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I complained they spent way to much time with battles and yet in the 4th arc there were episodes that did not have even one fight,but we did get quite an epic battle at the end when Chirico fights against the strongest factions in the galaxy and where he kinda reminded me of Lelouch during the final episodes of r2,with the whole pretending not to care for any of his allies,obsessed with power...Overall I can't say it's one of the most memorable endings I've seen but considering how most anime can come up with quite bad conclusions I did find Votoms ending to be satisfying enough and what is most important it left me thinking,Chirico refusing the idea of the overman(really not familiar almost at all with Nietzsche),killing God but not the God he might have imagined or wished for but one that manipulated the world for his own purposes,one that he can touch,Chirico deciding to kill this God and choose his own path,also I think the death of Wiseman did not really influence things that much,even when our two heroes will wake up I still think the galaxy won't have changed that much,judging by the cover for shining heresy it looks worse(I really wanna see it) .As it can be seen I really liked this anime,even if I would not say that the story was that complex,however it was quite a mysterious journey from start to finish and Chirico was a great main character,also no silly teens,not that much angst either and Votoms felt like a true sci-fi to me,this anime felt more like a american sci-fi than any other anime i have seen so far.Immediately after I finished it I was in the mood for more,so I wanted to start Layzner and wanted to have also the raw episodes(the dialogue did not seem that complicated) but I could not find them and usually I lose interesting in cases like this,oh well,I am still in the mood for some sci-fi,mecha,not sure what anime I will start,I have been looking for something with some great fights,conspiracies,aliens would be nice too,still not found one,maybe I will finish Rahxephon,a anime too often compared to Evangelion and most of the time not in a good way,but once thing is for sure I will definitely continue watching LoGH starting today or tomorrow.
One thing is for sure,there are not many good mecha anime being released lately and from what I have seen not any good ones in the future either,but I might be wrong and I wish I am.

It's been a year or so since I have started focusing a lot more on manga,right now I prefer manga to anime,still,not by much,but when I think that a few years ago I did not care at all for manga,found it quite boring.Now that I read quite a lot of manga I think there's more variety in manga and many more mature titles to choose from.Also I have started Basara,the characters are quite interesting,probably the main reason why I enjoyed reading it so far and I definitely agree on the very emotional part,it also kinda has a fairy tale feel at times.

Btw since you're a Seirei fan I wonder if you've tried Kemono no Souja Erin or if you plan to,both anime are adaptations from novels by the same author, Kemono no Souja Erin is supposed to improve quite a lot after some episodes,i have not yet started it but I think I will eventually.

Very cool stuff on Toei and America there... it's extra weird that I've heard they actually combined Harlock and Queen Millennia into one series, Harlock & The Queen of a Thousand Years or something. It sounds potentially worse than Robotech, haha.

Huh, never knew that about Takahashi. Here I was deep down getting a bit annoyed by Gundam's success... I mean, there's so many other great real robot shows that could've expanded into more, but Gundam's just about the only one still standing. Though we still owe Gundam a lot and now it sounds like it kind of boosted Takahashi's career, I guess I shouldn't give Gundam the cold shoulder anyways since mecha in general has always been kind of niche' genre, now it's even thinner. Just me wishing there were more Layzner's, Dougram, Dragonar, etc, lol.

Also is that DVD commentary available somewhere?

Yeah basically everything you described about Blue Gender there, is not in the second half at all. All that gritty, instinctive survival action and whatnot is erased by full on character development that doesn't really work. It was just a huge mess and a major change in tone, not in a good way.

You're more than likely totally right about character designs, that's probably just me being fanboyish for the old. :P

I think I suffer from "watch anime and use polysyllabics" syndrome too. I think it's a "oh you look intelligent you must also have intelligent tastes!" and the answer is "no I'm just intelligent about my tastes". I currently try very hard not to think of myself as an inveterate anime sophisticate because (even if it's what I am) the phrase "inveterate anime sophisticate" tends to imply people who a) do not like / have issues with things I like and care deeply about and/or b) have personalities that do not jibe well with mine. Which is probably why I feel out of place nearly everywhere.

At the end of the day I believe that we need more people intelligent about their taste rather than having intelligent tastes. I also think that everyone who disagrees with me (or who I disagree with) on any point believes this very same thing with the exception of me. Which just goes to show that everyone thinks they're right, and feels as though they're in a beleaguered minority.

Yeah, the QM movie was a visual beast. I can say that I didn't care for the characters as much as I did in Harlock/Arcadia of My Youth and GE999, but everything else it did was just incredibly breathtaking. I think in QM's case it was the imagery, idea's, and the overall story that won me over.

It's interesting now that I've seen Harlock and some of SB Yamato, some of Toei's 70's stuff really does look better than some of say, Sunrise's stuff from the 80's. I take it Toei have been a pretty big company since then and back then it really showed. Sunrise was probably fairly small back then, especially without Bandai and whatnot. It's also kind of weird to think their usual 50 episode count actually seems kind of ... short, compared to some other 80's shows that could hit the hundreds. Not that I'm complaining, I'd say ~50 episodes is my prefered count usually.

I gotta say, you pretty much nailed it with Takahashi vs Tomino. It's as you say, the whole stories for Votoms, Layzner, Dougram, etc, could've been completely finished before the shows even started and all Takahashi and the staff had to do was gently unfold everything until it all came together at the end. Whereas Tomino's stuff, does sometimes have weird turns and cuts here and there. That's how I kind of got that, if that's what you were going for... I'd say it's dead on.

At least... 80's Takahashi. Blue Gender felt like an early Code Geass / 00 case, where the first half was really good (in my opinion, I noticed you have it on hold and on a 5!) and the second half was a complete mess. I know Takahashi's not the actual director on this one, but I figure he had quite a hand in it... Gasaraki as everyone says, is a beast and it just sounds really weird from what you and everybody says. I guess this is all for another discussion though. In the end, I think you're dead on and back in the prime when the two were pretty active and had the freedom, Takahashi's stuff is a bit more coherent in flow when put up against Tomino's. I think that's how I've come to view Tomino myself, he's the idea man, but not always the perfect executioner.

Yeah, whenever I do think about the real last minute ending to Votoms... it is pretty weird and almost a bit out of place. I really have to wonder if Shining Heresy is so much of a direct sequel, if it could kind of be seen as the final arc or something. Guess we just have to keep waiting and see. We always hear how religiously complex it is though, so I can only imagine all that stuff gets even crazier.

You're probably right about Layzner going the crazy route towards the end. We've already got an almost rampant mech that has a sentient mind of its own, so that's probably just the start of wild idea's... honestly if Dougram never takes this route, I wouldn't be surprised. At this point it would maybe be a bit out of place, but who knows. That's kind of the case with Votoms until you hit the final arc and well, Takahashi threw in heavy philosophy into such a gritty/war driven world I guess I *could* see it working with Dougram too. Guess it could go either way.

And wow, thanks for that article. A very interesting read indeed. I guess some of us old school fans aren't alone in that train of thought then, and now it kind of makes sense why we're seeing such an abundant use of CGI and simple digital animation... the old talent is old and nobody there's to replace them. Honestly that was kind of a depressing read! lol, but interesting stuff. I guess it's just nice to know Oshii see's the current trend in animation as a downfall himself, so I can only imagine other longer standing directors and whatnot probably think the same. I keep wondering if just one day, they'll be able to manipulate cel drawn/painted stuff with computers better than today, but then again as some of the people in that article said, the "soul" won't be there.

I think that really goes along with a major complaint I have for character designs thesedays. It's pretty blunt to say but in my opinion there's just hardly any distinguishable *style* out there nowadays. I can't really look at a few new shows today and say "Oh, looks like designs from that one guy!" (unless we're talking hilariously ugly Hisashi Hirai stuff), whereas in the 80's, you can tell right away that Macross, Orguss, Megazone, etc, all have that same character designer. And even beyond that characters just seemed to look their age.

etc etc, that's enough of that. I'm just a classic fanboy all around I guess. But yeah, it sounds like art/animation in anime is currently in a rut. I can only hope computers get better or new talent pops up sometime... I seriously would love to see companies daringly go back to cel based work. If they had people with the skills, I bet hand drawn stuff today would look pretty insane.

I agree; the "filler" wasn't so much about lulz/pure audience-entertainment as it was about developing the characters of Balsa and Chagum (and their relationship with each other), and that's why I really enjoyed it. Agree with your speculation, too; I would be beyond happy if they ever made another season (or two or three) that followed Balsa's later adventures (she's still got 9 books worth, after all), but it is indeed extremely unlikely. So, I'm just glad that the one series they made was a masterpiece, crammed full of awesome. :)

Hmm, Gundam 00 ... to tell the truth, I started watching it because it's a "cool" anime that my friends are into (like Code Geass, Bleach, Naruto, etc), and I got tired of being left out of the loop. Anyway, even before my perspective on anime was ruined by LOGH, 00 didn't leave a strong impression. In particular I remember the words "Oh, whatever" popping up in my mind frequently, especially concerning Celestial Being and its actions. I'm generally good at suspending my disbelief when watching anime, but I remember that there was something about the events in 00 that often made me eye-roll. On the bright side, I also remember that most of the Gundam battles (I love melee mech combat) were pretty cool, so points for that.

Like most anime series, 00's not unbearable, is reasonably entertaining, and I really want to like it, so I'm going to re-start watching it with a positive attitude. Honestly though, I'd like to drop it and check out the older Gundams, like Mobile Suit or Seed, or start on Monster... but, alas, I did promise my friends I'd give it and Geass a chance ... and I guess I do need to know what all the kids are watching these days.

What exactly about 00 makes you ambivalent towards it?

Also, this is maybe a bit stalkerish... but is Chirico a new addition to your favorites? lol.

I'm not one that's too familar with philosophy/political idea's and whatnot, but ArcXIII just got through Votoms himself and pointed out that it definitely borrows some elements from Nietzsche's works, like the idea for the "overman" and such (I have a feeling you may have caught this stuff though?) Pretty badass stuff. I'm kind of waiting to see if Dougram/Layzner end up getting a little crazy towards the end too.

I should rewatch Votoms to catch some stuff I probably missed before. Not to mention I watched it before GP did their newer release of the whole thing, which is a pretty nice upgrade compared to the old.