Kishin Taisen Gigantic Formula
 

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Kishin Taisen Gigantic Formula (Apo Mekhanes Theos Gigantic Forumula)
Broadcast: 2007 (sometime)
Site: www.gigantic-f.com

Based on the original story by Kimura Hidefumi (Kiddy Grade). Directed by Gotou Keiji (Kiddy Grade), original character design by Kadonosono Megumi (Kiddy Grade), character design by Yabuno Kouji (Kamichu). Animation duties by Brains Base (Kamichu).

Mecha designs:

Ikuto Yamashita (Isthar 12)
Junya Ishigaki (Griffin 6)
Kanetake Ebikawa (Vulcanus 1)
Katsushi Murakami (Jupiter 2)
Kazumi Fujita (Vulcanus 1)
Kazutaka Miyatake (Xuan Wu Shen #3)
Kimitoshi Yamane (Minervas XI)
Kunio Okawara (Chronos 0)
Shingo Takeba (Ceres 4)
Shinji Aramaki (Nephthys IX)
Shoji Kawamori (Yunowa VIII)
Takeshi Takakura (Chiron the 5th)
Yasuhiro Moriki (Susano-o 10-shiki)
Yutaka Izubuchi (Diane 7)

Story:

Think Kamichu meets Gundam! I watched the pretty nifty trailer from Comiket 17 - unfortunately it's no longer available on Youtube. I was impressed. Mainly because it's completely unexpected especially after being put off by some of the peculiar character designs on the website. I'm already sold as you can tell. :D

The animation does look impressive, then again, it seems to be the usual case for any mecha adaptation. I think the only time I was impressed by any form of mecha, was in the Future Boy Conan. Those things were hilarious. Anyway, animenfo has this to say in the following:

The human race has recovered from the cataclysmic disaster now known as the "Equator Winter". Now, each country begins to battle one another with robots to establish the new world order. A 13-year-old boy and 14-year-old girl operate Japan's robot.

Now begins their robot battle.

He he I've been rewatching FBC these last few days, man I adore that series. 28 years old yet still so fresh and funny as ever. One of the greatest animes ever and yeah those funky digger robots are just the greatest. That's what I love about Miyazaki's mecha designs, mostly functional and with bags of character like the Laputian robots. Actually I'm kind of hoping Gurren Laggan recaptures that kind of fun as the main character Simon rides the Lagann like those digger robots. It'll probably be nothing like that of-course but who knows.

Gah I'm way off-topic. Anyway Gigantic Formula (or should we call it Gunchu :p ) looks very promising indeed and the mecha is pretty epic, but the characters with those cherubic Kamichu faces, makes it a real oddity.

There's some news regarding this upcoming serie which might be quite interesting:

WHOA.

Seriously, what the... hell? That's an impressive list of notorious mecha-designers (like Shoji Kawamori or Yutaka Izubuchi, to mention my favorite ones). My expectations for this anime are quickly rising up and the mecha fanboy inside me is screaming like an idiot. :heh:

I am definetely looking forward to see this. Absolutely.

Oh my gosh. That's is definately a who's who of mecha design.

EDIT: I've added the mecha designers list to the first post.

MAD PROJECT!? SOLD! (( Mecha Animation Designers )) :P

G Gundam - Hot Blood + Slew of legendary mecha designers!? SOLD!!

I never liked Kiddy Grade (( even though this one looks like it's going to have a dark athmosphere around it, what's with the low colours and music all )) and I was never fond of those Kamichu~ish designs (( not to mention they look unespecially creepy in the trailer...like for a horror anime or something )), but I'm going to watch this no matter what, even if it sucks ass. The setting + those designers are too good of delight to not watch.

Damn, every single name expect Murakami is making my mouth salivate. Ikuto's works for Evangelion were class...(( wait...when was the last time he designed something NOT EVA? )), Ishigaki can pump out some great designs if he puts him mind into it (( though IGPX was kinda meh...loved his Escaflowne and Wing though )), Ebikawa (( THE 3D MAN )), Kawamori, Okawara and Izubuchi are legendary while others had contributed (( I'm sure I've seen some names that worked in Nadesico before )) to some great designs in the past. Can't wait to see the diversity expressed in the designs.

Wow, I was looking forward to this after reading the somewhat G-Gundam-ish description... but the list of mecha designers just puts this over the top!

Some news - the website has been officially launched, the mecha page gives us a nice look at Yasuhiro Moriki's design of Susano-o 10-shiki (the one seen in the trailer) and the character pages show the three leads (who look better animated than on paper I think)...

What am I doing here? I don't like mecha. Oh, wait: I just watched Turn A Gundam and enjoyed it, so that's a start.

I want to say that one of my favorite VAs -- Yahagi Sayuri (Karin, Kuu in Kyoushirou to Towa no Sora) plays ten-year-old chief mechanic Amano Utsumi (pic on the character page of the official site).

And I'll watch anything by Gotou Keiji, even though I didn't like Kiddy Grade, because Uta~Kata is one of my all-time favorites. I'm not sure how everyone else here will feel about this, but I expect this show to combine mecha and moe, as Kyoushirou and Soukou no Strain are attempting to do in their different ways.

Those backgrounds look great. Maybe this will be my chance to learn more about good mecha design. Unfortunately, the trailer has been removed from YouTube "due to terms of use violation."

There is already a radio program, with Sayuri-chan and Satou Rina (Mana, Negi in Negima).

It's interesting that they already have the main VAs slated for this show, even though it is still in the "planning" stage and there is no broadcast date.

I don't think this is going to be a moe-oriented type of show, Kaoru Chujo. The premises imply anything but moe. This seems to be a rather serious one, especially with all these big names of japanese animation working on the designs and animation. And the trailer didn't suggest any possible "moe" theme as well.

Well, I haven't seen the trailers. But I don't think of "serious" and "moe" as mutually exclusive. Manabi Straight and Ichigo Mashimaro are examples of moe shows that I think are very serious about life and humanity. Not that I think this will in any way resemble those.

To me, moe just means there are cute characters that one is meant to feel warm toward. The "chief technician" is a ten-year-old girl, and her VA has a very moe-inducing voice. And the two shows Gotou Keiji has directed both feature young girls and some fanservice. His Uta~Kata is a very moe show that is also serious and involves huge issues, mystery, and powerful conflict. And there is a bit of a general trend to try to mix genres.

But we'll see, hopefully sooner rather than later. If there is anything that could be described as moe, it will probably be incidental to the storyline and will not constitute a theme so much as a way of broadening the fanbase and humanizing the situations. "Gotou Keiji" and "mecha" seems an unusual match to me, so I would expect him to do something different with the genre.

I want you to know how very proud I am of you today. Even though its likely to be serious why not watch it for the drama and characters even if there is no abundance of moe. Besides moe is secondary to plot and character anyway. It's more like icing on a cake, used sparingly and applied properly it can improve the base, but overdone and applied improtionately to the base it can drown it and ruin the cake.

But ultimately I have to ask everybody what Gollum is doing in this series and in female form as well. I hope the art looks better in motion.

You didn't think some of the Kamichu-like character designs were moe? Like Kaoru mentioned that chief technician girl who IIRC was at a computer in the trailer seemed a prime candidate. Well not that it matters since you can be moe about anything from what I understand of the term. So if people want to they will find it.

It does IMO. You really should check out the trailer if you can find it. Should put your mind at ease a bit and spoil your mecha fanboy pants.

Hold on, I am not obviously talking about the character designs. I was referring to the general theme and "flavour" that this show might probably convey (judging from the trailers) which didn't really show any moe element in it, even if the character design is similar to Kamichu's because they both share part of the staff. I was just "warning" Kaoru that the moe component might not be so obvious in this show like it is in the ones he mentioned. That's all. Moe or not, I am definetely looking forward to this. :)

Shame the PV got pulled. If I find it again I'll post a link, but I've had no luck so far.:(

I listened to the new one that came out today. I tell you those two, Sayuri-chan and Rina-chan, are so unbelievably hyper they must have been on the sugar, but it's great fun to listen to them ~ even though they're not really talking about GF, just random stuff. Both have fantastic energetic voices and personalities. There's also some great music playing in the background, which I think is Yoshihiro Ike (he did the music for Kamichu!) but I'm not sure. Anyway its good stuff :p

Wha... I'm not all that familiar with mecha and stuff but even I can pop my eyes at that impressive list of mecha designers. Really - it's so amusing seeing so many corners of the animation industry literally trying to outdo each other at the mech genre this season. How is it that all these projects are coming about at the same time? It must have taken a fair bit of planning to get all this work tied up together... Perhaps it's some chain reaction sort of thing. Executives catch on rumours that Studio X is doing mech and so is Studio Y and they think "hey, let's join in on the action/show that we're better/etc" or something... Or maybe they had some secret meeting and all decided to unleash a wave of mecha to revive the enthusiasm among mecha fans and er.. hope to find more people to buy plamos or something? :heh:


Actually I liked the animation character designs of thsi show. I think the ones on the site don't do it justice, I saw some pics of it in Newtype some time back (which I am way too tired/lazy to scan now) and I was quite impressed by the technical skill both in the drawing and in the detail of the design in ways that I found unique and attractive. And also very similar to the techniques employed in Kamichu! - which I really loved the drawings of despite not being a moe person.

It's only that in the case of Kamichu! and this, I dislike the original designs. So thank goodness for Yabuno Kouji.

I don't see myself checking this out for too long, thoguh, because unless this does a Noein or something I'm not going to be too interested in an action show with 12-14 year old kids as the main characters considering there are so many other shows out there that seem more interesting.

...But the mech designs...!

Don't worry, GF isn't a spring anime. It doesn't have other date than 2007 yet.

Are you sure about that? I think I've read somewhere else that this anime might be airing in spring.

Confirmed as a Spring anime. Airs 4/4 at 1:50 on TV Tokyo. Damn it, Spring is so chock full of awesome stuff to watch...:p

Spring is so chock full of awesome stuff to watch ...

And that sucks. Because the winter season is so inexorably DULL.