(L) Heroic Age

[DangerMouse]

Originally Posted by Magus IX

In an era of stuff like Idolm@ster Xenoglossia, it's almost a relief to see something like this. It's hard to put my finger on, but it just gives off a more serious, earnest vibe to me, as if it's trying to be more like the epic sci-fi shows of yore than anything else. That wins big points in my book. The focal point of the mecha is balanced out by other design elements like the Bronze race and so forth.

I agree, there isn't enough epic scifi settings like this (judging from the first episode). I think part of it comes from the wondeful sense of scale that's absent in a lot of scifi anime recently (the space scenes and crater caused as the mech launched itself in the air for example) and the different races (not just humans and another type of humans), it just looks like the stage is much more than just one world or one area of space. There aren't enough scifi shows that make the stage "bigger" than just one planet (usually Earth) anymore.

Like you said it's just got that "air" about it that other supposed epic scifi sagas don't project. The Starcraft-esque multi-races war mentioned by others definitely keep my hopes up for some truely epic battle among the Tribes and the first episode didn't dissappoint me.

Since I can't make out the story yet I'll say I really enjoyed the high quality visuals, including some seriously breathtaking background work (the depth of vision is simply awesome and the detail of the wrecked ship when it's behind the characters as well) really drove home the sense of scale that I was impressed by. Good "big" background music too.

[Dagger]

Originally Posted by Kaioshin_Sama

So are we talking like Votoms, Macross, Megazone 23 style storycrafting here. If its even a remote attempt to return to that style I'm in.

IMO, yes. (In the post above, DangerMouse elaborates on this much better than I could.)

[Nightengale]

Personally, I'm not getting this whole Hirai's copypasta vibe. Granted, he's hardly the most imaginative of designers, and there's a lot of reccurance in his designs, but I still find his designs more vibrant and unique than those generic-looking designs or those overly cute ones like those in Tokimeki, etc. Besides, his designs really only feel glaring if one makes constant comparisons with his older shows, minus his really old shows like Dancougar.

Not to mention considering technically, Xebec's interpretation of Hirai's designs are never really that spot on with the original lineart anyway even when Hirai's the chief here. Just like how there's like 3 different faces of each character in C.E due to outsourcing, different animation directors, etc.

Rambles aside, I really liked the episode. Like said by everyone else, it creates a premise where it's promising to be an epic adventure. The settings that is shown by the rich nature of different races from the pyschic powered humans, giant Gigantic Guyver-ish beings, struggles and battles of intergalactic beings, solid background music that shows the atmosphere, vibrant background images and animation that makes it feel really rich in experience.

Like Sonhex mentioned, there's like a flow of maturity from the more character-orientated Fafner, to the post-worldy setting personified The Third and now, it looks like they're upping up the scales to magnify both of them into a character-based story in a universal setting that spans galaxies and races. Granted, we've known little beyond the little information on the few races mentioned, but it's really something. I expected something epic, but it's beyond what I thought would be.

I was kind of appaled by the clothing designs at first, since I expected something better from Hirai's often-quirky fashion taste, but now that I watched it, it really kind of fits the atmosphere of the galactic sci-fi setting they're opting for.

Anyway, a good first episode. The character interaction dynamics for characters outside Age/Fuuto/Mother haven't been really "there" yet, but considering what transpired, it's hardly an issue.Gets an 8.5 from me.

[DangerMouse]

"The settings that is shown by the rich nature of different races from the pyschic powered humans, giant Gigantic Guyver-ish beings, struggles and battles of intergalactic beings"

This is what I expect to really get into this show for, it's been a while since I've seen epic scifi with multiple races going at it in large scale style. The Starcraft-esqueness someone else wanted to compare it to if you will

I also happen to like most of Hirai's character designs (especially in Scryed), and I agree I find them nice and sharp and much better than what a lot of people seem to fawn over, many of which to me are really generic like the slice of life shows that always get praise for character design. What I dislike is that his designs tend to be used in shows where annoyingly convenient "teen romance drama soap operas" often threaten to overpower the "real plot and drama" that I'm personally watching the shows for, which is really the writer's fault, one of the many reasons I kind of liked GS/GSD's art designs but hated the shows a lot.

[Nightengale]

The Tribe of Iron's Bruised Ichigo have responded to the Tribe of Gold's plead to sub Heroic Age. :P

It's time for the admins and mods to respond to the Gold Race, and move Heroic Age to the Fansubbed section. :P

Alas, now people who can't moon-speak can finally watch and experience what looks like it will be the most epic science fiction anime in a long time.

[Quajafrie]

Hmm... The music and the visuals were pretty good, the plot seems decent but the characters are too... stereotypical. The blond hime-sama with the crappy monologues, the twins with the irritating voices, and so on... Some parts of it were pretty cheesy. But I like the main character. Anyways, I'll give it one more shot.

PS. And... Iolaus? Please, Japan, just stop the stupid use of our language!

[wrex_japan]

Originally Posted by Quajafrie

PS. And... Iolaus? Please, Japan, just stop the stupid use of our language!

Japan abuses languages from all over... :P Is there something wrong with "Iolaus" btw?

[zalem]

That's a name from a person in greek mythology. I'm guessing they are pronouncing it wrong? Have no clue how it's supposed to be pronounced. Or maybe he just doesn't like random greek mythological references.

Saw the first episode of this series....it's ok. The characters don't seem too interesting, but then it was only the first episode. I'll keep watching to see where the series goes.

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by Quajafrie

Hmm... The music and the visuals were pretty good, the plot seems decent but the characters are too... stereotypical. The blond hime-sama with the crappy monologues, the twins with the irritating voices, and so on... Some parts of it were pretty cheesy. But I like the main character. Anyways, I'll give it one more shot.

PS. And... Iolaus? Please, Japan, just stop the stupid use of our language!

Isn't one of the twins supposed to be Rie Kugumiya? Are you talking about her patented Spaz Freak(tm) that Sugita Tomakazu could never nail and I wish he would stop trying to pull off. Does she do it here? Ok its like this, There's this trend where sometimes when her characters are under adversity they will flip out and have a bit of a temper tantrum and somehow Kumumblia has this method of pulling it off (god knows how) so that I don't want to strangle the character (Tomakazu Style), but instead I laugh at them. It's something you need to see at least once. I think its in how it starts with a slow building of mumbling and then the character says the wrong thing to try and calm her down and that sets her character off, its like a perfect comic routine. It kind of reminds me of myself a bit actually, my nickname is Grumbles after all to those who know me personally or are very close friends. Nobody gets to call me that here though as you have to know the story and I'm not telling.

Anyway I guess Heroic Age gets the shot I never thought it would get. Hisashi Hirai this is the luckiest day you'll ever see for a long time.

[Aidan]

Hmm, I'll be sitting on the fence with this anime, I'm going to nitpick now and receive a huge amount of bad rep, but here I go.

I don't like the generic looking characters, hopefully their personalities will make up for that. Big negative for me is having kids doing all the work (piloting/planetary exploration/guarding the princess) yes, yes, it's an anime that is aimed at kids, so I shouldn't expect different, I know. Big daddy being the captain is another sign. Big positive are the space suits (finally), a good design especially having build in eye protection. A com-system inside the helmet would be more practical, but I guess it's easier for the viewer to see if you mount in on the arm. Rather sad that the ground commandos ran away from a half naked human boy. Very sad. You'd assume that they'd been trained not to panic when encountering strange stuff. Guess they're virgins and got embarrassed.

I'm cool with the psychic power thing, astral projection and psychokinesis is all fine for me, even taken to an extreme it's still good. But if the princess can detect faint signs of life, it shouldn't be that hard to detect a huge alien deathstar mother ship that is shadowing you. But this can be argued away by, not focusing on the right thing, bla bla bla. You see I would have made the people who have those gifts put in a surveillance squad. But hey, it's probably plot linked to her DNA or she's unable to feel bugs. Leaving out telepathy is... well having it would benefit them more (no language barrier), put I guess they have to leave in certain hurdles. So things can be made clear to the viewer by third person observations.

The capital ship type battle was ok, too bad that it was so short. Although having a God mode super mecha defeats the purpose of having capital ship vs capital ship combat and all other real mechs running around in the future, just god mode and game over. But I guess the MC will plot/forget/be unable to use his power for extended amount of time or something like that. I hope not. Bad design for the human capital ships propulsion system, they just can get over the mistake that ships don't just stop in outer space they keep going, its great to have huge engines in the back but how do you make it stop if you don't have anything similar in the front. A good design for the rest of the ship though, I can get over the variable bridge design. A teleportation system on a mech is good, but wait, if you have that kind of tech, why not incorporate it into the shuttle, a great way to escape or put it into a weapons system. Simply teleport a H-bomb inside the ant hive and it's game over. I guess Ant-defense / weapon range plot-restriction prohibit that? Or the person using it has to have some sort of gift, typical but ok. I don't like the fact that ground troops get space suits and the mech pilots don't. I guess, if you get a seal breach you die. Way to take care of your pilots, but I guess we wouldn't be able to see them scream and emote if they had the suits on. The cockpits are probably plot designed so space suits wouldn't fit anyway.

Great plus for the symbiotic relationship of the MC with the tenta-monster, which is to be expected from someone with his wisdom. If he had the knowledge he would have fixed his ship I suppose. Very likable MC btw. Good animation, music and all that.

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by Aidan

Hmm, I'll be sitting on the fence with this anime, I'm going to nitpick now and receive a huge amount of bad rep, but here I go.

I don't like the generic looking characters, hopefully their personalities will make up for that. Big negative for me is having kids doing all the work (piloting/planetary exploration/guarding the princess) yes, yes, it's an anime that is aimed at kids, so I shouldn't expect different, I know. Big daddy being the captain is another sign. Big positive are the space suits (finally), a good design especially having build in eye protection. A com-system inside the helmet would be more practical, but I guess it's easier for the viewer to see if you mount in on the arm. Rather sad that the ground commandos ran away from a half naked human boy. Very sad. You'd assume that they'd been trained not to panic when encountering strange stuff. Guess they're virgins and got embarrassed.

You are looking at Hisashi Hirai character designs, that is why they are generic. I don't blame you one iota for being turned off, I'm still debating them in my head as well.

I'm cool with the psychic power thing, astral projection and psychokinesis is all fine for me, even taken to an extreme it's still good. But if the princess can detect faint signs of life, it shouldn't be that hard to detect a huge alien deathstar mother ship that is shadowing you. But this can be argued away by, not focusing on the right thing, bla bla bla. You see I would have made the people who have those gifts put in a surveillance squad. But hey, it's probably plot linked to her DNA or she's unable to feel bugs. Leaving out telepathy is... well having it would benefit them more (no language barrier), put I guess they have to leave in certain hurdles. So things can be made clear to the viewer by third person observations.

Intriguing. I don't have an answer for you. That's up for the writers to decided why the power is so subjective. Hope they don't completely overlook it GSD style.

The capital ship type battle was ok, too bad that it was so short. Although having a God mode super mecha defeats the purpose of having capital ship vs capital ship combat and all other real mechs running around in the future, just god mode and game over. But I guess the MC will plot/forget/be unable to use his power for extended amount of time or something like that. I hope not. Bad design for the human capital ships propulsion system, they just can get over the mistake that ships don't just stop in outer space they keep going, its great to have huge engines in the back but how do you make it stop if you don't have anything similar in the front. A good design for the rest of the ship though, I can get over the variable bridge design.

There always seems to be a God mode mecha these days. Don't know what to tell you other than the model kit seems to sell faster the more overpowered the unit, but the show also can't suck and have the overpowered unit kit sell, which GSD had to take the bullet to prove to greedy sponsors.

A teleportation system on a mech is good, but wait, if you have that kind of tech, why not incorporate it into the shuttle, a great way to escape or put it into a weapons system. Simply teleport a H-bomb inside the ant hive and it's game over. I guess Ant-defense / weapon range plot-restriction prohibit that? Or the person using it has to have some sort of gift, typical but ok.

Probably some sort of shield keeping that from happening. The fold system on a ship idea proved to be kind of klunky in Macross. In that show it was shown to be a bit unpredictable where you'd end up. It's not always a good idea making long jumps over vast distances where even the best calculations based off of coordinates will often leave you quite a ways away from your intended destination due to outside factors such as planetary rotation, gravity etc.

I don't like the fact that ground troops get space suits and the mech pilots don't. I guess, if you get a seal breach you die. Way to take care of your pilots, but I guess we wouldn't be able to see them scream and emote if they had the suits on. The cockpits are probably plot designed so space suits wouldn't fit anyway.

Cockpits don't depressurize as quickly as you might think, there's often an auto sealing system like the Bird Lyme seen in Gundam too seal any breaches. Of course if a hole in the cockpit is big enough to depressurize the entire thing you are probably dead anyway as a result of the whatever put the hole there.

Great plus for the symbiotic relationship of the MC with the tenta-monster, which is to be expected from someone with his wisdom. If he had the knowledge he would have fixed his ship I suppose. Very likable MC btw. Good animation, music and all that.

Don't even wanna know about it.

[alerith]

Iolaus, Deianeira, Argonaut, and the others all have their proper spelling from their latin equivalents in the epic poems (Iolaus and Deianeira are from the tales of Hercules, and an Argonaut was one of Jason's followers).

When we find real romanizations for the others (Tayl/Mayl) we'll change them.

[Jazzrat]

A teleportation system on a mech is good, but wait, if you have that kind of tech, why not incorporate it into the shuttle, a great way to escape or put it into a weapons system. Simply teleport a H-bomb inside the ant hive and it's game over. I guess Ant-defense / weapon range plot-restriction prohibit that? Or the person using it has to have some sort of gift, typical but ok.

Argueing about science of an anime have too many loopholes in it since the technical information given are limited.

Other than the usual "it's an anime", i would guess the teleportation system have limits.

Notice all the mechs and escort ship flew down instead of teleport? (range restriction? or maybe exact coordinates are required?)

During the attack, Iolaus request the princess to board an escape capsule so he can escort her back (so there's a limit of mass/size that teleportation device have)

As for teleporting bombs inside the enemy. well... what would happen if you teleport into something solid? Not to mention, you are trying to teleport into a moving ship instead of a static location.

Just too many impractical stuff in anime that it's best to not think too deep into the technical side of things and just enjoy the actions. If you like those that are more geared towards realism though, i recommend Seikai no Senki series if you havent watch it. One of the best sci-fi anime that's highly detailed in the technical department.

[Aidan]

Originally Posted by Kaioshin_Sama

Probably some sort of shield keeping that from happening. The fold system on a ship idea proved to be kind of klunky in Macross. In that show it was shown to be a bit unpredictable where you'd end up. It's not always a good idea making long jumps over vast distances where even the best calculations based off of coordinates will often leave you quite a ways away from your intended destination due to outside factors such as planetary rotation, gravity etc.

The teleportaion systems seem to work just fine on Lolaus's mech + 2 grunt mechs. I'm not talking about jumping large capital ships, just jumping small ships and bombs. It doesn't matter if they miss with bombs, the missile screen they put up as a defense also missed a lot. As for small ships? Do you wonder why Lolaus jumped to the princess's ship and they ask her to go into an escape pod. He was going to jump out of their with the princess in a escape pod. Leaving the rest to die btw. A great move by the shows creators, very attentive and professional. But it also shows that they are just creating situations that seems dangerous, which looks unnatural to me. They could have easily given the princess ship such an device. But than she wouldn't be in danger. Look it just gets me when people fail to sell me an illusion. If they're going to fool me fool me good, I'm perfectly ok with that, just don't fail. I'll shut up about it now.

Originally Posted by Kaioshin_Sama

Cockpits don't depressurize as quickly as you might think, there's often an auto sealing system like the Bird Lyme seen in Gundam too seal any breaches. Of course if a hole in the cockpit is big enough to depressurize the entire thing you are probably dead anyway as a result of the whatever put the hole there.

Hey, in Gundam they at least ware a space suit when in space.

Yes, yes, watched Seikai no Senki, loved all of them.

[guenthar]

Eiji is a ripoff of Hakuoro from Utawarerumono and his giant mecha like form looks very much like Hakuoros' form.

[Xellos-_^]

watch the first ep last night. Didn't think i would like this but was curiosite. Looks good so far. Hope it continues on. Was expecting a pink hair princess through.

[Shiroth]

Originally Posted by Xellos-_^

Was expecting a pink hair princess through.

Wow, i wonder why that is... :3

I watched the first episode before, and liked what i seen. Character designs are love (for good reasons), and i love the epic music. I just hope this one keeps on delivering the epic!

[Dagger]

Oh frigging christ. Thanks a bunch for the Utaware spoiler, guenthar.

[zka]

For me its a crossover between utawaretumono and gundam seed and the first ep was excellent. Now i cant wait for the next episode :z

Anyhow beside code geass, this one is a must watch this year (at least for a sci-fi fan ;D)

[Lelouch]

*twiddles thumbs* I'm still waiting for dl.
You guys are so cruel teasing me with thos nice tid bits
Oh it's not on purpose ? Somehow i dont believe that
Don't mind me i'm just talking to myself...I'm not crazy
>.>
<.<