Finished watching Outlaw Star

Finished watching Outlaw Star (1998, Sunrise, 24 epi.) on 09/14/2017.

Somewhere out there in outer space is a fabled treasure trove know as the Galactic Leyline. Somewhere out there in space there is also a man lost in the pleasures of alcohol and women, who carries a special firearm with magical attributes known as a Caster. That man, is none other than Gene Starwind. Whom with his crew of few and very diverse characters, are off to find the treasure of the Galactic Leyline. One of his crewmates however, isn't looking for the riches promised in the legends... but is actually in search of herself and her reason of being. That would be Melfina, an android whom Gene made a promise to help find the answers she seeks.

Man! Gene mutherf**kin' Starwind! I'll tell you what! Alright, Outlaw Star is an amazing show, almost on the same level as Cowboy Bebop, just not as classy. More spunky. Half of the show unfortunately are episodes that could be skipped, but some of those do offer a couple of plot hints and pieces that build up for the ending. Fortunately, all these episodes in the show are VERY entertaining and funny and amazing! Not one episode bored me out or necessarily made me feel like it was trying to prolong things. But the pacing is a bit wonky after the first few episodes. But most importantly I think the show knows to not take itself too seriously, maybe that's why it's very entertaining. The animation is really good, but sometimes the character's faces look a bit strange... but that could just be from the art style. The soundtrack is really cool too! Sometimes it really adds to the excitement of the scenes.

8.5/10 - Definitely a great show all around! Definitely worth a rewatch in a couple years.

Finished watching Crusher Joe

Finished watching Crusher Joe (1983, Sunrise, 2h 11m) on 04/18/2017.

Joe, Talos, Alfin and Ricky are a team of Crushers - folks who take up any job that pays them well. And their newest gig might be the strangest yet as they have to transport a royal woman in a cryogenic capsule to a different planet to be medically thawed. Easy enough, right? It would've been if midway through the trip the goods hadn't mysteriously disappeared and Joe's team blamed for the mishap. They must now uncover the mystery behind their mission and recover their cargo.

7.5/10 - This is a good movie. I think what I enjoyed the most out of it was the character designs. The space suits are really cool and vibrant, it was kind of inspiring for me. But the animation quality was just as good with lots of movement and light effects. Heck, there's even a disco place that gets destroyed by too much partying. Well, there was a whole fight that started out anyways. The dialogue and the characters are fun too, and the plot of the movie is really interesting. I just think the movie dragged on for a bit though. It's a two hour movie and I might've drowsed for a little bit. Maybe I'm just gettin old, hahahah! I bet I would've watched this over and over if I had a tape back in the 90's.

Finished watching Super Dimension Fortress Macross

Finished watching Super Dimension Fortress Macross (1982, Studio Nue, Tatsunoko, 36 epi.) on 03/14/2017.

A massive alien space ship crash lands on an island on Earth. It is then claimed by a military organization called U.N. Spacy who attempts to rebuild the ship and reverse engineer its technology. Over the years a city begins to grow around the ship. The ship is named SDF-1 Macross and in 2009 an attempt to launch it into space is made. Suddenly an alien race of humanoid giants called the Zentradi attack and the Macross automatically fires its main cannon in response, destroying the alien fleet. Still pressured to launch the ship, the Macross crew attempts the use of the Fold System to teleport themselves out of the Moon's orbit, but in doing so the radial area of the Fold's effect takes the island and its civilians along with them to the edge of the solar system, including a young pilot named Hikaru Ichijo and his new friend, Lynn Minmay who dreams of one day being a music idol. With the Fold system now damaged, the Macross crew salvage the civilians and everything they can from the island city as they try to make their way back to Earth.

8/10 - Yes, not RoboTech. Macross! And yes, wasn't that a long synopsis? Eesh! Oh, but this show is amazing! I mean the art quality is okay, with only a few episodes really going down the toilet. It's like a different studio worked on them or something. But they did have different studios working on this so... I don't know. But the story and the characters are great! Even the characters I hated I feel like I did because they were intended as such. Gaddang that Kaifun, Shao Pai Long faced, good fer nuthin', piece of!!! Sorry... Hahahah! But it's awesome! The show is really well written! It gave me quite a wide range of emotions. You'll enjoy watching the robotic animations too. Just keep in mind it's an early 80's show, though. And naturally the music is pretty good too! The plot is very dependent on Lynn Minmay's musical career so there's quite a couple of songs in the show by her, and I like most of them. The opening and ending are pretty good too. Can't wait for my next karaoke venture.

Finished watching Gunbuster

Finished watching Gunbuster (1988, Gainax, 6 OVAs) on 3/3/2016.

In the near future gigantic, insectoid, space monsters pose a threat to human kind. Planet Earth's best defense lays in the hands of an army of giant fighter robots called RX-7, piloted by trained professionals. Two of those pilots, namely Noriko and Kazumi have been specially chosen to train for an even larger, more powerful robot, the Gunbuster.

10/10 – Yup, a 10. It's that awesome! This mostly female fronted show puts its two main characters in space, piloting giant fighter robots against giant space monsters and it even tries to be scientifically accurate as possible. Which it is! By a lot! SPACE! SCIENCE! Oh and did I mention this is directed by Evangelion's Hideaki Anno? The characters are well constructed and the soundtrack is pretty awesome. The animation quality, despite experimental on rare occasions, is pretty good. I should mention the boob physics here, they're not exaggerated, they're quite nice. And yes, there is some full nudity from the ladies on occasion as well. Gotta have that hot spring bath episode, yo! But let me tell you something, this show made me aware of Time Dilation, something I should really know about. Some of you know why. This concept is crazy and I'm happy Gunbuster brought it up to me.

Finished watching Space Battleship Yamato 2199: Odyssey of the Celestial Ark

Finished watching Space Battleship Yamato 2199: Odyssey of the Celestial Ark (2014, Xebec, 111mins) on 10/23/2015.

While fleeing from an attack from an unkonwn enemy during Yamato's voyage from Iscandar back to Earth, Yamato warps into the vicinity of an unknown area of space with no stars but one single planet called Aquarius where apparently anything is possible and everyone perceives everything aesthetically differently. Yamato's recon team gets stuck on the planet and have to figure a way out of the planet's illusion.

9/10 – Yamato 2199 is the best thing to happen to the Yamato franchise and is the major reason why I'm into it. I started my Yamato journey with it and what better way to end but with this movie. Unless another one comes out in the future. This movie is interesting in which it combines some part of the White Comet arc with some sort of reference to the Aquarius planet from Final Yamato. Although it's a bit of a long movie, it's a really good one at that. I hope I get to live 184 more years.

Finished watching Yamato 2520

Finished watching Yamato 2520 (1994-1996, Studio Take Off, 3 OVAs?) on 10/23/2015.

This attempt at a sequel is set hundreds of years after the original series. I didn't quite understand it very well, but it seemed like humanity breached out into far space and some colonies settled on different planets. One planet in particular had an immense energy source that was then used to build space battleships to attack other planets' colonies... or something like that. The two first hour-long episodes I watched (apparently there were three but I only found two), start off with a history lesson on those events but I had a hard time following. Also, it was kinda boring and a little confusing. Anyways, the two sides of the war run out of resources and decide on a cease fire until the two are ready for battle. Meanwhile they settle on a planet closely watching eachother's moves. Years pass and a group of rebellious youths stumble upon Yamato, an old, buried battleship which they decide to build from scratch based on the blue prints found in the ship's data disk so they can travel to Earth and live there, far from war. They find an abandoned, automated spaceship factory and build the ship with some improvements of their own. That is as far as episode 2 got me. Unfortunately this show was cancelled due to copyright issues.

7/10 – I thought it was interesting how the artwork was reminiscence of the movie Akira. But let's get to the point. Like I said, the whole history part at the beginning was boring and confusing. A bad way to start any fiction work. The show really only picked up once the main characters were introduced, and once they started their plans to rebuild Yamato I found myself really into it. Even the second episode was really good with the new Yamato finally being complete. I wish they had made more episodes. And apparently mechanical designer Syd Mead and musician David Matthews contributed to this show. Pretty cool!

Finished watching Space Battleship Yamato Resurrection

Finished watching Space Battleship Yamato Resurrection (2009, Enagio, 1hr 15mins.) on 10/15/2015.

A couple of years after the planet Aquarius incident, Earth is now threatened by a comet-like black hole. Seeing no way around it, Earthlings decides to move to an Earth-like moon, orbiting an Earth-like planet. On their way there, their colony ships are ambushed by an alien alliance and it's up to Yamato to assure a safe migration for the people of Earth.

7.5/10 - This movie was good and I enjoyed seeing Kodai as an actual captain. It was also interesting to see a new generation of Yamato crew members in their new uniforms. The only thing that bothered me about this movie was how Yuki's role was handled. She only shows up briefly as she dies with her cargo ship in an odd animation. And although Kodai spends most of this movie believing she's alive he doesn't react much when he finally learns she's gone for sure. With Yuki's passing, comes Maho, her replacement character in the Yamato ship. Think of Sasha from Be Forever Yamato. But unlike Sasha, I actually enjoyed Maho and *SPOILER* I was upset when she passed away at the end.

Finished watching Be Forever Yamato

Finished watching Be Forever Yamato (1980, Academy Productions, Group TAC, 1hr 25mins.) on 10/3/2015.

Be Forever Yamato picks up from the first encounter with the Black Nebula Empire. Having been defeated by the Yamato last, the Empire sends to Earth a massive fortress that doubles as a bomb capable of destroying half the planet. From the fortress an army of robots and Black Nebula aliens came out to completely devastate the city they landed on. The Yamato comes to find that the only way to stop the bomb is to destroy its remote control from its place of origin.

7/10 – First thing I noticed was the dramatic art and animation quality improvement from the previous Yamato movies I've been watching. Looked great. The only thing that bothered me the most was this new character, Sasha. Daughter of Starsha and Mamoru, Sasha is half-Iscandarian and half-Japanese, apparently allowing her to grow from a baby into an adult within the span of one year. I felt like she didn’t contribute anything to the story. Like she was just a temporary replacement for Yuki's job in the ship. Also, the fact that she falls in love with Kodai was very… strange for me. Both because she's his niece and she's technically still one year old. Weird, man. Other than that, the movie was pretty decent.

Finished watching Space Battleship Yamato

Finished watching Space Battleship Yamato (1974, Academy Productions, Group TAC, 26 eps.) on 8/16/2015.

The year is 2199. Earth is faced with a major crisis. After being bombarded by the extraterrestrial Gamilas Empire with radio active meteors for years, Earth has started looking more like Mars, forcing humans to live underground. But they won’t give up without a fight as they revive battleship Yamato as a space battleship to fight against the threat and make their way to planet Iscandar where a technology was promised to cleanse planet Earth of the radiation.

6.5/10 – I had watched the 2012 remake of this series last year without knowing what I was getting into and I freakin' loved it. Then I watched the original one and now I'm sick of anime shows from the 70's. Okay, it wasn't so bad. Amazing for it's time of course. But all the animating mistakes I noticed, all the awkward dialogues that would take place here and there; Analyzer being a drunken, perverted robot; plot holes; ridiculous, out-of-the-blue deus-ex-machina events; characters with a 5 year-old logic... Again, It's not completely bad. I just couldn't deal with so much non-sense and out-dated art techniques. If I had watched it when I was 10 maybe I would’ve given this a much higher rating, just the same way I enjoyed watching Saber Rider or Dogtanian twenty years ago.

Finished watching Nadia: Secret of Blue Water

Finished watching Nadia: Secret of Blue Water (1990, Gainax, 39 epi.) on 4/10/2015.

The year is 1889, humankind is on the verge of new technology and with it new discoveries. But Gargoyle, a mysterious man has darker plans for his own technology, to restore the Atlantean empire and ultimate control the world. But not without a fight, for Nadia and her friend Jean band together with the crew of the Nautilus submarine and her master, Captain Nemo to fight back the menace. But Nadia too has her own secrets.

7.5/10 – For its time the show is pretty good. The art is good and annimation has good quality. Maybe if I had watched it years ago I would've enjoyed it better. And then there's the half-assed, filler episodes that the characters even admit to not remembering any of the events that occurred in them. To quote one of them, "it must've been a dream". More like a nightmare. There's a story that Gainax even hired a foreign studio to create those. But I skipped over them so they're not affecting my score.

Finished watching Space Dandy

Finished watching Space Dandy (2014, Bones, 26 epi.) on 12/2/2014.

Space Dandy is the dandiest guy in space! But her's not alone! Together with his smart-vacuum, IQ and Meow, a cat-like alien being, the three travel the cosmos to all sort of planets and locations in space bounty hunting for aliens of all sorts. And in the downtime they chill out at BooBies, Dandy's favorite restaurant where scantily-clad waitresses are the main attraction and entertainment.

8/10 – Interesting. Very interesting... Gosh, where should I start. Throughout the series you'll notice Dandy explore various differently themed locations with the two most constant being the Alien Registration Center and BooBies, a high-spirited, space counterpart of Hooters. Each episode's plot however seems to be self-contained giving you the impression that there isn't much of a continuity with the story. However, as you keep watching you begin to notice a subtle strange cliffhanger phenomenon at the end of episodes that leaves you puzzled as to what really happened. The show's art style tends to change a lot on occasion too, almost feeling like a new studio came in and did the episode. I'm guessing this is the show trying to be a little abstract, or as a wise man once put it - artsy-fartsy. This is perhaps to make the show visually interesting. Not that it isn't interesting already, by like, a long shot, due to its art quality already being quite excellent, but seeing those odd episodes give it a different taste which can be either welcomed or disliked... in a good, intriguing kind of way. Perhaps... a dandy kind of way? Ultimately the show can get a little dull and repetitive with its story, but just a little. The nice animation and visuals can really help keep you going. But I really would've welcomed more exposition.

Finished watching Space Pirate Captain Harlock Movie

Finished watching Space Pirate Captain Harlock Movie (2013, Toei Animation, 1h 55m) on 9/28/2014.

Mankind is at its wit's end as life outside of a devastated Earth proves to be nearly impossible. But Earth is governed by a greedy alliance known as the Gaia Coalition. Space Pirate Captain Harlock commands the fearsome Arcadia battleship as he plunders the alliance's spaceships to fight for the freedom of Earth, but can we really be saved by a man himself shrouded in mystery?

8.5/10 – This movie was, in my opinion, a great reboot of the original story. As I've mentioned many times before, it's not like Leiji's Harlock works are consistent with each other to begin with but this was a pretty cool re-imagining compared to the rest. Most of the original characters were there with some new ones as well. Some of the character's names were changed to something else and even the official translation had names different from the new ones too, which was a little weird for me but I didn't really care because I knew who these characters really were in essence. Now, let's talk about the graphics. Wow. It's an improvement on movies like Advent Children if you've ever watched it. It is so visually stunning it hurts. And of course, they have to show off how good it is with some pointless scene where this chick does an air flip in the shower for no reason whatsoever. I was so lost. But the story was awesome. Actually it was a bit dull towards the first third of the movie but then there's a plot twist that really got me! This movie is decently long and I loved the way it ended even though I saw it coming. Awesome. Awesome stuff.