Giant Robot Review: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

As a fan of anime mecha I have of course known of 2007's Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (TTGL from now on to save on typing) for some time now. It's been getting immensely popular, not just among fellow mecha fans but surprisingly among general anime fans. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing I don't know. Mecha anime usually has its strict niche audience but TTGL has managed to transcend that subset of anime geeks.

I shouldn't be that surprised, as Gainax is responsible for other popular mecha titles like Gunbuster and Neon Genesis Evangelion which have also made a big impact on anime, especially Evangelion which is perhaps one of the most popular and influential anime series in existence (even though I personally kind of hate it).

TTGL is set in the far future where humans are forced to live under ground. We don't know why right away and I don't want to give much away since there's still quite a few people who haven't seen the series yet and are waiting for the soon to be released DVDs. At the beginning we follow around Simon the digger, a young boy who... well... digs. He digs to help expand his village and does so dutifully, believing that digging is the only thing he's good at. Then there's his "big bro" Kamina with crazy sunglasses that end up becoming the icon of the series, and a hot blooded attitude that parodies/pays homage to super robot heroes of the old days. Kamina's dream is to break through the ceiling of their cave dwelling and reach the surface, something to pair achieve at the end of the episode after being introduced to robots designed around giant heads called Ganmen (or Gunmen I'm not sure what the proper romanization is yet).

The story that follows is filled with great super robot action, entertaining commedy, and heart wrenching drama. It takes the formula of the common super robot show, twists it to suit its needs, and creates an excellent show. The problem with a lot of super robot shows is they're really over the top, but their stories and characters leave something to be desired. There's always a sense of cliche especially in the OVAs based on older shows. This isn't always a bad thing, and there's a lot of purposely inserted cliches in TTGL, but they've managed to make a show that's both absolutely absurd with lovable characters and a story that keeps you on the edge of your seat at the end of each episode.

The first half of the show progresses predictably where an enemy shows up, the heroes scream really loud and through courage and hot blood the enemies are defeated. You never really see them as evil though early on they seem to fight for no good reason like most super robot bad-guys you learn at the epic climax of the show's first half that there was some method to their madness. The second half of the series takes a dramatic left turn and everything changes. In a way the show's plot covers a lot of ground in terms of anime mecha history, paying homage to a lot of old sources and deriving its story and design from them while somehow being fresh and original. Everything in the show ties together and even when things get really ridiculous or come out of nowhere there's usually a reason or the event was somehow foreshadowed.

That's enough about the story though as I really don't want to say much. The show's animation is superb, done sort of in the same style as Gainax's popular show FLCL while at the same time also resembling old style super robot anime. The result is a very kinetic show, especially the action which is frantic, breathtaking, and downright insane. It's full of eye candy for mechaheads and general anime fans alike.

There's really not much else I can say about this show other than kick reason to the curb and pierce the heavens! Go and watch it right now, you're in for a ride.

10 out of 10

DS Game Review: Front Mission

Although I got the game Front Mission months ago I finally got around to finally beating it mainly because I've been on one of my giant robot kicks again. I've known about Front Mission for a long time, but it's a series that's remained in Japan for the most part except for the PlayStation installment Front Mission 3 and the PS2 sequel Front Mission 4. I've played neither of those games though I'm no stranger to Japanese turned based strategy games/Turn based RPGs.

I found the original Front Mission for DS surreptitiously as I didn't even know it existed and I wasn't aware at first it was an enhanced port of the original Super Famicom game that for whatever reason (Probably Squaresoft thinking it too hard/complicated for their Western audience, something they did a lot of back then.) Knowing the name and the reputation it has among fans of mecha like myself I bought it for a bargain price that I still don't understand since everywhere I see it today is much more expensive.

In any case let's get to the actual game. Front Mission is a strategy role-playing game, with an emphasis on the strategy part. It reminds me a lot of Battletech in both the oddly Western robot designs and the whole squad based combat angle that the game takes. There are two scenarios you can play in, the beginner's campaign which is the original campaign from the Super Famicom original and the more advanced campaign made specifically for the remake so it's a little shorter. Both tell the same story from different sides of a war that's being fought on a newly formed island in the Pacific in the near future. The story is simple, but full of interesting plot twists as you uncover a military conspiracy. The same events happen in both campaigns, the second campaign referencing the first quite a few times, even having cameos from some of your characters in the first game. It was a neat addition, and I'm sure the Japanese kids who were addicted to this game when it was originally released really got a kick out of it. I did and I've only known the characters for a few months now.
Besides the leveling up of characters and learning skills aspect the game-play is really bent more towards the strategy aspect. You get over a dozen troops and you can literally spend hours tweaking and customizing your robots or "Wanzers" as Front Mission calls them. Wanzer is short for "Wandrung Panzer" which means "Walking Tank." You can choose which arms, legs, body, a variety of hand held and shoulder mounted weapons, and an energy boosting backpack that makes up your Wanzer. The customization is by far the deepest element of the game, though the combat isn't a walk in the park.

Basically your Wanzers are situated on a pseudo-3D isometric scene separated into a grid. The environments are pretty well drawn, upgraded from the Super Famicom version, and they range from all types of scenes from urban fighting to forests, mountains, deserts, etc. You move your Wanzers around on this grid, and a supply truck that can repair and reload if you have one, and engage the enemy from long, medium, and short ranges. The long range weapons like missiles and medium range weapons like bazookas are essential to success because an enemy can't counter attack when you're attacking them from a distance. The short range weapons like other guns and melee attacks however require you to get up close and personal and unless you destroy the weapon they're attacking with or stun them they'll most likely counter attack you. If you try to do a melee attack and the enemy has a gun however, he'll get the first shot. The damage is randomized and you can destroy an arm, legs, or torso, the latter causing the entire enemy to blow to smithereens if you destroy it. Later in the game you do get the skills to target certain parts and it helps immensely.
When you attack somebody the view changes, and you get to see your little customized robot kick ass in a nicely animated and more detailed little scene. Every part has its own sprite which makes the customization even more interesting. My only complaint about combat is just how broken long range attacks are. You're limited on missile ammo but they're usually rather powerful and they don't require you to put your units in danger. There's also items like chaff that throw off missiles but for the most part missiles are insane and I've won entire missions with long range barrages alone. They don't completely break the game though, and I really enjoyed the simple combat as well as buying new weapons to see what they do.

I also need to stress the length of this game. If you go through both campaigns you're looking at easily over 60+ hours of game-play especially if you're obsessive compulsive about customizing your Wanzers like I was. This game is best in small doses though, I really don't recommend anybody sit down and go through several missions at once because you really need a break after some intense tinkering with parts and fighting for your life in a mission only to be presented with a whole new collection of parts.

I can't really recommend this game to everyone because you need to devote a lot of time and effort into it to really get the most out of it. If you do give it a chance though you're in for a lot of the old Squaresoft magic with an intelligent story, inexplicably fun game-play, and lots and lots of robots beating the crap out of each other. I don't know why Squaresoft didn't release this on the Super Nintendo but I think it would have been a classic in the West if they had. As it stands now the game is a bit dated, but that shouldn't be a problem for anyone who enjoys old-school graphical style as it's certainly not ugly just dated compared to what the DS is capable of. There are some sweet CGI cut-scenes in the second campaign at the very least. It's a game that I feel like I missed out on that I'm glad the Nintendo DS let me experience.

8 out of 10

Getting my Emo Ducks in a Row

It's been a while since I posted anything mainly because life has been such a shitstorm that I haven't had an opportunity to worry about anything enough to post. Obama is still black, Hillary is still ugly, John McCain will eat your babies, none of that has changed really so who cares.

This past week especially has conspired to crush my will and turn me into a depressed lump who has to complain about his problems to make-believe people on the Internet. I'm still on a failing path to not finding an internship and time is running out. I'm barely staying alive in Spanish class and to make matters worse I lost my actually lost my Spanish book so I can't even study for a quiz tomorrow. To make money worse I got a $42.50 fine for an accidental traffic violation from a few weeks ago, hooray. I failed one stinking part of my comprehensive exam which I'll have to probably retake. With my personal life my grandfather keeps whining about dying and my cousin might have cancer and everybody else in the family has some kind of God damned ailment to worry about including myself.

It's times like this I withdraw into myself. I never solve my problems because I just sit back and let them consume me. I try not to complain about anything in my life, except on the Internet where I can do so without fear of some made up repercussions and as such here I am right now. I start to question whether I belong here in college, if I wasted time and money and I disappointed my family and myself. I'm scared to death of failure that seems like a distinct possibility at this late in the game. The university itself doesn't make it any easier considering they want you to stay here your entire life and keep injecting them with money.

My professional writing group internship meeting today was probably the last straw. People admitted to not having an internship yet, but when it was asked who didn't have any idea at all what they were doing I was the only one left raising my hand. I was pretty visually shaken after than and sat there for a while until just about everybody left. One of my best professors sat down to talk to me and offer me help but I was too out of it to really say much at that point. I went to a bathroom stall and just cried for the next ten minutes, feeling like I was having a psychotic break. I try to act tough both online and in real life, but I'm a weak person with a weak will who's easily beaten. Stress always wins which is probably why I have a stress related illness which is the only thing that isn't helping to screw with my psyche right now thankfully.

I feel lost already, thrown to the dogs and I'm still in school with people who can help me but I'm afraid to ask for the help because I either don't know how to or don't know how to be helped as if it will cheapen me somehow. I don't really know what I'm even talking about right now to be honest. For at least over a month now I've been in a period of self-loathing and self-depreciation that can't be healthy yet I'm slipping into it more and more deeply. The problem is the more I get myself down the less likely I am to do something about it, the more likely I am to sit here and feel bad about myself.

I've always followed the credo that there's always somebody out there that has it worse, that really has a reason to be upset, but that's bullshit. As a human being it's my right to be upset. If I can't handle this nonsense what am I going to do once I'm out of the safety net of the education system? What will I do when I'm buried in debt trying to find a stable job in an economy that's slipping deeper and deeper into a recession while I detach myself further and further from reality. Maybe it's because I grew up in an era of unparalleled hope and optimism only to live in an era of depression and pessimism as an adult that I'm not well suited to handle the real world and if that's the case why should I bother trying if I'm not going to be happy?

In any case I'm sorry to be an emo duck, filling the tubes with e-drama as if there isn't enough of that already. If this all manages to blow over somehow I'll continue posting regularly until my next awkward emotional phase. If not then don't expect very many posts from now on. Thank you for being a tool of catharsis mien blog.