Category: anime a to z

Anime A to Z – Iteration III Recap

Posted on by NieA_78

Alas, round three of “Anime A to Z” has come to an end. I hope you enjoyed this feature! Time will tell if I go for a fourth round someday. Letters like “Q” and “X” make it really difficult.

If you missed any of the letters, links to each entry are below! (Or just select the “Anime A to Z” category in the sidebar.)

On a side note, posting frequency won’t be quite as often now that this series has ended, so while there won’t be something every weekday for the time being, there will still be a few posts each week related to my various fandoms.

[ Anime A to Z ] ~Z~ ZERO System

Posted on by NieA_78

Bringing Anime A to Z to a close this time is the dangerous ZERO System from Gundam Wing. As if the Gundam pilots didn’t have tunnel vision already, this Gundam interface brings it to the extreme.

The ZERO System removes all human components from the battle strategy, directly connecting to the pilot’s brain and feeding all of the information needed to attain complete and total victory, even showing them all future outcomes of the battle in order to choose the best one. When even Heero Yuy initially declares that it is too dangerous to use in actual battle, you know that it must be dangerous technology. If the pilot does not have the mental strength to handle the information overload, the ZERO System can even be fatal to the pilot.

[ Anime A to Z ] ~Y~ Yashiro Momoka

Posted on by NieA_78

“Cute things are justice!” That’s Momoka’s philosophy. Momoka joins the Build Divers team early on, bringing her enthusiasm, cheer, and lots of pink to the GBN.

In fact, one of the main reasons I got into Gundam Build Divers was because a good friend of mine told me there was a character in it that I could have had created, that character being Momoka. Momoka certainly fits when it comes to her style and personality for the kind of things I like in a character; it’s like Bandai was reading my thoughts when they came up with her for the series. She even likes penguins!

Momoka plans her custom Gunpla

So while Momoka may be my spirit Build Diver, the series she’s from is also great fun, so it was win-win. Even a Gundam series can benefit from some cute vibes, and Momoka has no shortage of them to bring to the table.

[ Anime A to Z ] ~X~ Xenosaga The Animation

Posted on by NieA_78
play the game trilogy instead…

If I’m being completely honest, the only reason Xenosaga The Animation makes the list is because I needed something that started with the letter “X”, and I’ve already used the best ones I could think of for the letter (from what I’ve seen so far) the previous times I did this list.

Xenosaga The Animation is a decent adaptation of the first game in the series, with a few plot points from the second and third installments mixed in for good measure. The major downfall of the series is that it’s only twelve episodes, which is not even close to enough time to tell the story from the original video game properly, so the narrative is rushed and has no explanations. This animated adaptation is also disappointingly generic sci-fi when compared to the source. It lacks any of the memorable music from the game, as a completely new (and sadly, also generic) score by a different composer was done for the series.

Yet somehow, despite how generic most of Xenosaga The Animation is, it did get a really pretty ending theme song, and in North America anyway, it’s a way to hear the original Japanese character voices from the game. (The English dub didn’t get that continuity, unfortunately, as the anime dub cast is completely different from the game dub cast.)

So while I unfortunately can’t really recommend this series at all, I include it in my anime list only because the video game series it is derived from is one of the best I’ve ever played, and I recommend that as the best way to experience Xenosaga.