PinkuBentoBox

Wow. It’s been a while. I know I haven’t exactly been the best at updating, but I hope to remedy that starting now. Much like Negs, I plan on doing an update every week or so to just ramble a bit about what I’ve been watching lately, with an occasional topic-oriented post whenever the mood strikes me. So let’s get on with it, shall we? This week I’ve got on tap some Gundam, some twins, some piracy, and a lot of fruit.

Dogtato-kun, episodes 1-16
Ages ago, Negs recommended I check into this strange little series Triad was subbing called Jagainu-kun, or “Dogtato-kun” as Triad had cleverly renamed it. So I downloaded the only existing torrent at the time, which I thought had contained the entire series (I only found out within the past couple of weeks that I was wrong and have since downloaded the…real full-series torrent), and it then sat there for more than half a year before I finally got around to watching it. It’s actually a really cute show about a bunch of animal/fruit hybrid things engaging in little 3½-minute adventures. It’s very “un-anime” in style, and looks and plays out exactly like something you’d see on Nickelodeon during its morning hours. Definitely way over on the kiddy side of things, but it’s not unenjoyable by any means. Not to mention it’s got an excellent voice cast. It’s hard to beat Sanae Kobayashi as the female lead, Hedgetato-chan, and Satoshi Taki’s role as Croconion is utterly priceless. He doesn’t even have to crack a joke, just the way he delivers his lines is almost always hilarious. Especially with the flat, monotone laugh he does.

Unfortunately there’s not really a lot to say about the show. It’s fruit-vegetable-animal things going on short adventures, it’s very cute, it’s the perfect Nick Jr. show, and…I recommend seeing it and showing it to your kids if you have any.

Futakoi Alternative
A couple days ago, I decided to down all thirteen episodes of Futakoi Alternative in roughly one pass. I’d heard Negs say good things about it, and after watching the OP, it looked like it’d be the comedy parody version of Gunslinger Girl or something. Cute girls with big guns shooting at shit. Unfortunately, that didn’t quite end up being the case. It’s not a bad show, at all. In fact I found it mostly enjoyable. But it tried to mix comedy and drama in a way that didn’t exactly mesh well. And there was almost no “rampaging moe girls with guns” action to be had outside of the first episode.

The best way I can think of to describe the series is that it wanted to be FLCL, but turned into Trigun. As anyone who’s seen the series knows, FLCL is a superb blend of off-the-wall comedy and a surprisingly touching story about growing up in a boring, everyday life. Futakoi Alternative very clearly aimed for this. Futaba had definite shades of Naota, neing the bored and indifferent youth at some sort of odds with his father and all. And the comedy was extremely reminiscent of FLCL’s balls-to-the-wall, tangental sense of humor.

Unfortunately, it didn’t end up gelling very well. Like I said, the series ended up turning into Trigun. As anyone who’s seen that series knows, Trigun started off as a superb comedy, which suddenly shifted gears midway through into a very overdone, angst-ridden melodrama that didn’t exactly work because all of its elements were constructed with straight-up comedy in mind. Though Futakoi Alternative started off with some madcap comedy that slightly hinted at a bit of sentimental musing underneath, it quickly just gave way to heavy melodrama, which didn’t come off too well because…fuck, you’re trying to make a Lupinesque man in an afro, a giant man-squid, and the concept of cuddly hyperactive twins work in a serious dramatic setting. How well do you think that’ll work? Though, to Futakoi Alternative’s credit, while Trigun plowed through to the end with its overdone drama, this series quickly realized things weren’t working and brought back the comedy for the last three or four episodes. It begins on a high note, ends on a high note, and drags in the middle.

I will say this, though. The Shirogane twins are adorable. And Gothloli Mask needs a spinoff OVA or something. And I wonder how good the original Futakoi is…

Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory
On a whim, I decided I’d finally dig out the Gundam 0083 box set I bought at AWA last year and rewatch that series. It’d been about four or five years since I’d last seen it, and that was an edited dub version that ran on Cartoon Network, so it was interesting to see if it stood the test of time and was half as good as I remembered it being. And in a way, it is, albeit in a slightly more polarizing way. Basically, the lead characters—Kou, Nina, and Gato—aren’t as annoying as I remembered them being. They’re more annoying. Alternatively, the other aspects of the show—the supporting cast, the plot, the politics, mobile suit battles, and such—aren’t as good as I remembered. They’re, well, better.

Bluntly put, the three leads are exceptionally weak. Two act like children and one’s about as dull and one-dimensional as your average Gundam Wing character. Kou acts basically like an eight-year old in a twenty-something’s body. For most of the series, he thinks of the Gundam more as a toy to fly around in than an actual war machine that he could get his ass killed in. His attitude towards women is also rather frustrating. Where just about any of us would’ve taken the glaringly obvious opportunity to make a move, he shuffles his feet, scratches the back of his head, and ambles off like, well, a child. And what’s with his aversion to carrots? What honest point did that serve to the plot? Of course, it’s not like Nina’s a prime catch, either. She’s hornier for her precious pair of Gundams than she is for Kou, and only a couple years more mature than him when it comes to anything but work. Where Kou acts like an eight-year old, Nina acts like…perhaps a thirteen-year old? And a spoiled little runt, at that. She lets petty arguments and not getting her way affect her judgment in life-or-death situations that ultimately weigh heavily on the grimmest moments of the Federation’s history. Great, so your Gundams and flirting with a dimwitted man-child take priority over much larger events that will determine the socio-political future of the world around you for the next decade or so. Good one, bitch.

And her real shining moments come when dealing with Gato. She volunteers to help put down Delaz’s terroristic ambitions, and yet ends up helping Gato near the end and trying to undermine Kou’s attempts to shoot down his enemy all because that very enemy is her ex. Oh, and speaking of Gato, what a fucking robot. He blindly follows the will of Admiral Delaz, who himself blindly follows the will of the late Commandant Gihren. He’s a second-generation puppet with no personality or real mind of his own to speak of. He just hops in a mobile suit when he’s told, kills what he’s told, and awaits future orders. There’s no real exploration of his motivations beyond some pissy sore loser attitude, and that makes for a weak antagonist. At least Delaz is given more of his own motivation for following Gihren’s will, being a misguided attempt to out the Federation’s true corruption and regain his injured pride from A Bao A Qu. And he’s at least also given a personality, with a flare for the dramatic and a deeply charismatic control over his subordinates. Gato has…none of that. At all. He’s just soldier boy. He’s Heero Yuy with white hair and a cooler, Metal Gear Gundam.

Ah well. As I said, the rest of the show makes up for it. The supporting cast is very solid, very well fleshed out, and much more appropriate for the darker and more serious tone of this series than its leads are. When they aren’t given a surprisingly effective amount of development a la Delaz, they’re just all-around more likable. Take Chuck Keith, for example. Kou’s best friend. He’s a dorky rookie just like Kou, but he acts his age and shows gradual improvement. He doesn’t get much development, but he’s just more likable by a longshot. Ditto with Nina’s friend, Mora. She’s a giant, good-natured Amazon mobile suit tech that could go toe-to-toe with any man on the ship and that’s all you really learn about her. But she’s still a more likable character than Nina. The best of the lot, though, outside of Delaz would have to be Burning, Monsha, and Cima. Cima’s about like Haman Khan from Zeta Gundam on a smaller scale. Deviously manipulative and one helluva pilot, only I suppose 0083 should get more credit for actually going into greater detail about how her unfortunate Zeon career led to her mindset in the series. Burning plays up the grizzled old mentor role ideally, and Monsha is just pure awesome. You’re not supposed to like the guy. You’re supposed to hate his guts for being a bully towards Kou, making crude advances on Nina, and generally being a drunken asshole. But it’s hard to hate the guy when he’s not only entertaining and provides some great comic relief, but is absolutely correct in everything he says. Nina’s an idiot for placing an inexperienced rookie (Kou) in the seat of the Gundam Zephyranthes instead of a veteran ace (Monsha). Kou’s an idiot for taking a ground-equipped Gundam into space to fight. Why should I hate the guy for being absolutely right and fully able to back up his words with actions when need be?

Beyond just the characters, though, the series is very solid all-around. Very well-paced, gorgeously animated, and a really insightful look into the politics between Mobile Suit Gundam and Zeta Gundam. When I first saw this series, I wasn’t nearly as versed in Gundam lore as I am now, and having seen it again now, the series has become a real treat in that regard. Suddenly things like the appearance of Commodore Hymem and Bask Om are significant, and little ins and outs about the Federation’s growing corruption and the ominous presence of Axis are actually fascinating to watch, as they all become immensely important later on in Zeta. Not to mention there’s a nice little cameo of Haman Khan in episode nine, which is very much ^____^.

What’s perhaps most intriguing about this series, though, is how well it almost prophesized real-world events that would happen exactly one decade after it was produced. Now I don’t mean to get too political here, but think about it. Terroristic zealots commit to unprecedented attacks on both political and civilian targets of the dominant government of the time, and said government responds with a massive reaction that is initially hailed by its citizens, and then later vilified as being turned against them. In 1991, Sunrise produces an anime where Zeon remnants nuke a naval review and drop a space colony onto the North American continent, resulting in the Federation creating the Titans anti-terrorism taskforce, which is initially welcomed by the population, and then later abhorred as a force of brutal oppression and corruption. In 2001, religious extremists citing a butchered form of Islam attack both the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, prompting a hailstorm of militaristic and legislative offensive maneuvers by the US government that are initially hailed under a wave of patriotic fervor, but then barely two years later railed against as blatantly denying American citizens their basic rights and taking unjust lengths to police the world. Maybe I’m just reading too much into it, but that strikes me as an almost eerie parallel.

Space Pirate Captain Harlock, episodes 8-12
Well, now that Live-Evil have finally picked up the pace a bit and caught up to Anime Underworld’s old subs, I was finally able to download episode eight of Harlock and watch through twelve (nine through twelve I’ve had for like…a year, it seems). These episodes seemed largely devoted to the task of discovering the origin of the Mazone, as well as attempting to curb Daiba’s vengeful bloodlust. The sooner they can do that, the better; the kid’s starting to get annoying. Everything Harlock does that doesn’t involve frying a Mazone on the spot, the kid blows his top and goes into fits of “Captain, why did you do that!?” Of course then Daiba has to go and hesitate because he encounters one Mazone with a pretty face (who looks suspiciously like a green Christina MacKenzie from Gundam 0080) and gets his ass hypnotized. I have to say though, these same two episodes bothered me for an apparent inconsistency in character development. It was established back in like, episode three or so that the Mazone took the form of beautiful women, so why is Daiba struggling with that concept now? Especially given that he’s mowed down a good couple dozen of them by this point, anyway.

I theorize that it may just be due to the way series were written in the late 70s and early 80s, where producers were beginning to pull away from self-contained episodic adventures like in Astro Boy and Speed Racer, and focus more on over-arching stories. However, because there was still an obligation and a habit to somewhat “reset” for “next week’s exciting adventure,” certain plot points would be cut short or stowed away for later, at the possible cost of pacing or character development. Hence the reason even great directors/writers like Tomino and Matsumoto created series around this time with very clear gaps in such things.

Anyway, the Arcadia’s crew seem pretty close to unlocking the mysteries of the Mazone. They seem somehow tied to Earth’s earliest civilizations, but exactly how is not yet clear. It also seems as though the Mazone are actually getting ready to make their move. I suspect within the next couple episodes, all hell is going to somehow break loose. The preview for episode thirteen already shows Harlock in peril, which has been an exceptionally rare sight up until now. It also appears as though something is beginning to develop between Kei and Daiba. At least on Kei’s end, anyway. Could we be seeing some element of romance in this series?

There’s not enough Mime, though. I’m hoping she gets some more development soon.

I’ve also seen little bits and pieces of Fate/stay night, Shakugan no Shana, and Ergo Proxy of late, but I plan to see more by the next update, so I’ll wait until then to discuss those series. Ditto with Monster, which I’ll only say for now that I can’t get enough of. Even the fillers are beathtaking.