The Adventurer
09-14-2008, 05:13 AM
I've been working my way through this OVA series as its been released over the course of the year. I came into it relatively new to the franchise with only the first few episodes of the original series under my belt. Well the final episodes have just made their way to me and now as I stew over the series as a whole I want to make a thread about it.
Over all, I think I liked it. Which is an odd thing to say. On one hand its a pretty good military sci-fi series that doesn't get too bogged down in the usual cliches of mecha anime. For one thing all the mechas are uniform, no unique flowers ala Gundam. Which is pretty great to me, makes it feel more 'real'. Militarys are about uniformity in soldiers and equipment after all, most shows tend to miss this fact. Granted its main characters are pretty much immortal until the final episode, slaughtering faceless foes left and right no matter how out numbered. Which brings me to the other hand, the "Abnormal Survivor" pseudo-science. Just seems an unnecessarily weak idea, slipping into "super powered mecha-pilots" territory. And I wonder if its part of the original series's over arching story, because I don't know.
In a lot of ways the series feels very "retro", which I'm pretty sure was the intent. Its written like a military sci-fi series of the 80s, you know, what the original Votoms was after all. The 2D animation is simple and crisp, with good character design. Unfortunately its plagued by some rather dodgy CG. Every vehicle in the show is a CG model, and while sometimes they look pretty good (see the massive battle in Episode 11), often times they're just glaringly obvious clashing against the crisp 2D backgrounds. I don't loath CG Mecha out of hand like many do, some shows do a great job with it (see: Macross Frontier). But Pailsen Files could have done a better job.
At the end, its probably a rather hollow series, its generally entertaining if you're into the genre. But it doesn't really push any new ideas or envelopes. And Ultimately I'm just bummed that a series I've been following for a while has come to an end. After Macross Frontier wraps up in a few weeks I'm going to be animeless for the foreseeable future. As nothing is looking particularly my taste on the horizon.
I do hope it gets a R1 release at some point, I think its worth owning. Which reminds me, really need to get a hold of the Armored Trooper Votoms DVDs that are avalible. Keep putting that off.
Anyone else got any thoughts on the series they'd like to share?
Over all, I think I liked it. Which is an odd thing to say. On one hand its a pretty good military sci-fi series that doesn't get too bogged down in the usual cliches of mecha anime. For one thing all the mechas are uniform, no unique flowers ala Gundam. Which is pretty great to me, makes it feel more 'real'. Militarys are about uniformity in soldiers and equipment after all, most shows tend to miss this fact. Granted its main characters are pretty much immortal until the final episode, slaughtering faceless foes left and right no matter how out numbered. Which brings me to the other hand, the "Abnormal Survivor" pseudo-science. Just seems an unnecessarily weak idea, slipping into "super powered mecha-pilots" territory. And I wonder if its part of the original series's over arching story, because I don't know.
In a lot of ways the series feels very "retro", which I'm pretty sure was the intent. Its written like a military sci-fi series of the 80s, you know, what the original Votoms was after all. The 2D animation is simple and crisp, with good character design. Unfortunately its plagued by some rather dodgy CG. Every vehicle in the show is a CG model, and while sometimes they look pretty good (see the massive battle in Episode 11), often times they're just glaringly obvious clashing against the crisp 2D backgrounds. I don't loath CG Mecha out of hand like many do, some shows do a great job with it (see: Macross Frontier). But Pailsen Files could have done a better job.
At the end, its probably a rather hollow series, its generally entertaining if you're into the genre. But it doesn't really push any new ideas or envelopes. And Ultimately I'm just bummed that a series I've been following for a while has come to an end. After Macross Frontier wraps up in a few weeks I'm going to be animeless for the foreseeable future. As nothing is looking particularly my taste on the horizon.
I do hope it gets a R1 release at some point, I think its worth owning. Which reminds me, really need to get a hold of the Armored Trooper Votoms DVDs that are avalible. Keep putting that off.
Anyone else got any thoughts on the series they'd like to share?