I posted this no long ago on our Facebook fan page no long ago.
But basically, it’s a new robot anime show that’s going to come up this year. Rumours said it’s expected to fall in October 2010.
Not much info to reveal at this stage. But here’s what I managed to find online in the last couple weeks about this show.
In the director’s chair is mounted Taku Igarashi (Takuya Igarashi), has worked on the series Soul Eater, but the scenario will work Edzhi Enokido (Yoji Enokido), in the past giving birth to Revolutionary Girl Utena. For the design of the characters meet and Hiroki Midzuya Misa (Misa and Hiroka Mizuya), as well Eshiuki Ito adapt designs and is responsible for overseeing the animation. The music also write Satoru Kosaka (Satoru Kousaki), speaking earlier in the composer Bakemonogatari, Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumia and Lucky Star.
Anime will narrate about a boy named Takuto, control the robot with the name Taubaan (Taubaan).
With my recent posts on Facebook fan page, we’re seeming to be getting more and more awesome super robot shows from the past, being resurrected into new format in all kinds of entertainment.
For new blood of mecha fan generations to enjoy!
With Transformers 3 in the works by July, Mazinkaizer ready for its official public OVA release date to be announced, Gaiking’s giving us an impressive entrance in this trailer video, it seems like everything’s set into motion for super robot genres.
It’s like we’re truly facing a reality. We’re actually starting to witness the return of these old classic robot shows that many fans I’ve heard for the past couple of years always says this sentence whenever they think about these old shows.
“BRING THEM BACK!“, they yelled.
And I agreed. Now that they’re getting what they ask for, I also become a believer of this nostagic group.^^
With these new robots we’re anticipating to see this year, I’m going to ask everybody in the community what other shows are you all keen to see them coming back?
What favourite shows you saw in the 70s, 80s, and 90s do you want today’s modern age TV/movie/toy producers to direct and produce? New Voltron TV shows? New Transformers toys lineup? A Mazinger live-action movie with American actors to watch (what?? American actors? Now that’s weird….) Gundam heroes to pick.
What do you think? Have your say in the comments below.
We probably need a poll for this type of question.
Since my last post on my own Voltron toy that I “constructed” out of the Toyanmi box and it was another sheer piece of classic toy many mecha enthusiasts would love to have, I bumped into another mecha enthusiast who happens to like building Voltron toys too.
But… this time! He makes them using Lego parts!
Literally!!!
Check out the video and his impressive Lego-building skills after he won this award at a brick building competition.
One thing you’ll notice is around 0:50, you will see all the 5 main hero characters from the show, built as Lego men (or woman for the Blue lion^^). The detail of the character design was incredibly accurate! You’ll also notice towards at the end of the video, there are other mecha builders putting their mecha toys on display.
I praised this guy for doing such marvellous type of work. His passion, his desire to make one of the best classic mecha in the series as a stand-still robot toy for all mecha fans to enjoy!
At least that’s what I believe after just reading this blog post from an anime blogger, Deb Aoki.
There’s going to be greater explosion of several mecha anime from the past to be reinvented.
With a new format, new changes.
New everything. Just like the one I posted on this Gaiking movie trailer not long ago (see video below).
I mentioned that there’s going be a different nature of mecha interests between boys and girls at such lengthy proportions. Looks like there’s no such barrier for all gender to enjoy this so-called new-found anime genre, which lasted for over 3 generations.
Ahhh… Good things to see old school is being “brought” back.
What do you think? Do you see this is as good thing? In fact, more importantly, are you excited about this type of development?
Was reading this post from AltJapan. They surely got this amazing talent of making (or should I say, crafting) robot toys. And it’s not one of those ordinary die-cast materials you would be expecting.
This time. It is made out of……
GUESS WHAT?
WOOD.
Like plain chopping wood. 0.0
Have a look below
I know it’s crazy. But it’s possible now you’re seeing them with your very own eyes. Apparently it started with this little small shop called Take G toys in the Tokyo where people can come in and order themselves a new Jumbo-sized wooden robot. However, the toys are not on sale online. But you can still view them at the exhibit that the company’s looking forward to put it on display.
The exhibition starts between 30 March and 14 April.
Before I finish off writing this post, I thought it would be nice to show the 3D video rendering all the three robots featuring in todays’ post. (see video)
While the new Votoms trailer release is under way, let us give ourselves a recap on Votoms TV series.
It’s a strange fact. But…
I never actually get to watch the series during the 80s. They must have been broadcasted in other countries but never in my back to my home country of Malaysia…. Or perhaps it never occurred to me that it was broadcasted for a long while and I wasn’t even aware of it.
Whatever the reason was, I’m glad to know it’s available for Generation Mech fans like us to get use to remembering what the series ever looked like actually….
So here’s the video footage of the series for those who wish to recap…
The original opening.
Whilst I went online reading more about this, I encountered this detailed info from online American otaku site.
In U.S. anime fandom, many point to Mobile Suit Gundam (whichever incarnation may be currently available) as the premiere series combining politics and mecha combat. However, for nearly as long, though not quite as popular, there has been a franchise in Japan that is very extensive and more focused on the ground aspects of mecha combat, while often telling pretty good stories to boot. That franchise is Armor Trooper Votoms, which originally started as a 52 episode TV series and has since spun off into several side stories. Although the primary focus of the Import Report section is meant to look at new shows not released in America, the current show in question is geared towards long-time followers, so we’ll take a look at the original series which has been released here as a primer for the current installment.
Armored Trooper Votoms
The series takes place in the distant future, when humanity has spread to various parts of the galaxy. The story begins at the tail end of a hundred year-long war between the Gilgamesh and Balarant star systems which has devastated population and resources. The emergence of robotic suits called VOTOMs (Vertical One-man Tank for Offense and Maneuvers) changed the course of the war and an uneasy cease fire was eventually reached.
It is at this point we are shown a group of Gilgamesh soldiers in Votoms breaking into a military space station. One of them, Sgt. Chirico Cuvie, is following orders to the best of his ability having just transferred to this particular unit. Chirico is a bit horrified to discover the station belongs to HIS OWN army, but he continues to follow orders. When he asks about the true objective of the mission, the rest of the squad simply tells him to stand guard after the initial break-in, and cut off his frequency. Through a series of mishaps, Chirico winds up in an empty chamber where a single capsule is stored. The capsule opens to reveal a strange glow surrounding a nude female, who instantly turns to stare at Chirico. It’s at this point the rest of the squad appears, saying the capsule is their true objective. Chirico is ordered back outside, but just as he leaves, one of the squad leaves a bomb in his path and the resulting explosion knocks him out.
Chirico wakes up in an interrogation chamber where he’s being repeatedly tortured and asked about the break in, as well as something called “The Prototype.” He tells all he knows about the squad’s activities, but can’t convince the inquisitor that he knows nothing more. The inquisitor, Captain Rochina, decides to take the prisoner back to his homeworld Melkia for further interrogation. Chirico is less than happy to be there since ¾ of the population has been wiped out and the dejected survivors have crowded in a place called Voodo City.
Chirico endures all manners of suspicion, betrayal, and recaptures over the course of this story arc. He eventually gains a small set of friends but not without emotional and physical cost, having to deal with enslavement in a labor camp, arena mech combat, and a large bounty offered for his capture or death, not to mention former squadron members who’d like to silence him forever.
This struggle is part of the reason I’ve grown to like Armored Trooper Votoms. They don’t make mech shows like this anymore. Hell, they didn’t even make them much in the 80’s when this was made. Many of them followed the plot model of Mobile Suit Gundam, focusing on teens who were finding themselves and trying to get better or more powerful as the series progressed. Chirico though is an established soldier who demonstrates skill and resourcefulness right from the start. He’s a bit fallible but fights through his troubles with conviction. As I experienced this story, I really wanted to see him get to the bottom of the conspiracy around him and get revenge. Chirico doesn’t have time to do the angsty whining bit; he’s too busy kicking ass. Casual viewers might dismiss Votoms as just another big robots anime, but focus and development of the main character instead of his weapons is what makes this a compelling show.
I also liked how the mech combat is done differently than many similar series of that decade. In works like Aura Battler Dunbine and Heavy Metal L-Gaim, pilots would battle each other and become practically invincible in their special suits, absorbing all kinds of damage with not much consequence. Votoms works completely the opposite way in that ground soldiers will simply see a mech as just one big target they can destroy with 3 or 4 well placed shots, and a suit’s longevity will depend on the skill of its pilot. Outside of Mobile Police Patlabor, I can’t think of any other anime which treats combat mecha in this way, as this adds an element of vulnerability to the harsh world series creator Ryosuke Takahashi (SPT Layzner, Gasaraki, Hi No Tori) put together here.
I got to reading a bit more about that world in the extras section of the disc, where PDF files on the DVD-ROM section were placed. Combined with the informative director’s commentary on, I was satisfied with the background materials this set provided (Thank you, Tim Eldred!), though I would’ve liked to have seen clean opening and closing sequences on here such as other importers have placed on their classic anime collections. This is honestly a minor quibble though.
I also liked the video and subtitle quality of the episodes. It’s especially nice when you consider the first time Central Park Media released Votoms on DVD (with assistance from Image Entertainment), they placed 3-4 episodes per disc, the video quality (though decent) had no real enhancement, and the subtitles were larger and hard coded on the picture. This re-mastered version you are reading about places 13 episodes on 2 DVDs, but with bolder picture coloring and removable subs. The audio remains the same, but this is good in my view because of late, when audio has been redone on classic anime such as Mobile Suit Gundam and Robotech, the foley have been completely changed to weak-as-hell modern effects completely different from the 80’s originals. So in terms of overall presentation, I have to say CPM did some pretty nice work with this set.
Now that it’s done in Hong Kong… We now have one in Taiwan!
That’s what my little birdie told me after it showed me this link from Sunrise.
Tracing back to the Taiwan’s link, it’s said the Gundam Unicorn’s release is on 6th March 2010! Not only that they will be a massive nation-wide sales of Blue Ray/DVDs on the market for this 12 year-old franchise. It’s available in Mandarin languages as well. (Huh, go figure. :) )
According to the Taiwan’s site, they originally had plans for its advance screening, supposedly held on 26th Feb 2010. However, it’s been revised and extended till the first week of March so many Taiwanese fans will get the better spectacle of fun on that day such lucky draws to get into its promotional DVDs stand, special booking and toy collection, etc, etc
There are not many online facts I could find with regard of this mecha anime. Very uncommon mecha show that anyone hardly knows (including myself, which is sad to say the least).
All my googling efforts ended nowhere until I later discovered that they were actually far more popular in Asia, than it was in European, USA, South America and Oceanic countries.
It’s fair to say the content was more geared to suit Asian audiences. After searching its material via Google Trends (and reading this link from Wikipedia.org), I could be right. Here’s the following excerpt from Wikipedia.org
“Brave Exkaiser is a Japanese animated television series that began in 1990, created by Sunrise under the direction of Katsuyoshi Yatabe, and is the first of the long running Yuusha or “Brave” metaseries funded by Takara and produced by Sunrise. The story takes place on a present day Earth that was secretly visited by a group of space police led by Exkaiser who were chasing after an evil gang of energy beings called The Geisters (led by Dino Geist). Upon arriving on Earth, Exkaiser and his team called the “Kaisers” put their spirits (Similar to Sparks of the Transformers mythos) into vehicles all over Japan so that they could convert them into transformable bodies for themselves.”
Here’s the intro theme.
Some pics from the series
Exkaizer Hero Crew
Brave Exkaizer wall poster
Exkaizer
And here’s the list of heroes and villians.
Our Heroes
Exkaizer – Our Hero Intro
King Exkaizer
Dragon Exkaizer
Great Exkaizer
Dash Max
Sky Max
Drill Max
God Max
Blue Raker and Green Raker
Ultra Raker
The Villians
The Four Geists
Dino Geist – Ringleader of Geists
Lots of uncanny resemblances with Transformers G1 animated series. Here and there. In fact, it is said that they’re the new designs of Transformers G1 and they’re meant to showcase the “enhanced” design aspects of Transformers that were superior. Because of this enthused marketing ploy Takara wanted to do so much, that’s why it’s part of that long lineage of super robot series during the 90s.
Very intriguing.
Well, that’s all for now. I’m sure there’s plenty of facts to go I’m keen to find out why the series was only good amongst Asian audiences in the far east. More will be posted in the future.
If anybody out there who knows better about the Brave series, feel free to guest post here. I’m looking forward to hear your thoughts on it.
Was casually browsing online the other day after returning from work.
And I encountered this very awesome video clip and had to post it on my Facebook page!!
You couldn’t believe what I’m seeing here! It’s Taiwan’s very own Transformers 1/1 scale model of Optimus Prime!
Well sort of.
News said that a Taiwan local gardener built this giant (somewhat) replica of Optimus Prime model, using all the spare parts of the brake discs and other auto parts as a special present for his 10 year old son. Awww… How incredibly sweet of him! ^^
And to show he meant it with all his heart and soul, he’s spent two weeks to construct a 430 cm tall and about 500 kgs of weight as prove of his dedication for making a wonderful gift for his soul.
Man. What a swell kind of guy! That clearly shows his passion and love for this little big ‘project’ of his. ^^
After reading this post in twitter, I started to think myself how can the guy in the video really want to take over with the world with this so-called giant robots. If you’re really planning to take over whole world with giant robots, then start working ahead towards being an actual scientist, rather than be a make-believe giant robot scientist wannabe! :-/
