機動戦士ガンダム Mobile Suit Gundam

There! I finished the classic of classics, the legendary First Gundam! *blows horn*
No wonder the last scene of SEED ended like that...

Now I understand why so many fans of the original Gundam stood up and cried foul when SEED appeared on the scene. However, I still think SEED stands up pretty well on its own and has its share of plot devices and some memorable (in both good and bad ways) characters.

The First Gundam is essentially a record of growth and development of the crew on White Base as they tumble through the chaos of wars and battles. Out of the whole cast that regularly access the bridge, only four people (Bright, Ryu, and the two operators that sit up there whose names I never remembered) were originally from the military. The rest are all civilians that never knew the cruelness of war first hand. During the four months that they were on-board the White Base, these young men and women saw life and death, fought down their own fears and weaknesses, went through the sweetness and bitterness of life, and finally overcame the ordeals and came to understand each other in a New Type-like fashion.

One thing I really like about the First is that while Amuro is clearly the protagonist, the other characters are not just there to fill the screen. Each and every one of them plays an important role and helps shape one another. Even Kai, who was acting even more spoiled than Amuro in the beginning, turned out to be a great man. On the Zeon side, there's also remarkable characters such as Ramba Ral and Crowley Hamon. Of course, there's the formidable and charismatic Red Comet Char. But no matter how much one grows or matures, there is no perfect person in First. There are people of great prowess and gallantry, but there is no hero figure. Even New Types are not that much different from the other people.

Speaking of which, the only thing I have complaints about is the eerie psychic brain wave battles between Seiya and Athena Amuro and Lalah. That was really weird for an Old Type like me and had me blinking a couple times before deciding not to think too much about it. I do like the "awakening" of the White Base crew at the end, though, even if it's just temporarily. After all, these people had come a long way by sticking together through all the highs and lows in support of each other.

It's a shame that the White Base got destroyed at the end. I'm not a mechanical person and don't typically find ships attractive, so I usually ignore the design of ships and vessels. I first came across White Base in the Famicom game SD Gundam 3 Eiyuu Senki and thought it was a cute horse. It even became a Pegasus in the Knight Gundam chapter. XD You can probably imagine my delight when I finally got to see the real White Base in action in First. ;)

Mecha wise, I don't really have anything to say except that Zeon sure was busy developing all those similarly ugly looking mobile suits. They all have similar names, too. No wonder they needed the mine resources on Earth (which reminds me, what's with the ceramic vase that M'Quve was obsessed with?) It must had cost them fortunes to churn out all these prototypes. I vote for Zaku on Zeon's MS, though! On a side note, I got a Zeong from a gashapon a long time ago and thought it odd to be legless. Turns out nothing was left out from the gashapon and it really is legless. It's piloted by Char in the last battle, too!

Oh, and HARO is the cutest thing! XD
Athrun, you should seriously learn from Amuro on the science of Haro making. Those colourful bouncing spheres that do nothing but utter the word "Haro" are bootleg Haros!

On a side note, there's a few other seiyuu neta beside the crossed out one above. I found it ironic that Char should shoot down Kycilia Zabi, since Gilbert ended up dying in the arms of Talia in SEED Destiny. The seiyuu of Kycilia and Amuro were enemies in Saint Seiya (Shaina and Seiya), but they were married before. Then Amuro's seiyuu married the seiyuu of Miharu. Char's seiyuu also married the seiyuu of Matilda before. Of course, there's the seiyuu of Bright (R.I.P., Suzuoki Hirotaka-san) who played Shiryu in Saint Seiya.

I've ranked the First Gundam the same as the 08th MS Team, which is the highest out of all the Gundam series I've seen so far, followed closely by SEED. Definitely recommended for any Gundam fan.

I added the ranks I gave to the series to the Quest list. There's years in between viewings of the various series so the ranks aren't really relative to each other. The only ones with no rank are Wing and Endless Waltz, which I watched before I had broadband internet and re-picked up anime after at least a 8-year blank period. Yup, I watched them in English on YTV. I'll update the ranks for them after I watch the series on DVD in Japanese.

The Quest:
機動戦士ガンダム *A
機動戦士ガンダムI
機動戦士ガンダムII 哀・戦士編
機動戦士ガンダムIII めぐりあい宇宙編
機動戦士Ζガンダム
機動戦士Ζガンダム 星を継ぐ者
機動戦士ΖガンダムII 恋人たち
機動戦士ΖガンダムIII 星の鼓動は愛
機動戦士ガンダムΖΖ
機動戦士ガンダム 逆襲のシャア *B+
機動戦士ガンダム0080 ポケットの中の戦争 *B~B+
機動戦士ガンダム0083 STARDUST MEMORY
機動戦士ガンダム0083 ジオンの残光
機動戦士ガンダムF91
機動戦士Vガンダム
機動戦士ガンダム 第08MS小隊 *A
機動戦士ガンダム 第08MS小隊 ミラーズ・リポート
機動戦士ガンダム MS IGLOO -1年戦争秘録-
機動戦士ガンダム MS IGLOO -黙示録0079-
機動戦士ガンダム MS IGLOO2 重力戦線
機動武闘伝Gガンダム *B~B+
新機動戦記ガンダムW *N/A
新機動戦記ガンダムW Endless Waltz *N/A
機動新世紀ガンダムX *B-
∀ガンダム
機動戦士ガンダムSEED *A-~A
機動戦士ガンダムSEED DESTINY *B-
機動戦士ガンダムSEED C.E.73 STARGAZER *B~B+
機動戦士ガンダム00
機動戦士ガンダム00 S2

To a lot of people, my Mum included, ACG is nothing but an escape from life and a waste of time, so I always make it a point to mention something learned from watching an anime or reading a manga. I mean, come on, why else would a non-scientifically minded person like me knew about Lagrangian Points or space debris before actually learning them in school?

Of course, science isn't the only things I've picked up from my ACG hobby. There's also cultures, languages, trivia, history, biographies, etc. Here, I would like to demonstrate this learning-from-ACG by an example today: Mobile Suit Gundam episode 29.

The battlefield has switched to South America when White Base moved in to join the Federation base there. Throughout the episode, there's various animals and plants shown, some for only a second or so. Being the animal fan that I am, I couldn't help but pause the video to start googling the animals. 1.5 hours passed by the time I was done with the 25-minute episode.

Here's a short list of animals and plants I noticed while watching the episode
- Scarlet ibis (they reminded me of vultures for some reason, even though their diets are far from similar)
- Capybara (I just stared at the screen when I first saw them 'cause I had no idea what they were. One of the websites I visited showed a video clip where a female anaconda preyed on a capybara. I can feel her appetite, for I happened to be eating dinner, too)
- Morpho butterflies (I have yet to find the species to match the colouring patterns shown, though)
- Arapaima (the whole Google spree started when I saw the Zock swam by this living fossil looking fish. I was a little disappointed when I found the real thing to be not as ancient looking as the one shown)
- Spider monkey (not sure what kind of monkey was shown, but this is the closest I can find. I'm not interested in Primates...)
- Amazon River dolphin (wonder why it's not the more famous pink dolphins...)
- Curare (blowguns!)
- Red mangrove (just like the ones in Northern Taiwan!)
- Hoatzin (I got blown away when I read that they have no natural enemy because their meat tastes foul and they stink XD)

That's my biology lesson of the day. XD

機動新世紀ガンダムX After War Gundam X

Frankly, I'm not sure how I feel about this series... It's an AU series, yet it's almost entirely Newtype-centric. It seems to be paying homage to the First Gundam (the pink film bubbles for taping up air leaks in space, too!) in a number of areas, but at the same time doesn't construct a realistic enough world view and stand points to support the ethereal concept of Newtype as depicted in the series. The anti-climax at the end to end all talks of Newtype kind of made me want to demand a refund for all the hours I had invested in the show. Luckily(?), I haven't got to the Newtypes yet in the First Gundam and was thus able to sit through all these Newtype nonsense in X.

Visual-wise, X is pretty consistent throughout. The character designs are okay, though sometimes some of the characters look like they belong in Wing. The mecha designs I never really got used to, except for GX, Air Master Burst, and Leopard Destroy. Double X's face looks like a catfish to me. XD It looks nice when it opens up the reflectors getting ready for the Satellite Cannon, though.

The story jumps quite a bit from genre to genre, so there's times when it's building up something good, and times when it's barely tolerable. One can easily get distracted with all the "side stories", but I personally find some of the side stories to be better told than the main plot line. Of course, that has a lot to do with the characters involved.

While the two protagonists are, without fail as in many robot anime, 15-year-old early teens, all the other characters are either late teens (which look and act like young adults than teenagers) or grown adults. This gives the show a good balance character wise and provides a more mature outlook on things. I didn't like Garrod in the beginning and thought him to be an annoying kid, but he grew so much that I ended up liking him in the end. Can't say the same for Tiffa (her psychic power and manners irritate me all the way), but she's opened up quite a bit, too. My favourite characters are Wits and Kid. Tonya is cute, and I totally support Wits x Tonya. XD

Unlike the other Gundam series, there is no last boss figure in X. The closest candidates, the Frost brothers whom I considered a dark force behind the scenes, failed to level up to the last boss status and remained just a dark force behind the scenes. Speaking of which, the last scene where the two brothers (one in a wheelchair and the other wheeling it) stood at a short distance away just made me want to orz. I see. So this is the so-called pseudo-ending, where they simply leave things there and pretend that it's intended and up to the audience for interpretation...

Considering the year of airing, X didn't have many big name seiyuu playing the main characters, but a lot of the seiyuu that appeared in it, even just for one episode, are now well known in the industry. X is also what made me realize the high Gundam pilot ratio in Sengoku BASARA because this is the only series where Nakai Kazuya and Morikawa Toshiyuki piloted a Gundam.

If you're confused at the lack of coherency of the post, that's because that's exactly how I feel about Gundam X. I'm just glad I finished it and can move on to the next one. By that, I mean going back to the First Gundam. XD

The Quest:
機動戦士ガンダム
機動戦士ガンダムI
機動戦士ガンダムII 哀・戦士編
機動戦士ガンダムIII めぐりあい宇宙編
機動戦士Ζガンダム
機動戦士Ζガンダム 星を継ぐ者
機動戦士ΖガンダムII 恋人たち
機動戦士ΖガンダムIII 星の鼓動は愛
機動戦士ガンダムΖΖ
機動戦士ガンダム 逆襲のシャア
機動戦士ガンダム0080 ポケットの中の戦争
機動戦士ガンダム0083 STARDUST MEMORY
機動戦士ガンダム0083 ジオンの残光
機動戦士ガンダムF91
機動戦士Vガンダム
機動戦士ガンダム 第08MS小隊
機動戦士ガンダム 第08MS小隊 ミラーズ・リポート
機動戦士ガンダム MS IGLOO -1年戦争秘録-
機動戦士ガンダム MS IGLOO -黙示録0079-
機動戦士ガンダム MS IGLOO2 重力戦線
機動武闘伝Gガンダム
新機動戦記ガンダムW
新機動戦記ガンダムW Endless Waltz
機動新世紀ガンダムX
∀ガンダム
機動戦士ガンダムSEED
機動戦士ガンダムSEED DESTINY
機動戦士ガンダムSEED C.E.73 STARGAZER
機動戦士ガンダム00
機動戦士ガンダム00 S2

I recently made a new best friend, and its name is amazon.ca. XD

When I was on the west coast, I thought those people "back east" must get to have whatever they want 'cause that's where everything goes. In a sense, that's not wrong, provided you're within the Greater Toronto or maybe even Montreal. Ottawa, albeit just a few hours away from the two cities, is on a different scale. It's almost as bad as, if not worse than, Surrey.

While Ottawa is a much larger city than Surrey, it's not close to its rich and fancy neighbours like Surrey. This makes Ottawa a rather undesirable location if one wants good East Asian food (apparently there's no good Chinese or Japanese restaurants here from what I'm told) or gets a fix of ACG.

Without my usual sources readily available (Best Buy, London Drugs, Iwase Bookstore, Book Off), I was forced to explore other options. Online shopping was my conclusion, and thus I began searching. Since I work during the day and wouldn't be able to receive any delivery, anyone that returns the product right away when not unable to deliver wouldn't work for me. After some disappointing results, I decided to try Amazon, and I'm very happy with my choice.

I've received one shipment so far (Planetes boxset and Bleach 2nd Season boxset) and am planning to pick up a second shipment tomorrow after church. I've placed four orders this past week or so, but because there's pre-orders, my stuff will come in about six shipments. So far I've only ordered anime DVDs, but that might expand to include games in the future.

Right now I'm also hoping to make friends with amazon.co.jp, but that will depend on how the shipping work. The guy replied back that they use either DHL or FedEx for shipping to Canada, so I'll probably have to check their websites to confirm my options. If everything works out, I will be able to order books and CDs from Japan!

Unfortunately, that's pretty much the only things they would ship outside of Japan. In other words, I can't buy games, software, model kits, or figurines from them. I really am willing to pay the high price to buy the games in Japanese, too. Ah well, I guess I'll have to make do with books and CDs... To compensate the high rate of shipping, I can only order once I pick out a good number of items. Of course, everything's pending until I figure out the shipping dilemma.


On a completely different note, I decided to try this free Flickr Pro thing that Rogers provides... which I might get around to tomorrow.

You see, I had a Flickr account that merged with my Yahoo! account when Yahoo! took over Flickr. Then I forgot about both my Flickr and Yahoo! account for a looooong time. Due to past experiences, I figured that my Yahoo! account is probably suspended or deleted due to inactivity anyway. Then when I signed up with Rogers, I created a Rogers Yahoo! account upon activation.

Obviously I'd want to add to my existing Flickr account rather than creating a new one, so I logged into my Yahoo! account. I was expecting my inbox to be empty, so you can imagine my surprise when the number beside the inbox said 6xx. What the--?!?!?!?!

Yahoo.co.jp wiped out everything I had in my mail box when I didn't login after certain number of months. Yahoo.com didn't do it for some reason. So now I have literally hundreds of emails to go through. Luckily the majority of it are just newsletters where older issues can be ignored and deleted. When I dug back far enough to the first unread message, it was dated in October, 2008. Yeah, I haven't checked my Yahoo! email for almost a year. (Sorry, Eddie, I missed your happy birthday message...)

When I'm done with the mail box sometime tomorrow, I'll try the Flickr thing and see if it transfers over to my Rogers Yahoo! account to get the Pro upgrade. If things proceed smoothly, I might consider using Flickr alongside my Picasa web albums. Since it features unlimited storage, I might even use it as my primary photo album. We'll see.

For some reason, I couldn't get myself to watch Gundam during the week (lack of concentration?) so my Gundam marathon was halted after the Labour Day long weekend. I did manage to squeeze in a couple episodes of Gundam X during the week to somewhat make up the lost time, so The Quest is still within reach for now.

While I was watching Gundam X, it suddenly hit me how many of the seiyuu from the Sengoku BASARA anime have piloted a Gundam. A quick trip to the Wikipedia led me to compile a brief list of the Gundam pilots from Sengoku BASARA.

中井和哉 (伊達政宗) - X
保志総一朗 (真田幸村) - SEED, SEED DESTINY
森川智之 (片倉小十郎) - (V), (W), X, (0083)
玄田哲章 (武田信玄) - (1st), (ZZ), (G), 08th MS, (0083)
子安武人 (猿飛佐助) - (V), (G), W, SEED, SEED DESTINY, (0083), (F91), (∀)
朴璐美 (上杉謙信) - ∀, (SEED Special Edition), (00)
森田成一 (前田慶次) - SEED DESTINY
大川透 (徳川家康) - (SEED), (Z Movie I-III)
石野竜三 (長曾我部元親) - (V), W
中原茂 (毛利元就) - W
辻谷耕史 (浅井長政) - (0080), F91
藤原啓治 (松永久秀) - (V), (G), (W), (X), (08th MS), (00)
速水奨 (明智光秀) - (SEED ASTRAY), (08th MS)
若本規夫 (織田信長) - (1st Movie I), (F91)

(Parenthesis denotes series where the seiyuu plays a character but does not pilot a Gundam. No, Zaku and MA are not Gundam.)

I think the next closest show (Gundam series don't count) in terms of how many of the seiyuu pilots a Gundam would be Samurai Deeper Kyo? Or maybe Saiunkoku Monogatari? It might be interesting to do a quick comparison sometime. XD

機動戦士ガンダム Mobile Suit Gundam episode 1-10

Thanks to the folks at Zeonic|Scanlations, I finally got my hands on all 43 episodes of the original Gundam series! The 30-year-old series may not look as pretty as any modern anime, but the digitally remastered R2 DVD stands up so beautifully that it's hardly noticeable. (Bandai, when are you going to release the R1 DVD?!?!)

I watched the first episode last year, but that was all I could get. I was quite moved at that time, and the feeling only intensified today as I watched the first ten episodes.

When I was watching, I couldn't help but mentally compare it with Gundam SEED, which self-proclaimed to be the First Gundam of the 21st century and paid homage to the original series in numerous scenes. While I do quite like SEED, I did find it leaning a bit heavily on the notion of heroism, intentionally or not. The First Gundam, on the other hand, is rather down to earth with the characters and the background settings.

For SEED, in a lot of cases, I paid attention to certain characters because of their seiyuu first and then later extended to the actual characters. For a series featuring so many big name seiyuu, this can be both a good and a bad thing for me. If you take out the seiyuu factor, at the end, only Athrun and Fllay made a strong impression for me character-wise. I kind of lost interest in Kira in the later half after he made peace with everything and became all mighty and invincible. XD

For the First, since I only know three seiyuu out of the whole cast, I was able to fully concentrate on the characters without prejudice. There's surely a lot more development to come seeing I'm only at the tenth episode, but the potentials are already evident. I really like Mirai and think she and Bright would make a great pair. Amuro does whine as rumoured, but he's growing at a steady pace. The scene where Fraw expresses her will to pilot Gundam reminded of a similar scene from SEED, except Fraw and Fllay have very different motives for doing so... Char is certainly quite the charismatic, at the same time being calculating. Klueze (or whatever the official spelling of his name is) isn't as appealing despite his scheming tactics and dark background. The only person capable of measuring up to Char would be Lacus, but let's not divulge to the conspiracy theory here. XD

Anyhow, the 1st Gundam marathon shall continue. I don't think I'll be able to finish the series this long weekend, but definitely within the week. Then I'll be able to finally watch my Zeta Gundam DVDs... -__-

Actually, I set a goal for myself just right this moment: finish all the Gundam anime (minus the SD ones) to date before my birthday this year!

The Quest:
機動戦士ガンダム
機動戦士ガンダムI
機動戦士ガンダムII 哀・戦士編
機動戦士ガンダムIII めぐりあい宇宙編
機動戦士Ζガンダム
機動戦士Ζガンダム 星を継ぐ者
機動戦士ΖガンダムII 恋人たち
機動戦士ΖガンダムIII 星の鼓動は愛
機動戦士ガンダムΖΖ
機動戦士ガンダム 逆襲のシャア
機動戦士ガンダム0080 ポケットの中の戦争
機動戦士ガンダム0083 STARDUST MEMORY
機動戦士ガンダム0083 ジオンの残光
機動戦士ガンダムF91
機動戦士Vガンダム
機動戦士ガンダム 第08MS小隊
機動戦士ガンダム 第08MS小隊 ミラーズ・リポート
機動戦士ガンダム MS IGLOO -1年戦争秘録-
機動戦士ガンダム MS IGLOO -黙示録0079-
機動戦士ガンダム MS IGLOO2 重力戦線
機動武闘伝Gガンダム
新機動戦記ガンダムW
新機動戦記ガンダムW Endless Waltz
機動新世紀ガンダムX
∀ガンダム
機動戦士ガンダムSEED
機動戦士ガンダムSEED DESTINY
機動戦士ガンダムSEED C.E.73 STARGAZER
機動戦士ガンダム00
機動戦士ガンダム00 S2