereotypes from the original TV series and gave them an angst-filled updating (how could those two Gatekeepers possibly have produced a daughter like her?), altered the setting's backstory in a way that made both the protagonists and the opponents less complex, and -- worst of all -- hit the reset button at the end. On the up side, no giant robots... but that's small consolation.
Mahoromatic: With only slightly over a year left to live if she never fights again, a combat android chooses to become the maid of a particular junior-high-schoolboy. But even there, her past comes back to haunt her.
Post-Evangelion GAINAX tries to be light and fluffy. They don't succeed, but they do tell a pretty good story in the attempt, with a central conflict that wasn't at all what I expected. And Mahoro is a dream girl... (Not to slight the other female characters, most of whom would also be wonderful people if they were real.) The ending was a bit off, though -- they dedicated an entire episode to the near-requisite "where are they now" bit, which was so different in tone from the rest of the series that it felt like watching a bad "continuation" fanfic. (And it was missing at least two-thirds of the cast, too.)
Starship Operators: The space warship Amaterasu returns home from its shakedown cruise only to discover that its home planet has been invaded by, and surrendered to, a vastly superior force. The officers abandon ship, but the cadets who were on board use a legal loophole to take possession of the Amaterasu and continue the war against their foe. The only problem is that they have no way to re-supply ... until they sign a deal giving a television network exclusive rights to broadcast their battles.
Damn, but this is a good story. (Is there any genre Ryo Mizuno can't write well?) Despite what the premise implies, it's not "reality television in space"; instead, that subplot is an exploration of the role of embedded journalists in wartime and the packaging of news as entertainment. Excellent writing, excellent directing, excellent animation, good characterizations, a thought-provoking story woven into and around the space opera battles, and a soundtrack by Kenji Kawai... what's not to like?
I have two more series left from this order, and three from the previous one. Next up: Mermaid Forest, Serial Experiment Lain, Haibane Renmei, Black Heaven, or Tiny Snow Fairy Sugar? (Yes, I do have eclectic tastes. Why do you ask?) Decisions, decisions... but probably Lain, since I've watched the first half of the series already.
-Rob Kelk
"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012