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Shotaro Ishinomori, creator of the Kamen rider and Cyborg 009 franchises, is one of the most influential and prolific manga artists of all time. Unfortunately, most of his manga has never seen official publication outside of Japan, unlike the works of famed Osamu Tezuka. They’re pretty difficult to find. That’s a shame since many of Ishinomori manga are great. The Way of Ryu is one of such examples.

First warning, don’t be fooled by the cartoonish character design or the seemingly silly and cliché storyline at the beginning. This manga is Berserk-level in term violence and dark story. You will see people, plant, insects, animals, robot ... get cut down, chopped up, burned, and dismembered in various creatively horrifying ways. That’s not to mention all the psychologically scaring events. The mutated Earth here makes most post-apocalyptic world look like Disney theme park. The art is Berserk-level of greatness as well, with incredible sceneries and extremely detailed background art. The buildings, creatures, machinery design are all exceptionally creative and wonderfully strange, drawing inspiration from old fantasy and sci-fi art. The action is tense and wonderfully drawn. The characters design look quite weird compare to the modern manga art style, but you will likely get used to it after few chapters.

Story-wise, all the horrible stuffs are sometimes hard to tolerate, but I still pressed on because this manga’s story is really good. Shotaro Ishinomori didn’t just draw violence for violence sake, he use it to convey his belief about moral, spiritualism and the meaning of human civilization. In a way, this manga is similar to Kino not Tabi, featuring a character who travels around a strange world. Each location the main character Ryuu visit portrays a different moral dilemma or a different aspect of humanity. As the story progressed, Ryuu learn more and more about himself and the world, leading to a spiritual evolution. It is quite though provoking.

However, the manga is hardly flawless. I have some beef with the story’s conclusion. Saying more is a spoiler, so let’s just says the conclusion is quite strange and doesn’t answer every the question satisfyingly, both theme-wise and story-wise. The journey is more important than the destination, I guess. Another problem is that this manga can be very heavy-handed. Written during the height of the cold war, the author has no hesitation in showing his anger regarding the development of civilization and world politics. His arguments in this manga are often emotionally charged, hammering home his criticism of everything from materialism to religion. As a side effect, characters occasionally act more like a device to deliver the messages than a real person. Thankfully, the cast are generally interesting and have good development.

Overall, this manga might not age well in some aspect, but it definitely worth a look if you want something exciting but still worth thinking about.

Gundam Age is not very well-received by the Gundam fanbase. Nobody even cares to remember it. I dropped it early on and never put it on my list. That said, this Gundam entry is not without its good points. The animation is consistently good and it definitely tried to be different. Unfortunately, the execution is not good enough.

This OVA, on the other hand, solves a lot of the original's problems. As a retelling of the Asemu arc, widely considered the best part of Age, it is actually pretty well-written. Two main characters' friendship and rivalry is engaging to watch. The characters are more ... Shounen-esque than the typical Gundam, but it's not a bad thing. Top-notch animation quality and great directing provide some of the best mecha action I've ever seen. The story, unlike most Gundam, never drags on.

Unfortunately, most of the necessary background information was explained in the original anime, so you need to either watch that or read the wiki. With a runtime of only two and a half hours, this OVA is extremely focused. It tell the story extremely well, but much information is left out. Thankfully, if you have watch enough Gundam and mecha, you can understand most of it with minimal explaination.

Overally, I enjoyed this OVA a lot. Watching this anime, I believe that a three-movie remake can turn Gundam Age into one of the best mecha anime of all time. Shame Gundam Age flopped hard, so we are left with an incomplete retelling. If you are a fan of Gundam Age (all 5 of them!), or have somehow watched all of Age despite hating it, this a must watch. For others, it a good way to waste 2 hours.

I like Taiyou no Kiba Dagram a lot, but it is a hard show to recommend. Never before have I seen an anime that is both so brilliant yet flawed. It is easily among the best anime about revolution and war. While the anime started out as the classic "boy fall into mech cockpit and fight for what he believe in", it is NOT the kind of simplistic Star Wars-like rebellion tales. The show is amazingly detailed and realistic.

The anime explore every aspect of a guerilla war for independent: troops and officers recruitment, propaganda, supply lines, politics,.... Of course, some of the elements weren't ... as detailed as it is in real life, and any history and military nerds can pick it apart, but every thing still hold together as a very believable epic war story. This is also one of the few mecha anime in which combined arm tactics is important. The main mecha is just a cog in a machine, not the win button.

Realism aside, what is truly important for fiction is still story and characters, and this anime has it. The show has some of the best villains of all time. None of them are simple "I want to destroy the world" assholes. They are real people with complex motivations and desires. Once again, this anime got on my good side for having actually competent military commanders on both sides. All of the main cast are likable, although kind of bland.The story is slow moving, but became very engaging later on, as question like: "Is the sacrifice worth it?", "what is a true victory?", "how much power human have in the course of history?" were asked. Despite looking silly, this anime is very intelligent.

Unfortunately, the Dagram has some serious flaws that caused it to be forgotten. First of all, production value is bad, even by 80s standard. It look worse than Gundam 0079, which is 2 years older. The music is decent, but very repetitive. The story, as I said above, is good, but the build up is too long. In the age where most anime is only one cour long, this old anime took 3 cours to truly get going. Plenty of modern audiences will likely be very bored by this series. There are lots of 80s silliness and immersion breaking moments as well. Sadly, Taiyou no Kiba Dagram didn't age very well.

To sum up, this anime's one of my favorite, but it might not appeal to many. Because of that, I will list the pros and cons and let reader decide for themselves:

Pros:
-Intelligent story
-No over-powered mecha
-No annoying characters
-Great villains

Cons:
-Slow pacing
-Very long
-Lots of inappropriate silly moments
-Some plot armor and contrivances
-Poor animation and repetitive music

I have to make one thing clear: Space Fantasia 2001 Nights is NOT an anime for everyone. If you want to know if you will enjoy this, just answer these question: Do you like Golden Age Sci Fi, like the novels and short stories of Arthur C. Clarke or Asimov? Do you think that Star Trek TOS is the best Trek? Can you tolerate 80s anime art and animation? If you, just like me, say yes to all of those question above, you will definitely enjoy this hidden gem. This short OVA is a great homage to the now extinct species of old hard sci ... fi, focusing on realism and the sense of wonder at the expense of characterization and conventional plot. For those unsure, here is more detail about various aspect of the show:

Story: like I say, typical Golden Age sci fi done right. Very realistic in the science(as much as they can afford to), with interesting twist and epic scale.

Characters: The OVA is short and not about individual characters. Not for fan of character-driven fiction.

Animation and art: 80s anime art style. The aesthetic is nice, but the animation is not. Lots of panning to hide the lack of movement. Pleasant to look at, but don't expect too much.

Sound and music: strange 80s music. May not for everyone, but fit the OVA perfectly.

Overall I gave this anime an 8 out of 10.

Zeta gundam is overrated. This series have potential, but failed to be great. First, about the technical aspect, this series look great despite its age, and the sound is good. However, the pacing is too slow. There are so many mecha battle that look similar to each other that you stop caring about them after 20 episode. Not to mention that most battle end with almost no damage for the good guys. The politics is surprisingly basic for a series like this. There are some moments of plot induced stupidity and a bullshit magical power- up-by-dead-friend's spirit moment at the end of the series. the ... series have some interesting character, but it spent too much time on uninteresting ones like Jerid and Kamille and not enough on better ones like Scirocco or Haman Karn. Not recommended.