Zoids anime rants

[ScissorBreaker]

Hey! Another rant post. What elements of random zoids anime do you not like? For example:
I loath the theme song. The lyrics consist of: Zoids! Zoids! Zoids! Some of the dubbing really sucks too. I just watched episode 1 of vol. 1.

[Tilly]

That theme song is off the first Japanese soundtrack, they just added the ZOIDS! bits. And I agree CC's dubbing is special. Way too many unnatural pauses and flat line delivery (though a few of the Japanse actors are guilty of that too, and I like the /Zero and Fuzors dubs a lot).

CC itself...I liked the adventure bits. I liked many of the characters. But the execution of the war bits is horrid...the animation amounting to "stand in line and shoot" doesn't help the battles any, and the military grunts have no brains. There's no depth to the factions, the Empire is all kiddie evil and the Republic all nice and shiny. And I HATE the bit where Prozen confronts Van about how heroes cause death and suffering too and he brushes it off with one line. It's never brought up or dealt with again. Huge waste of character development there, ARGH. I've seen other stuff for kids deal with that well, so I got all excited thinking they'd confront it and it all got ruined with "you're not like that, Van!".

GF I like the filler/silly episodes quite a lot. They make great cheesy superhero-type stories and have a nice sense of humor. The main doom plot with Hiltz and the Death Stinger arc...I can't stand to watch it any more. They could have done so much more with that and the ancient Zoidian thing, it hurts of wasted potential.

For both of the above Raven makes me want to brick things, especially with how they do nothing to reveal his past until it's far too late for me to easily sympathize with his character. Even if it ended in a blatant "la la cut off, sorry artist that wanted to do more" way, I think the CC manga did his character much more justice.

/Zero has such pretty animation, but THE STOCK FOOTAGE AGH. It gets ridiculous sometimes, like when Bladey and the Schneider take out Rev Raptors in ep 16, or the "battle" before they go to the beach. Episode 25 jumps all over the place...I wish I could reorder it without making the music go funny. And it has all the depth of a puddle, but it's fun anyway.

Fuzors...what the were the animators thinking with the Command Wolf early on? I know they had a low budget (and CC's early animation is crap too, so I'm more forgiving of things when starting out), but it even that considered its run cycle is horrid. It got better later, at least. Also...the EL plot thread. So much more that could have been done there...instead it just wanders around being mysterious and then gets sporked because Doc Pierce is a dolt. I know they likely planned more, but it makes me flail.

Genesis...so much potential with the end arc and setup, and they actually had what could have been a main "good" character death (and a very cool scene for it, no less). But nope...it gets cheesed out of in a badly-directed scattered mess of a finale with Gene being twinky and Gildy dropping out of the plot because it fell and hurt its wing. It really disappointed me, especially when I'd come to expect good stuff from some of the other eps. The Murasame's run cycle also randomly switches from a solid one to one that looks like randomly spinwobbling legs (sometimes from scene to scene...), which is odd to say the least.

[Mecheon]

Blade Liger bullet. That is all

Of also annoyance, Genesis' complete dumping of the Gildragon, and lack of Gilvader. For giant doomy zoids, they sure don't do much

[Kamadoma]

Well with all the things I heard about Gildy, it seems to be a disappoinment when I get to watch that episode.

For the Zoids anime in general, they're a little too "kiddie" which appeals more the kids than teens. Though for me Genesis seems to be better in the more teen themed anime.

I don't like the competition theme too much either. Zoids are war machines right? And I don't like it when they make big Zoids like Gojulas and Kongs get beaten that easily with a simple CPC blast.

I know Ligers are the main protagonist Zoids but can't they also have Ligers that become cannon fodders like they to do Saber Tigers.

[ScissorBreaker]

...Where did gilvader come from in genesis? I thought orudios sporked them all...

[Kamadoma]

Well you can never get a complete Battle Story-Anime connection. CC might have a little connection to the Battle Story after the meteor crash on Zi but for the succeeding anime I can't find a solid connection to the real Zoids Battle Story.

[Tilly]

Battle story is not anime, they both did their own thing. Don't mix them, your head will hurt. CC overlaps with the NJR and Fuzors a little with the Three Tigers era, though CC and the battle story can't share the same history...the Zoidians with funky powers and Death Saurer's portrayal are completely different, for starters. GF, /Zero, and Genesis seem to have nothing to do with model story.

Blade Liger gets its arse kicked repeatedly in Fuzors...and the competition thing ends up being canon model-wise too, years after the war when everyone's sick of fighting and needs something to do with leftover aggression and old war machines. It's a sport, sure, but a more dangerous one.

I wish they'd showed that side of competition fighting more...not in /Zero where it wouldn't fit the tone, but Fuzors. You *do* get the Phoenix getting killed, but it's not in a proper battle.

[ScissorBreaker]

Just watched vol 1, and it was alot better than I thought it would be...of course, viz of america had to cheesify it for the wittuw kids of amewica. I imagine that the japanese version would be alot better (If I could understand japanese)

[Tilly]

The Japanese voice acting is a lot better for the most part, but that's about it from what I've seen. There's only a few cuts, and *all* versions of Zoids have cheesy lines at times.

[ScissorBreaker]

Oh! and that dude...what's his name? Bull? Bole? He's creepy...his eyes are too wideset...and so are Rosso's...and I think Viola might be a dude, unless those are some REALLY saggy sweatpants

[Tilly]

...wait until Viola shows up in the Storm Sworder outfit. She ain't a dude.

My sister mistook kid!Raven for a girl, though >_>.

[ScissorBreaker]

...Viola has a storm sworder? I thought those were republican...Oh, wait a minute,
DOH!
*smacks forhead*
So is Guysack, and bole pilots him. But seriously though, she looks like she's wearing an athletic cup! I'll take your word for it, though. Irvines eyes are creepy in the episode when he's shooting at the fortress...

[Kamadoma]

Zoids Genesis had an amazing conclusion in episode 50. Sacrifices, heroism, those are the stuff I want to see in Zoids anime. However, I find it annoying not to see:

SPOILERS:


















Some sort of scenes on "what happened to everyone". I mean we all know Ruuji got back to Miroodo (with the first ending scene of Murasame Liger, but you can't see him given a welcome by his family. And what of the other main characters and their respective Zoids? Things like that.

[DigitalMan]

*deftly dodges the spoilers* Whew...

I was looking at the Fuzors episodes, and at the boxes, and... did they not realize they could use the 3D files that were used to make the plastic models? Were they not allowed to or something? They'd just have to remove the mold aids, and I'd bet it's already set up in a manner that would allow for normal articulation. But it looks like they recreated it from scratch. I'm especially noticing lack of detail and low-poly modelling on the Command Wolf.

Yes, I am that picky.

[Tilly]

Fuzors Command Wolf has Issues. I love Helmut muchly and it's the only CW to NOT DIE, but the legs! Gah! On the other hand, it's a very expressive critter...shows emotion better than the CC/GF/Zero model that otherwise bests it. The Fuzors Zoids moved more as a whole...