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Dec 19, 2010 4:21 PM
#1

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May 2010
1424
THIS IS AN ANIME ONLY DISCUSSION POST. DO NOT DISCUSS THE MANGA BEYOND THIS EPISODE.
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That was downright inspirational. The ending made me think of Castle in the Sky for some reason or another. Not because it was literally similar, but just in the feelings it gave me. The whole "power of universal love" bent, for example. It also thematically reminded me of Evangelion, but this was like the antidote or something. The broken characters, the psychological problems caused by family strife, the problem of lonliness, and then of course the literal take with biomechanical machines and their interactions with humans, apocalypse, etc.

I can't believe I just watched 20 episodes of this in one day. Holy crap was I hooked. I'm also surprised at how easy this was to follow. I don't know what the hell everyone else was confused about. In my opinion, this series was a work of great beauty, though a bit hokey at some points. I'm privledged to have discovered this series, seriously.
“Money can't buy dere”
Apr 22, 2011 7:20 AM
#2
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Apr 2011
1
isnt it great the question becomes more important than the answer. That does at least the title of this mean ...
Oct 15, 2011 7:43 PM
#3

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May 2010
1424
I've just finished rewatching it, and my second thoughts about the show are that perhaps I was a bit too enthusiastic with my reaction. When I said "a bit hokey at some points", what I really should have said was "very hokey at a lot of points". It's still a wonderful show though, I still think that at least. And besides, it has bagpipe battle music, what more can you ask for?
“Money can't buy dere”
Sep 4, 2012 4:26 PM
#4
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Dec 2010
1087
i'd say it's very good anime.
I've read many opinions of it being incomprehensible or something but i can't think of anything that would confuse me.
I really liked it. It gave me things to think of and plus it had romance subplot which was nice.
i'm glad i watched this one in spite of some badmouthing.

Its negative point is that it doesn't explain or show everything it could. 26 episodes was simply not enough. There's rumor that It might have been caused by that it was supposed to be 50 episodes long but for some reason they were forced to make it shorter by leaving out some episodes. If that's true it was horrible thing to do because i think that this could have become one of the best pieces of that time.

Overall 8/10
Sent with Mal Updater
( Currently interested in OP MC genre. Recommendations are welcomed, preferable those yet not on my list )
Mar 17, 2016 7:29 AM
#5

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Feb 2008
4958
This ending was very optimistic for a Tomino show. Hell, the entire show was very optimistic for Tomino. It feels weird considering Victory Gundam was his previous work.

If it was supposed to be longer, it's a shame, there are places that could be expanded, especially characters and their relations since parent-child relationships and love in general were big themes in this show. But oh well, at least it isn't like F91 that was actually cut down to a movie.

And yeah, nothing here was incomprehensible. Maybe people watched the dub or need to be spoonfed? Tomino really loves the "show don't tell", so he rarely ever goes into info-dumps. You just need to connect the dots in his shows. He presents you important information, and you make what you can with it. Maybe not the best way of storytelling, but a lot better than shows that spend 10 minutes explaining things.

"Your sight, my delight. Will you marry me?"
May 29, 2016 9:29 AM
#6
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Dec 2015
3
This show was really quite easy to follow. Or maybe I'm just already used to Tomino's way of telling stories.

It definitely was a very nice show.

BTW.
Quote from Tvtropes:

If Victory Gundam was the work of a depressed man, Brain Powerd is the work of a man who has overcome his depression.
Mar 23, 2018 7:11 AM
#7

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Mar 2016
2038
I have no idea where people are getting their hyperbolic negative reactions from. Like a lot of anime, this is nowhere close to the 'worst ever' label I see it get. If Anno is a self-hating male, then Tomino is definitely the opposite.

The overall aesthetic package is way too strong for me to understand the hate. A pretty straightforward plot that ends on a thematic note, a very interesting human-'mecha' relationship, good characters, good OST, good visuals and designs. Very good 'mecha' designs. Hime seems a deliberately stupid (maybe simple is the better word) character, and her relationship with Yuu is at times weird, playful and intimate.

The series has both good and bad writing, sometimes in the same scene. When Jonathan confronts his mother the dialogue is definitely forced, but there is no denying some genuine human emotion there. It seems the writing does this quite often, but overall I don't think any main story ideas ever get forgotten and it all works towards the end. It seems what you're supposed to take out of all this, is the importance of motherhood, child-rearing and openness and understanding in child-parent relationships. More of a response to Eva than a 'clone' (but none of the clones are really clones) the way the stories are told and the overall ideas are very distinct. In some ways it feels like a proto-RaXhephon, both this and that are quite beautiful.

Also, on the subject of beauty, I personally love images of the sky and the ocean. The fact that the mecha fights often happen over the sea is like the show throwing me a bone. Not to mention the cloud motifs, and the way Orphan juts out of the sea, covered in darkness and clouds...I have a weak spot for these kinds of images.

This was an experience that I'm glad I didn't miss out on due to a negative impression.
syncrogazerSep 22, 2018 11:52 AM
May 25, 2019 4:30 AM
#8
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Oct 2017
5
Honestly it's not as bad as people say the and yoko kano's ost is great as usual and about this do you guys know where is this song used in the anime? https://youtu.be/wTe95g2u8BI
Apr 24, 2021 11:59 AM
#9

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Jun 2015
3463
^ I don't think that Maaya Sakamoto song is used, unfortunately.

I wasn't expecting wholesome Tomino out of this, if anything I was prepared for some crude version with disposable characters left and right and a series that overall would leave you with some terrible aftertaste. In general something that would explain its reception at least. And while I can see that it might not be enjoyable to most people due to its "show and don't tell" nature and general delivery, it clicked on all the right spots for me. I finished this feeling as well or better than I would've with a very good iyashikei.

The clear drawing aspects were Akino Murata giving life to Hime in one of her only 3 roles in anime (and I really liked Sochie in Turn A Gundam) and Yoko Kanno's score, which ends up enhancing every other scene in the series. And then I stayed also thanks to its aesthetic appeal (even if rough around the edges at times), general easiness to watch and the sheer appreciation towards its general theme and where it ultimately aimed for, "hokey" or not as Seabury called it above.

Jan 18, 2022 2:08 PM

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Oct 2013
427
Well, this was something. Story and characters are indeed extremely wonky and most of the dialogues and situations are incredibly awkward and surreal, but... somehow I just could not love this band of lunatics. It sure shows how Tomino had great empathy for his characters.
Some concepts were interesting but sadly they weren't really explored. I get the "show don't tell", but glossing over the majority of plot points without contextualize why you don't want to show them can never be a good thing.
In short, this is far from being the worst anime ever (a lot of shit this site hypes up is 10 times worse). It has a lot of heart but it lacks consistency in story, characters, animation... basically everything except the music. Yoko Kanno made her masterpiece here. Brain Powerd has one of the most suggestive soundtracks I ever heard, it really matches the mysterious vibe of the story.

I'd say it's a 5/10, it could become a 6 with a rewatch and some indulgence on my part, mostly because the music is godly and Jonathan Glen has some of the funniest lines in the history of entertainment.
Mar 15, 2022 11:15 AM

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Jun 2008
857
On second viewing, I'd consider this anime to be a masterpiece. I know this is an unpopular opinion, but the series had tons of ideas, ambition, unique direction, interesting characters, and one of the best scores in anime history. I was a big fan of the breakneck pacing because it forced me to focus on the plot. I also love how it played out like one big disaster film with the stakes getting higher and higher throughout the series. It's fascinating to see Tomino take on something so uplifting because it had every opportunity to end apocalyptic. I don't really get the hate for Brain Powerd or how people say it's an Eva knockoff. They must've been watching a different show.
Jul 12, 2022 6:14 AM

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Apr 2019
245
Liked it. Not Evangelion-level philosophical but it shares most of it's ideas, the ending is a lot less arthouse and more straightforward in resolving it's characters. It went a little easy on the politics for being a Tomino show but it's not a fault. I found pretty intringuing the idea of the mechs being fully fledged sentient beings. Don't see why people hate it.
Dec 17, 2023 4:43 PM
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Dec 2020
53
Well, that was a hell of an experience, albeit overall a pretty positive one.
The visuals and the score were both beautiful, there was some genuinely moving interpersonal drama, and both some very intimate character moments and some sweeping scenes of grand, apocalyptic scale. On the other hand, the actual final confrontation between the Novis Noah, the American fleet, and the Reclaimers was pretty subdued and the fight scenes with Johnathan and Quincy's Baronz..es... (somehow I wanna say 'Baronzii') was a bit anticlimatic. Also, some of the inter-scene cuts between conversation and combat scenes in the last four or so episodes felt a tad choppy, almost as if they were unfinished. Also, while the whole theme of 'organic energy', peoples' relationships with each other, society and the environment are all very interesting - I genuinely mean that, I know that they are all somewhat common to Tomino in Gundam et al to a greater or lesser extent, but this felt genuinely different and original - the whole 'hold hands, smile and probably sing John Lennon's Imagine' thing felt a bit simplistic, glib even, at dealing with all the problems raised.
Despite this, the main conflict angles - Yuu and Quincy, Johnathan and Anoa, and all three generations of the Isami family - were honestly reconciled in a convincing and moving way, even if it did feel a bit rushed. I think, more than anything else, what a show this character-focussed needed most of all, is a proper denoument. As it is, Orphan just soars off into space, everyone is OK (I think McCormack is still dying, and of course Nelly sacrificed herself, but two deaths has to be a new low for a 26-episode Tomino show, that's like five minuites of Victory Gundam), and there isn't really any explanation other than implying a successful Yuu-Hime romance. I still enjoyed it, but it does feel a bit too hurried to be entirely satisfying. At the risk of skipping slightly ahead and back to the obligatory Gundam references, it felt a bit like the original ending of Seed where the story just ends abruptly with the final action scene and we don't really get to find out what happens to the characters beyond that. Does Yuu reconcile with his parents? Does Quincy revert to her birth name? What happens to Naoko and Geybridge? What about the other Reclaimers, where did they go? And don't get me started on the dozen or so other pilots on the Novis Noah... the thing about creating characters the viewers care about is that we want to find out what happens to them!!
I don't really think that there's a lot more that I can say that others haven't already said considerably more artfully than I have.
Overall, I really enjoyed watching Brain Powerd, but I felt that the journey was ultimately better than the destination. It's a really moving, beautiful, and idiosyncratic show that I think I will definitely remember, even if I wasn't entirely satisfied with the way the story ended. Definitely one of Mr. Tomino's better series, and beyond a few superficial elements (Asuka and Hime both being red-haired sort-of tsunderes, biomechanical robots with personalities, the giant naked lady in the end) really has very little in common with Evangelion at all, Tomino and Anno are just not at all similar in terms of what themes they want to cover. Despite some weaknesses in the pacing and direction, it wasn't enough for me to feel like this series was lacking as a whole, and the ending did feel very wholesome, if a bit rushed.
I think that the numerical 'score' is the least relevent aspect of a series to discuss, but overally I'd give Brain Powerd a 7/10. It's a flawed but very enjoyable classic.
Dec 23, 2023 11:19 AM
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Nov 2014
19
It was quite a ride. I really loved the show.
Apr 12, 9:43 AM
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Jul 2020
47
Many of the characters actions and interactions being so closely tied to the trauma caused by frigid and absent parents is probably what causes people to be confused by Brain Powered. If its not something you have a first hand experience with it would be hard to understand some of the hostile and aggressive things the characters say and do to people they love.

People often say Tomino has a "show don't tell" storytelling style and that's true for some things but the opposite is also true. At times he has a storytelling style where his characters say shit out loud that people would normally take to the grave. For example in this show he has Jonathan say straight to his mothers face he hates women because she didn't show him any love. There's no subtlety there, its direct and in your face. Characters tell you exactly how they're feeling and why they feel that way. And even if, for the sake of the plot, a character is lying to themselves or others about how they feel he'll have another character point that out immediately.

I really loved the mecha designs especially with the cockpits being womb-like, the characters were super believable and even side characters had a lot meaningful interactions, and the family drama was very well done. Loved the show.

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It’s time to ditch the text file.
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