SaiMecha! Submit Your Nominations!

SaiMoe is an annual tournament-style competition to determine whom the most moe anime character of the year is. Some people have a lot of fun participating in it each year, while others make their own English-language versions or alternatives like “SaiGAR.” Currently, set-up is going on for SaiMecha, a tournament to determine the most… well, the mecha that can get the most votes, I guess. Find all your info here.

Anyone can contribute nominations while they’re still open, and each person can submit up to fifteen mechs via email to executiveotaku AT gmail DOT COM. This post is to show off my noms in the same vein as ghostlightning and Schneider. These nominations are in alphabetical order by the name of the mech.

There are three general categories of interest for me when it comes to mecha: first and most importantly, their appearance. Second and equally important, their presence in the series. And third but still important, how they move. The third criteria has nothing to do with the functionality of their movement, but more to do with how that movement is animated.

On Choosing Sides In Anime Conflict – Gundam, Escaflowne, and Shiki Episode 20

(There are no spoilers in this post except where marked. It can be read spoiler-free.)

The idea that there are no “good guys” or “bad guys” in war is ubiquitous, but it’s one that must be repeated at any time where emotions run high and logical thinking must be laid down. By my logic, there’s no inherent “right” or “wrong” in the world. (I say “by my logic” because even if I think it’s the absolute truth, I am not all-knowing, and I will not pretend like I understand any “truth” about the universe.) There simply is what there is.

I don’t consider any action that I take in life to be a reaction to a moral idea. I would never kill a human being, but not because I think it’s “wrong” to do so. It simply isn’t something I would do, having been raised as a person with an aversion to doing such a thing. On a personal level, as I’ve mentioned before, I see murder as a waste because the dead can never benefit the world nor, by extension, myself. If a person remains living, then they carry with them the potential for infinite possibilities, and I don’t have any reason to destroy that.

Everybody Gets One – Anime's Personal Rage Machines

If I was given the right, I would love nothing more than to burn studio Bee Train to the fucking ground. I would grab the CEO by the collar and punch him in the fucking face, I would bitchslap the animators, cockslap the directors, and cut the throats of the storyboarders. I would laugh with joy as the building crumbled to ash, and then I would piss on the ground where it stood. If given the right, of course.

Top 10 Anime That Should Have Been Longer

There are plenty of anime out there that felt like they were cut short. Maybe the plot hadn’t fully emerged, or you were just starting to care about the characters before it ended. Maybe the world needed more exploring, or episodes started getting rushed thanks to the time limit. Whatever the cause, we all know certain anime should have been longer.

I am purposefully leaving off anime that has a source material with the exception of #2. That’s because if they only animated a small part of the series, it means they were only doing it to advertise the manga anyway, which you should go read. Therefor, Berserk, Gunsmith Cats, Battle Angel Alita, Claymore, etc. will not be appearing on the list.

What Makes a Great Mech? OH! Repost 1

Because Oi, Hayaku has gone defunct, I will be reposting all my OH! posts here. Enjoy if you haven’t already.

Mecha has always been a huge element of anime since the good old days of Tetsujin 28. There was the super robot era in the 70s, the real robot era in the 80s, the 90s when genres began colliding and Evangelion made mecha psychological, and today when shows like Gurren Lagann make a point to reference and pay homage to all eras of mecha anime. But why do anime fans like mecha so much? What is it that makes a mech great? I decided to analyze different qualities of a that make them stand out, as well as share which mecha I think best represent these qualities. If you think there are other qualities or more deserving nominations, be sure to let your voice be heard in the comments!

Favorite Anime Villains

These days, it’s hard to find a truly good villain. Most villains are made to be sympathetic, or are some ambiguous life form with no personality, assuming there even is a clearly defined villain. In the old says, a villain just had to look cool and have a name like “Crystal Boy” to be memorable. It’s rare to really see a true villain who has personality without being sympathetic or tuning into a good guy by the end. Here are some of my favorite villains that are just complete bastards. Please feel free to announce your own favorite villains in the comments, not necessarily bound by these guidelines.