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.

ULTRA-IMMORTAL UVALL Episode 1 (Super Robot Wars J)

Ghostlightning hasn’t been able to shut up about Super Robot Wars J, and since I’ve also longed for one of these ridiculously awesome games to come out in English, I decided to help him build a bandwagon that I hope can get even more people. Why? Because this game is excellent for blogging.

You can read gl’s post linked above to get a basic summary of what the game is and why it’s so amazing, but the important thing to know for this post is that the game lets you name your character, mech, and attacks; and even lets you get bonuses on your three favorite franchises represented in the game. What this means is that everyone’s experience of the game will be different; each player gets to live out their own insane mecha fantasy. Sure, the story is going to be basically the same for everyone, but what really matters is that I can kill the final boss with “BAAAAKUNETSU! GODO FINGAAAA!!!,” and my brother can kill it with “BIG BANG PAAAANCHI!!!,” and gl can do it with his penis, etc.

Unlike gl, my mecha-fu isn’t that strong—I’ve heard of all the shows in this game, but most of them I haven’t seen. My three favorites are Martian Successor Nadesico, Mobile Fighter G Gundam, and Full Metal Panic, because those are the only three I’ve seen in full. (Besides that I’ve seen some of Mazinkaiser and Tekkaman Blade, but not a lot.) I’m okay with this—sure, I’d rather be playing the one where Bright Noa slaps Ikari Shinji (who wouldn’t?), but it’s more than enough that I get to have Hoshino Ruri, Gai Daigouji, Allenby Beardsley, the entire Shuffle Alliance, D-Boy, and Sagara Sousuke on one fucking ship together (just thinking about it makes my brain erode under tidal waves of fuckwin). I’m not far enough that I have these things yet, but I look forward to them.

(I didn’t take any screenshots because this post was unplanned, but I will in the future. Meanwhile, here’s a video run of the first stage in Japanese, for those who want an idea of the gameplay or want to see the awesome fights in action.)

Basquash ep. 1 – Truly And Utterly Kawamori – STAY TILL THE END!!!

Basquash! is a new Shoji Kawamori show done by Satellite (Arjuna, Noein, Macross Frontier, all excellent). This show is worth watching for visual quality alone. The backgrounds are detailed beyond belief, and really they are hardly backgrounds – this show has a constant feel of dimensionality (holy shit, it’s a word), like you are standing right there in the show’s world. The animation is lively and fast-moving. There are CG mechs which is ordinarily a turn-off but Satellite has consistently handled them very well, making them feel natural with the rest of the show, and they do an even better job of it here than they did on Mac F. The main character’s hair is a little horrible (which is lampshaded in the episode) but the character design cake is wholly eaten by the hottest black girl in anime I’ve seen in a while. She’s got huge tits and it’s rare for me to like that, but she is just so hot it’s incredible. Possibly a bias on my part.

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!