Last Week in Space and Mechs: 8/13/18

I am just going to say it now, I am not sure if I will get one of these posted next week. Starting tomorrow, I am going to be driving with my dad from the Pacific Northwest to the Midwest, so I’ll only have evenings to write and watch things. That might not even happen, because I might be too exhausted to write or exist by the trip. I will have a tag post scheduled for next Monday to fill a spot in my usual line up of posts encase I don’t do anything. That is a definite. Just wanted to let you guys know all of this. Yay college.

Gundam Build Divers – Episode 18

Quality: Good

Can I just say how strange it is to see a character wearing a bikini with a ninja mask on at the same time? Part of this episode was a beach episode, so Ayame donned a purple bikini with her ninja mask covering the lower half of her face. I guess this would fit the classic meme of “when you are going to a beach party at 6 but have to assassinate people at 7” sort of. Though, a bikini probably isn’t the choice clothing for assassins because you can’t hide a lot of blades in it. Ok, I need to get my mind out of the gutter because I’m thinking about this too much. I don’t know why people would dress for the beach online anyway, but then I’ve heard people doing stranger things in mmo’s and this anime needed to fill a beach episode somehow. Yeah, not complaining. I still like Ayame quite a bit.

The most important part of this match was Riku vs Tigerwolf. Tigerwolf and his friends have been watching Riku’s progress throughout the show. The very fact that Riku is a rookie and made it in the top ten of a challenge that is apparently incredibly hard meant that Tigerwolf wanted to challenge him immediately. So there we are, Tigerwolf challenged Riku to a match and they fought. Modified Ultron Gundam vs Gundam SEED/00 combo Gundam. It was a lot of good spectacle and Riku achieved his own super move, though his mech can’t handle it yet. Tigerwolf won because he’s still childish. Still, the plot is coming. There is a Diver’s tournament in the works and the head of the Gundam server is watching our resident bug move around. In my mind, I know where this is going but I might be completely wrong. What if the series pulled off a twist? GASP.

Space Battleship Yamato 2202 – NO EPISODE THIS WEEK?

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Apparently funimation/crunchyroll caught up with Japan, so who knows how long we must wait? Hopefully not too long.

Quality: Solid Classic

Just like last time, we in the land of slow character development but fast development toward other opportunities. While there are some interesting plot points revolving around Chirico and the Prototype and the political intrigue that has slowly been leaked into the show. Each episode can be summed up in a sentence or two. Episode 7 revolved around Chirico and the gang robbing the expensive Jijirium material from the police who have been using for the mineral for the prototype. A motorcycle gang gets involved because they threatened Cocona with possible gang rape and she tells them about thieving operation to make them stop. Episode 8 involves selling the Jijirium back to the police and ended up with a lot of “I am not left handed” moments and most of the gang taking the gold while Chirico loses a Cotom fight against the prototype he fell in love with. Episode 9 is the gang dropping most of the money they obtained to get Chirico back. The whole exercise feels kind of pointless in some ways. Believe me, there are more details in each of these episodes beyond these quick sentence summaries. There are good character moments, awesome Scope Dog battles that involve tanks, helicopters, and large trucks causing damage, killing bad people in awesome ways, and a lot of other things. The show is going somewhere, just taking some time.

Two solid plot lines that appeared are people that interrogated Chirico in episode 1 are in the sneaking around the city of Uoodo too and Chirico becoming friends with Gortho (the older man), Vanila (the black mercenary, and Cocona (the girl who wouldn’t leave). Our Chirico’s cold, lone heart is slowly warming up. He’s a very 80’s anime hero like Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star who is quiet on the outside but a big heart of kindness on the inside. It’s also nice seeing the other three characters doing more then taking the back seat. Everything is doing their part planning against the police, piloting helicopters, driving vehicles, shooting rocket launchers, and everything while scheming for gold. This is a fun crew and I want to see them do more things in the future. Can’t wait to see how all of this progress in the future. I don’t think Chirico and group will stay in Uoodo forever. Surely there must be more then this lousy city.

Planet With – Episode 6

Quality: Great

Once again, Planet With shows off how dynamic, honest, and earnest the show is. I am constantly surprised by how much story elements Planet With compresses into episodes and narrative length, yet also never feels rushed or out of sorts. Only shows that are the best written and the best directed could constantly pull this off. Encase you were wondering, this episode was simple in plot elements. Our protagonist, Souya defeated the wise, old man in their jousting match handily, the evil, bad boss (who turned into a dragon) fought a hard battle against the sealing branch of Nebula, and then Souya with our nice maid, Ginko, alongside him defeated the dragon. Each one of these battles could have taken up an episode by themselves and that last one should have been a final battle that ended Planet With on a more complete note. Yet so many character moments are thrown into the mix too. It’s good stuff. The 3D mechs aren’t the best

There are some weaknesses though. By throwing so many awesome battles and focusing on our main protagonist, the side characters aren’t as developed as they could be. Yes, those characters are fully redeemable, have a defined personality, and everything, but by this episode they are reduced to standing, watching, and commenting on the fights. Considering how awesome and powerful each of them are, I would like to see a little more of them doing something productive to the plot. We barely know anything about our villain too. Sure he comes from another planet and is a bad boss despite having all the money, but that doesn’t qualify him enough to be a solid anime villain. Maybe a side villain. Maybe that was the point? We still have six episodes left, so anything could happen still. I’m excited to see where everything goes next time. This show is so unpredictable in good ways.

See you all with this next week hopefully