third week in the chelsea

A date with Destiny

2009-07-29T15:47:00.000-07:00

Sup,

First aired in 2005, 'Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: Destiny' is the follow on series to the hugely popular, and truly awesome, 'Gundam: Seed'. It's not very good. It's what Joey was to Friends.

Now, before I go and completely trash this series I want to point out that I've sat through this 50 episode horror three times. The first time was back when it was released in 2004 when the fan subbed versions started hitting the internet. Back in 2004 I was hammered all the time but I seem to remember the series being pretty good, but maybe this was because I was hammered every day. My second outing with Destiny came a few years later when I bought a cheep fan subbed version from ebay. I was sober throughout. It wasn't quite what I remembered. At all. It was, in fact quite bad. And since then I've never really wanted to return to it.
Since my second date with Destiny my Gundam collection has grown considerably. It's always annoyed that I never got round to buying myself an official copy of Destiny, so the other week I spent a stupid amount of money on the Destiny box sets, parts one and two. This is the first time I've ever regretted buying something before I've left the shop. But never the less, my collection is nearing completion. All that remains is Igloo 2 and Gundam00 when it hits English shores.

In a previous post I remarked about the state of the FMA box sets and how freaking awesome they are and how Funimation went all out to make sure your money was well spent. Unfortunately I can't say the same for Beez Entertainment and the Destiny box sets.

Both boxes are pretty hefty things. Each contain five dvd's with five episodes each. Now, I've never had a box set quite like these. Every other box set I've ever had has either been a type of slip case that either covers the dvd case, or leaves the spine of the box showing, or it's been a box that unfolds on itself. The Destiny dvd box is like a little house. It's a box with a door, and a pretty feeble door at that. And the box is far too big for the dvd's, there's room for a book or episode guide or something but no. Nothing, just wasted space.
When I first saw the box in the shop a 'flyer' type thing in the shrink wrap says:

DVD Box Content -

5 DVD's with slipcases
Detailed Characters and Mecha Files
Textless opening and ending
Beez Trailers

Got the dvd's, don't know what the slipcases are. I originally figured that the 'detailed character and mecha files' would be a book / brochure job, hence why the box was so big. Nope, they are just extras on the dvds. And I've looked at all these 'files' and believe me, they are not detailed. And plus, the boxes are so big they look out of place on the shelf.

But anyways, on to the series itself. I've been making notes throughout this third viewing. Here we go...

Set in C.E.73, Destiny picks up two years after the events of Gundam Seed. Episode one begins during the battle for Orb from 'Seed'. The Freedom Gundam is taking a part in this battle. We see the Freedom fire a shot which causes an explosion on a nearby hillside. On the hill, Shinn Asuka is fleeing the fight with his family. Stopping to fetch his sisters mobile phone, Shinn gets blown down the hill. His family are caught in the blast and die. He joins the military and becomes the pilot of the Impulse Gundam.

Two years later, Athrun, going under a stupid alias Alex Dino, and Cagalli as the representative of Orb are visiting Armoury One to meet with the Zaft forces chairman Durindal. Three 'extended', the Destiny equivalent of a cyber newtype, infiltrate the armoury and steel Zaft's three new Gundam units, the Giah, Chaos, and Abyss. Shinn jumps into the Impulse and bam, thats episode one in a nut shell. A promising first episode.
I don't really know where to start with this because there are so many points I want to cover but I guess I'll start with the mecha designs. The mecha in Destiny look really poor. Now, you can disagree with me if you want, but the Impulse and Destiny Gundam's hurts my eyes when I look at them. I mean, Impulse looks like a clown with all its changing colours, and Destiny looks like a really colourful bird. They just look silly. The Legend is the Providence, Strike-freedom is the Freedom with a bit of gold paint here and there. As for Athrun's mobile suit, the Infinite Justice, well they gave up designing that when they drew up the Aegis in Gundam Seed. I'm being quite serious, if you look at all Athrun's mobile suits from the start of Seed, them being the Aegis, Justice, Savior and finally the infinite Justice, they all look pretty much the same. And don't even get me started on the pink Zaku... Eugh...

MAQH has a full list of the Destiny mecha designs.

The only decent designs in the whole show are the suits that made cameo appearances from the original U.C. series, the Zaku, Gouf, and the Dom. In fact, the Gouf Ignited was probably the best design in the entire of the show. I really liked that suit.

The Gouf Ignited

One of the main things that annoyed me in this series is the amount of flashbacks used. Now, I'm more than happy for a flashback to be used if it's needed but holy hell, I've never seen so many flashbacks used in one series. I mean, in the episode where Stella dies I remember there being two flashbacks to things that had happened in that episode. I must of seen Cagalli's father burn to death at least ten times, and that happened in Seed, not Destiny. Really, I'm not stupid, and it's insulting to the viewer to have so many flashbacks. The whole show could easily have been cut by at least five episodes if they'd taken out all the pointless flashbacks.

And while I'm on about cutting down a few episodes, lets talk about stock footage. Stock footage, in my book, is footage that is used over and over to save time on animation and production. For example say, in Scooby Doo when the gang is always running down that same hallway every episode. Well, Destiny has stock footage, and they really over used it. For most of the show I felt like I was watching the same battle over and over, and I was more than sick of seeing the Impulse's launching sequence. Like every time the bloody thing launched. Core splendor, chest piece, leg piece... every time. In say, Victory Gundam, or Double Zeta, the transforming units let you sit through the same sequence a few times, but then they'd stop showing it to you, because you know what its going to do. And if they did need to show it you again, they'd never use the same stock footage.

And when did all the characters turn into whimps? At the end of Seed, Cagalli was kicking some serious ass in the Rouge. What, just because she's the representative of a nation she has to turn into a whimp? In nearly every scene she appeared in she was either being pushed around or she was crying. Captain Ramius seemed to be lacking her spine and the whole story between her and Mu just got stupid. MU DIED OK!! THE MAN DIED IN AN EXPLODING STRIKE GUNDAM!! (yeah, ok they went back and fixed the ending so it appears he survived, but instead of doing that, they should of just gotten some better writers for Destiny).

Cagalli about to whimp out

I don't know, this series has so much wrong with it. The dubbing in places is just awful and Arthur's stereotypical British accent pissed me right off. Every other episode seems to be a recap of something that happened the episode before, the characters never really seem to 'get going' and two of my favorite characters from Seed are barely even mentioned. What happened to you Yzak? Where were you Dearka? I constantly felt like the series was trying to pad itself out. Just putting on a fancy light show to detract from the fact that this series was quickly made to please the fans. It was like, all the things that were awesome in Seed, got way too over done in Destiny and because of that it made the show fall flat on its ass. Of course, the fact that the show had a shit story and it was constantly borrowing the good bits from other Gundam series (E.g. Shinn and Stella is for Destiny what Kamille and Four is to Zeta) didn't help it either. For me the plot was constantly darting all over the place, and I never really got a feel for who the main protagonist was ment to be. It's all over the place.

@SoulBroRyu, of MAHQ.net has this to say on Destiny:

"Gundam SEED Destiny is to Gundam SEED as Tranformers: Revenge of the Fallen is to Transformers. So much potential. So much disappointment."

To be honest, Destiny has a promising start but if you're a Gundam hardcore then no, watch it once then just leave it be. Put it to one side and walk away.

@BenGP02

A franchise milked like a cow

2009-07-27T09:31:00.000-07:00

Sup,

It's been over a decade since Ash Ketchum and Pikachu left Pallet town on his quest to become a Pokemon Master. Did Team Rocket ever really blast off? Did Brock ever open his eyes? Did Pikachu ever evolve? And most importantly, did he manage to catch 'em all??

Um... apparently not.

The TWELFTH feature film in the long running franchise, 'Arceus: To The Conquering of Space and Time', managed to rack up 2,384,198 pre-sold tickets before its release on July 18th, earning itself a place int eh Guinness book of records. That's 2.3 MILLION pre-orders for a Pokemon film.

Nintendo must be laughing all the way to the bank...

I remember seeing the original series and the first couple of films, but after that Pokemon, for me, just slipped away and died in a corner. I played Pokemon fire red on the Gameboy and I enjoyed it, but I honestly can't believe that Pokemon is still alive and kicking.

Nothing like milking a franchise.

@BenGP02

U.C. 0096 - The Year of the Unicorn

2009-07-26T15:53:00.000-07:00

Sup,

When a movie adaptation of the Gundam Unicorn novels was announced earlier this year I nearly wet myself with excitement. Seriously. The 'light novel' series that has never seen western shores except through fans translations is finally making its way over here in winter of this year as a part of the 30th anniversary celebrations.

I don't know a great deal about Unicorn, other than it is set in Universal Century 0096, three years after the movie 'Char's Counterattack'.

A full list if the mobile suits and characters featured in the movie can be found here.

An English website dedicated to the Unicorn world can be found here. With summaries on the novels and character bio's, this website is pretty cool. It is, however, still in development.

As well as a few magazine scans of the mobile suits and the characters there is not much else out there except for these three little films. The first two are Japanese advertisements for the novels, but they show a small amount of animation, which I assume is from the movie. The third of these films is a 'Unicorn Preview' which shows stills that recap the history of the Universal Century from 0079 through to 0093. The last minute of this preview is full on Gundam Unicorn animation. Fuck me does it looks amazing. This baby is planned for a worldwide release too. I can not wait.

Advert #1

Advert #2

U.C. History / Unicorn Preview

@BenGP02

Madhouse and Marvel is looking promising

2009-07-26T09:21:00.000-07:00

Sup,

A while ago the animenewnetwork announced that comics giant Marvel were to be teaming up with anime production company Madhouse to create a Marvel anime based on some of their most popular characters. It was announced that the two would be appearing at the San Diego Comic-con festival that is taking place this week.

Over the years, Marvel have been responsible for much loved characters such as the X-Men, Iron Man, and Spiderman, while Madhouse studios have created mastrerpieces like Trigun, Card Captor Sakura and Final Fantasy 7: Last Order.

Art work that was released prior to the festival looked interesting. The two pieces both showed the Iron Man.
With the festival now all but over, two trailers have been released. The first showing the Wolverine, and the second showing the Iron Man.

Wolverine Teaser

Wolverine looks... um... different. I'm not gonna jump on the band wagon and say 'WTF MAN?! WOLVERINE WITH LONG HAIR? WOLVERINE FIGHTING SOME CRAZY AS FUCK DEMON MADE FROM BATS??' because I like to give things a chance. Logan has taken on board a whole new look, and while this is unlike any version of Wolverine we've ever seen before, I have a feeling that this is going to be really interesting.

Iron Man Teaser

Iron Man on the other hand looks crazy good. Nothing short of an amazing trailer. The animation style reminds me of Batman: Gotham Knight, which is no surprise as Madhouse produced both the Killer Croc and Deadshot sections of the mini-series. The villan looking guy with the captain's hat and the eye patch reminds me of Dilandau from Escaflowne.

Personally, from a first glance I think that Iron Man looks slightly better than Wolverine but hell, they both look good. Gonna be keeping an eye on these as the months go on. In any case, it looks far better than the Halo anime.

The first season of the Marvel anime will premier on Japanese TV next spring.

@BenGP02

MS Gundam: Battlefield Report 0081

2009-07-19T09:25:00.001-07:00

Sup,

Got a trailer here showing the soon to be released PS3 exclusive title 'Mobile Suit Gundam: Battlefield Record, U.C. 0081'. Announced ages ago, this title was originally thought to be another series and left fans dissapointed when it was announced as a PS3 exclusive, although I think that the announcement of the animated Gundam: Unicorn movie soon got rid of the disappointment. As with the statue in Obadia, Battlefield Record is to commemorate 30 years of the Gundam franchise.

Taking place two years after U.C. 0079 and the 'One Year War' of the original series, Battlefield Record will, as far as I can tell, see the Earth Federation squadron 'Phantom Sweep' facing off against the Zeon remnant force 'Invisible Knights'. Both sides will have a full cast of characters. Phantom Sweep is headed by commander Hughes Courand, who will also undoubtedly be out Gundam pilot, while the Invisible Knights have Erik Blanke, who I can see being an Anaval Gato type character from 0083.
I can tell that I'm going to like this game already as it will have a story that will follow on from the U.C. series and connect the gap between 0080 and 0083, in the same way that 'The Force Unleashed' bridged the gap between the old and new Star Wars sagas.

The main mobile suit for 0081 will be the RX-78-7, an upgraded version of the original RX-78-2 from the famed 0079. The design for the RX-78-7 is based on the RX-78-7 7th Gundam from MS-Variations original mech design series by mech artist Kunio Okawara.

The animation cut scenes seem to blend seamlessly with the CG game play and reminds me very much of the series MS: Gundam - The 8th MS Team, which was set during the one year war. Even though I don't yet own a PS3, this game looks amazing. As a Gundam fan I can't wait both for the story line, and to actually play it, although a western release date has yet to be announced.

Even if your not a Gundam fan, I think you'll agree that it looks pretty amazing. Heres the trailer.

@BenGP02

We’re Autobots. We’re from Cybertron, a planet far from Earth.

2009-07-12T15:17:00.000-07:00

Sup,

I was born in the 80’s and I remember Transformers being HUGE. I owned some of the toys and a few of the story tapes and books. I vaguely remember watching a few of the shows and enjoying them, but I never became one of the diehard fans. The Transformers never earned that place in my heart.

In 2007 I went to see Michael Bay’s live action Transformers movie and, I’ll be honest, I thought it was a good film. Some good CG and a pretty decent storyline made it a pretty enjoyable few hours. I remember the Transformers hardcore getting all pissed about the mecha designs and ranting that the Transformers didn’t get enough screen time. At the time I really didn’t get it, couldn’t they just accept that the franchise had been updated for the modern world?

Well a few months ago I was at the local supermarket, scanning the DVDs looking for a bargain. What should I find but the original first Transformers series in full. Five English pounds for 19 episodes of stupid one liners and horrendously bad one on one fight scenes? Yes please.

It was at this point I was suddenly made aware that in all my years of being a mecha anime fan, even though I own all the Gundam series and after sitting through episode after episode of Lynn Minmay singing that god awful song in Macross, I had never seen the original, generation 1, Transformers series.

I felt kinda bad. How could I call myself a mecha anime veteran if I hadn’t even seen Transformers? So after handing over my money I became the proud owner of Transformers G1.

Without comparing to the 2007 movie, here is what I think. For the 1980’s, the story was, and still is fantastic. A war between robots on a robotic planet that sees both good and bad robots travel to Earth, then after four thousand years get revived to carry on the fight whilst trying to find away to travel back to the homeland. It’s pretty good, and the fact that the series still comes across in 2009 as well as it did 1984 is quite a feat. I know that there have been re-incarnations of the Transformers in recent years, Armada and the quite terrifying looking Transformers Animated being two of them, but I honestly believe that the original series is far better, and it would be able to hold its own with the kids in this day and age.

Now I think I know what the hardcore fans meant. The live action movie was missing something, and that something was everything that the Transformers stood for. The series has action, comedy, suspense and an exceptionally good story. Michael Bay gave the Transformers a right royal anal raping. Seriously, everything that makes the Transformers what they are is forgotten and is instead replaced by some worthless collage humor, a terrible script and pretty bad acting.

Transformers has taken the path of Gundam. Amazing anime, horrendous live action film. Although I still think that Transformers live action is an enjoyable couple of hours, and way better than the disaster that was Mobile Suit: G-Savior, the original series completely rips it to shreds.

If you’ve never seen the original then I recommend you go and watch it. It’s old but god dam is it awesome.

Follow me on twitter @BenGP02

SHHHHH... Mr Penny is getting annoyed...

2009-07-11T06:01:00.000-07:00

Sup,

This is a picture of The National Gallery in London. A stunning building and awesome feat of architectural engineering. This beautiful building was suggested by John Nash in the early 1800's. In 1831 a commission was put to architect William Wilkins, and the building was completed in 1838.

Wilkins originally intended the building to be a 'Temple of the Arts, nurturing contemporary art through historical example'. Over the years it has become the home to mind-blowing masterpieces. The work of such geniuses as Monet, Van Gogh, Michelangelo, Seurat, Constable and da Vinci, among many many more, can all be found here as 'resident' works, with hundreds more on loan from other galleries. The National Gallery is a national treasure. A truly wonderful, eye opening place.

Unfortunately, in 2009, the gallery is facing a BIG problem.

DUN DUN DUHHHHHHHH.......

In front of the gallery, situated at the base of it's steps, is Trafalgar Square. Laid out by Charles Barry in the early 1840's just after the compleation of the gallery. The square is home to one Nelson's Column, four fountains, four 'car sized' lions, hundreds of artists, musicians, and performers, thousands of tourists and millions of pigeons. A beautiful place that has been enjoyed by the public for over one thousand years. Recently however, this public place has become the home to one or two public events.

Welcoming home England's 'World Cup winning' rugby team
VE day ceremonies
New Years celebrations
Political rallies
Anti-war and peace demonstrations

Unfortunately, some people don't seem to like the increasing number of events. I say 'some people', just one man really.

Enter Mr Nicholas Penny, art historian and Director of the National Gallery. He is also a man who is so concerned by the "bloody awful" state of London's famous square that he would rather have the roads re-opened and the traffic return.

In a 2008 interview with The Telegraph titled "We must take risks" he is called "that rare thing - a legendary scholar and supremely gifted curator". I'm not saying that he isn't, I'm sure he knows more about art than I could ever hope to know.

In the same interview when asked by journalist Richard Dorment what is was that attracted him to this position, he says "In this office, I am at the heart of things. When I try to work here at the weekend, there is continual noise from Trafalgar Square: I really feel as if I am in the centre of a great city."

He has this week been ranting to The Times about the noise coming from the events held in the square.

Hypocrite.

In the corners of Trafalgar Square are four plinths. Atop of three of them are statues, while the fourth has been empty since 1841 due to insufficient funds for a fourth statue.

Mr Penny's rant comes in the wake of an installation by visual artist and sculpture Anthony Gormley, which puts plinth number four to good use. Each hour, a person stands on top of the plinth to become a 'living sculpture'. A genius idea. In contrast to the other three statues, the plinth in the north west corner has become a constantly changing picture. Not only is this piece of art contrasting to the statues, but also to the calm and quiet in the gallery.#

Untill the 14th October you can view a live stream of the instalation here.

Mr. Penny's rant is not directly aimed at the installation itself, but rather at the crowds that it and other public events are drawing.

Now I don't know about you, but to me any public event can be classed as art. From a music festival to political rallies, from cheering sports heros to celebrating the war dead, it is all art. The sheer organising of such events is itself an art. Outside an art gallery on such a beautiful square is the perfect place for any celebration of the arts.

"Levels of civil behavior are incredibly low. People are riding the lions and climbing on the reliefs of Nelson's Cloumn... A lot of people find it rather extraordinary that a temple of art should be surrounded by abandoned beer cans and litter" continues Penny to The Times.

Ok, fair point. Why should anybody have to put up with discarded beer tins and people defacing such beautiful architecture? But don't instantly go about blaming this on public events. Aren't these events organised with this in mind? Do people not get hired to clean up? Does London city council not employ people to clean the streets?

Here's what I suggest. If the crowds are too noisy for you then

move your office.
install double glazing.
go outside and see what all the fuss is about.
realise that new crowds are being brought to the doorstep of the gallery.
accept the fact that the square is a public place and put your skills to better use elsewhere.

It amuses me that Mr. Penny's neighbour and the Director of National Portrait Gallery, Sandy Nairne, told The Times "I think it's a tremedously good thing. It has transformed the Square. It has transformed The National Gallery".

If you enjoyed this post then please leave a comment!

Follow me on Twitter! @BenGP02

Shattered memories... part two

2009-07-06T07:23:00.000-07:00

Sup,

I'm going to list a few things from the Ocarina of Time manga, and if you remember them happening in the game please let me know.

Ingo getting brainwashed by Twinrover?
Ganondorf wielding a katana?
Shadow Link being defeated in Kakariko village?
Gerudo's invading Lon Lon Ranch?
Young Link meeting a Young Zelda in the Castle Town?
The Shadow Temple not existing?
Young Link spending hard earned rupees to rescue a baby dragon? A dragon that then grows up to become Volvagia, the fire temple boss? Then a tearful Link screaming 'REMEMBER ME!!' at the dragon before chopping his head off?

If these things happen in the game that I know and love please let me know, because I don't remember them. Yes, this series is full of what I can only describe as bullshit. What was once a wondrous tale of a world being devoured by evil and a young mans struggle to re-awaken the six sages of time and restore a world to a time of peace, what was once an epic journey has been reduced to childish jokes, generic anime sweat drops and terrible writing. Now, people might try and defend it by saying that the writing may have been changed slightly during translation, blah blah blah... No, that one won't work today. It's very rare now days that things are changed completely during translation.

I was trying to imagine what the series would be like if I was someone who had never heard of the Zelda series. I imagined that I would hate these books. The story doesn't make any sense. It's all been chopped and changed. Decent bits of a genius story have been removed only to be replaced by freaking stupid bits. Like, when in the game did the Great Deku Tree have a baby? I seem to remember him dying from a curse, and then once the curse was broken the Great Deku Sprout begins to grow. And these books have been released on the Vizkids label. These books are meant to be read by kids and presumably get them into manga. How can a story that makes very little sense possibly make kids want to carry on reading?

The entire story has been split into two parts, which Viz media decided to cram into two volumes. Part one, 'Ocarina of Time' consists of six chapters, while part 2, 'Hero of Time' has nine chapters.
In these 15 chapters was I supposed to relive 40+ hours of game play? Was I supposed to feel connected to these characters in the manga? Because i didn't. I remember the ending of the game bringing me to tears almost. By the time I reached the end of book two yes, I was ready to cry...

These books are so radically different from the game it's untrue. All the suspense, mystery, and darkness has been lost somewhere. That thing that grabs you from the beginning of a book or game, well whatever that thing is, its missing from these books. For example, book one opens with this one page. ONE PAGE.

The game opens like so...
(you'll have to be happy with screenshots I'm afraid)

There are another seven books out by the same folks that cover The Legend of Zelda, Majora's Mask, both the Oracle of Seasons and the Oracle of Ages, The Four Swords and The Minish Cap, all of which I assume are going to be just as bad as The Ocarina of Time. No I won't be buying them.

Just for good measure here is the fantastic ending to Ocarina of Time. Enjoy!

@BenGP02

Shattered memories... part one

2009-07-05T16:15:00.000-07:00

Sup,

The year was 1998 and I was twelve years old. I went down to the local video shop and purchased a copy of 'The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time' for my Nintendo64. Hell yeah! I remember being so excited about this game. It had been given so much hype you just couldn't help but be excited, and with good reason. This game had it all. Action, adventure, monsters, dungeons, sword fighting, saving the princess from the evil dark lord, and one of the most compelling story lines I have ever come across. I swear, over the years I have put more hours into Ocarina of Time than I have into any other game. I've completed it more times than I've watched all the Gundam series put together. I got all the bottles. I got all 100 golden Skulltulas. I defeated Ganondorf using the Gorons Hammer and wearing the Iron Boots.

Yes, like many gamers out there The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has a special place in my heart.

So the other week I was in the great British city of York and I just happen to stumble into a comic book store by the name of 'The Traveling Man'. To be honest, I was just browsing. Perusing the titles, not expecting much at all. Maybe a model kit, perhaps a new t-shirt, or maybe even a dvd or two. I wasn't prepared for what I found.

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: OCARINA OF TIME - THE MANGA. Jesus Christ, talk about an impulse buy...

'Akira Himekawa' is the name of the manga company responsible for this abomination. It is made up of two women A. Honda and S. Nagano and I am quite sure that they have never even held an N64 controller, let alone played Ocarina of Time.

The protagonist of the Zelda series is the hero of time, known only as Link. He is himself a legend. One of the most memorable things about Link, other than his trademark green tunic and hat, is that Link has always been mute. He has never uttered a single word, unless you class those disgusting CDi games or that shocking late 80's cartoon. So it's reassuring to know that the two ladies did their research and gave Link a voice again, knowing that it had worked wonders for him in the past... Eugh...

Inside the cover one of the ladies writes:

'Link's adventure begins!! There are hardly ever any main characters that are so strong, cool and kind!...'

These qualities, among many others, come from the fact that Link has no voice. He never has had, so why oh why did they decide to change a winning formula? The voiceless hero is able to express himself via his little looks, his little gestures, his gasps and above all by his actions. Also, the fact that he is mute adds a sense of mystery to him, which in turn adds to the atmosphere. I'm sure this could of been achieved through comic panels. You know what they say, if its not broken...

The lady continues to write:

'...I poured lots of love (insert heart symbol) when I drew this manga!'

Insert lots of love? Hells bells. It's a cooking pot bubbling over with love. Now, I know that all the Zelda series, especially Ocarina of Time, has always had an underlying theme of love and romance. Everything does, from Stargate to King Kong, there will always be that ever present message of love. But that's not the sort of love I mean. So much 'love' has been poured onto this that it is cute. It is sickly cute. Ok, so it has been released by VizMedia on their VizKids label, but Christ, when was the Zelda series ever cute? Even 'The Wind Waker' on the Gamecube with its cartoon visuals and kooky humor was never 'cute'.
Don't get me wrong the art work is incredible. It's detailed beyond belief - at this point i'll have to take back what I said earlier about them not researching. The villages and towns have been lifted directly from the game. Items, weapons and characters look just like they should. But the whole thing has lost the darkness, the grittiness and the suspense that the game had. If I stopped playing the game I'd be on edge waiting for the next chance to play it. If I stopped reading and never went back to the novel then I really wouldn't care about the fate of Hyrule. It's been given a shot of 'that generic anime look'. And in doing so, parts of it look stupid.
I'm gonna leave part one here. In part two I'll be looking the length and the ways that such an epic adventure such as Ocarina of Time can be squashed down into two graphic novels. I'll also look at the actual story and some of the truly bizarre changes that have been made, and I'll take a look the similarities and differences that the manga has to the video game.

Follow me on Twitter! @BenGP02

Kiki - the most adorable cat in the world

2009-06-24T13:47:00.001-07:00

Sup,

I HAVE A KITTEN!!!!! It's a little boy cat. Untill we visited the vet today we thought that he was a little girl cat, hence why we called him Kiki, but by the time we found out thats its a male, the name Kiki had already stuck.

We have named him Kiki after the Studio Ghibli movie 'Kiki's Delivery Service'.

As i'm writing this he is sat on my shoulder watching me type. He is ADORABLE!!!!! He's black and white and can fit in the palm of your hand. He has the cutest meow ever, tiny paws, tiny claws, and a little black mark right under nose.

Here are some pictures of her playing in the garden. Enjoy!!!

I will upload a video later.

EDIT: Here's that 'oh so cute' video...

Enjoy!!

@BenGP02

Halo 3 on a screen bigger than my house. Really.

2009-06-22T09:26:00.000-07:00

Sup,

I have never played Halo 2 or 3. Never really wanted to. The Master Chief never really did it for me. I played Halo1 on the PC and wasn't exactly blown away.

However, Logan Westbrook, on the forums over at The Escapist Magazine posted this. Halo3 being played on the new eleventhousand square foot screen at the new Dallas Cowboys stadium.

Yes, this screen is bigger than my house. Believe me, even I would happily sit down for a Halo session on that gigantasaurus. Imagine Dynasty Warriors: Gundam on there? Twould be awesome.

@BenGP02

Standing the test of time

2009-06-17T07:05:00.000-07:00

Sup,

I like to re-watch things. In my book, things with re-watchability are generally good. When I buy things, I like to think that my purchase will not be a 'one time wonder'. I like things to 'stand the test of time'. I don't want the things I've spent my hard earned money on to sit gathering dust on some shelf. Not only will this of been a waste of my money, but I'm not getting the most out of my purchase.

On occasion, however, after either listening to a foolish recomendation, or seeing a trailer that makes something look way better than it actually is, I have let the occasional series slip through the net. In this instance, it was the old scenario of 'awesome trailer, not so awesome series'.

Enter 'Silent Mobius'.

So imagine, it's 2001 and I'm waiting for my NTSC-VHS version of Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz to fall through the post box. I'd spent nearly £40 to get it imported and I was major phyched. It arrives, and like all VHS tapes there were trailers before the main feature. Silent Mobius was one of these trailers.

The trailer was basically the opening credits with a voice over and a few extra clips thrown in for good measure.

WOW! TALK ABOUT AWESOME!! Magic circles, a huge sword looking thing, lasers, guns, space ships, and hot women kicking some alien ass! All set to some freaking awesome tune. Cool? Yes sir, yes indeed.

Like a flash, I rang up the local anime shop. Ordered the full series, and like another slightly slower flash, one month later the full 26episodes of awesomeness arived. Watched it, enjoyed it, put it to one side, forgot about it.

Fast forward eight years to 2009. It's credit crunch time and the chances of buying new anime is looking pretty slim. I come across Silent Mobius in a box, lying there like a tramp in a subway, looking up at me begging for spare change, or in this case, the chance to be watched just one more time.

I made it to disk three of six. I think episode 12... maybe. I didn't care, I'd lost all interest. It was something to do the main character not wanting to face her destiny, and her father opening the gate to another world, and the recapping of stuff we'd already seen... yada yada etc etc...

This series isn't bad, because I remember it being good. But... I don't know, it's just not as good as I remember it. The characters were just a little bit shit, and the story is slow. Really, really sloooow. Perhaps I should pick up the manga?

I mean the manga was released in 1991, the TV anime had it's run in 1998, and then was released by Bandai in 2000. So when picked it up in 2001 it was already quite old, but now its almost 20 years old, and to be honest, it's just not managed to live up to what I remember. For me, I think I'm bugged by how Mobius has tried to take too many genres and mash them all together. Magic, the occult, sci-fi, comedy, romance. Silent Mobius is like taking a little bit of City-cyber: Oedo 808, a chunk of Ghost in the Shell, a smidgen of Tenchi Muyo, a dollop of Neon Genesis: Evangelion, taking out the good bits, chucking them in a blender and snorting what ever freakish concoction is left. A real bad trip.

@BenGP02

Real G - videos

2009-06-15T08:05:00.001-07:00

Sup,

Right, unless anything else happens that is worth blogging, I'm gonna make this my last post on this subject. To read all my other posts regarding the Real-G project, click here.

A couple of videos here of the 1:1 scale RX-78-2 Gundam which has be erected in Obadia to mark the 30th anniversary of the popular anime series.

The first video shows some really nice close ups and was found at www.weirdasianews.com

The second video shows Gundam being 'powered up', as the movement of the head is tested along with the lights and sound effects.

And just for good measure, here are some amazing pictures which I found on www.pinktentacle.com but they can now be found all over the web.

The Real-G project, however over the top it might be, is awesome. It truly reflects just how much the Gundam franchise is adored by not only the Japanese, but by folks all over the world. Gundam isn't going anywhere anytime soon that is for sure. Anyways, we still got the 'UC0096 - Gundam Unicorn' movie out later this year, and next year we've got the 'Gundam 00' movie. Can't wait.

Thanks for reading

Follow me on Twitter! @BenGP02

Full Metal Alchemist S1 review

2009-06-10T05:51:00.000-07:00

Sup,

Full Metal Alchemist is one of those anime's that came out ages ago and for whatever reason I put off watching. I'd always heard good things about it but had never really been interested, probably because at the time, I thought it was one of these new wave 'teen animes' that was only here to flood the western market and sell some dvd's to kids who'd never heard of the old stuff like Macross, Gundam and Captain Harlock. I guess I was a bit too shallow minded to give the newer stuff a try.

So the other week I was in the local HMV dvd store when I spotted the two Full Metal Alchemist dvd box sets, released not so long ago by Funimation (Dragonball, Z, GT etc...). Season 1 - part one and season one - part 2. £30 each. Bargain? I should think so.

If you know me at all, then you will know that I am a sucker for a box set. Especially when the box sets are this sexy.

Both boxes, as you can see not only come in super shiny boxes, but they each come with episode guides/ art books, one to accompany each dvd. SWEET!

But anyways, on to the actual series.

Edward and Alfonse Elric are brothers and alchemists. While trying to bring their dead mother back to life through alchemy, Alfonse, the younger of the two, has his soul trapped in a suit of armour, and Edward looses a leg and an arm. And so begins the first episode.
FMA follows the two boys on their quest for the fabled philosophers stone, which will allow them to return their bodies to normal.

A gruesome, yet engaging opening. I love it when an anime grabs me from the word go, it means that it has my attention and I'll want to watch more. FMA grabbed me in episode 1 and didn't let go untill episode 28. It was here that Funimation let me down.

Ok, so I don't mind that the story continues in 'season 2', and I don't mind that season 2 isn't released in a box set yet. I do mind when the story is left just dangling, what happened to cliff hangers??? What happened to suspense??? I also mind when seasons 1 and seasons 2 aren't actually seasons, but instead they are one series that has been just cut randomly in half, or at least that is how it seems.

That aside, I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the first half of FMA. It somehow manages to get the mix of comedy and deadly dark seriousness just right. The animation is beautifully done and the characters are memorable. The dvd's are dual audio with English. I watched the dub which was very well done. English voice actors include Vic Mignogna (Aura Battler Dunbine - Neal Gibbons), Travis Willingham (Code Geass), and Caitlin Glass (Gunslinger Girl).

Now, I've only had the time to plow through this once, but I will rewatch 'season 1' again before I buy 'season 2'. I highly recommend Full Metal Alchemist to both the newcomer to anime and the hardened anime veteran, like myself.

I'm currently rewatching Silent Mobius. Boy is it a chore. It's not as good as I remember.

Thanks for reading!

Follow me on Twitter! @BenGP02

Real G - 1:1 scale Gundam RX-78-2 finished

2009-06-09T04:25:00.000-07:00

Sup,

Its been a while since I last blogged anything, probably because I've had nothing to blog about. But today is the day, finally, after months of waiting, that the giant 1:1 scale RX-78 Gundam has been completed.

Towering over the island of Obadia in Japan, Gundam reaches a staggering 59feet. I don't know if they'll have a grand unveiling, but eventually its head and arms will move, and mist will pour from the exhaust ports.

For those who don't know, the RX-78-2 Gundam is the original suit from the very first series way back in 1979. The RX-78-2 was piloted by the newtype Amuro Ray. Because of this suit and its pilot, the Earth Federation was able win the famed One Year War against the Principality of Zeon.

For my other post on 'Project Real G' click here.

All pictures are courtesy of dannychoo.com

To enlarge the pictures, just click on them!

For more fantastic, but copyrighted images, mainichi.jp is the place to go.

EDIT: NEW PICTURES - I can't get over the detail...

Follow me on Twitter! @BenGP02

The BBQ, the cat, and the tesco value burgers...

2009-05-22T13:45:00.000-07:00

The stray cat that Louise befriended...

Sup,

We just came in from the outside, it's started raining, we've been having a barbecue. Louise befriended a stray cat called baggypussy...? We all ate Tesco value sausages and burgers... still not convinced that you can call them meat products. Here are the pictures and a video of the cat... enjoy...

Adel and the cat

Louise and the cat (click to enlarge)

Me, trying to cook...
Cat, Adel, Louise and Emily

Louise...

Enjoy...

@BenGP02

Slung Low - Day 5 - Characterisation, props and costume calls

2009-05-22T04:49:00.001-07:00

Sup,

I've only been around for the first half of the day because in the afternoon I've been running round trying to find a deckchair, so I've not got a great deal to report.

I started this morning watching Lucy Hind running a characterisation workshop session. Was great to see the principles getting to grips with the script and seeing some of the characters coming to life.

Also took the chance to take down some really good notes and ideas for my own workshops :)

Noelia working on 'Joy'

Here's a quick video of the guys working on the final scene from 'The Great Bear'.

That's it now untill tuesday because I can't make tomorrow's rehearsal. Shame, guess thats what happens when you work two jobs on a Saturday!

Find out more about Slung Low by clicking here!

Follow me on Twitter @BenGP02

Slung Low - Day 4 - Routes, characters and script work

2009-05-21T11:37:00.000-07:00

Sup,

Day four has come to an end and everything is starting to come together nicely. While most of us spent this morning continuing to create the images and props from yesterday, I spent my morning (with some help of course) gluing and sticking scripts, figuring out routes, and marking when and where each different event/ image is going to happen along each route.

Golden items from 'Joy'

Making boxes

Cardboard clothes

Building the oil rig

The afternoon saw everyone splitting up to really concentrate on either characters, costumes, or moving to other groups to help out with their images.

I spent my time going through the 'Joy' script with Noelia, who will be playing Joy. Gonna run a short characterisation workshop session tomorrow with all the guys who are playing the main parts.

Not much else to report from today. All the guys have been working really hard and seem to be really enjoying the Slung Low experiance.

To find out more about Slung Low, check the website here.

Follow me on Twitter! @BenGP02

Slung Low - Day 3 - The Great Bear

2009-05-20T05:40:00.000-07:00

Lucy Hind giving pep talk

Sup,

Today has been a day of research, continuing working with 'The Great Bear'. Keeping our work away from the script as much as possible, we've been looking at some of the main themes presented in the piece and the ways that we can find images in these themes and present them to the audience.

The themes were:

Crossing the ocean / nautical stuff
Gambling
Ash
The element of chance

Research

We got some nice interesting ideas thrown about. Gambling with life, addictions, fish and chip stands, Zeus, lightning strikes, and burnt down homes.

Got to see an experiment with the realistic human ash I was working on yesterday. It's amazing how quickly these guys have worked, and the effort put in is crazy. For the chef to look as though he is dissolving into ash, the techie folks have come up with a genius method involving filing tights with the 'ash'. I know the video is on one side, but you'll get the idea.

Afternoon saw the majority of groups getting down to work building things. Check the pictures.

Making a shark fin

Making a 'wind swept' umberella

Alan making another phone call...

More ash

Cardboard clothing

For more info on Slung Low, check the website. Click here.

Follow me on Twitter! @BenGP02

Real G - latest pictures

2009-05-19T16:47:00.001-07:00

Sup,

Here are the latest pictures of the Real G project development. Got a proper view of the chest piece and some nice close ups of the legs. It's gigantic. Can't wait for its completion.

The chest piece is twice the size of that van. It's a crazy kind of awesome. God bless Bandai!
For my other posts about the Real G project click here.

And don't forget, we still got the Gundam Unicorn to come. 2009 is a good year.

@BenGP02

Slung Low - Day 2 - realistic human ash and oil rigs...

2009-05-19T06:11:00.000-07:00

Sup,

Day two and I'm assisting Lucy Hind, the amazing dance and movement director, as they continue to work on one third of 'Last Seen'.

'The Great Bear' is a tale about a man called Dixie, reflecting on his life, regretting most of it and trying to buy some time before his death... i think... either that or he is dead from the start and the person speaking to the audience is the ghost of Dixie... (I've only managed to read the script once...)

Either way at the end he finally manages to free his soul. This is represented by the ashes of Dixie being released from a suitcase. Potentially an extremely moving scene.

Because (I think) the University of Huddersfield would frown on us using real human ashes, (haha! I'm talking like we could actually get some. lulz) we had to find a way of making some. After talk and experimentation we found a solution. Apparently, a mixture of flour, black powder paint, chalk, and bran flakes looks remarkably like burnt human ash... I know you can't tell very well form the picture but trust me, it really does.

Anyways, this Dixie fella lived on an oil rig so I spent my afternoon helping out a group research oil rigs and figuring out different ways of making one that can fit into a canal. It's gonna involve some Blue Peter style skills! Baking trays, ribena boxes, fairy liquid bottles and paint. Can't go wrong.

Unfortunately I've not had time to take any pictures except the one above, but as soon as we start making stuff, which will probably be tomorrow I'm gonna try get video clips and pictures of rehearsals.

Now that I've read two of the three scripts I'm starting to understand how the three routes are going to affect one another. Can't wait for tomorrow, working with Richard Warburton's group on the third piece.

Should be fun.

Check out Slung Low's web site here.

Follow me on Twitter @BenGP02

Slung Low - Day 1

2009-05-18T05:12:00.000-07:00

Sup,

Working with the Bradford based performance company 'Slung Low' is an amazing experience. I should know, I did it last year.

Well I've come back for a second helping, but this time I'm being a part of the 'creative team', so I won't actually be taking part in the actual performance, rather assisting the 'group directors'.

Awesome stuff.

Company director Alan Lane gave his usual pep-talk, introducing his 'crew' of creative geniuses, this year consisting of Lucy Hind, Richard Warburton, Ben Eaton, and.... and.... meh, I forget. Will find out tomorrow. For individual biographies of company members, click here.

Edit: Matt Angove and Heather Fenoughty are the other team members.

Unlike previous years, Slung Low arrived with a three scripts already prepared which all intertwine, cross over and weave in and out of each other. The show will be called 'Last Seen', and involves a show being hijacked by a character who makes sure the unheard stories are heard. I won't give away any more... there's nothing worse than knowing the ending to something.

I spent the day in Ben Eaton's group, helping out the group with ideas and reading through one of the three scripts, picking it apart and finding it's flaws. We trekked over the campus, looked for interesting places to make work and what places we would be able to relate back to the script.

Exciting stuff.

Don't know what group I'll be with tomorrow, but I'm gonna take some photos so you can see the sort of things we're getting up to.

Check out Slung Low on their website.

Follow me on twitter! @BenGP02

Real G: Latest developments

2009-05-16T15:46:00.000-07:00

Sup,

Just a quick post to update you all in the developments of the Real G project. For my last post about Real G, click here.

Real G is acctually starting to look fantastic. Both legs are now finished.

They've even started work on the arms!

Looks amazing. What a way to celebrate 30 years of Gundam. Genius.

BenGP02

Infinite Undiscovery - Infinitely Unimpressed

2009-05-13T13:02:00.000-07:00

Sup,

The last RPG I played properly was Eternal Sonata on the XBox360. That was ages ago, and I loved it. So when I went into town thinking to myself, 'Hey, you now what, I might buy an RPG today', I thought that a game by RPG legend 'SquareEnix' would just do the trick.

Oh how wrong I was.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all for trying something new, I really am, but... nah... just nah... It was one of the few times that I've been suckered in by pretty box art, and a recommendation from the shopkeep.

In a nutshell: The 'Order of Chains' are evil and for some reason they have chained the moon to the Earth. Some pansy called Capelle has been imprisoned by the Order because he bears a remarkable resemblance to the leader of the rebellion, whose name I forget. Capelle also plays the flute (which has magic qualities), and is quite good at using a sword. You are rescued from prison by this lass from the rebellion because shes dumb and can't tell the difference between you and the rebel leader, a person whom she is close to. She is thick.

When I think of games I've played, and enjoyed, in the past, I've always had my attention grabbed from the word go. And that's what a game should do, from the second you press start you should not want to put the controller down. Let me think, what games have done this... Bioshock, Prey, Okami, Morrowind, Ocarina of Time, Final Fantasy, Skies of Arcadia, to name but-a-seven.

For example...

Bioshock (360): you survive a plane crash in the middle of the ocean, only to discover an underwater city... within the first 10 minutes of gameplay...

Prey (PC): After bludgeoning two drunks with a wrench, you, your grandfather, your girlfriend, and your pub are abducted by aliens... within the first 10 minutes of gameplay..

Skies of Arcadia (DC): You and your band of 'air pirates' attack and board a flying air ship, only to be attacked by a giant mechanical bull... within the first 10 minutes of gameplay...

In the first 10 minutes of Infinite Undiscovery, I sat through some god awful cut-scene, only to be given some bat-shit stupid battle system explanation, then i get chased up some stairs by an oger with dumb woman getting in the way and helping me to fall to the floor dead every second.

Just nah.

On my way to the first village I'm attacked by a dragon. No explanation as to why I'm being attacked mind, I'm just being attacked and knocked down before I have a chance to get up on my feet. Annoyance.

So I get to the first village and I'm met by those god damn token annoying kids that every RPG seems to have these days. I didn't play for much longer. After the first dungeon I was all done with this game. No more. Swiftly traded it in for Chrome Hounds, some mecha game i've not got round to playing yet.

This game is shocking. The graphics are bad, the dubbing is horrific and the gameplay is fucking balls. Just don't, your money is better spent on used bin liners.

Follow me on Twitter! @BenGP02

Tomino interview and Duke Nukem: Forever gameplay footage!!!

2009-05-10T08:40:00.000-07:00

Sup,

The beginnings of an interview with Yoshiyuki Tomino. Click here to view the full interview. You have to install some media player though, which sucks. I didn't bother watching the full thing, it's in Japanese, a language I don't speak and probably never will. That's why subtitles were invented, a thing that this clip is lacking. Cool though... If a subbed version comes around, which I doubt, I'll post it. Check out the Zaku2 stood next to the presenter - that's what I call awesome.

Watch Gundam SP part2: Tomino Yoshiyuki long interview in Anime | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

You remember Duke Nukem on DOS? Then Duke Nukem 3D by 3D Realms? Remember the announcement of Duke Nukem: Forever THIRTEEN YEARS AGO?!?!?!?!?! Well 3D Realms recently went bust, but this gameplay footage has been leaked. Take2 games currently hold the license to the franchise, so hopefully they'll carry on it's development. It acctually looks pretty good.

Twitter: @BenGP02

Final Fantasy 10 AMV

2009-05-08T14:12:00.000-07:00

Sup,

Speaking of discovering lost stuff (see previous post), check out this AMV (anime music video) I made ages ago. Like, I think I was 17, maybe... The quality isn't all that, but meh, I think it's pretty cool.

Enjoy!

BenGP02

4ft papercraft Freedom-G

2009-05-07T17:12:00.000-07:00

Sup,

I love it when I find awesome things I'd forgotten about. I just stumbled across this gem in my bookmarks. paperkraft.net is a blogger site for anything made out of paper and some of the things are pretty damn impressive.

For example, the speeder bike from Return of the Jedi, Chi and Freya from Chobits, and Manny Calavera from the game Grim Fandango.

However, the video below blew me away. A four foot paperkraft of the Freedom Gundam from Gundam Seed. Insane. Just the shear size of the thing is out of this world. Hope you find it as impressive as I did.

Freedom Gundam - 4 foot papercraft from Taras Lesko on Vimeo.

FREEDOM GUNDAM! LAUNCHING!

BenGP02

Project 'Real G' - this thing is huge

2009-05-07T05:32:00.000-07:00

Sup Y'all,

A while back now it was announced that as a part of the Gundam 30th year celebrations, a gigantic 1:1 scale (59ft) model of the original RX-78-2 Gundam is going to be built on Odaiba Island in Japan. It is called the 'Real-G' project. The original concept art had me drooling.

Concept art

Now, a few months later, the project is well underway and it is truly MASSIVE. Why don't I live in Japan? Why God WHY!!!

The massive leg struts

Leg struts with armour

Chest plate

Gundam is also going to be sporting a 'Tokyo 2016' badge on its right shoulder to aid Tokyo in its bid to host the 2016 Olympic games. 'Real G' will be completed mid-July. It already looks awesome. I want one in my garden.Concept models with Olympic logo

@BenGP02 - Follow me on Twitter!

Pictures courtesy of www.akiba-station.com and www.bouncingredball.com

Aura Battler Dunbine

2009-05-04T13:49:00.000-07:00

Sup,

Just finnished watching Aura Battler Dunbine. An anime from 1983 by Yoshiyuki Tomino. It's been 49 episodes of hard, yet rewarding slog. Here are my thoughts.

There are two worlds, ours, the 'Upper Earth' and Byston Well. Both are joined by the 'Aura Road'. Creatures known as 'Silkies' are made to open the 'Aura Gate' by the evil Drake Luft, the ruler of some country who is bent on total domination. Once the Aura Road is opened, humans from Earth are taken against their will to Byston Well. Drake trains them to become the pilots of giant insect like mechs called Aura Battlers, which are powered by humans 'aura' or life power. Aura Battlers are made by Shot Weapon, a mechanic also from Upper Earth. Show Zama, the series protagonist, is taken from his home in Japan and becomes and Aura fighter for Drake. After meeting with the young rebel 'Marvel Frozen', an American who was also taken to become an aura fighter, he is convinced that Drake is up to no good and subsequently he changes sides. Taking with him his Aura Battler, the Dunbine, he joins the band of rebels to fight against Drake, and find himself a way home.

The series starts slow and is slightly confusing. In the first episode, Show Zama, Todd Guinness and some other guy are essentially kidnapped and not one of them seem to be that bothered. Admittedly they get kidnapped and given a mech, but if that was me, i'd be raging. There's not a chance that i'd join some dude's army if i'd just been kidnapped.

After Show Zama joins the rebels, around episode 5 or 6, the show starts to pick up speed. The battles get more intense and the story becomes real easy to follow. The rebels made me laugh. There leader is Neil Given, an Irish guy with ridiculous pink hair and a ridiculously stereotypical Irish accent. I mean this guy tries to be the hard man, he really does try, but nah, with hair like that your just gonna make yourself look like a fool. A thing he does on many occasions. He looks stupid, he sounds stupid.

And speaking of sounding stupid, in the later half of the series, the battle for Byston Well begins to gets pretty epic and goes to Upper Earth. The battle involves all the major countries of the Earth joining forces with the good guys. Around episode 35 - 40, Princess El goes and requests aid from the Queen of England. I've never heard a more stupid sounding stereotypical English accent. I half expected her to jump onto a penny-farthing shouting 'EH WHAT? JOLLY GOOD SHOW OLD BOY! PIP PIP I SAY!', amusing though.

Dunbine reminds me of Gundam, which isn't surprising as it was made by the same guy. It was released two years before Zeta Gundam and at the time was tipped as being 'the new Gundam'. It wasn't, but the similarities are all there.

Aura Battlers - Mobile Suits
Aura Power - Newtype telekinesis
Zelana warship - The Argama (Zeta Gundam)
Burn Bunnings - Chronicle Asher (V-Gundam)

Does it matter if I give spoilers? Meh, its 26 years old, I doubt it matters. The series ends in good old Tomino fashion, a huge battle with both side throwing everything at each other.

The last two episodes are genius and make up for all the bad episodes. There is almost more main character deaths than Victory Gundam. I really didn't expect this many deaths. More unexpected than when Misato dies in End of Evangelion. Absolutely EVERYONE dies. All the goodies, all the baddies, all of them dead. It's really bad, Emily gets shot in the face, Marvel dies without Show telling her he loves her, Neil kills Drake then gets his battler shot in the back and Show gets stabbed jumping from his battler into Burn Bunnings cockpit.

This series is occasionally slow and in places the dubbing is terrible, but believe me, episode 48 and 49 are more than enough compensation. The animation looks extremely dated but hey, what do expect from a series that's almost 30 years old. The story is massive. A war that gets so huge its envelopes two entire worlds. Epic stuff.

Aura Battler Dunbine may look old but it is totally rewarding in the end. If you like Gundam, or any kind of mech show, then I highly recomend checking it out.

Follow me on Twitter @BenGP02

Robot boxing...

2009-05-04T04:15:00.000-07:00

Sup,

Check this video. Its a 'boxing' tournament with robots. Reminds me of G Gundam.

The robots are 'piloted' by remote controls operated by their creators. Apparently these sort of tournaments are becoming increasingly popular in Japan.

GUNDAM FIGHT! READY! GO!

@BenGP02

Repition is a good thing - Dynasty Warriors: Gundam2

2009-05-03T15:44:00.000-07:00

Sup,

Right, so i'm about a week into Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2 and admittedly i've not given it the attention that I should of. What! I've been busy... But somehow i've managed to squeeze a good few hours of game play into my hectic schedule and so far, so good. If you've not played it yet, there's a trailer here.

Yea, ok, so basically it's exactly the same as the first game, you take control of a mobile suit, button bash through hoards of enemy mobile suits and try to conquer the enemy 'fields' or zones. Complete whatever objectives the mission requires and defeat the boss suit to achieve a 'mission complete'.

The first game had its problems, and I was happy to find that they have been fixed. The short boost times have been extended, you can now jump higher and in a direction, combos are easier to pull off and link together and the levels are HUGE. Seriously, these levels are massive and the detail is pretty awesome. You can now also now customise your mobile suit by collecting parts acquired from defeating enemies.

One of the most noticeable change is the amount of playable characters and mobile suits available to use. Pilots and suits from First Gundam, Zeta, ZZ, Char's Counterattack, F91, V-Gundam, Turn A, Wing, and Seed Destiny, with probably more unlockables just made the game for me, and i'm only about 3 hours into it.

The suits and characters are awesome, but I don't think I could finish without mentioning the boss fights. The DW:G1 saw you fighting 'field commanders' who either came in the form of slightly tougher grunt suits, or an enemy character suit. DW:G2 has kept this as the standard 'boss' fight but now includes the gigantic 'mobile armour's'. So far I've only completed Amuro Ray's 'official mode' story line which follows the story of Amuro in the original 0079 series. I got to fight the 'Big Zam' mobile armour. Got my ass handed to me on a silver platter several times. Didn't care, I was fighting the Big Zam. The only other games I've fought the Big Zam in was 'Federation vs Zeon' on the PS2, and both the 'Battle Assault' games on the PSX. I've yet to meet the Psycho Gundam.

Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2 is a re-release of DW:G1 but without the problems, and to be honest, the first game didn't have that many faults. This instalment looks and feels smoother and slicker. It's repetitive but hell, who cares! What game isn't? Only one complaint, where's the Japanese voice overs? The first game had them :(

Hack and slash gaming with Gundams, simple, addictive and fun. Plus, I bought a HDMI cable. EVERYTHING is sweeter in HD, even Gundam.

Thanks for reading. follow me on Twitter!
@BenGP02

Mobile Suit Gundam: 0079 - The One Year War

2009-05-01T03:12:00.000-07:00

Sup,

There's alot to cover in 0079. Here goes...

"It is the year 0079 of the Universal Century, a half century has passed since the Earth began moving it burgeoning population into gigantic orbiting space colonies. A new home for mankind, where people are born and raised, and die. Nine months ago, the cluster of colonies furthest from the Earth called Side Three, proclaimed itself the Principality of Zeon and launched a war of Independence against the Earth Federation. Initial fighting lasted over one month and saw both side loose half there respective populations. People were horrified by the indescribable atrocities committed in the name of independence. Eight months had passed since the rebellion had begun, they were at a stale mate."

And so begins the first ever episode of Mobile Suit Gundam.

So it's 1979 and kids are sat in front of their TV screens waiting to watch the latest mecha anime series. 1978 had been a home to series such as Battle of the Planets (Kagaku ninja tai Gatchaman), Space Pirate Captain Harlock, and Daitarn 3, another mecha anime directed by Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino. Now it was 1979, and the age of the Gundam had arived.

The TV screen flickers to life, and we see a picture of the Earth being surrounded by a beam of light. We hear dark and brooding music begin and then... and then the most horrendous opening theme I have ever heard opens the show. If I hadn't seen other Gundam series before I watched 0079, I wouldn't of stuck with it. Ok, granted that it's the seventies, but it's no excuse for this. And it's one of those songs that plays games with you, you think it's finished but oh no, let's carry on with verse two.
Ok, yeah, I do think it's a cool opening, but only because it's stupidly retro and it's Gundam. I mean the pictures are fine, we're seeing different mechas, people jumping into core fighters, and waves of Zaku forces preparing to fight, but that song is just dreadful. It's the stuff that nightmares are made of.

You want to see how a 70's opening should be done? Check out Space Pirate Captain Harlock.

Ok, so the show opens with Zeon forces sneaking into the Side 7 colony and discovering an Earth Federation base. Along with the the base they also uncover the 'V-Project', the Earth Federation's top secret Mobile Suit (MS) project. The Zeon attack and 15 year colonist Amuro Ray takes it upon himself to jump into a MS and defend the colony. The MS he decides to take is the brand new weapon, Gundam. He defends the colony with the help of the Gundam's 'instruction manual' (a definite WTF! moment) - and due to his inexperience, he blows a hole in the side of the colony. He joins forces with the new Federation Battleship 'Whitebase' (which looks like a flying 2 car garage), and there you have it, Amuro Ray, a civilian with no MS piloting skills has become the soul pilot of the Federation's most powerful weapon.

The series basically follows the crew of the Whitebase and Amuro as they continue the struggle against the Zeon forces. Along the way Amuro must learn how to use both his Gundam and his 'Newtype' abilities. I'll get to what a Newtype is later.

Now as with nearly everything ever, and mecha anime is no exception, for every hero there is always 'the evil nemesis'. It's that old 'good verses evil' chestnut. The evil antagonistic force in 0079 is the tyrannical Zabi family headed by the super fat Degwin Zabi, a man who wants nothing more than independence for those who live in space, and so he declares war with his 'Nazi-like' Principality of Zeon.

The Zeon to Nazi hints are subtle, but they're there. The Zeon uniform is the most obvious. In one of Degwin's final scenes he refers to his eldest son, Ghiren, as a self styled Adolf Hitler. There are five main Zabi's: Degwin, Ghiren, Kacillia, Dozle and Garma. We also get a small glimpse of Minerva Zabi as a newly born baby. Minerva plays a large part in MS:Zeta Gundam and MS:ZZ Gundam.
The Zabi's are memorable, and I think they play there part as the 'big in your face' antagonists well. However compared to the series main antogonist, Char Aznable, the Zabi's are nothing.

Char Aznable is the most well known villain in the entire of the Gundam universe, and is most definitely my favorite character throughout the entire series. Char, unlike many of the characters in MS:G actually has a reason to fight. His real name is Casval Rem Deikun. Char Aznable is the alias he uses while in Zeon. His main goal is to over throw the Zabi's and get revenge for his father, the founder of the Zeon Empire, Zeon Zum Deikun, who was murdered by the Zabi's. He is also known among both the Zeon and Federation Forces as 'The Red Comet', on account of him being an ace pilot, and his MS are always painted red. This also reminds me of the whole Nazi thing, as in WW1 the Germans had an ace pilot nicknamed 'The Red Barron'.
Both Char and Amuro are 'Newtypes'. The next evolutionary step for humans. Basically a newtype can sense other Newtypes on the battlefield, and they have exceptional piloting and mechanic skills. As I said in my brief Gundam history, a Newtypes 'powers' work in a similar way to the force.
Also, Char takes a young apprentice named Lalah Sune under his wing. She is also a Newtype. While fighting in the Mobile Armor Elmeth against Amuro, she is killed. Both Amuro and Char become haunted by her spirit.

Ok, I feel like i'm starting to ramble. If you've seen the series you know just how massive is its, and how impossible it is to put it all in one blog, but i've managed to cover some of the main points and characters in this review. I can't even begin to try and summarise 43 episodes in one blog, it's impossible.
To summerise; Gundam: 0079 is an old school anmie. The story isn't perfect and the animation can look really dated at times. But with memorable characters, retro mecha and definite re-watchability, it's pretty awesome. If your new to Gundam then its a great starting place, if you can get over the 70's style animation, and the opening credits that is.

Score out of ten? 9/10 - It's the original Gundam series, nuff said. Not my favorite series, but in my top three Gundam shows.

Right, thats it for my first Gundam summary/review/overview. If you've bothered to read this far then cheers, thanks for reading. I don't know what the next review will be, but since I just got Dynasty warriors: Gundam 2, it might be that.

Thanks for reading
Follow me on twitter @BenGP02

Mobile Suit Gundam - A very breif history

2009-04-23T07:25:00.000-07:00

Sup,

Space colonies, masked antagonists, evolved humans and giant mechs. This is where it begins. My review of Gundam. Come on, it was bound to happen sooner or later.

Back in 2001 I was intorduced to the Gundam universe when New Mobile Report: Gundam Wing was aired on Cartoon Network's Toonami. I watched all 49 episodes with friends and i've been hooked ever since. I went mental for Gundam Wing. I bought model kits, collected trading cards, graphic novels and even wrote my own fanfics... which were shockingly bad. And no, they'll never be read ever again.

Now, eight years and god knows how many viewings later, I think I can safely call myself a verteran Gundam fan. And for the record, G-Wing is one of my least favorite series.

Now with me being a massive Gundam fan, and with the 30th aniversary being this year, i've decided to do a breif recap / review / sumary of some of the Gundam series to date. I might get round to doing them all if I can be bothered, but there are rather alot. I might just do my favorite ones, who knows, depends what I feel like :P This post will just be a brief history and introduction to the series.

There are so many different series in the Gundam universe that they are not all set in the same timeline. The original, and most popular is the Universal Century (UC) timeline. The UC timeline is the home to 14 different series, including the 2009 movie Gundam Unicorn.
The other timelines are:

Future Century - G Gundam
After War - Gundam X
After Colony - Gundam Wing, Endless Waltz
Cosmic Era - Gundam SeeD, SeeD Destiny, SeeD Stargazer
Correct Century - Turn A Gundam
Anno Domini - Gundam 00

Gundam was created way back in 1979 by Yoshiyuki Tomino. Before Gundam he was already well known as a director on numerous other anime's including Astro Boy. Tomino went on to write a further 4 full length Gundam series and 7 movies. A full list of his work can be found here.

Gundam has always been a story centering around politics and the effect that war has on the world. Generally every series involves a group of youths who get drawn into a war against their will, and one character will always ends up being the 'accidental' Gundam pilot. This is known among fans as 'The Gundam cliche'.

The concept of 'the evolution of humanity' or 'humanities next evolutionary steps' is a strong theme that plays out in every every series. Whether they are called Newtypes, Co-ordinators, or Innovators, these 'evolved' humans have abilities beyond those of a regular human. As well as telekenesis, hightened spacial awareness and response times, these abilities work in a similar way to 'the force' is Star Wars.

As well as this, there are always space colonies, a virtually indestructable battleship, a huge space laser, stupidly powerfull mid-season mobile suit upgrades, and a masked villan.

Right, I know thats a pretty breif introduction to Gundam, but in a round about way it's all you really need to know. The first series review i'm going to do will be the original Mobile Suit Gundam: UC 0079. The series that started it all. Should be fun.

See you then, cheers for reading.

BenGP02

Apparently it's not a movie, but it is in 2009 :D

2009-04-22T14:12:00.000-07:00

Sup,

Today's been pretty cool. We had our first Bruegel rehearsal since god know when, and I found out a few awesome things.

The Bruegel rehearsals, i thought, went really well to say that we hadn't seen each other or even thought about the damn thing since way before easter. Alex decided to live stream bits of the second run through, videos of which you can see here - keep an eye out for Paul running away from Abi, it's genius.

Now even though I'm compleatly broke and can barely afford to eat - infact, forget that - I can't afford to eat properly. Seriously, I'm down to like one meal a day, if i'm lucky. MEGA HUNGRY 24/7. Anyways, even though I have no cash what so ever, this week the sequal to a fantastic 'hack and slash' game is released. That's right folks, Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2 is out on friday. America saw its release today and my tweetdeck has been buzzin all day with folks shouting about how awesome it is. I can't wait. I loved the first one, I know i'm love this. Shame i'll have to wait untill payday... no Gundam fanatic should be put through this :(

More Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2 Info

Anyways, placing Gundam to oneside... for now, Fox have released a 3rd and final trailer for X-Men: Origins -Wolverine. I think it looks awesome, but why wouldn't I? I am an X-Men fan. A high-res trailer can be found here.

Ok, back to Gundam. Way back before i'd been born, or even thought of, in 1979 the first Mobile Suit: Gundam TV series was aired in Japan. It was canceled before its mammoth 50 episode run finished. The series was cut down to make three movies a few years later. Now, 18 series, 14 movies, a silly amount of graphic novels and thousands of model kits later we find ourselves in 2009 celebrating the 30th aniversary of MS:Gundam.
Because of this, the folks at Bandai have decided to do something special to celebrate. Already this year we've seen the epic ending to Gundam 00 the latest seires, a PS3 exclusive game for autum, and an 18 meter life size Statue of the original Gundam to be erected in Tokyo have been anounced.
2 weeks ago, a Bandai press conferance held in Spain announced that a movie based on the 'more than awesome' Gundam Unicorn graphic novel series was being 'discused'. Today we got confirmation. ZOMGSPLOSION!!!!!
However the Gundam Unicorn movie will not be a movie. It will either be a fully fledged 50 episode epic, like Zeta, First or Victory, or a shorter OVA series such as 0080: War in the Pocket or 0083: Stardust Memory.

Am I psyched? Yes, yes I am.

BenGP02

PANDA Performing Arts Interview...

2009-04-21T02:51:00.000-07:00

Sup,

Got my interview today to be a producer with PANDA Performing Arts. I'm all dressed up smart, well, not too smart, kind of smart/ casual. Jeans, chewbacca t-shirt, shirt. Classy.
Just finishing up the portfolio with things I didn't think about putting in yesterday.

Wish me luck!

BenGP02

Asda, Star Trek, and Spinal Tap

2009-04-20T11:33:00.000-07:00

Sup,

Well today was kind of exciting. For starters when I woke up this morning I wasn't sure if I had to go to work. I knew I was doing overtime at some point this week but hadn't put it in my diary (i have the worst memory ever, if i don't write it down then i'm doomed). Asda is a depressing place, even more so when you work there... on the checkouts. Anyways, I rang up and ZOMG!!! No checkouts for Benjamino!! Smiles all round. Super good start to the day.

A stop off at the bank and a quick trip to the laundret saw me back at home staring at the looming pile of essays I've still got to do... so what did I do? I hit the xbox for a few hours.

Then something happened in the Twitterverse that I found super awesome. @sizemore tweets that he and @danlight are being the moderators for the live streaming of a Star Trek Q&A session with non other the legendary director JJ.Abrams (Lost, Cloverfield), Chris Pine (Smokin' Aces) who plays Cpt. James T Kirk, and Zachary Quinto (Sylar from Heros) who plays Spock, in the new Star Trek film. AWESOME!!!! I felt like I was helping make a tiny bit of Star Trek's gigantasaurus history.

Even though the whole thing was being held virtually in Playstationhome, I was able to view the discusion via Ustream and ask questions through @sizemore via Twitter. Yes, this has been the highlight of my day. @sizemore says he'll let me know when a recording/ podcast/ audio version of the Q&A is avalible so I can stick it on here if your interested. Watch the trailer above and you'll see why i'm excited about seeing this film. It looks mental. Here's a link to @sizemore's site where he has written a good, spoilerless, review of the movie.

Anyhoo, I'm going to finish watching Spinal Tap... again... and then do some work on my script. You know, Spinal Tap is one of the few films that I can keep finding funny everytime I watch it. God bless Christopher Guest.
I'm gonna post the first couple of scenes from my play up for you to have a read off, I'd like some feedback.

BenGP02

Performance and geek realisation

2009-04-19T14:41:00.000-07:00

Sup y'all,

Well, i've spent the first half of my day trying to figure out just what exactly a performance portfolio is. Then i spent the second half trying to put one together.

Why am I doing this? It's because on Tuesday i've got an interview for a job with the Manchaester performing arts company 'Panda'. I've applied for the possition of 'incubated producer'. Simply put, if I get the job I get to work with and learn from profesional producers while they assist proffesional theatre companies and artists. Really hoping I impress them, I'd love the job. Would be awesome.

Well, I finally managed to throw together some form of portfolio. Consisting of photos from shows i've recently been in, scripts and monologues i've written, and a dvd with a couple of scenes from the show 'We Will Rock You', which I performed in last year with Stage84 at the Bradford Alhambra theatre. I played two parts during the week, Pop and Galileo. In these clips I'm playing Galileo, the lead. It was awesome. The video below should of uploaded, but click here to see a different clip on youtube.

Anyways, I'm watching American Dad right now and Roger (the alien) just started doing a Kevin Bacon 'Footloose' montage. Comedy genius.

Also, I woke up and finally realised what people have been telling me for years. I am a geek and an anime junkie. Seriously, I didn't realise how mental it was untill today. And while i'm on the subject, new 'Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen' footage. Looks awesome. Can't wait. And @Documentally, this is just for you... it's the only G-Force stuff i've got.

Well, off to bed,

Follow me at BenGP02

Lets start at the very begining, It's a very good place to start.

2009-04-18T11:25:00.000-07:00

Sup y'all,

Welcome to my brand spanking sparkly new blog 'third week in chelsea'. Since this is the first time I've done a personal blog i'm going to keep it simple. This is going to be my place where I can write about whatever is on my mind or stuff that I find interesting etc...

Now just to let you know, i've never been to Chelsea nor do I have any connections with the place, but Google has assured me that it hosts a flower show each year... I'm sure its a cracking place.
No, third week in chelsea is one of my all time most awesome tunes of all time by a remarkable 60's group called 'Jefferson Airplane'. Give them a listen. Proper old chill out tunes. Nice.

Just poured a nice glass of wine. Mmmmm.
Just took a sip, it's not that nice...

Anyways, i'm currently writing a short play. It's not by anymeans finished, but if anyone would like a read then let me know. I'll post the odd scene for comments cos I'd appreciate the feedback.

Every now and then i'll drop in a review of either a series, book, film, game or band, as it's something that i've been wanting to do for quite a while.

Anyways, that's it for my first blog post.
Thanks for reading:)

You can follow me at BenGP02