Giant Mecha News 259
da3dAlus writes "Starting next week, Monday Feb 24th, from 4-5pm est Cartoon Network's Toonami starts a Giant Robot Week. The lineup currently includes episodes of Nadesico, Dia-Guard, Robotech, and Evangelion (yes, NGE is slated for the block, but only on Mon/Tues). Also in Evangelion news, AnimeNewsNetwork reports Gainax is finalizing the re-release of the boxed set of NGE. This set includes re-worked (audio/video enhanced) versions of the original 26 episodes, the 4 'remake' eps from laser disc, and a bonus disc with creditless opening/closing video, trailers, and live-action edition of the film. The final cut of the Evangelion movie-- Death(True)2, Air, and Magokoro wo Kimi ni--will also be included. The discs will be in a limited edition art box, and will retail for ~$322 on or about June 25th, with a reservation deadline of April 14th. After that, the new set will be released separately without the box."
~$322?!? (Score:5, Insightful)
Thank God for Cartoon Network. Apparently everyone else only cares about the hardcore fans. God forbid you're a curious n00b.
Re:Kids stuff? (Score:1, Insightful)
You and I may look at cars today and think, "Ok, it's a machine that takes me from point A to point B. What's the big deal?", but our opinion obviously doesn't represent the opinion of everyone else. Walk into any bookstore or grocery store and check out the magazine section -- what do you see? Dozens of car magazines aimed at car enthusiasts, who are every bit as excited about cars as their counterparts decades ago.
Similarly, there are countless teenagers and pre-teens who are more obsessed with computers as much as we are/were (maybe even moreso). Just like the car enthusiasts of our day (many of whom have completely ripped apart their stock vehicles and 'modded' them out), these kids also have the desire to break through the nice, clean exterior their store-bought computers present them to find out what really makes them tick. This drive to explore and tweak has been around for centuries, and it's not going to stop here.
Some important differences (Score:5, Insightful)
Yet the American version of the same character (Lee Majors, also the Six Million Dollar Man and the Incredible Hulk) always strayed on the right side of the law. I guess we Americans always have to root for the good guy. Whereas in Japan, a well developed hero will often masturbate, cry, and proclaim him/herself the Messiah. I gues they just have different types over there.
Re:Eva? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Important note about the Japanese DVD set... (Score:3, Insightful)
For example, Ranma 1/2. Although I do prefer the Japanese voice acting, I have to admit the dub is done very well. As opposed to, let's say, Bubblegum Crisis, for example, where the dub was painful to watch.
YMMV, but not all dubs are created equal. I think as anime fans its more important to get the content in front of mainstream audiences so that it's more economically viable to bring more content over from Japan. Infighting over the details doesn't help.
Re:Some important differences (Score:3, Insightful)
We're not as prone to the tortured hero, but they aren't exactly absent.
Even in classic American literature we've got Twain's Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn, Melville's Ishmael (who slept with his cannibal buddy) and Hemmingway's Nick Adams (among others).
Oh, and The Incredible Hulk was Bill Bixby. Also a tortured hero who had trouble with the law.
KFG
Re:I dunno... (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, maybe not... and plus, I think Tenchi is just as socially inept than Shinji anyways...
Though it's a painful thing to realize, Tenchi is surrounded by people at least few orders of magnitude more rational and balanced than the cast of Evangelion. And no, I don't include Eva and Angels.
Re:But someone is! (Score:1, Insightful)
- No one in the group owns any welding equipment. This would seem a rather large ommision for something planning to use steel I beams as legs.
- They are using modified I-openers as control computers. Enough said.
- Engineering prototypes in legos. Never mind the radically different wieght and structural considerations. Legos.
- No intermediate mechs. Theyre planning on going right from legos to full building sized machines.
Not to say the project doesnt have merit from a gee thats cool standpoint, but I would hate for someone to get killed developing this thing and the whole idea be written off that much longer.Re:Kids stuff? (Score:1, Insightful)
You make a good point and it's a shame that this is an offtopic subject because it is one I happen to agree with.
Back in the day (around 1991) when I got into computers, it was something interesting because it was challenging. If you wanted to get on to a BBS, you had to install a modem, set dip switches or jumpers, install terminal emulation software and configure it. Sure, it sounds like having to walk 50 miles to school in the snow, uphill both ways, but unlike today's plug-and-play point-and-click computing world, you almost always ended up learning something new while using the computer.
Let's face it, I didn't start using computers because I could download songs and movies, or play the latest hottest games (they were all on consoles. I started using computers because they were interesting and challenging. The more I figured out how to do, the more I wanted to learn...
It's amazing how accurate you are with the car analogy. With older cars, you could pop the hood and there'd be room to work and easy tweaks you could do. Possibly you'd get interested by the appeal of the vehicle's "hackability" and become motivated to learn more about mechanics. Of course, this is before my time - my father told me all about how "back in the day cars used to be easier to work on". Nowadays, you pop the hood and wonder how they ever manged to get that engine in there, and how the hell you'll even get at the spark plugs to change them. Most teenagers that are even still interested in modifying cars either buy older cars or do "rice boy"-type appearance modifications to modern ones.
Today's Windows PCs are much the same way... All the complexity is hidden from the user. Many of my younger brother's friends know how to do the basics - they can browse the web, send e-mail, download music and porn... But ask them what kind of processor they have and they'll reply "I don't know." It's great that PCs have become easy enough to use for the masses, but I wonder how many kids are just getting introduced to Windows XP and assume the PC is just another entertainment appliance.
Re:a more mature evangelion (Score:3, Insightful)
The first few episodes I was a bit annoyed with how similar it was to Eva, but I got over it. You could say that if Eva has a religious background then RahXephon has musical influences. Ie music is used in RX in much the same way religion is in Eva. It's very good though. (And I recall watching a TV program and a choir sang one of the arias used in RX.)
RX is a bit easier to get into as well, the characters are more normal then in Eva. But before you call RX deeper you should check out some sites analyzing Eva, there's a lot of things in that show not immideately obvious. Calling it "childish" demonstrates that you haven't done this IMHO.
But I guess I'm influenced by the fact that Eva was one of the first anime series I ever watched. And it had a pretty big impact on me.