Anime Review: Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn

Cropped version of Gundam Unicorn Blu-Ray Art

For the past 30 years, the narrative and thematic conclusion of the One Year War arc of the Universal Century was Char’s Counterattack. The film is wonderfully animated, with intense action sequences, but in my view it felt less like a thematic conclusion of the themes of the first 3 Gundam series, and more of a return to the narrative of the original Mobile Suit Gundam anime series. As I mentioned in my review of Gundam ZZ – that worked for me when what I knew of the Universal Century was just the original series, but it became less and less resonant as I made my way through the story. Gundam Unicorn, on the other hand, feels much more resonant, and fits as a conclusion to this part of the Universal Century. Read more

Let’s Play Super Robot Wars V: Episode 5 – Trial By Fire

I take on the next DLC mission as the squad tries a little team building exercise.

Theme: JAM Project – The EXCEEDER (From Super Robot Wars V)

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Let’s Play Super Robot Wars V: Episode 4 – Pirates of Mars

The Yamato arrives on Mars and runs into a completely different series.

Theme: JAM Project – The EXCEEDER (From Super Robot Wars V)

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Book Review: Legend of the Galactic Heroes – Book 5 – Mobilization

It’s the battle we’ve all been waiting for.

Legend of the Galactic Heroes Book 5 is available from – Amazon.com (Paperback, Kindle) and RightStuf.com

Any purchases you make through those links helps support the show.

Please support my Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/countzeroor
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The Hugo Rules for Fanzines need to be adjusted

John Scalzi’s latest blog post got me thinking – and this started off as a comment, but became a little too long for a comment, so I started to take it Tumblr… until it became too long for Tumblr, so I’m taking it here.

One of the support levels of my Patreon gets you a print copy of my fanzine. However, as of this writing I haven’t put out a new issue, because… well… I don’t have any cover art. I have the issue written, with the main article being a big piece breaking down the “Nasu-verse”, but before I put it out – I also wanted to get some cover art that reflected the topic – ideally of Saber, and in particular something that showed her as an active co-protagonist as opposed to cheesecake.

Except the artists I’ve contacted have not responded back, and I can’t blame them – because I can’t pay them. Not because I have no money… but because under the rules of the Hugo Awards, to remain classified as a Fanzine, I can’t pay them. Read more

Anime Review: Anime-Gataris (2017)

The Anime Club from Anime-Gataris.

There have been numerous anime about anime and anime fandom – from Otaku no Video and Genshiken on the fandom side, and Shirobako and Animation Runner Kuromi on the production side. This last year had Anime-Gataris, an anime series spun-off from a series of shorts that aired in a specific movie theater in Tokyo, a series that does a little bit of both – and then some. Read more

Comic Review: Jean Grey #1-11 (and Phoenix: Resurrection)

Over the course of late 2017 and into this year, Jean Grey, for the first time, got her first solo ongoing, not in the form of her adult self (who was, until recently, deceased), but in the form of her time-displaced teenage self, brought into the present day (it’s complicated) – which lead into the return of Adult Jean Grey. As the series recently wrapped up, I figured I might as well give my thoughts. Read more

Editorial: Thoughts on Trump’s Video Game Violence Conference

Kotaku has reported that the Trump administration held a conference at the White House of industry executives and various “Think of the Children” groups like the US PTA about violence in video games in the wake of the most recent school shooting. Now, for the past 8 or so years, this had been a settled issue, since the Supreme Court ruling in Brown vs. EMA ruled that video games were an artistic medium and thus could be art, and in turn the 1st Amendment applied to them. Read more