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Post by wildfire2099 on Mar 31, 2016 21:53:42 GMT -5
Somehow no one mentioned Evangelion? It might be a little too deep for a seven year old, but it definitely had great giant robot action, and the pilots are all pretty interesting characters. There's Cyborg 009.. that would probably be a pretty good one for that age... fun art. Gundam has about 8 million spin offs, and I've never been able to really piece it together, but I'm sure there's something in there that would work. Voltron's a great call, too  .. maybe 80s Transformers? Evangelion is a huge favourite of mine, but even compared to Macross and its contemporary giant mecha shows, it features some content that's excessively violent/disturbing. Maybe more appropriate for a 14-year-old than a 7-year-old, and also easier to appreciate at that age in terms of plot intrigues. And I say this as someone who watched 'Animals of Farthing Wood' at age 7, which featured violent death of main/supporting characters every other episode. But again, great great show. Yeah, I haven't watched it for a while... it's hard to remember how appropriate something is if you're not watching with that in mind, IMO... both me and my wife have had the 'wait, we can't let the kids watch this!' moment for stuff we like that we wanted to share. |
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Post by Randle-El on Apr 1, 2016 16:21:23 GMT -5
Just watched Macross: Do You Remember Love? tonight. It never occurred to me while asking for recommendations that my daughter probably wouldn't have the patience to keep up with subtitles, so I watched this one for myself. I get what it tried to do. They went in and "fixed" a lot of things about the original Macross (most notably Minmei's character), but they lost so much about what I loved about the original series in the process. Heck, we get less than an hour of the film spent on the "good times" when everyone was still alive and fighting the baddies without much sense of heavy consequence. We also lost all the clumsy missteps that occurred early on. While I think the reason for these mistakes was initially because Macross was intended to be a parody of Mobile Suit Gundam, they nevertheless managed to make the tone a tad more ominous -- Earth was in waaaaay over its head. And, coming from a Robotech background more than a Macross one, it just isn't the finale without Minmei singing "We Can Win". I'll do either Macross Frontier or the original Mobile Suit Gundam next. It's definitely an adjustment coming over from Robotech to Macross. And while I enjoyed DYRL, I still prefer SDF Macross. I think the story that they are trying to tell does better in a serialized TV show versus a single feature film. I look at DYRL as supplemental material for someone who has already seen SDF Macross. I think it's neat to see things like the alternate take on mecha, or the subtle changes they made to the love triangle and Minmay/Minmei's character, dressed up in some pretty state-of-the-art animation (for the time). You have to admit, this is a pretty badass revision of the classic VF-1:  One thing I will say, it was harder getting used to the original Japanese score and background music after having grown up on Robotech. For all their faults, one thing that I think Harmony Gold did very well in adapting Robotech was the score. In SDF Macross, there were a lot of scenes that actually didn't have music, or had music that clashed with the scene. If you ever watch the Japanese version of the same Youtube clip you linked to, Minmay sings the song "My Boyfriend is a Pilot", which has a VERY different tone compared to "We Will Win". |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Apr 1, 2016 19:26:12 GMT -5
One thing I will say, it was harder getting used to the original Japanese score and background music after having grown up on Robotech. For all their faults, one thing that I think Harmony Gold did very well in adapting Robotech was the score. In SDF Macross, there were a lot of scenes that actually didn't have music, or had music that clashed with the scene. If you ever watch the Japanese version of the same Youtube clip you linked to, Minmay sings the song "My Boyfriend is a Pilot", which has a VERY different tone compared to "We Will Win". Oh, I have. When I first got into Robotech back in the day, I immediately scored a bootleg copy of SDF Macross (there was no legal option at that time) under the assumption that the original inevitably had to be better. I sat through the first episode and found it generally the same with a worse theme song and a few more sexist moments. Wondering if the whole series would be like that, I jumped ahead to the moment you described above and could not stop laughing. I sold my set and never gave it another thought. My only real regrets with Robotech are poor mastering and really mucking up just what the heck protoculture is. But another thing they did really well was the vocal talents, especially Lisa Hayes. I much prefer the maturity and character the American voice talent brings to the character over the original Japanese one. |
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Post by Randle-El on Apr 1, 2016 22:02:28 GMT -5
Oh, I have. When I first got into Robotech back in the day, I immediately scored a bootleg copy of SDF Macross (there was no legal option at that time) under the assumption that the original inevitably had to be better. I sat through the first episode and found it generally the same with a worse theme song and a few more sexist moments. Wondering if the whole series would be like that, I jumped ahead to the moment you described above and could not stop laughing. I sold my set and never gave it another thought. My only real regrets with Robotech are poor mastering and really mucking up just what the heck protoculture is. But another thing they did really well was the vocal talents, especially Lisa Hayes. I much prefer the maturity and character the American voice talent brings to the character over the original Japanese one. Agreed with the voice acting -- they did do a good job with that. To be fair though, I think much of the original Japanese music sounds odd to us, but probably fit right in with Japanese tastes and sensibilities of the time. I think the guy who sings the Japanese Macross theme song is actually a highly respected vocalist over there. They released a redubbed version of Macross a few years ago with a completely different set of voice actors from Robotech. The idea was to produce a proper English dub of Macross proper, with all the native story elements intact. The voice acting was terrible. Made me appreciate the Robotech voice actors all the more. The one interesting bit was that they managed to snag Mari Iijima, the original Japanese voice actress for Minmei to do the English dub voice (she had moved to the U.S. a number of years ago). By the way, since we're on the topic of SDF Macross, have you seen this footage? |
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Post by shaxper on Apr 1, 2016 22:07:54 GMT -5
By the way, since we're on the topic of SDF Macross, have you seen this footage? Yes. Darn impressive. Still, I don't know why, but I don't care as much for the newer style, blurring CG effects and overly stylized anime. It just isn't my cup of tea. In fact, I couldn't get past the opening credits of Macross Frontier for just that reason, so I'm currently watching Mobile Suit Gundam instead. Yeah, that animation is a little too crude for my liking, but it doesn't jar me the way the newer stuff does. Man, I sound old and cantankerous. |
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Post by Mormel on Apr 2, 2016 10:59:37 GMT -5
^Cool, shax. What are you and your little one's impressions of Gundam so far?
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Post by shaxper on Apr 2, 2016 12:56:51 GMT -5
^Cool, shax. What are you and your little one's impressions of Gundam so far? I'm watching it myself as Ellie doesn't have much patience for subtitles, but if it wows me, I might end up trying to rope her into it anyway. I've only watched the first episode. It's contrived and the animation style is crude, but I'm impressed with how dark and real it manages to get in that first episode with all the death. I'm looking forward to the rest. |
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Post by Randle-El on Apr 4, 2016 11:35:17 GMT -5
Yes. Darn impressive. Still, I don't know why, but I don't care as much for the newer style, blurring CG effects and overly stylized anime. It just isn't my cup of tea. In fact, I couldn't get past the opening credits of Macross Frontier for just that reason, so I'm currently watching Mobile Suit Gundam instead. Yeah, that animation is a little too crude for my liking, but it doesn't jar me the way the newer stuff does. Man, I sound old and cantankerous. What? You who prefers vintage toys and collects classic comics would prefer traditional hand drawn animation to cel-shaded CGI models? I'm shocked!  I prefer hand drawn animation as well, especially as it looks to be a dying art as more and more animation is being done by some form of CGI. I think part of it is that I know the labor and skill that goes into hand drawn animation. Not that CGI doesn't involve skill or labor, but it's just a different art, and there's something to be admired for producing something with a lot of detail and care solely with your hands. That said, I've sort of learned to accept CGI in animation, and it does let you do some things that you can't do with hand drawn animation, or at the very least things that would be prohibitively expensive and/or labor-intensive. At this point, so long as it doesn't get in the way of the story I'm fine with it. It's not unlike my acceptance of current live-action superhero costumes. All the superhero costumes these days are being re-imagined as some form of tactical gear or armor. Although it makes sense in selected instances, I'm not the biggest fan of it as a whole. But I've learned to accept it, and so long as they tell a good story with it that's all that really matters to me. |
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Post by shaxper on Apr 4, 2016 11:43:20 GMT -5
What? You who prefers vintage toys and collects classic comics would prefer traditional hand drawn animation to cel-shaded CGI models? I'm shocked! Dang you know me well I've seen some truly stunning CGI. It's when things move unnaturally or somehow feel unnatural that I get turned off. Unfortunately, I think you have to work ten times harder at CGI than hand drawn in order to get the same kind of organic feel out of it, so I rarely see it done to my satisfaction. |
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Apr 6, 2016 17:03:21 GMT -5
Shaxper...are you just considering mech animes in general now in the thread? (I am about to rush out the door.) If so, one of my favorites is Super Dimension Century Orguss 02. It's the 90's 6 episode OVA. I have yet to watch the original 30 some episode anime that preceded it. But the 6 episode anime is really good, and some of the mechs are pretty awesome. I can really relate to the main protagonist's lot in the story, if I were to be involved in warfare.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Apr 6, 2016 19:04:22 GMT -5
Shaxper...are you just considering mech animes in general now in the thread? (I am about to rush out the door.) If so, one of my favorites is Super Dimension Century Orguss 02. It's the 90's 6 episode OVA. I have yet to watch the original 30 some episode anime that preceded it. But the 6 episode anime is really good, and some of the mechs are pretty awesome. I can really relate to the main protagonist's lot in the story, if I were to be involved in warfare. It's less mecha and more sci-fi soap opera that I'm looking for, but this sounds like it might fit those qualifications as well. |
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Apr 6, 2016 19:19:53 GMT -5
Shaxper...are you just considering mech animes in general now in the thread? (I am about to rush out the door.) If so, one of my favorites is Super Dimension Century Orguss 02. It's the 90's 6 episode OVA. I have yet to watch the original 30 some episode anime that preceded it. But the 6 episode anime is really good, and some of the mechs are pretty awesome. I can really relate to the main protagonist's lot in the story, if I were to be involved in warfare. It's less mecha and more sci-fi soap opera that I'm looking for, but this sounds like it might fit those qualifications as well. It doesn't happen in space but there is drama, love interest, betrayal, murder, deceit and all the things that make it the General Hospital of futuristic mech amines. :-) |
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Post by sabongero on Apr 6, 2016 21:41:40 GMT -5
If you finished watching the Robotech Macross sage. Perhaps following it up with Robotech Southern Cross saga. And then the Robotech New/Next Generation saga or the so called Mospeada. It is three generations of Robotech Wars with the enemy being the Zentraedi in the first, the Robotech Masters in the second, and the Invid in the third. Hope you enjoy it.
The 1970's have great big Robot style various types of series. Although, the animation may be dated as compared to our modern animation today, but their storylines are unquestionably fantastic. I would recommend watching the following series: Voltez V, Daimos, Mazinger Z, Great Mazinger, and UFO Grandeizer.
Then there are the various Gundam animations as well. And perhaps you can also try Starblazers.
Happy watching with your child.
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Post by shaxper on Apr 6, 2016 21:44:49 GMT -5
If you finished watching the Robotech Macross sage. Perhaps following it up with Robotech Southern Cross saga. And then the Robotech New/Next Generation saga or the so called Mospeada. Oh, we intend to! As for the giant mecha animes you have suggested, the two problems they pose are 1)Unless I'm mistaken, they aren't heavy on romance nor on strong female characters, and 2)Tranzor-Z aside, it's really hard to find them dubbed. She isn't going to have the patience for subtitles  But that won't stop ME from checking them out in time |
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Post by Mormel on Apr 6, 2016 23:29:53 GMT -5
shax, for a mecha series that combines action and romance, might I suggest 'The Vision of Escaflowne' somewhere down the line? It's slightly over a decade younger than Macross and Gundam, and its setting is a bit different (much of it takes place in a late-medieval styled world), but its mainly unusual in that its main protagonist is not the mecha pilot, but a girl with precognitive talents. And it features quite a strong soap opera/romance angle. The first episode starts a bit slow, but once you're about 15 minutes in, it kicks into gear. I think it has a great mix of romance, drama, fantasy, and action.
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.. maybe 80s Transformers?
