Post by dchan on Sept 23, 2019 22:34:05 GMT -5
[This post will be non-spoilers]
There's been discussion of the anime in the main News thread, but I thought the show merits its own topic. I just finished the show finally and I really, really enjoyed it. I think for me it's far and away the best Zoids story and characters that's been made, and probably my favorite aspect is how much personality each Zoid has and the fact that they are living organisms. They're not just tools that pilots cast away in favor of an upgrade, they truly are characters in and of themselves, which makes some of the ups and downs of the show so effective. I'll avoid spoilers for now, but generally speaking here's some of the things I really appreciate about it as well as some areas where it is not so enjoyable to watch (as an adult). Note: as a non-Japanese speaker, I did just watch it in Japanese and then read episode summaries from reddit, so there is some level of incomprehension for sure.
Things I liked:
-Zoids emoting. As stated, it makes watching 50 episodes of something so much more engaging when I'm invested in the well-being of the things that the franchise is based on, rather than just the human characters. The fact that they are living, sentient animals adds a lot for me. I just like seeing the wild ones roam around, or seeing them interact with humans for the first time makes them much more likable.
-The main characters, for the most part. There's some weak moments to be sure, but Arashi, Penne, Drake, and Bacon really did hold up for me as compelling characters who develop in believable and enjoyable ways. Others have their moments too, but I felt most attached to these four.
-There are a lot of strong moments. Somehow, despite the goofiness and jarring tone shifts, I found there are some touching moments both relating to the Zoids and the human characters. For example, the end of episode 41 features an archaeologist trying to revive a Raptor, and the way it ends is very somber.
-There are some AWESOME action sequences. The Tiger gets an amazing battle, there is a truly excellent fight with Drake and Arashi later on, the Kong is a beast, and even less important Zoids like the Gusock and the Ankyrox get their time in the spotlight.
-The voice acting. I'm so glad that most of the main characters have voices that can be taken seriously. Some of the other side characters are definitely more caricatures and are less tolerable, but overall I'd count it as a strength.
-Music/intro/endings. Not all of them, but the Wild Blue song is great (even if somewhat overused early on) and the second ending gets me every time.
-I love Hunter Wolf's howling roar sound.
Things I thought could have been handled better:
-Names. Probably the elephant in the room, there's so many dumb names that I feel instantly turned many people off. It's unnecessary too; at least as an American viewer I don't think it added anything for so many characters to be named after food. Arashi, Drake, and Gallagher are fine names... why couldn't the rest of the cast have respectable names too?
-There are too many exaggerated caricatures for my liking. I know it's for young kids who probably enjoy silly speech patterns or ridiculous catchphrases, but I don't feel that balance is well-kept here. For example, the Team Rocket-like trio seem completely superfluous. I was glad that they play quite a small role, but if that was to be the case why are they there in the first place? They don't even seem to have their own Zoids to excuse their existence.
-Penne and Onigiri don't get much to do in terms of usefulness. While they are important characters (i.e. help reassure the viewer there are reasonable, sane people in this world), their Zoids knowledge/mechanical skills as well as fighting skills basically never get a chance to shine after their initial introductions.
-There aren't many different kinds of Zoids in total. I'm sure there were limitations on this, both from Takara Tomy's end and from the animation studio's, but the thing that especially sticks out is the number of grunt-type units. It's just the Raptor/Dilofos and Kabtor/Kuwaga, which kind of gives the impression that there are for the most part only two types of Zoids in the whole world outside of main characters.
-Zoids dying is pretty inconsistent. There are a lot of times where team Freedom (mostly Arashi) seemingly straight up murders other people's Zoids.
-The visuals, especially the scenery and landscapes, are quite drab and uninspired. I'd guess that the majority of animation budget went towards the 3D Zoids models, as they should, but there's so many flat desert scenes or generic mountain locales. It even makes me think that part of the reason there's multiple characters with glasses/shades is just to avoid having to draw their full faces.
All in all, I really admire the direction they went with. Avoiding the "good vs evil war" was a big departure for the series, but for me at least they more than succeeded in creating a compelling world with interesting mechanics with awesome looking Zoids.
Oh, and one last thing, and this is a spoiler: Arashi's dad is a COMPLETE IDIOT.
