but who was school??Kyon was school as usual
this thread is now about poor machine translation
I saw both Shin Getter Armageddon and New Getter Robo.
Definitely cool from the perspective of things the TTGL took stuff from. Some is thematic - New Getter's storyline ended up as a pretty direct predecessor of the whole Spiral Nemesis thing, and did it far better IMO - GL never showed us what Spiral Power would do outside of that 30-second monologue by Anti-Spiral; here it's made a lot more clear and frightening. Other stuff was a bit disillusioning - parts of Armageddon were virtual dead-ringers for Gurren Lagann, to the extent where I felt that GL came closer than an homage should. Getter Rays and the G-Stone in GaoGaiGar are direct predecessors of the Spiral Power, which takes Getter's POWER OF EVOLUTION and WILL CONSUME THE UNIVERSE and GGG's POWERED BY COURAGE. There's the odd bunch of human resistance dudes piloting bizarre mechs in a post-apocalyptic world with desolate surroundings, while the main characters have the magic uber-mech with ridiculous power and a drill. (To be fair, that's just one of the 3 forms Getter has). People who liked Kamina will probably appreciate Ryoma, who is fairly awesome in Armageddon and absolutely ridiculous in New Getter.
And, at least to me, Getter just looks damn cool - especially in Armageddon. It always either has a cape or bat wings or some other shit stuck on that screams super-robot-awesome. (If that's not your idea of awesome this is probably not something you would enjoy.)
I want to say that I enjoyed both shows, but then they also had a lot of failures. New Getter had a 3-episode detour into the wonderful land of time-travel and alternate universes which really accomplished very little story-wise and only made for giant what-the-fuck-stupid moments; for a 13-episode show that's a pretty big loss (even if it's followed up by a much more impressive and story-driving detour that pretty much made the show for me). It relies pretty heavily on gratuitous violence - the real kind, not with mechs - to keep things interesting. And it often had plot points or sequences (zombies abound) that made go "wtf" or "ugh"; its 70s-kiddie-show origins are really evident and can turn you off really easily. A lot of enemy designs garnered the same reaction, especially at the end (giant bearded scroll-writing man and white-haired anthro dinosaur was where I drew the line). Its conclusion was pretty damn exciting (and was kinda what I expected at the end of Gurren Lagann, so I got a little gratification out of it that maybe others wouldn't) but ultimately I can't recommend it to anyone who doesn't already have an urge to see it.
Armageddon had a far more solid storyline in comparison - though a lot of reviews I saw were critical of it and don't go in expecting anything above the TTGL level of classic "defeat teh evils" lest you be disappointed - but it was fun enough to follow and led to a lot of sequences that were just cool. It seemed like it would go the New Getter way of wtf-ugh at around episode 2, but I was pleasantly surprised that it managed to keep itself more or less as respectable as a show with a man wearing a chain for a belt can keep itself. There was one episode spent on an omg emotional dilemma that every zombie-esque movie ever has had (also a problem in New Getter), but that was the low point of the show and in Armageddon it really didn't detract much from the experience (take that how you will). I rarely cringed while watching it, which is more than I can say for New Getter. However, it was also a lot less exciting than New Getter. The conclusion felt like a huge anti-climax of action... they had the opportunity for some ridiculous ass-kicking but pretty much threw it away. Armageddon would be easier for your average dude to swallow than New Getter but it's still not for anyone who's not into hardcore super-robot stuff and can't tolerate cliché.
I went in looking to see stuff that influenced Gurren Lagann. I got what I expected and not much more. GaoGaiGar was more satisfying due to its amazing ending and sequel despite its 35-some episodes of pointless grind. And then in general, shows like this are not for most people.
Last edited by teh lag; February 6th, 2010 at 11:32 AM.
There are currently 7 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 7 guests)
Bookmarks