puntiniCAZpuntini

Ufio Diapolon, I've already mentioned it as "cool transformations". I remember them all, I have an archive, not a brain.

The giant robot with the coolest story, however, is Zambot 3, also by Tomino (Vultus 5, the first six/seven of Gundam, Daitarn III), a character with bipolar issues. During Zambot 3 he was in a low phase, and during Daitarn III he was in full chaos; in fact, they are opposites of each other even though the robots and the stories are practically the same. It's just that in Zambot 3 there's a massacre after another, people drop like flies, and it's quite a joy. The last episode is Apocalypse Now in Japanese. Only Nagai is superior to Tomino in the realm of robots, since without Nagai we might still be watching Astroboy or L'ape Maya.

Yes, I knew those two links; I can't remember where the discussion had already come up. Massimo Carlotto describes Japanese people as a culture that doesn't know a damn thing about non-Japanese history. We talked about it some time ago with a friend who loves Japan, and he confirmed this, pointing out various examples in cartoons. One above all: the Virgo Knight, a European, is "the man closest to God"... and God is Buddha. What Buddha has to do with ancient Greece, only the Japanese know.

Yes, yes, I won’t deny that it was a bit of a shitty anime; in fact, I didn't say it was good, just that it gave me a deep addiction. The screenplay was well done; you never knew who the villain was, and a new jerk with new powers would pop up every time, so you didn't know how they would beat him. My friends and I couldn't miss a single episode, even though I preferred other cartoons—if you missed an episode of those, you might not even notice, but with this one, you had to watch it all. Also, because they rarely did a back in the days. Anyway, you're a couple of years older than me; I watched it in elementary school, and all those twists gave it an "aura of complexity" that made it seem like "adult stuff" to a young kid. By the time it got to the ocean series, I ditched it too in fifth grade. Anyway, props to the mangaka because he found a hell of a target; he made a living off that manga for years without doing a damn thing.

"Ah galaxy 999 was such a drag" Don't tell me you liked Captain Future too, or I'll have to get you banned.

<< my favorite anime after Kenshiro >> Kenshiro has never been an addiction, even though it was clearly superior and wonderful, because it always got stopped, systematically. You could only get as far as Sauzer (if you were lucky), and then the next day another cartoon would start, perhaps due to complaints from moms or maybe because not the entire series was bought. I remember that when it would start again, I would watch it knowing that it wouldn’t lead anywhere. I watched it all when I was already in middle school, a bit late to get passionate about it like I was in elementary school. I watched the Uncle's series set in 1930s Shanghai a maximum of two years ago and I liked it, even now. I watched Sousei No Aquarion with my cousin's son, and I must say that if I had seen all those robots in the 80s, I would have cried miracle. And I'm still watching Naruto now.

<< It's not that we should depress and annihilate children by showing them killings and massacres. >> No no, either you’ve only seen Ken Shiro, or you don’t know much about Japanese animation. They teach important values like sacrifice, honor, friendship, and also a bit of ambition. Deaths were never depressing; if a good character died, it was always to save something or someone, and never before delivering an intergalactic speech on the aforementioned values. If a "bad" character died, in 90% of cases they redeemed themselves before dying and delivered their own mega-speech. Americans, on the other hand, don’t do that: the enemy always escapes in the end, leading to the conclusion that crime pays. Also, from a storytelling perspective, having the same enemies over and over gets boring; there are no surprises. << all the coolest giant robots [...] never seen on Bim Bum Bam. >> Bim Bum Bam never showed any giant robots; it was just crap. And if you remember well, if they sent a "superhero" or someone using force, it was always female. Nanà supergirl, La stella della Senna, Sailor Moon (a bit more recent, okay), and others I don’t remember because I hated them. BBB = gay. P.S. the hottest on the planet were Beaty & Reika, way better than Margot in my opinion, so even on the attractiveness front, the little TVs won. Alright, the hottest were from Cat's Eye, especially the older one. But Beaty & Reika were more promiscuous, so we’re even. But Daitarn was a great cartoon; Cat's Eye was for girls. I preferred the weird robots where humans became robots or had special powers, like Ufo Diapolon or the one with the guy who had a positive magnet and the girl had a negative one, and together they attracted robot parts... and of course Jig, with the coolest protagonist ever dressed like Jimmy Page on James Dean's motorcycle with hair styled with firecrackers. But the cartoon that most captivated me in life was Knights of the Zodiac and that big piece of crap Phoenix with the devil's fist; it was an addiction.

Another thing I hated with all my heart were the gostbaster with the monkey, even though I really liked the theme song. And then I hated Voltron, which had very few weapons and only ever used the sword. The whole episode was just mental gymnastics, then they would get slapped, then they would join together at the last second and bam, split in four with the sword, done. But the toy was stunning. And among the Americans, I forgot to mention how awesome the Starcom toys were, with the magnetized little figures and the Starmax Bomber that worked without batteries, a bomb.