There’s a reason they call it Badlands

STEALTH APPROACH

The price of collateral damage

For a 12 year wait, that was certainly very underwhelming.

I don’t wish to spoil anything (but that’s probably more because of apathy than a real desire not to ruin a film for others), but the entire feel of the film felt like it was a short arc transposed from the first half of the TV run. Which, to put it delicately, isn’t really the part of Trigun the majority of fans love the most. As a homage film it only did its job semi-adequately, as a genuine addition to the Trigun franchise, my honest opinion is that it failed. The film ghosted in and out of pre-production for a while, so I’m disappointed that after all this time, Nishimura Satoshi didn’t close out the franchise with a serious bang. Now, I also understand the movie is caught in the same quagmire that the Conqueror of Shamballa film from FMA (which coincidentally, was dire) found itself in, since Trigun Maximum doesn’t really play well with its anime counterparts, but you still have to set your expectations pretty low for this film not to give you a mixed feeling at best.

Kannagi — Musuhi no Toki

Gods of heaven gods of earth, the myriad of gods hear me!
天つ神 国つ神 八百万神等共に 聞こし食せ

All sins of the world are no longer.
罪と云ふ罪は在らじと

Dispelling the shrouding clouds of tall mountains and scattering the veiling mist of low hills;
高山の伊褒理 短山の伊褒理を掻き別け

Such a proclamation, hearken!
聞こし食さむ

All sins of the world are purified.
罪と云ふ罪は在らじと

Kannagi Ending Full Song

Kannagi is a decent, if generic, anime comedy. The ending theme though, is something really special. Soothing, peaceful, even beautiful, it feels like a quiet, heartfelt prayer.

Lyrics shamelessly lifted from Anime Song Lyrics.

SMS Squadron Song ~ That Girl is an Alien Lyrics

For my own edification:

Here we go! Here we go! SMS
We fly and fly till we drop
Cause we SMS can’t say “NO!”

When there’s a call to a far off star
That weird chick’s an alien, alien!

Go whack her with your big rockets
Here we go, here we go, SMS

Go spread our seed in the galaxy
We hot boys throttle through
the Magellan Clouds in a stroke

Cause we, the indestructible SMS
Speed! Miracle! Spacy!
Once we start, we can’t stop, hey!

Best. Lyrics. Ever.

Listen to it:

Don’t remember where I found the lyrics, sorry.

Random Macross Frontier Thoughts, Part 2

Here there be spoilers.

The series is about 2/3 done. There were a few weak episodes unfortunately, which is a bit of a letdown given the very high standards it set in the first 7 episodes.

So the VF-25 is named the Messiah, nice. Wonder what the VF-27’s (Brera’s VF) is.

The Macross Quarter is maybe too agile. Doesn’t feel like a cap ship. Of course I can appreciate improving technology and its smaller size making for a much more agile ship compared to the SDF-1, but it seems nothing it does can be as dramatic as the Daedalus attack. I wonder if the Macross Frontier will ever swing into action.

Nene (the pink haired Meltlandi) cowered behind KK when the two girly men fought? How far the mighty has fallen. I’m thinking maybe the Zentradi and the Meltlandi have started breeding naturally, so the younger ones are not engineered for aggression.

The “fold engine unaffected fold dislocations” plot device in episode 12 is pretty weak. “Here, I just so happen to have this top sekrit tech that will solve your previously unsolvable problem.” And why? Why did they decide to mount blingy speakers on Mike’s VF? I know it’s an homage to Macross 7, but its something I’m trying to pretend never happened. I was hoping Mike would go on and kick some ass.

The appearance of the Global made the fanboy in me weep in happiness, though it was more of a cameo.

Nobody remembers Raramia. She’s not had a single line before she got killed off and that’s bloody sloppy storytelling. Completely pointless. I bet the production team were thinking “we need to kill off a named character here, FOR GRITTINESS. But oh, it couldn’t be one the fans care about.” Pfft.

Was that Ranka’s mum? She looks like Sheryl with seaweed green dye. I’m thinking Sheryl’s an artificial construct. A clone, maybe, or a bio-engineered human based on Ranka’s mum. A small tidbit, her name as shown in the credits is Ranshe Mei.

Alto getting shouty is annoying. Its pretty theatrical though, so I’ll just put it down to his love for performance.

Is it just me, or is the techno Aimo terrible? I mean, the original isn’t all that, sounds like a Voices II or something, but at least I don’t hate it.

Episode 17 is just a big bait and switch for old fans. Pineapple cake? Bleeding in chair? Check out a comprehensive list of the Death Flags here. But man, Ozma’s GAR. So GAR Kathy can do naught but swoon in the presence of his GARness. I liked the Fire Bomber songs in this episode and how they were used, for what its worth.

Poor Sheryl. Sheryl gets no love.