(L) Heroic Age

[Srin Tuar]

Well, I liked it, despite my gripes.

The destroyed planet: Yeah. planets dont break like that. if you did attack a planet such as to cause that kind of destruction, it would turn into a molten ball of lava, as is common sense, and not just have one half of the planet be magically unaffected, maintain an atomosphere, and allow someone to grow scraggly trees even.

For another thing, it was sortof silly how they failed to pick up their primary objective. These "jinrui" give up easily, it seems.

Lastly, I was praying for something cooler, but it was not to be.
The kid's super power is that he turns into a gundam And he punches alot.
Ive never seen the attraction of giant human shaped suits of metal, being that in reality they
are quite possibly the least effective possible shape for a weapon...

[ccardoso]

But that little shit inside the asteroid-like weapon/corpse are the silver tribe? No because if the enemies are these then the series will finish at episode 2...
Ah another thing: was Age built by the Gold Tribe or was he simply risen up?

[Jazzrat]

Tribe of Gold are the Protoss.
Tribe of Iron are the Terrans.
Tribe of Bronze are the Zerg.

So who is Kerrigan? If there's a queen of the blade equivalent, then i m in! ^.^

Ive never seen the attraction of giant human shaped suits of metal, being that in reality they
are quite possibly the least effective possible shape for a weapon...

In reality, that's a given since it's common sense to have a lower and smaller profile. But hey, it's an anime.... the fascination of giant robots have been instilled into almost every young boy for so long, it's hardly any surprise that producers keep on using that template that can possibly be dated from The War of the Worlds (1898).

[Srin Tuar]

Originally Posted by Jazzrat

In reality, that's a given since it's common sense to have a lower and smaller profile. But hey, it's an anime.... the fascination of giant robots have been instilled into almost every young boy for so long, it's hardly any surprise that producers keep on using that template that can possibly be dated from The War of the Worlds (1898).

The warmachines are not the only unrealistic part of it- in general I'm willing to suspend disbelief for the fantasy magic portion of the show, but I find the half-destroyed planet and the gundams as reason enough to consider it not to be science fiction at all. (because there is no science involved) But it might still be an interesting show despite all that.

[Jazzrat]

Originally Posted by Srin Tuar

The warmachines are not the only unrealistic part of it- in general I'm willing to suspend disbelief for the fantasy magic portion of the show, but I find the half-destroyed planet and the gundams as reason enough to consider it not to be science fiction at all. (because there is no science involved) But it might still be an interesting show despite all that.

I agree with you there, a lot of animes are closer towards fantasy than sci-fi but still branded sci-fi for marketing. i'll stop with the off topic here, any idea on the status of licensing on this anime?

[MrProphet]

Originally Posted by ccardoso

But that little shit inside the asteroid-like weapon/corpse are the silver tribe? No because if the enemies are these then the series will finish at episode 2...
Ah another thing: was Age built by the Gold Tribe or was he simply risen up?

No, the monsters from the black sphere are the Tribe of Bronze. The captain of the Argonaut says so when the sphere appears right before the eyecatch.

And Age is a human (Tribe of Iron), who has one of the remaining members of the Tribe of Hero implanted in him by the Tribe of Gold. The monster/robot is that person, I believe.

[Kaoru Chujo]

>>Srin Tuar: I can't make a case for preserving gravity on a planet with one hemisphere removed (although I think a weapon that sliced a planet like that is conceivable), but for some of the other magic/science stuff I kept remembering Arthur C. Clarke's dictum that sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic. That goes for the repair job on Mom, the princess's projections, etc. And although I am not a big mecha/robot fan. I thought this creature (for it seemed more creature than mecha) worked. It amazed me as much as it did the humans in the show. Good sound design, I thought.

I guess one reason this all fascinated me is that I am really interested in nanotech of the "build whatever you want from the atoms up" sort, including "utility fog" to create things from thin air, and Ray Kurzweil's idea of a "discontinuity" that will arrive in 15-20 years and completely transform our idea of what's possible by a sudden jump in technology. So some of the weirdness I found acceptable in that context. And extremely entertaining. Maybe the only thing I didn't like much was the transformer-type movements of the various modules of the ship, but that was more in the execution than the concept.

And I do realize you said you liked it anyway.

[ccardoso]

Originally Posted by MrProphet

No, the monsters from the black sphere are the Tribe of Bronze. The captain of the Argonaut says so when the sphere appears right before the eyecatch.

And Age is a human (Tribe of Iron), who has one of the remaining members of the Tribe of Hero implanted in him by the Tribe of Gold. The monster/robot is that person, I believe.

Yes the freaks are part of the tribe of bronze, which should be enslaved by the tribe of silver. I was referring to the little vermin inside the asteroid: is it part of tribe of bronze too?

Anyway why did the tribe of gold leave?
Why did they implant that dinosaur inside Age?
Why do the tribe of silver fight the tribe of iron?

[Eleutheria]

Originally Posted by ccardoso

Anyway why did the tribe of gold leave?
Why did they implant that dinosaur inside Age?
Why do the tribe of silver fight the tribe of iron?

The series will probably end at episode 2 if you got the answers right away

My guesses?

1) They got bored
2) They wanted their kid to grow up strong
3) There's not enough room in this universe for two of us

[Sonhex]

I'm already confused with all the Races, but the first ep was astonishingly good...

Spoiler for first ep waffle, just ignore me:

It really feels like a natural progression for Xebec; maturing from Fafner through the Third to Heroic Age. Hopefully they won't farm out later episodes like they did with the Third, and perhaps this is one reason why I'm cautious over this one's long term chances. But the first episode was a great one indeed, and even if they can't keep up this quality it's got a very interesting premise which will probably keep me watching. I'm certainly intrigued by the enigmatic Dianeira-Hime and her protective subordinate, and the telekinetic twins and the dashing Ioraus, who no doubt will soon be at loggerheads with Age over Dianeira's affections and whatnot. Lots of juicy stuff to come there I think.

Overall though the sense of scale, powr and epic really wowed me. I think we'll be seeing universe, not planet-wide destruction, by the end of this series (take that Diebuster). While the plot here was a mite predictable, it managed to feel fresh enough and even when Eiji/Age went mecha it still kept me engaged. I especially liked the sense of volume and mass convincingly leveraged in its short run before launching into space and the massive hole it effortlessly blew through the mountain. Okay, it's not hardcore sci-fi but there was some neat ideas and accompanying details that added to the sense that someone has put a great deal of thought into this project and it shows up there on the screen. I always appreciate effects and well animated explosions and there was plenty of that and the backgrounds were really imaginative - another sign of someone thinking 'outside of the box'. Helps lend confidence that this could last the course.

Does anyone know if the 'twins' were siblings or clones?

[Shinndou]

After having rewatched this one more time I have to say some of the background art was rather impressive (like a shot with Eiji walking towards the group of human explorers and the ruined spaceship behind, beautifully drawn with lots of details).

[Jazzrat]

Tarzan boy Age is surprisingly cute, the cheeky expression when he pull out one of the tentacles from his alien friend as food is gold there. While i m not fond of the character design but the settings are pretty interesting. Hopefully someone would pick this series up so i can figure out what they are talking about early on.

Stuff that i like,
the telekinetic twin technician
- is there anyone who hate cute twin girls?

the mechs
- design are pretty simple but i like it. Although, i prefer them to be bulkier.
- i like the teleportation module and how it's only assigned to officer mech

explosions aren't pink!
- pink explosions just puts me off

Stuff that bothers me,
- Age's bio/mech hybrid, the orb joints is weird. but the rest of it is ok.
- transforming bridge, feels impractical to me
- the meteor/hive, feels cheap to me, they should have put some effort to design one instead of taking a chunk of meteor and sprinkle some colour on it.
- character design, their clothes looks like something from 80s sci fi show and uh... what's with the yellow floating thing?

[Shinndou]

Actually the twin girls reminded me of the loli twins from Negima, by looks and voices.

[lommm]

the character design for Age reminded me of Wrath from FMA. he even moved in a similar manner.



so if we have bronze, silver, gold... and Herois Age... will we also get the industrial age or tribe? and petroleum? :P



i liked the art a lot. the story progression worries me. the enemies better get stonger really fast. and i have a bad feeling that this series will be populated by tons of flashbacks.......


a tentative 7 for ep 1. i am holding off judgement on this until i watch through episode 4.

[Shinndou]

Those stupid zergs should know well that Overlord drops and Mutalisks don't work anymore!

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by Kaoru Chujo

Oooooh! That worked. I liked it from start to end. Good looking. Some interesting characters. Good future tech. Good use and extension of science-fiction memes. Maybe Tow Ubukata (who also wrote Chevalier D'Eon and the ill-fated Mardock Scramble) really does have something going on.

Maybe the humor was a little weak and out of place, but who can complain when it's Tamura Yukari, Kugimiya Rie and Arai Satomi? And Kondou Takashi (Ralph in Soukou no Strain) is great. I liked the new seiyuu (Ishikawa Yui) doing the princess. Just the right degree of out of it. She's young (17) but has done quite a big of stage and TV work.

This is the chara-des of Gin-iro no Olynssis (and so much else, I know) done right and surrounded with something better. So far. I liked the smooth motion and sudden speed of the battle movements. Very grand. I hope they didn't blow the budget on episode one.

Funny you should mention Hisashi Hirai. About the only thing keeping me from watching this is his character designs. He has this Ted McGinley like effect where everything he's designed for in the past few years has turned out to be completely horrid by the end (or in the case of Giniro No Olynssis, apparently horrible from the beginning).

Not to mention I feel he's the worst character designer originality wise in the entire industry, but he's mixed it up just a wee bit here (even though I spotted Yzak Joule in the character list on the shows homepage, the main character isn't Kira again), which for him is like a record breaking long jump forward. Anyway, Rie Kugimiya is a huge plus for me, but I still don't know about the character designs. Why it had to be him I don't know. Coin toss time. hmmm, didn't work out it would seem. I'll hold off for a bit on this one and see where the show leads for now.

[Dagger]

Originally Posted by Kaioshin_Sama

He has this Ted McGinley like effect where everything he's designed for in the past few years has turned out to be completely horrid by the end (or in the case of Giniro No Olynssis, apparently horrible from the beginning).

Say it ain't so! I'm a believer in the relativity of truth and opinions and all that, but you'd have to argue real hard to convince me that the beginning of Fafner is better than its end.

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by Magus IX

Say it ain't so! I'm a believer in the relativity of truth and opinions and all that, but you'd have to argue real hard to convince me that the beginning of Fafner is better than its end.

No we're talking like very recently. Like GSD and Giniro recent. The question I have to ask now is if Giniro was Toei's fault or if there's some sort of curse following the guy around. His designs are still fairly weak, but I also know Xebec is responsible for classics such as Nadesico. I'm taking a wait and see approach to this one since I did a coin toss and the not yet side turned up.

[Dagger]

GSD started airing in October 04, whereas Fafner started airing in July 04. I'd say that puts them in the same time period. Besides, there are many staff parallels between Fafner and this show, while all it has in common with GSD etc. is Hirai.

I won't try too hard to convince you to watch this, but I just saw the first episode and it was really really solid stuff. It has something that Code Geass and other recent mecha & mecha-containing shows (as fun & entertaining as they can be) seem to lack. 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'm tired of Hirai's designs as well, and I really hate everything that reminds me of SEED in any fashion--but Fafner nostalgia and the excellence of the other elements of Heroic Age have convinced me to give the characters' faces a pass in this case.

In an era of stuff like Idolm@ster Xenoglossia, it's almost a relief to see something like this.

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by Magus IX

GSD started airing in October 04, whereas Fafner started airing in July 04. I'd say that puts them in the same time period. Besides, there are many staff parallels between Fafner and this show, while all it has in common with GSD etc. is Hirai.

I won't try too hard to convince you to watch this, but I just saw the first episode and it was really really solid stuff. It has something that Code Geass and other recent mecha & mecha-containing shows (as fun & entertaining as they can be) seem to lack. 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'm tired of Hirai's designs as well, and I really hate everything that reminds me of SEED in any fashion--but Fafner nostalgia and the excellence of the other elements of Heroic Age have convinced me to give the characters' faces a pass in this case.

In an era of stuff like Idolm@ster Xenoglossia, it's almost a relief to see something like this.

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.

I'm a bit tired of having to settle for Sokou No Strains (Worst mecha series since Seed Destiny I've seen) and slightly less offensive, but nonetheless fairly weak looking shows like Kyoshiro To Towa Sora and Xenoglossia. (Which I intend to watch at some point, but really, I'm not kidding myself into thinking of those those two as being potential enlightening favourites, just entertainment).

Code Geass too me is a very good showing of what's missing in modern mecha series and that is character relationships that are complex and well done, and that require thought put into their progression and the actions that result from them. I think it is a step in the right direction and not as cheesy as it appears on the surface.

The problem with a lot of modern mecha series is that they are so short that they don't really have time to properly explore all of the characters and their motivations fully, your just supposed to go by the characters most basic emotions in looking and thats basically it for character development, since the logic is often missing (Code Geass at least attempts to add the logic and within the bounds of its reality it succeeds in pretty much every case I've seen). In my opinion a mecha series of less than 12-13 episodes (barring OVA's like Giant Robo with episodes exceeding 45-60 minutes) is almost certainly doomed to mediocrity because of this problem. I level this critcism mostly at Sokou No Strain though, which was a huge gut punch for a fan of mecha, and the second I saw 13 episodes was the count I knew it was doomed in my eyes. With this in mind I'm sure Kyoshiro will be a bumpy ride, but at least it seems to know its a cheesy melodrama and nothing more unlike Sokou.

So then, most people don't realize how complex and intriguing they can be when done properly like you seem to understand. It's a shame really that as you say this is the era we live in.