hopeful_monster
Thousand Master
Just finished the series, and since no one else has written anything about it, thought l'd put my thoughts about it down.
Yushiro Gowa is the 4th son of the Gowa family, who run Gowa Industries a corporation which make the TA (tactical armour... think tank sized mecha bout 5 to 8 meters tall). He pilots the TA's as part of the Army's trail for these new weapons along with a the rest of his squad. He is also part of his families research into more ... mystical experiments. During one of these he is contacted by a girl who pleads with him to stop the experiment. Terrified of what will come if he continues.
They then get shipped out to a out of the way thrid world middle easten country which seems to have WMD's (though this was made before 9/11 it seems to ghost what happened with disturbing accuracy... well minus the mecha), and another group of mecha.
While the instant thought would be Eva (hell any mecha series seems to be compared to if whether it came out before or after Eva did) it is much closer to Palabor 2, with political machinations taking up a great deal of screen time, and the fact that the mecha are treated as tools. Important tools, but tools none the less, rather than center of the series.
The reason that it may have not done as well as it may have been expected to is in part to its realism. The mecha battles are more military manouvers rather than the spectacular one on one arse kicking seen in things like Eva or Rahxephon. Also the political skullduggery would really fail to capture those after more instant gratifacalion, especially as although there are several female characters there is nothing even aproaching fan service, as they rarely wear anything sexier than army uniforms.
It is a good solid series, good plot, interesting mecha, but not spectacular in any respect. Unfortunatly not really very good value for money at 3 episodes per dvd for most of the series (unless you get it from amazon which seem to be flogging the dvd's for about £6 per dvd at the mo), but Well worth watching.
In five words or less:
Very good but not spectaular.
Yushiro Gowa is the 4th son of the Gowa family, who run Gowa Industries a corporation which make the TA (tactical armour... think tank sized mecha bout 5 to 8 meters tall). He pilots the TA's as part of the Army's trail for these new weapons along with a the rest of his squad. He is also part of his families research into more ... mystical experiments. During one of these he is contacted by a girl who pleads with him to stop the experiment. Terrified of what will come if he continues.
They then get shipped out to a out of the way thrid world middle easten country which seems to have WMD's (though this was made before 9/11 it seems to ghost what happened with disturbing accuracy... well minus the mecha), and another group of mecha.
While the instant thought would be Eva (hell any mecha series seems to be compared to if whether it came out before or after Eva did) it is much closer to Palabor 2, with political machinations taking up a great deal of screen time, and the fact that the mecha are treated as tools. Important tools, but tools none the less, rather than center of the series.
The reason that it may have not done as well as it may have been expected to is in part to its realism. The mecha battles are more military manouvers rather than the spectacular one on one arse kicking seen in things like Eva or Rahxephon. Also the political skullduggery would really fail to capture those after more instant gratifacalion, especially as although there are several female characters there is nothing even aproaching fan service, as they rarely wear anything sexier than army uniforms.
It is a good solid series, good plot, interesting mecha, but not spectacular in any respect. Unfortunatly not really very good value for money at 3 episodes per dvd for most of the series (unless you get it from amazon which seem to be flogging the dvd's for about £6 per dvd at the mo), but Well worth watching.
In five words or less:
Very good but not spectaular.
