Post by LoveGame on Jun 19, 2016 23:49:20 GMT -5
Like many people in the 'states, I was first exposed to Zoids through the New Century/Zero anime. During 2001, this show was one of Toonami's staples and a lot of people I know who aren't really into Zoids now at least remember the show. After getting more involved in the Zoids fandom, however, I can't help but notice that the show is mostly talked about in a very negative light. Normally, I could chalk this up to nostalgia blindness, but the fact of the matter is, I've rewatched NC0 twice during my adult life. Once during my senior year back in 2011, and again just a few months ago when I was getting back into Zoids as a whole, and I can say with honesty that I think it still holds up for the most part. This post will cover why I believe this, and why I think some people are looking at it the wrong way.
From what I have gathered, the general consensus seems to be that either A) Chaotic Century/Guardian Force is infinitely better in every way and if you think otherwise you're wrong, or B) Zoids anime in general sucks and should never be anything besides a gritty, edgy war story and yes I am unable to have fun. Therefore, in the interest of keeping my thoughts from getting scattered, let's divide this post into a few basic categories and do a comparison between CC and NC0 in each regard.
Mission confirmed, taking off now!
Category I - Story/plot:
Let me start off by saying that a common misconception held about NC0 is that it has no plot. While the show is much more episodic in nature, I think it's more than a little unfair to make this statement. NC0 is allowed to be the way it is because, when you think about it, the whole show is one giant tournament arc. The goal of the Blitz Team is to continue to defeat opponents, move up in the ranks, qualify for the big nationals, and get better Zoids and gear along the way. While this might come off as redundant, it actually makes perfect sense. I myself am a low-level competitive Super Smash Bros. player who often attends his local scene and the occasional regional tourney. From my experience, I can tell you that this is often what it boils down to. Gallivanting around the state in cars packed full of geeks like me, talking friendly trash to each other and shouting about how great we are at the game, discussing techs, fine tuning our GameCube controllers, and that sort of thing, all to win some prize money and, wouldn't you know it, qualify for nationals. And our TOs? They were our "Steve Toros", rarely taking anything too seriously, always making jokes and mispronouncing our tags on purpose when they called us to the setup. Zoids as a competitive sport is an interesting idea for me, but I can see how those who crave a war-based setting would be a bit turned off.
However, we have a wildcard thrown into the mix in the form of the Backdraft Group, your standard group of bad guys wanting to disrupt the tournament with their illicit battles and their desire to get their hands on the Zero. Honestly, these guys are fairly weak villains and I couldn't blame you for all but forgetting about them. While I absolutely adore Stigma Stoller and think he has a lot over some of CC's characters, that's about it. The "Count" and other higher up members are just kinda there and generic, and Vega didn't really get enough time to develop for me to feel much for him, as much as I loved the final battle. Still, the BD group did add something different and raise the stakes a bit, so I say nothing wrong with that.
It can't really be argued that CC/GF has by far the deeper and more complex plot. It deals with the war between the Empire and the Republic, with neither side being objectively evil (other than Prozen himself). When I was younger, I actually passed this show up because my 10 year old mind deemed it "too different", and that 6am time slot wasn't very attractive either. Right after I rewatched NC0 in high school, I moved onto CC/GF to satisfy my Zoids craving and ended up loving it. It's definitely a show I can appreciate more as an adult. CC isn't without its own flaws in terms of story, though. For one, the show starts off the same way so many other shonen anime before it has; the protag is given the incredibly vague goal of "find Zoid Eve lol whatever that is". I always saw plots like these as an excuse for the protag to wander around for a while and get into a lot of random, disconnected situations, which is exactly what happens in the early episodes. The pacing isn't too bad, but it's definitely a slow burn. Things start to make a little more sense when Raven and Prozen get introduced, and when Van and the gang find themselves embroiled in the ever-expanding war, CC, like Van's Liger, hits the ground running on all fours. This forces them to make critical decisions and reflect on who they are. You really get a feel for how politics work on Zi.
By the time of GF, everyone's grown up, the Empire and Republic have made peace and formed a joint group known as the Guardian Force. The story here continues to maintain good quality, thanks in part to newcomer Thomas, but again, has flaws here and there. I was more than a little disappointed when they chose to make the "ultimate evil" Zoid just another Death Saurer. No Madthunder, no Gilvader, not even a Bloody Saurer or a recolor, literally the same damn model. Even if it was stated to be more powerful, it didn't feel near as threatening the second time. Speaking of, did Gurren Lagann get the idea to shoot a mech from their cannon in lieu of a missile from this show? I swear that scene with Kittan is just too similar...
So even though NC0 isn't as bare as most people dismiss it as, CC clearly has the more intricate story and writing.
Category I winner: Chaotic Century
Score:
NC0: 0
CC: 1
Category II - Characters:
I firmly believe that what NC0 lacks in deep storywriting, it makes up for in spades with its characters. One thing you must know about me as an anime fan is that I'm not big on kid heroes. They aren't relatable or believeable to me, honestly. This is part of the reason I wasn't too keen on Genesis. This is far too common of a theme, and was even back when this show was new. NC0 breaks the pattern by giving us a mostly-adult cast. Just about everyone in the main cast, to me, could pass for self-sufficient adults. No one is given any needlessly-tragic backstories; instead we learn most of what we need to know about them in their first appearance. Our main protag, Bit Cloud, is a simple junk dealer roaming around salvaging Zoid parts from battles, hoping to build his ideal Zoid one day. On the surface, he's your average, overly energetic and positive MC, but I believe there is more to him. His early wins come of as no more than flukes and it makes it look like the Liger Zero is doing all the work, but as the series progresses, Bit and the Zero form a powerful bond that allows them to act in perfect sync. For a show of its length, this process is very gradual, but you tend to notice it more and more each battle. Even outside of battle, he has a good number of little blink-and-you-miss-it moments that make him unique. The way it's always kept rather vague as to where he's a skilled badass or a lucky idiot gives off some extreme Vash the Stampede vibes.
Then you've got Brad Hunter, and I can't get enough of this guy. He takes the "laid back drifter" archetype up to eleven. I can't help but grin at all those moments where some sort of commotion is going on and he's just sitting there completely relaxed. It reminds me all too much of myself when some idiot is screaming at me, hoping I'll blow up right back at them, and I just respond to them in the most plain tone possible. Leena Toros is the one who tends to get the most hate, simply for being "annoying". I heavily disagree. I tend to heavily dislike the tsundere archetype and don't see what's so great about it. Usually I find well-liked tsundere characters like Taiga and Severa insufferable, I like Leena as a tsundere character. Her fiery disposition really rounds the Blitz Team out and I honestly find her outbursts pretty hilarious rather than annoying. Her father, Steve, is also an entertaining character. I enjoy how non-serious he is for the most part, fanboying over whichever Zoid looks the coolest, and arguing with Laon over who has the better rig. You can get a feel for how far this behavior goes when he slips into a more serious demeanor while reminiscing about his days with Oscar and Laon, or his concern for his daughter. Oh, and Harry Champ, the man destined to be king. Every time he shows up, the episode gets 5 times better, and that's all I'll say.
What I adore so much about these characters is the way they interact with each other. In battle, their mindsets often clash. Brad's systematic approach gets shaken up by Leena's hyperoffensive assault, etc, but this shines through even more outside of battle. Blitz Team is not a perfect group of BFFs. They're a ragtag group with completely different personalities that are forced to work together to advance in the ranks. Viewers who pay close attention will notice little things in the background that give the main cast great characterization. The way they haze Bit into the team like a new pledge in a frat house, for example. You see them do this less and less as the series goes on, showing that he slowly earns their respect. No scene captures this better than the one where the team is eating together and Bit outright lampshades the team's tendencies by saying something like "Wow, we're actually having something close to a normal conversation" before Leena promptly shoves food in his mouth with a fork. NC0 is chock full of these moments, and it gives the show some prominent slice of life tones by making the characters more than just fighters. This is one aspect I definitely did not pick up on until later viewings.
That's not to say Chaotic Century is lacking in that department either. Our main protag here, Van Flyheight, is incredibly believeable. Few scenes moved me as much as the one where Van is about to lay into some poor guy that ran away and got the gang in some trouble, stomping his excuses into the dirt with a "That's not good enough!!!". Like Bit, he is shown to suffer losses here and there, proving he isn't as invincible as some anime protags. I feel like Van does have slightly more plot armor, with the amount of times he runs into gunfire with his Blade Liger to go in for a slice, but I can partially attribute that (along with his numerous moments of screaming like he was on DBZ) to CC being a much longer show. In another similarity to Bit, lots of his early victories can be seen as flukes, attributed more to the enemy's stupidity than his skill. He grows as a pilot more and more after developing his bond with Zeke, as they save each other from life-or-death situations (destruction of the SL, Zoid Magnite). The only thing I didn't like about Van was the one moment where he goes into a temporary phase of sulking after the SL gets destroyed. It was like Simon's depression after Kamina's death in fast forward and seemed quite out of character for him. Still, he makes a fine MC and I think he's often overlooked by many anime fans.
One character who didn't do much for me was Fiona. I'm generally not a big fan of cute girl/"moe" characters, which was partially why she wasn't my favorite. I think Fiona develops a little too quickly. In her first appearance, she's a blank slate who has to ask Van what basic things are. However, an episode or two after that, she's speaking completely fine and seems up to speed on everything. Like the gravity cannon thing, I totally think Gurren Lagann got the idea for Nia Teppelin from Fiona because they're eerily similar. Now, I don't think Fiona detracted from the show, in fact there were times when she was helpful, but I didn't find her or her portion of the story all that entertaining. Irvine was much better in that regard; I really liked how he toyed with Van in the early episodes, and you can definitely tell he was the inspiration for Brad, with both of them pushing the normally-lowly Command Wolf to the next level. The care he shows for his Zoid is something I wish other characters in the series would touch on. They are still living, after all! Moonbay was alright and had some fairly humorous moments ("Hey Moonbay, how about you lose some weight?!" "How about YOU lose some TEETH?!") but wasn't my favorite. Thomas, introduced after the time skip, was one of the most entertaining characters to me, and I'm glad he got to be a major part of the "team" in later episodes.
I think CC's best characters, however, are the villains. Raven makes a fantastic antagonist-turned-rival with his ability to make just about any Zoid look good. He comes off as cold and emotionless, but his exterior melts away somewhat when he loses Shadow, the only thing that cared about him. But special mention has to go to Gunther Prozen, the true main antagonist. I'm going to make a very bold claim here and say something that I almost never say: I think Prozen is the best anime villain of all time. Yeah, you heard me right. The main villain of an anime based on a model kit series, likely used as a vehicle to sell said model kits, is on the top of my list. Prozen is a genius. Every move he makes is tactical to the core and he thinks everything through down to the most minute detail. Every word this man speaks strikes fear into your heart and toys with your mind on several levels. It's criminal that his English VA, Dave Kelly, didn't get more credit. I've posted his quote of "No matter who you are in this world, you will always cause some pain toward other people. There's probably someone, somewhere, right now, who is suffering because of something you've done to them, or done to their loved ones.” to several sites before, and many people have said that it really got to them. If you haven't seen the show, just know that a text summary doesn't even come close to doing Prozen justice. One guy I really don't get though, is Hiltz. What are his motives? Why and how did he get so many people to follow him and work for him? This was always so nebulous to me.
All that being said, I can't give the same praise to CC's character interaction that I did to NC0's. The conversations are typically very predictable and plain. Despite Irvine antagonizing Van, it doesn't take the two long to become friends, and those little moments that bring the characters to life that I mentioned in NC0 are relegated to little background moments, like Irvine and Dr. D celebrating together after the Sinker race (loved that moment honestly!). Not to say the dialog is bad, it's just fairly sterile for the most part. CC's characters are defined more by their individual actions.
The winner here, by a small margin, is NC0. A less-complex plot made lots of room for character interaction and development of relationships between the cast that CC didn't quite achieve. While CC had far better villains, NC0 struck a slightly better balance with the protags and side characters.
Category II winner: New Century/Zero
Score:
NC0: 1
CC: 1
Category III - Sound:
NC0's soundtrack largely has one goal in mind - to get you pumped. Tracks like "Strike Laser Claw" and "Brad Hunter" do an amazing job of immersing you into the battle. One theme I'll never forget is "Twilight of Planet Zi", a more melancholy track that plays during more appropriate moments. This track stuck with me since my original viewing of the show on Toonami and I eventually downloaded it to my phone to listen to during walks at night. The show's main theme, "No Future" is honestly straight fire. The way the beat switches between headphones/speakers is an awesome touch, and you know you're in for a ride when this song plays in the show itself.
As a staunch defender of dubbed anime, I can say I genuinely enjoy NC0's dub cast. Every voice fits the character perfectly, and we've even got a few all star VAs in the bunch, such as InuYasha's Richard Ian Cox, Ed Edd n Eddy's Samuel Vincent, and Beast Wars' and Mobile Suit Gundam Wing's Scott McNeil, all of who sound just as great here.
One thing NC0 lacks is good sound mixing, however. There were a lot of moments where the music was far too loud to hear the voices, and blaring it as high as they did kinda messed with the sound quality.
CC doesn't skimp on the good music either. Some of the best battles in the series are set to the show's main theme, "Wild Flowers" by the band RAMAR, who even got a special Shield Liger kit made in their honor. It's an acoustic rock track that fills the viewer with a sense of hope. Like NC0's "Twilight of Planet Zi", CC's "Rosso and Viola" is a great track for melancholy scenes and is another one I downloaded. If I had to criticize anything, I don't think the battle tunes aside from Wild Flowers are all that memorable. The English opening is also something I usually skip while marathoning the show - it's a heavy rock track that just keeps yelling "...ZOIDS!" in what I assume to be an ill-conceived attempt to ape off of DBZ's "Rock the Dragon".
The dubbing here is about as good as NC0, but something about the line delivery feels off to me at times. Most of the VAs in the dub are ones I've never heard of, and I'm not sure why they didn't get higher profile actors like Zero did. As I mentioned, I do love Prozen's tone and delivery, and most voices fit the characters enough. It irked me a little that Moonbay's voice started off sounding deeper and smooth before lapsing into a generic girl voice as the series went on. Overall though, it's fine.
Once again, I'm gonna have to hand this point to NC0. Somehow they were able to get some of anime's most renowned dub actors, and the music was just more memorable overall.
Category III winner: New Century/Zero
Score:
NC0: 2
CC: 1
Category IV - Narrative stakes:
This is a special category, I added this because I think narrative stakes is one of the most important aspects of an action-based anime series. If you pit the ultimate badass main character against some nobody and try to make it look as though there's going to be any question on the winner, what's the point?
NC0 is set mostly in a tournament-based environment, as mentioned earlier. The Zoids are even mentioned to have safety features installed, and you can tell that the Blitz Team is never in any real danger in regards to their life. There are a few specific moments, such as when Zero's safety features are disabled when it gets stolen, but it seems like even the BD group isn't shooting to kill. This makes the villains feel significantly less threatening aside from the few select moments like what I mentioned.
CC, as you know, is set in the middle of the war. To his opponents, Van is just some guy in a Zoid, he's the enemy that needs to be killed. Although it seems like Van isn't in life threatening danger too often, the cast as a whole has several brushes with death. Thomas nearly gets wiped out by the gravity cannon at the end of the series, and Raven is saved only thanks to being inside Shadow as his Zoids die. A minor imperial character, Marcus, actually has an onscreen death, as do Prozen and Hiltz. The nature of this show leads to tons of nail-biting moments that any viewer could appreciate.
Wish I could say more here, but you get the point. The clear winner is CC, fulfilling the goal that the show set out to accomplish.
Category IV winner: Chaotic Century
Score:
NC0: 2
CC: 2
Category
- Unity:
So you like CC, do you? Or is it NC0 you like? Both? Can we have a moment here to agree that both shows were infinitely better than the mistake that was Zoids: Fuzors? Yeah, I thought so. If there's one thing that can bring us together, it's this terrible show. Awful animation despite being released later? Check. Cringy dialog? Check. Sells new toys? Check.
CC and NC0 were about the pilot bringing out the full potential of the Zoid of their choosing. Irvine and Brad rocking the CWolf, Leon giving Bit a run for his money in the Blade Liger, and how about Raven taking out an entire base in his Godos? Fuzors flushes all that down the toilet in favor of "If you have a Fuzor, you automatically win". Old favorites like the Blade Liger were thrown around like chewtoys because their average joe opponents happen to be in Fuzor Zoids. It's DBZ power level BS all over again. Fuzors says "Screw the old favorites, you're going to like these new designs!"
A lot of people, myself included, blame Fuzors for the heavy decline of Zoids' popularity in English speaking nations. This show drops all pretenses of maturity in favor of doing everything they can to appeal to kids. Not to mention how it's completely disconnected from the previous canon. What were they thinking?
Genesis was better, but not by much. Once again it's completely disconnected from the other shows and shoves the "***NEW***" Zoids down our throats. Ruuji didn't exactly curb my disdain for kid heroes, either. It's an okay show, it just doesn't feel like Zoids.
Category winner: Chaotic Century and New Century/Zero
Score:
NC0: 9001
CC: 9001
Fuzors: -1
Genesis: 1/2
Conclusion:
In the end, I think each show caters to a different audience. CC is for those who wanted something that had semblance to the original Battle Story, with a complex plotline and heavy war-based themes. NC0 appeals to the ones who prefer a competitive based sport with strategy involved and a side dish of slice of life anime. The point of this post wasn't to highlight why NC0 is so much better than CC, rather it was to look at each show in a different light and point out the strengths and flaws of each one. There are probably a few things I missed here and there or skimmed over, but I think I got my point across as well as i could. As small is the English speaking Zoids fandom is now, there's no need to divide us even further over shallow criticism.
As for me? To be blunt, my favorite story was the Zoids Vs. series. If there is ever another anime, I want it to follow Rottiger and Blue Unicorn, fleshing each member out further than the games did and keeping the war-based setting. One can hope...
Anyways, feel free to share your thoughts and viewing experiences. Until the next battle! ~
From what I have gathered, the general consensus seems to be that either A) Chaotic Century/Guardian Force is infinitely better in every way and if you think otherwise you're wrong, or B) Zoids anime in general sucks and should never be anything besides a gritty, edgy war story and yes I am unable to have fun. Therefore, in the interest of keeping my thoughts from getting scattered, let's divide this post into a few basic categories and do a comparison between CC and NC0 in each regard.
Mission confirmed, taking off now!
Category I - Story/plot:
Let me start off by saying that a common misconception held about NC0 is that it has no plot. While the show is much more episodic in nature, I think it's more than a little unfair to make this statement. NC0 is allowed to be the way it is because, when you think about it, the whole show is one giant tournament arc. The goal of the Blitz Team is to continue to defeat opponents, move up in the ranks, qualify for the big nationals, and get better Zoids and gear along the way. While this might come off as redundant, it actually makes perfect sense. I myself am a low-level competitive Super Smash Bros. player who often attends his local scene and the occasional regional tourney. From my experience, I can tell you that this is often what it boils down to. Gallivanting around the state in cars packed full of geeks like me, talking friendly trash to each other and shouting about how great we are at the game, discussing techs, fine tuning our GameCube controllers, and that sort of thing, all to win some prize money and, wouldn't you know it, qualify for nationals. And our TOs? They were our "Steve Toros", rarely taking anything too seriously, always making jokes and mispronouncing our tags on purpose when they called us to the setup. Zoids as a competitive sport is an interesting idea for me, but I can see how those who crave a war-based setting would be a bit turned off.
However, we have a wildcard thrown into the mix in the form of the Backdraft Group, your standard group of bad guys wanting to disrupt the tournament with their illicit battles and their desire to get their hands on the Zero. Honestly, these guys are fairly weak villains and I couldn't blame you for all but forgetting about them. While I absolutely adore Stigma Stoller and think he has a lot over some of CC's characters, that's about it. The "Count" and other higher up members are just kinda there and generic, and Vega didn't really get enough time to develop for me to feel much for him, as much as I loved the final battle. Still, the BD group did add something different and raise the stakes a bit, so I say nothing wrong with that.
It can't really be argued that CC/GF has by far the deeper and more complex plot. It deals with the war between the Empire and the Republic, with neither side being objectively evil (other than Prozen himself). When I was younger, I actually passed this show up because my 10 year old mind deemed it "too different", and that 6am time slot wasn't very attractive either. Right after I rewatched NC0 in high school, I moved onto CC/GF to satisfy my Zoids craving and ended up loving it. It's definitely a show I can appreciate more as an adult. CC isn't without its own flaws in terms of story, though. For one, the show starts off the same way so many other shonen anime before it has; the protag is given the incredibly vague goal of "find Zoid Eve lol whatever that is". I always saw plots like these as an excuse for the protag to wander around for a while and get into a lot of random, disconnected situations, which is exactly what happens in the early episodes. The pacing isn't too bad, but it's definitely a slow burn. Things start to make a little more sense when Raven and Prozen get introduced, and when Van and the gang find themselves embroiled in the ever-expanding war, CC, like Van's Liger, hits the ground running on all fours. This forces them to make critical decisions and reflect on who they are. You really get a feel for how politics work on Zi.
By the time of GF, everyone's grown up, the Empire and Republic have made peace and formed a joint group known as the Guardian Force. The story here continues to maintain good quality, thanks in part to newcomer Thomas, but again, has flaws here and there. I was more than a little disappointed when they chose to make the "ultimate evil" Zoid just another Death Saurer. No Madthunder, no Gilvader, not even a Bloody Saurer or a recolor, literally the same damn model. Even if it was stated to be more powerful, it didn't feel near as threatening the second time. Speaking of, did Gurren Lagann get the idea to shoot a mech from their cannon in lieu of a missile from this show? I swear that scene with Kittan is just too similar...
So even though NC0 isn't as bare as most people dismiss it as, CC clearly has the more intricate story and writing.
Category I winner: Chaotic Century
Score:
NC0: 0
CC: 1
Category II - Characters:
I firmly believe that what NC0 lacks in deep storywriting, it makes up for in spades with its characters. One thing you must know about me as an anime fan is that I'm not big on kid heroes. They aren't relatable or believeable to me, honestly. This is part of the reason I wasn't too keen on Genesis. This is far too common of a theme, and was even back when this show was new. NC0 breaks the pattern by giving us a mostly-adult cast. Just about everyone in the main cast, to me, could pass for self-sufficient adults. No one is given any needlessly-tragic backstories; instead we learn most of what we need to know about them in their first appearance. Our main protag, Bit Cloud, is a simple junk dealer roaming around salvaging Zoid parts from battles, hoping to build his ideal Zoid one day. On the surface, he's your average, overly energetic and positive MC, but I believe there is more to him. His early wins come of as no more than flukes and it makes it look like the Liger Zero is doing all the work, but as the series progresses, Bit and the Zero form a powerful bond that allows them to act in perfect sync. For a show of its length, this process is very gradual, but you tend to notice it more and more each battle. Even outside of battle, he has a good number of little blink-and-you-miss-it moments that make him unique. The way it's always kept rather vague as to where he's a skilled badass or a lucky idiot gives off some extreme Vash the Stampede vibes.
Then you've got Brad Hunter, and I can't get enough of this guy. He takes the "laid back drifter" archetype up to eleven. I can't help but grin at all those moments where some sort of commotion is going on and he's just sitting there completely relaxed. It reminds me all too much of myself when some idiot is screaming at me, hoping I'll blow up right back at them, and I just respond to them in the most plain tone possible. Leena Toros is the one who tends to get the most hate, simply for being "annoying". I heavily disagree. I tend to heavily dislike the tsundere archetype and don't see what's so great about it. Usually I find well-liked tsundere characters like Taiga and Severa insufferable, I like Leena as a tsundere character. Her fiery disposition really rounds the Blitz Team out and I honestly find her outbursts pretty hilarious rather than annoying. Her father, Steve, is also an entertaining character. I enjoy how non-serious he is for the most part, fanboying over whichever Zoid looks the coolest, and arguing with Laon over who has the better rig. You can get a feel for how far this behavior goes when he slips into a more serious demeanor while reminiscing about his days with Oscar and Laon, or his concern for his daughter. Oh, and Harry Champ, the man destined to be king. Every time he shows up, the episode gets 5 times better, and that's all I'll say.
What I adore so much about these characters is the way they interact with each other. In battle, their mindsets often clash. Brad's systematic approach gets shaken up by Leena's hyperoffensive assault, etc, but this shines through even more outside of battle. Blitz Team is not a perfect group of BFFs. They're a ragtag group with completely different personalities that are forced to work together to advance in the ranks. Viewers who pay close attention will notice little things in the background that give the main cast great characterization. The way they haze Bit into the team like a new pledge in a frat house, for example. You see them do this less and less as the series goes on, showing that he slowly earns their respect. No scene captures this better than the one where the team is eating together and Bit outright lampshades the team's tendencies by saying something like "Wow, we're actually having something close to a normal conversation" before Leena promptly shoves food in his mouth with a fork. NC0 is chock full of these moments, and it gives the show some prominent slice of life tones by making the characters more than just fighters. This is one aspect I definitely did not pick up on until later viewings.
That's not to say Chaotic Century is lacking in that department either. Our main protag here, Van Flyheight, is incredibly believeable. Few scenes moved me as much as the one where Van is about to lay into some poor guy that ran away and got the gang in some trouble, stomping his excuses into the dirt with a "That's not good enough!!!". Like Bit, he is shown to suffer losses here and there, proving he isn't as invincible as some anime protags. I feel like Van does have slightly more plot armor, with the amount of times he runs into gunfire with his Blade Liger to go in for a slice, but I can partially attribute that (along with his numerous moments of screaming like he was on DBZ) to CC being a much longer show. In another similarity to Bit, lots of his early victories can be seen as flukes, attributed more to the enemy's stupidity than his skill. He grows as a pilot more and more after developing his bond with Zeke, as they save each other from life-or-death situations (destruction of the SL, Zoid Magnite). The only thing I didn't like about Van was the one moment where he goes into a temporary phase of sulking after the SL gets destroyed. It was like Simon's depression after Kamina's death in fast forward and seemed quite out of character for him. Still, he makes a fine MC and I think he's often overlooked by many anime fans.
One character who didn't do much for me was Fiona. I'm generally not a big fan of cute girl/"moe" characters, which was partially why she wasn't my favorite. I think Fiona develops a little too quickly. In her first appearance, she's a blank slate who has to ask Van what basic things are. However, an episode or two after that, she's speaking completely fine and seems up to speed on everything. Like the gravity cannon thing, I totally think Gurren Lagann got the idea for Nia Teppelin from Fiona because they're eerily similar. Now, I don't think Fiona detracted from the show, in fact there were times when she was helpful, but I didn't find her or her portion of the story all that entertaining. Irvine was much better in that regard; I really liked how he toyed with Van in the early episodes, and you can definitely tell he was the inspiration for Brad, with both of them pushing the normally-lowly Command Wolf to the next level. The care he shows for his Zoid is something I wish other characters in the series would touch on. They are still living, after all! Moonbay was alright and had some fairly humorous moments ("Hey Moonbay, how about you lose some weight?!" "How about YOU lose some TEETH?!") but wasn't my favorite. Thomas, introduced after the time skip, was one of the most entertaining characters to me, and I'm glad he got to be a major part of the "team" in later episodes.
I think CC's best characters, however, are the villains. Raven makes a fantastic antagonist-turned-rival with his ability to make just about any Zoid look good. He comes off as cold and emotionless, but his exterior melts away somewhat when he loses Shadow, the only thing that cared about him. But special mention has to go to Gunther Prozen, the true main antagonist. I'm going to make a very bold claim here and say something that I almost never say: I think Prozen is the best anime villain of all time. Yeah, you heard me right. The main villain of an anime based on a model kit series, likely used as a vehicle to sell said model kits, is on the top of my list. Prozen is a genius. Every move he makes is tactical to the core and he thinks everything through down to the most minute detail. Every word this man speaks strikes fear into your heart and toys with your mind on several levels. It's criminal that his English VA, Dave Kelly, didn't get more credit. I've posted his quote of "No matter who you are in this world, you will always cause some pain toward other people. There's probably someone, somewhere, right now, who is suffering because of something you've done to them, or done to their loved ones.” to several sites before, and many people have said that it really got to them. If you haven't seen the show, just know that a text summary doesn't even come close to doing Prozen justice. One guy I really don't get though, is Hiltz. What are his motives? Why and how did he get so many people to follow him and work for him? This was always so nebulous to me.
All that being said, I can't give the same praise to CC's character interaction that I did to NC0's. The conversations are typically very predictable and plain. Despite Irvine antagonizing Van, it doesn't take the two long to become friends, and those little moments that bring the characters to life that I mentioned in NC0 are relegated to little background moments, like Irvine and Dr. D celebrating together after the Sinker race (loved that moment honestly!). Not to say the dialog is bad, it's just fairly sterile for the most part. CC's characters are defined more by their individual actions.
The winner here, by a small margin, is NC0. A less-complex plot made lots of room for character interaction and development of relationships between the cast that CC didn't quite achieve. While CC had far better villains, NC0 struck a slightly better balance with the protags and side characters.
Category II winner: New Century/Zero
Score:
NC0: 1
CC: 1
Category III - Sound:
NC0's soundtrack largely has one goal in mind - to get you pumped. Tracks like "Strike Laser Claw" and "Brad Hunter" do an amazing job of immersing you into the battle. One theme I'll never forget is "Twilight of Planet Zi", a more melancholy track that plays during more appropriate moments. This track stuck with me since my original viewing of the show on Toonami and I eventually downloaded it to my phone to listen to during walks at night. The show's main theme, "No Future" is honestly straight fire. The way the beat switches between headphones/speakers is an awesome touch, and you know you're in for a ride when this song plays in the show itself.
As a staunch defender of dubbed anime, I can say I genuinely enjoy NC0's dub cast. Every voice fits the character perfectly, and we've even got a few all star VAs in the bunch, such as InuYasha's Richard Ian Cox, Ed Edd n Eddy's Samuel Vincent, and Beast Wars' and Mobile Suit Gundam Wing's Scott McNeil, all of who sound just as great here.
One thing NC0 lacks is good sound mixing, however. There were a lot of moments where the music was far too loud to hear the voices, and blaring it as high as they did kinda messed with the sound quality.
CC doesn't skimp on the good music either. Some of the best battles in the series are set to the show's main theme, "Wild Flowers" by the band RAMAR, who even got a special Shield Liger kit made in their honor. It's an acoustic rock track that fills the viewer with a sense of hope. Like NC0's "Twilight of Planet Zi", CC's "Rosso and Viola" is a great track for melancholy scenes and is another one I downloaded. If I had to criticize anything, I don't think the battle tunes aside from Wild Flowers are all that memorable. The English opening is also something I usually skip while marathoning the show - it's a heavy rock track that just keeps yelling "...ZOIDS!" in what I assume to be an ill-conceived attempt to ape off of DBZ's "Rock the Dragon".
The dubbing here is about as good as NC0, but something about the line delivery feels off to me at times. Most of the VAs in the dub are ones I've never heard of, and I'm not sure why they didn't get higher profile actors like Zero did. As I mentioned, I do love Prozen's tone and delivery, and most voices fit the characters enough. It irked me a little that Moonbay's voice started off sounding deeper and smooth before lapsing into a generic girl voice as the series went on. Overall though, it's fine.
Once again, I'm gonna have to hand this point to NC0. Somehow they were able to get some of anime's most renowned dub actors, and the music was just more memorable overall.
Category III winner: New Century/Zero
Score:
NC0: 2
CC: 1
Category IV - Narrative stakes:
This is a special category, I added this because I think narrative stakes is one of the most important aspects of an action-based anime series. If you pit the ultimate badass main character against some nobody and try to make it look as though there's going to be any question on the winner, what's the point?
NC0 is set mostly in a tournament-based environment, as mentioned earlier. The Zoids are even mentioned to have safety features installed, and you can tell that the Blitz Team is never in any real danger in regards to their life. There are a few specific moments, such as when Zero's safety features are disabled when it gets stolen, but it seems like even the BD group isn't shooting to kill. This makes the villains feel significantly less threatening aside from the few select moments like what I mentioned.
CC, as you know, is set in the middle of the war. To his opponents, Van is just some guy in a Zoid, he's the enemy that needs to be killed. Although it seems like Van isn't in life threatening danger too often, the cast as a whole has several brushes with death. Thomas nearly gets wiped out by the gravity cannon at the end of the series, and Raven is saved only thanks to being inside Shadow as his Zoids die. A minor imperial character, Marcus, actually has an onscreen death, as do Prozen and Hiltz. The nature of this show leads to tons of nail-biting moments that any viewer could appreciate.
Wish I could say more here, but you get the point. The clear winner is CC, fulfilling the goal that the show set out to accomplish.
Category IV winner: Chaotic Century
Score:
NC0: 2
CC: 2
Category
- Unity:So you like CC, do you? Or is it NC0 you like? Both? Can we have a moment here to agree that both shows were infinitely better than the mistake that was Zoids: Fuzors? Yeah, I thought so. If there's one thing that can bring us together, it's this terrible show. Awful animation despite being released later? Check. Cringy dialog? Check. Sells new toys? Check.
CC and NC0 were about the pilot bringing out the full potential of the Zoid of their choosing. Irvine and Brad rocking the CWolf, Leon giving Bit a run for his money in the Blade Liger, and how about Raven taking out an entire base in his Godos? Fuzors flushes all that down the toilet in favor of "If you have a Fuzor, you automatically win". Old favorites like the Blade Liger were thrown around like chewtoys because their average joe opponents happen to be in Fuzor Zoids. It's DBZ power level BS all over again. Fuzors says "Screw the old favorites, you're going to like these new designs!"
A lot of people, myself included, blame Fuzors for the heavy decline of Zoids' popularity in English speaking nations. This show drops all pretenses of maturity in favor of doing everything they can to appeal to kids. Not to mention how it's completely disconnected from the previous canon. What were they thinking?
Genesis was better, but not by much. Once again it's completely disconnected from the other shows and shoves the "***NEW***" Zoids down our throats. Ruuji didn't exactly curb my disdain for kid heroes, either. It's an okay show, it just doesn't feel like Zoids.
Category
winner: Chaotic Century and New Century/ZeroScore:
NC0: 9001
CC: 9001
Fuzors: -1
Genesis: 1/2
Conclusion:
In the end, I think each show caters to a different audience. CC is for those who wanted something that had semblance to the original Battle Story, with a complex plotline and heavy war-based themes. NC0 appeals to the ones who prefer a competitive based sport with strategy involved and a side dish of slice of life anime. The point of this post wasn't to highlight why NC0 is so much better than CC, rather it was to look at each show in a different light and point out the strengths and flaws of each one. There are probably a few things I missed here and there or skimmed over, but I think I got my point across as well as i could. As small is the English speaking Zoids fandom is now, there's no need to divide us even further over shallow criticism.
As for me? To be blunt, my favorite story was the Zoids Vs. series. If there is ever another anime, I want it to follow Rottiger and Blue Unicorn, fleshing each member out further than the games did and keeping the war-based setting. One can hope...
Anyways, feel free to share your thoughts and viewing experiences. Until the next battle! ~
