I've been watching every single Gundam from the beginning. Most of them are very hit and miss, with about 10 amazing episodes, 25 decent ones, and 15 toy commercials.
But Turn A Gundam is a fucking masterpiece. It's set in America with 1920's level technology, being invaded by humans migrating from the moon. The 1920's level civilization at first tries to fight them off with biplanes, but quickly finds ancient technology buried underground--including a Gundam. It's pretty close to Macross in tone and story, which is very happy-go-lucky by Gundam standards.
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But then someone digs up a nuke.
It's hard to rank the UC entries because most of them are sequels to each other in some respect, but the UC mainline probably peaks somewhere towards the end of Zeta. That said, the only actually bad parts of the UC timeline are the first half of Double Zeta and Char's Counterattack.
Gundam 0079 has some great moments and a great twist, but also has like 25 episodes in the middle where nothing happens but new gunpla. Also nobody has the same rank insignia for more than two consecutive scenes and it's really frustrating that nobody else on the internet complains about it.
Zeta Gundam's highs aren't really higher than Gundam 0079's highs, but there's hardly any filler. The rank insignia continuity errors are somehow even worse, to the point where I'm almost convinced that it's the artists trolling the fans.
Double Zeta puts the 25 terrible episodes from Gundam 0079 right at the beginning, but is as good as Zeta towards the end. They fix the rank insignia problem by just not drawing any this time.
Char's Counterattack is dumb. The character motivations are dumb. The deus ex machina at the end is dumb.
Gundam 0080 is great; a "fun" little child soldier story.
Gundam 0083 was good but forgettable.
Gundam F91 seems like it could have been a good series, dumb-looking villain notwithstanding. That series didn't get made, and we got a bad movie instead.
Victory Gundam had some gloriously stupid mecha designs, 200 m tall motorcycles, and a whole female-only pilot squad whose only narrative purpose was to die horribly one by one. It wasn't great, really, but there were some good character moments and lots of cute dog animations.
08th Mobile Suit Team was absolutely excellent for the first half. The second half after the director swap got progressively worse and worse until I hated the last episode.
Gundam Unicorn does a decent job of retconning Char's Counterattack to be slightly less dumb and horrible, and the characters are fun, but I didn't find it all that engaging. The giant political revelation that shakes the foundation of the federation government or whatever just seemed so extremely meaningless lib shit.
Gundam NT was forgettable. I just watched it and I literally can't tell you what happened.
Gundam THE ORIGIN was actually some of my favorite Gundam content. I loved it.
I just started G-Reco, and it's already way way too rushed, but I like the idea of a far-future Turn A sequel.
I haven't watched any of the non-UC Gundam or read the Crossbones manga. Not sure I'll bother.
I’ve been watching every single Gundam from the beginning
I haven’t watched any of the non-UC Gundam...Not sure I’ll bother.?
When I run out of UC Gundam (EDIT: UC-ish? I'm not sure what G-Reco is yet) very soon I'm taking a break. I'm sure I'll get the itch, though.
ah, fair enough, Wing was what got me into anime in the first place, way off in the before times
A few months ago, as I was working my way through the Ghibli/Miyazaki films I hadn't seen (notably: Castle in the Sky, Whisper of the Heart, and Nausicaa) I decided to rewatch Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro and realized that I really liked Lupin III.
Since then, I've been slowly working my way through the series as a whole. The last thing I watched was Goemon's Spray of Blood which, while enjoyable, I didn't really love like I did The Woman Called Fujiko Mine (hell yeah, the Cuba/Fidel Castro episode) or Part V. I think before I start my way from the Part I and work back up to V, I think I'll watch The Secret of Mamo.
The anime channel on the discord hyped up Symphogear and I now I can't stop watching it. I've plowed through two and a half seasons in like 5 days. Please send help.
I actually dove into fate recently. I work at an anime shop, and we sell NO Fate merch and I didn't realise how big a deal that is.
I finished the VN, am almost done with UBW anime. Also watched Carnival and that weird cooking spin off. I'm waiting to watch Zero with a friend who's in another city due to the rona.
This series is fucking fire
I'm always glad to see someone else enjoying Fate. Which VN route was your favourite?
Definitely UBW. Had my favourite ending with Rin, developed Archer's story which blew my fucking mind, and had Emiya being the coolest he gets throughout the game.
The other two are about tied to me. I loved some things (HF Rider, Illya being relevant), but didn't like some other things (Sakura).
So, I didn't do any of the tiger stamps, because I misunderstood it, and thought it was gonna be spoiler-y. So I just reloaded saves when I got to them, and only after did I find out what they actually were and I'm kicking myself because of it.
UBW is my favourite too, but I do wish it had more of Illya. Rin and Archer being super prominent makes it a good route, because they're so fun to watch. Plus you get Shirou at his snarkiest, which is great. I also prefer the ending,
spoiler
I like how Shirou decides that the process of saving people is more important than the end goal, and I think that makes it more interesting than either going all in like in Fate, or abandoning it. Plus he actually starts working on his terrible mental health, which is nice.
Yeah for sure. I'm so glad I played the VN. I had SOMEHOW avoided spoilers completely for the series so everything (Saber's backstory being the one I'm surprised I didn't know) was so cool to me. Wish the Fate route had an adaptation but I'm not too upset about it cause UBW was my favourite route anyway.
Currently, I'm halfway through the first season of Gintama. It's one of the funnier anime that I've ever seen barring something like Nichijou. The only thing that really bugs me about it is how inconsistent it is. One episode will have me on the floor and the next will have some low hanging "trans people are gross" joke that skeeves me out. The fourth wall breaks that they do are genius though.
I'm also watching Tokyo Sinks 2020 and Re:Zero 2, of which I haven't seen enough of to make heads or tails of either.
This season:
Re:Zero -- Season 1 was brilliant and season 2 seems to be more of the same, which is good
THE GOD OF HIGH SCHOOL -- Crunchyroll and Webtoons seem to be making a statement-of-intent with this show. Its animation is blowing away everything we've ever seen before including ufotable's work on FATE. They have spent so much money and effort on this as a showstopper to promote their partnership and I'm extremely happy to eat that up because it is a visual fiesta.
Deca-Dence -- This show started off sounding boring and then immediately took a turn into wilderness. Extremely interesting. Reminds me of West World in a lot of the themes it has, I can't really say much more without spoiling.
Enen no Shouboutai: Ni no Shou | Fire Force Season 2 -- I actually really didn't like Fire Force up until three quarters of the way through season 1. It took a long time to hit its stride and then it just got good, really good. It's still brainless consumption shonen but it has become really enjoyable brainless shonen.
Appare-Ranman! -- Got delayed for ages and ages due to covid. Still have no judgement on it, visually interesting but unable to get a read on it fully yet.
Fruits Basket -- Wonderful show, wonderful stories full of emotions and morals. A few bad social takes but it's from a manga that's quite old now so its not too surprising. A lot of good takes that outweigh the rare bad ones.
Toaru Kagaku no Railgun T / A Certain Scientific Railgun 3 -- I love Railgun so much. It's just really really well executed and fun psychic powers fighting against clandestine government evils.
I actually thought Tower of God was underwhelming. Not bad, just not especially better than any other anime. Like, if you put it next to Promised Neverland which you recently watched then Neverland stands out pretty far above it in my opinion, not just in visuals, but in animation and the director's cinematography too.
God of Highschool though? Every single episode has me saying "HOW MUCH DID THEY SPEND ON THIS?". They have movie-tier budget for every single episode. It is blowing my mind. You don't see this level of animation in every single episode of any show at all.
I intentionally try to stick to anime-only on things I haven't read for exactly the reason you're describing. At least until completion.
I recently just finished Gatchaman Crowds and have mixed feelings. I really like the director, but it feels like they became bogged down in symbolism and lost focus. Anyways it's really unique better than whatever battle harem is currently airing, so I plan to watch the 2nd season.
Mostly been watching live action television shows and movies but I did a rewatch of hxh 2011 a couple months ago during quarantine(god this shit has been going on forever) hunter hunter is as dope as I remember it being
Been going through all the early Gundam series just finished Zeta Gundam
Gundam 79 has some roughness in the animation and there are some parts where it drags but overall the OG and Zeta are really good
Haikyu!!
My son also likes watching Digimon, so we've been watching the hilariously dubbed anime. It's so bad.
Only thing I've seen recently is the second season of Kaguya-sama
This season:
-Appare Ranman - It seems pretty good so far. I'm a bit worried though, because MAL says it has 13 episodes, and they haven't even started the race yet, which has me sort of worried. The character designs are pretty good, if a bit stereotypical for the indigenous, black and Chinese characters that we've met so far. I don't really like Appare too much, but Kosame is a fun character so the show is still engaging to me. I'm hopeful that it'll be a fun watch, but it needs to start the race ASAP.
-Olympia Kyklos - I'm loving this show. I really like it when shows use inventive animation, so a show done almost entirely with clay animation immediately peaked my interest. The show mostly repeats the same thing over and over, but it hasn't gotten boring to me so far.
-Black Clover - Still terrible. The only reason it's not the worst show airing right now is because Borrowed Girlfriend exists.
-Deca-Dence - This show's really good. The setting is interesting, and I like where the plot is going at the moment. Also, the main character doesn't seem to have been sexualised too much so far, which is a major plus in my books. She also has a lot more agency than most women in anime, and her goals don't revolve around romance, which I really like. I'm holding out hope for the show to be really critical of
spoiler
corporations or even capitalism as an institution, rather than doing lib shit, like saying you just need more Tanker CEOs,
but I'm prepared to be disappointed on that front. I think this show's in my top three for the season.
-Fire Force - This show is automatically better than HeroAca because it's protagonists aren't cops. The show also has way better direction and fight scenes in my opinion. I wish they'd stop using Tamaki for fanservice, but other than that I really like this show.
-Fruits Basket - Shows its age, being from the 90s and full of conservative views, but I'm enjoying it regardless. All of the characters are generally fun, and the plot seems pretty interesting.
-Houkago Teibou Nisshi - Generic doga kobo SoL CGDC#654. I like it. My chances of surviving if I'm stuck in the wilderness by a river are going up at least.
-Lapis Re:Lights - Weirdly good idol show. No idea where it's going, but it's not aggressively bad.
-Re:Zero - Not as good as 16 year old me remembers. I really don't like Subaru, and that makes it hard to watch any scene where we're supposed to be supporting him. The comedy's generally funny to me, but I wish the plot would just stop. Isekai Quartet honestly made me like Subaru more than the main show.
-SAO - Unironically better than re zero at the moment. I like where the plot's gone, though I could do without the tentacle rape.
-God of High School - Animation's really good, but the story is sorta bad. I'm also not enjoying the 'struggle to get what you want' theme. I'll keep watching for the animation, but otherwise don't really like the show.
-Uzaki - Trash, but fun to watch. There's definitely issues with the show, but it works as something I can half pay attention to while grinding the FGO summer event.
-Oregairu - Just as good as I remember it when I was 16. I have no complaints, it's definitely one of my favourite shows.
Dropped:
-Borrowed Girlfriend - The worst show I've seen in at least 6 months.
-Maou Gakuin no Futekigousha: Shijou Saikyou no Maou no Shiso, Tensei shite Shison-tachi no Gakkou e - It was just boring. I got interrupted in the middle of an episode, and just never saw a reason to go back to it.
Not from this season:
-Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru - I'm rewatching this one because I saw the rewatch on r/anime. It's a pretty good SoL show, done by Shaft. I'm enjoying it more this time around because I'm appreciating the direction a bit more.
-Nisekoi - I'd heard about it, so I wanted to try it out. It's pretty fun to watch, not great, and filled with tons of problematic stuff, but I'm at least not bored while watching.
-Minami Ke - It's an average SoL. I mostly watch it while grinding FGO. The characters are fun and all, but it's not a revolutionary show or anything.
-BNA - I'm slowly watching it as Asenshi subs it. I'm liking it, but it has the same issue a lot of trigger originals have, where it's sort of all over the place. Kill la Kill pulled that off, but BNA isn't really moving fast enough, or ridiculously enough, to do the multiple simultaneous metaphors and themes it's trying to do.
