TurnA Gundam (naked)

I just finished Gundam Unicorn (dang it, so was it really Char still somehow, or was he just possessed or something ARRRGGHH!?!), and now I am watching TurnA Gundam.  It's giving me a bit of mental whiplash, I must say.  The best comparison I can make is that, of all the shows I've watched, it reminds me most of Nadia and the Secret of Blue Water.  I think it's that weird mix of kid show with some mature themes and coming-of-age crap and  old school animation and character designs.

TurnA took place during what I think of as Tomino's Naked Period, when all of his shows had tons of nudity out of nowhere (OP and ET, in the show itself).  It's ridiculous, actually.  Maybe it's supposed to show that they are really innocent / children and whatnot, but it's just so constant and out of nowhere that I just can't help but find it funny.  It may be fueled by residual sniggering about "Full Frontal" from Gundam Unicorn. (I have been watching Tomino and Gundam for a long time, so I am used to bizarre character names in theory but apparently not totally immune.)

Maybe it's just that I'm really mentally 8, but I find myself giggling and looking away from the screen and begging the characters to just put something on (which is a bad idea when you're watching subtitled-only anime because you miss plot due to excessive[ly hilarious and seemingly pointless] nekkidness).

I'm about to watch the next episode, so maybe it will be a vital plot point that he is naked when he climbs into the cockpit of the Gundam, but right now, I'm pretty much just shaking my head and snorting with laughter.

Quotes October 2012, part 2

est em on her work: "I like the drama there, so I do relationships between men. It doesn’t matter if it’s love or not. That closeness, a closeness that’s not there with women, well, I guess it’s a kind of human relationship. And I really love that part."

Connie on Dawn of the Arcana: "He’s strangely calm. Such calmness, outside of shoujo manga, would make one suspect that Loki is merely biding his time until he murders Caesar." [I am not convinced that is not what he is doing.]

Jessi Silver on Gankutsuou: "Even The Count plays this game, and in fact he seems to play it with the sort of finesse that the others can only dream about. He toes a very thin line between charming the pants off of his acquaintances and scaring the life out of them, his coolly-calculated moves hiding behind a fine-but-convincing layer of sincerity."

Katherine Dacey on Library Wars 8: "Volume eight has almost made me into a convert, as it strikes a better balance between Ray Bradburian intrigue and shojo romance, introducing a subplot with a radical anti-censorship group and a possible court martial for Kasahara. What prevents it from being a slam dunk is Kasahara’s impenetrable cluelessness . . . "

Kristie on A Drunken Dream: "The age group of the manga magazines Hagio’s comics originally appeared in is interesting not because her stories deal with suicide, parental abuse, and intense self loathing. The shock isn’t in the plot of her comics, the shock is in how terribly effective these comics are. Because here is something that sometimes people forget: Suicide, parental abuse, and intense self loathing are not “rated R” themes. CONTENT isn’t the ideas found in a piece, it is the execution of the ideas found in a piece and Moto Hagio’s execution is as precise as a surgeon."

Paul Thomas Chapman on Char's Counterattack: "Now I’m older and wiser and quite a bit more cynical, and my experience with Gundam isn’t limited to a single bootleg tape borrowed from an equally enthusiastic friend. And I can still say that, despite years of experience, Char’s Counterattack still doesn’t make a great deal of sense, but damn does it still look cool."

An entertaining review

Hooray for more Gundam 00!  Here's an excerpt from a review that was really fun to read.  (Thanks, Carl!)

"Gundam 00 doesn't rectify its shortcomings in this, the final leg of its first season, so much as it steamrolls them with brute narrative force. It's still populated by a platoon of unlikeable ciphers, its emotional engagement still never engages, and its dialogue continues to stink like a wet skunk ("I am Gundam!"). And yet, by the time this set comes crashing to a close, all of that is about as relevant as cavalry in a nuclear war."

The next sentence is even funnier.  I love reading hilarious, passionate reviews.  Be sure to check it out, especially if you don't like Gundam. 

Do you think part of a reviewer's job is to make the review itself entertaining?