Gun Parade March - Operation 1

Rating:
Summary: A great series - please support it!
Review: "Gunparade March", if you do some research on the title, was based on a Playstation game by SCE (Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc.) that came out in 2000. If you dig a bit further, you should find the series's review and how, because of the attrition from fighting the "Genjuu" beasts, teenaged students are now being called up to fight in HWTs (just think of these as the generic mobile suits in the Gundam universes) with Atsushi Hayami supposed to be a trump card in the war.

When I first read that review of the series, the first thing that came to mind was "Not another giant robot series with the main character, a teenager, discovering that he has some mysterious power or ability that lets him defeat his enemies!"

Very happily, "Gunparade March" failed to live up to that expectation.

Don't get me wrong, though; there is combat in the series - and they are done well - but those scenes are not in every episode. The series is more about people living their lives as best they could when monsters can appear out of nowhere and attack them as well as the high school students who, when the raid siren goes off, have to jump into their HWTs, go into combat, and oftentimes, die in the process. In other words, it's a series that has a great deal of interpersonal relationships involved.

A minor spoiler; a favorite and very sad scene of mine has a TV news anchor read the names and ages of those young kids who died in the day's fighting, and people passing along simply walk along as if they didn't even hear. Great emotional impact, I thought, with dusk and the rain falling, and the voice reading what seemed to be a never-ending list of names.

All in all, this is a great series that I highly recommend. I'm only giving four (actually 4 1/2 :-) stars to this disc as it, according to Media Blasters's website, carries the first four episodes, which provides the introduction to the storyline and characters. You don't really see why someone like Shibamura Mai (one of the main characters) would volunteer to join the armed forces as a pilot - at least, not yet.

Rating:
Summary: A great series - please support it!
Review: "Gunparade March", if you do some research on the title, was based on a Playstation game by SCE (Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc.) that came out in 2000. If you dig a bit further, you should find the series's review and how, because of the attrition from fighting the "Genjuu" beasts, teenaged students are now being called up to fight in HWTs (just think of these as the generic mobile suits in the Gundam universes) with Atsushi Hayami supposed to be a trump card in the war.

When I first read that review of the series, the first thing that came to mind was "Not another giant robot series with the main character, a teenager, discovering that he has some mysterious power or ability that lets him defeat his enemies!"

Very happily, "Gunparade March" failed to live up to that expectation.

Don't get me wrong, though; there is combat in the series - and they are done well - but those scenes are not in every episode. The series is more about people living their lives as best they could when monsters can appear out of nowhere and attack them as well as the high school students who, when the raid siren goes off, have to jump into their HWTs, go into combat, and oftentimes, die in the process. In other words, it's a series that has a great deal of interpersonal relationships involved.

A minor spoiler; a favorite and very sad scene of mine has a TV news anchor read the names and ages of those young kids who died in the day's fighting, and people passing along simply walk along as if they didn't even hear. Great emotional impact, I thought, with dusk and the rain falling, and the voice reading what seemed to be a never-ending list of names.

All in all, this is a great series that I highly recommend. I'm only giving four (actually 4 1/2 :-) stars to this disc as it, according to Media Blasters's website, carries the first four episodes, which provides the introduction to the storyline and characters. You don't really see why someone like Shibamura Mai (one of the main characters) would volunteer to join the armed forces as a pilot - at least, not yet.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty good
Review: After hearing this was simuliar to Full Metal Panic!, I decided to check it out. I was expecting the usually plot.. Teenage kid who is afraid of the enemy learns that he or she has special abilities to save the world.. However, this is not the case. Sure there is a ton of simularities to this and FMP.. but this anime has enough differences to stick out. Instead of just one main character there seems to be several pilots it centers around. I'm looking forward to volume 2.

Rating:
Summary: This one proves that Japan loves classic American SF
Review: Without giving much away, imagine the American film Starship Troopers, but this time with younger (16) soldiers. Then set it in Japan, adding in a previous alien invasion/war in 1945. Add mechs. Stir well. There you have it.

Very well executed, if you forgive the borrowing from Heinlein, as I do. The only thing that suffers is the fact that this is "just" an intro/setup for the whole story.

The best part is characterization. These young soldiers act realistically and don't come off as either stereotypical whiny teens or hard-boiled, emotionless vets.

If you want to see a really good translation of mediocre American film based on classic SF, this is the one to get.

Now, if there was a way to do Stranger in a Strange Land...