Blue Gender is an inevitable watch for my Takahashi completionism, but never knew that much about it actually. Hearing this perspective and thinking about how this narrative takes a huge pivot on a post-human civilization (apocalypse) to it being restructured and contrasting the two ends sounds intriguing…
Hand drawn mechanical animation is definitely a lost art form. With the standardization of 3D applications, there seems to be a loss of "humanity" in the movement of modern mechas.
Even though the kinds of dynamic shots a studio can produce through CGI are cheaper and easier to make, there is a certain aesthetic to hand drawn mecha animation that cannot be reproduced through CGI. I definitely prefer the old school methods utilized in the pre digital era, the art has more heart to it.
If CGI is bad enough, should I mentioned how anime is mainstream that bloody-violence is rather minimal…and plots have sinked into isekai-harem with usual cliches nowadays?
ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-GPmT9kRstWA.htmlsi=lmLwGIqTKZ_TUdob Many animators have straight up moved to mobile game cutscenes because the workload is more manageable and the pay is better
For a lot of old mecha fans getter robo is an obvious example, but I can't stress nearly enough how I love the idea that getter robo as a series first started as a monster of the week super robot series and over the years and many sequels evolved into a dark cosmic horror where the supposed hero of the series transforms into this eldritch, godly force that was always destined to evolve itself to be able to snuff out all innocent civilisations and races just because they are non human with cruel, ironically inhumane efficiency. I love the line that goes "the voice that quakes the universe itself was indeed of ryoma nagare." without context it sounds heroic and epic, but knowing the context it means that it's now an omen that some innocent race of alien bug people will be exterminatus'd by a giant onboard beam cannon that will rapidly evolve organic matter into nothingness that shoots OUT OF THE SHIP'S/ROBOT'S FACE Your planet sized robot's pilot died? Well there is a probably a whole country sized compartment in it's hull that houses billions of his clones in storage pods ready to replace the dead one without missing a beat and many other terrifying ideas that Go Nagai, the creator, came up with
Getter Robo was Ken Ishikawa's work post Getter G, Nagai co-created it with him in the original series, and assisted with the plot in getter robo g, but Ishikawa was soley responsible for the themes of cosmic horror, and ever escalating conflict of how dangerous the Getter was becoming.
I really feel Getter emperor doesn't get the spotlight it deserves. The manga really portrays it as an unstoppable eldritch-level horror, and comparing that to other mechas from different shows, might stand as the true final boss in a SRW game. We really need the story to continue post getter robo arc.
@@ironconvoy3831 If he is so reluctant to continue the story, I guess we would have to wait 70 years after his death before the IP becomes public domain. Then the future fans can continue the work. Well, might as well move on to other things then before I expire.
Oh yes, please do make this a tradition! I love getting these looks into anime that have specific motifs or you can pull specific themes (visual or otherwise) out of; Mecha has so much to offer in that respect : D "Mecha as Kaiju" YES, yes exactly, what a perfect way to sum up that style of mecha, those towering lumbering designs and movements. I've always been fascintaed by mecha that has that feeling. It's even more astounding to me considering the designs brough to life through cel animation, I just adore it ^^ I think you are one of the only people I've ever seen meet Legend of the Blue Wolves on it's level, rather than follow the meme. And yeah it's release name was so unfortunate to say the least lol. I've been on the lookout for Blue Gender when I go bin diving. So hearing you speak on it here reminded me I need to look a little harder for it (or wait for a blue ray lol) Excellent video as always, brough a big smile to my face! And Mara! What a nice touch : D
Good point about how Zeorymer is being shown in the OVA. I only found out about it from SRW, and it's busted in every game it's in, which I guess fits with how powerful it's shown to be in the OVA.
If you want more mecha that describes, or depicts a very horror and horror-like environment, i recommend checking out the Armored Core franchise. It doesn't necessarily focus on the destructive nature of the mechas (the titular mecha is smaller than a Gundam) but rather finds appeal on the cryptic, brutalist environment.
Love seeing Blue Gender get a shoutout. I remember catching it back on Toonami way back when - and thinking about it, it's kinda funny how being an insomniac teen in the early 2000s was basically a guaranteed way to become a mecha fan thanks to Toonami. I remember at the time some friends just dismissing it as "anime Starship Troopers" what with the bugs and all, but they missed out on good show that felt like it had a lot to meaningfully say about humanity and trauma. I really should rewatch it sometime.
Escaflowne is another great mecha anime that blends in with a mixture of dark fantasy and steampunk combined plus its 2D Animation sequences are so fluid.
If you wanted to get deep you could say it showcases how war will always be a defining aspect of humanity, while humanity is simultaneously something to be lost or discarded in war.
My favorite thing happened, you showed a clip from blue gender, and it’s basically one clip that’s been in my head for what nearly 2 decades but I had no idea what it was from. I love when that happens. Now if only someone could show a clip from THE anime my sister and I have been looking for for 2 decades that’d be sick.
Ty for having me over for the line ! Absolutely loved the vid, would love to see you continue that format with other stuff. Your enthusiasm for the mecha vibes is legit infectious af. B)
I'm convinced that a Armored Core can kill people simply by giving heart attacks to anyone that see in action , hell , irl soldiers have to train to *not* freeze in fear when they see a MBT charging at them at full speed , could you imagine how *horrifying* it would be to see a Armored Core charging directly at you with the speed these things can move at?
Reading Tsutomu Nihei's manga Sidonia no Kishi (which became the knights of sidonia anime), I kept coming back to my memories of Blue Gender airing on toonami. The two stories have a lot of parallels, thematically at least. I need to rewatch Blue Gender, thanks for the reminder!
Seeing how animators are coming out about being overworked, i can only imagine the struggle of making anime throughout 80s-90s (and Blue Gender is so underrated)
It cracks me up that even though I have been an anime fan since the 80's there are still hidden gems out there that I have never heard of. I love it. Anime is so diverse.
Great video! I'm really enjoying all your video essays, the exploration of themes is very interesting and it's so great finding new shows to check out :D
If you really want to understand the “Horrors Of Mechas”, play Armored Core 6. That game has truly shows how MONSTROUS Mechs truly are, BUT IN A FUN WAY! When you analyze and understand the sense of SCALE of the Mechs in comparison to the world…..
Bokurano.. I think about that anime like other people think about the fall of the roman civilization 😂 The OP was amazing, the story was haunting. I loved every minute of it.
I think there are people of a certain age that did at one point discuss Blue Gender but (myself included) but we were either too young or too uninvolved w the plot as compared to other stories at the time we were exposed. I recall discussing almost explicitly the gore and boobs lol, tho on later re watches my personal view has become more nuanced.
The scene in Blue Gender where Marlene and Yuji "do the dirty", is not great only because it's 4 minutes, I mean it's pretty much metaphorical, I think there's like one titty grab in there, no explicit stuff. The scene pretty much culminates their struggles alone and together and their triumph over it. If you watch the entire series, by that point you feel happy for them, they have earned it, it's a relief, finally they are safe and together. Not only that, but it shows how they developed and managed to overcome trauma and things that happened along the way, this scene marks the start of something new. Marlene was very cold, and Yuji was more of a softy, now they both share each others traits and have developed a bond. Also, I don't remember if this scene was in the movie as well, but even if it was, it makes way more sense in the series, since... well not going to spoil the ending :).
Outstanding review ,breakdown examination of blue gender and various mecha shows most I never knew of. You spoke of topics never discussed. I am truly impressed keep doing what you’re doing 👍🏻
I need to find a place where I can watch Zeorymer, I came into contact with it through IRon Saga, where this monstrosity really interested me. And as far as horror goes with mecha, I'm with you it's a theme that never really is far from mechs. Even gundam has takes and ideas on it, Devil Gundam is a biomechanical monster feeding on its pilot, the whole Ars Goetia Gundams from IBO and all the augmetations it created that is now shunned as inhumane. Heck, Gundam Wing has some with the horrors of the ZERO system. All in all, I love myself some horrori-ish stuff in my mechas, it gives them a bit more life.
Zeorymer's anime design is much different than its original Manga design by Yoshiki Takaya, it was more organic looking and a precursor to his Guyver design.
Loved the thoughtfulness to your commentary. Also, Zeorymer is such an incredible experience that surpasses its simplistic storyline, and im always pleased to hear other people's observations about it.
The look of Zeorymer is amazing, but I've never been able to get into its (admittedly simplistic) story. The "villains" are noble, valorous, and loyal, while the "heroes" are all scumbags and psychopaths. You may well say "the villains want to take over the world", but given the example of who is in charge in the show, maybe they should.
Oh I had this! The Zeorymer story is so complex. And the mechas are so cool. Its right up there with Five Star Stories.😊 "Mecha as demonic chaos?" Maybe only for this anime, but Astroboy? No way.
this is one of my favorite channels dude, I can't wait to see the channel grow! You always pick super cool episode topics and bring up media I've never heard about before.
If I had to put up a mecha series that has some fun horror elements but never really gets brought up as such would be The Big O! I think it's because the horror elements in this show are more psychological bordering on Cosmic, then the typical body horror seen in most mecha that use horror tropes, but there's some stuff in The Big O that can be really ominous to think about!
Mecha as body horror is so inherent to me as a disabled person, even when it's not meant to be mecha has this habit of Being About Bodies and having underlying themes of disability and autonomy and identity, horror truly feels like a natural progression of that a lot of the time!
Thank you for the recommendations, I would definitely be down for you making this a regular series. I'm also interested in that video about your thoughts on new directions in mecha writing, as I've been thinking a lot recently about the long term trajectory of the genre. Like, I feel like the Traditional Style of Mecha (i.e. the works from the 70s, 80s, and 90s) has basically exhausted itself and has sort of been stuck in a holding pattern for the last several decades; I'm not sure how much farther it can be taken under the current circumstances before true stagnation sets in. On the other hand, I feel like making the changes to the Traditional Style necessary to avoid that outcome would lead to a Ship of Theseus scenario where the end result is transformed into something else entirely. The Traditional Style wouldn't have been revitalized so much as turned into a cocoon that gets cast away and forgotten when the New Thing emerges. In either case, the genre I enjoy ends up disappearing and is remembered only as a historical footnote. Is there a way to thread the needle between these two outcomes and revitalize mecha while preserving the spirit of the Traditional Style, or is it doomed to slowly fade away? If vanishing is inevitable, is it better to fully sublimate itself to make way for whatever comes after it, or to face the end staying true to its original essence and try to leave some lasting fragment of itself behind? I can't come up with satisfactory answers. Sorry, this may be too much for a video about spooky robot recommendations. I guess I just needed to vent my feelings. Hope everybody reading this has a good Halloween.
Damn, this is the typw of content im hyper specifically interested in!!!! Im just starting with mecha, even writing the genre. And all the references are super interesting, I’ll try to read and watch whatever I can. I’d be great if you added the titles of the anime/manga you put on screen, so people like me can deepdive
Blue gender was a really interesting show for me in the character department especially. Seeing the kind of worldview swap between Yuji and Marlene towards the halfway point is something I haven’t seen other shows do and I think worked well for what it was going for. I have my issues with the ending in just how short and rushed it was (especially with the odd music) but I think it doesn’t take away too much from the show overall, and the generally really dark setting is something I would like to see more of. Especially with just how brutal the first few episodes were with character deaths, I think it does set itself apart from other mecha in terms of its tone, message and just overall vibe.
I hadn't really heard of most of these 80s series aside from Five Star Stories so I'm very glad i clicked this lol. I was having trouble getting through Hathaway, but the read on it here is really interesting and might give me a better lens through which to view it.
I actually could NOT finish Blue Gender. The characters were all so unlikeable and I got tired of their presence to the point where I was hoping they would die. If people consider the second half weaker than the first half then I guess I'll never finish. I did really love the presentation and animation for a mecha series. Very cool designs. Shame the cast couldn't hold my attention. Good video, Pyramid. Thanks for the watch. Keep up the good work!
I remember always seeing Blue Gender on comcast video-on-demand back when I’m a kid. There’s definitely a world out there where I watch it as an 11-year old and just get messed up for life/really cool (also, can’t say I’ve ever heard tenchi muyo pronounced like that, lol. keep on keepin’ on 😎)
It’s crazy how similar you sound to the RU-vidr hazel…like even down to the speech pattern, editing style, and content you cover 😂(not roasting! Love the cozy anime analysis part of RU-vid.)
"Turn Off Movie" are the exact words I used to describe that stuff and I am *ecstatic* to hear that it's the actual term for it hahahaha. Inspirational studio.
My first experience with Yasuhiro Moriki was an old SNES video game called Xardion. I had already been exposed to mecha as a kid but the designs in that game really stood out to me among others for all those reasons. They're so unique and varying degrees of alien, and he isn't afraid to really push the boundaries of mecha shape even with humanoids like the Alcedes in said game, which was this incredibly unique looking "mage" mech with reverse joints, insect like four arms, and elongated features. I've rarely seen anything like it since, it sort of looks like it belongs in Dunbine. Um, yeah, anyways horror and mecha do really fit like a glove together. Many of the themes of mecha stories, even the power trip and projection ones, fit surprisingly well into horror stories. It definitely creates a some really unique hybrids. If we the audience can still feel the effects of a horror setting or the existential dread of a larger situation despite the main characters being in giant robots or large mech suits, that just makes the delicate humanity at the core of it seem even more fragile. (or maybe, like that scene in Hathaway showed, *because* of the giant robots.) There's also more "fun horror" with the classic idea of just fighting horrific monsters with robots. There's just so many great ways to combine the two its really a perfect combo. A lot of things we don't consider outright horror could easily have been made into one with simple reframing of tone, even something like G Gundam that dealt with some pretty horrific elements. It's only not considered horror usually because its framed as a stupid-fun, hype adventure but imagine if the same concepts in it were framed with just a bit more of a horror slant to them. Another old video game from the PS1 era called Space Griffin VF-1 was a legitimate dungeon crawler/survival horror game where you played as a pilot in a sick transformable mech, yet the game scared the shit out of me as a kid. You roam the halls of this almost completely desolate lunar base with no music much of the time, just darkness beyond the lights of your mech, and horrible ambience. Your mech even gets upgraded halfway through the story in classic fashion, yet the forboding atmosphere of isolation and the dread of the horrific plot unfolding still made it scary. It's probably a bit "out of date" now technically but I think its a great example of how powerful the framing of a story and tone can be. You can have something with mech pilots and still make it hella scary.
I like that you pointed out some obscure series to check out but listening to stuff like this and hearing a gay guy searching for words or pretending to search for words in that ubiquitous gay accent always makes me so glad to not be gay.
Loved the video and glad you found my art worth a cameo at the 4:20 mark or so. If you include my art in a video in the future I'd appreciate not having my tumblr's name cropped out but overall a great video. Would love to see more but spooky's in the future!
btw Zeorymer ended in a Cliffhanger and its continuation is from a Crossover game on the GBA called Super Robot Wars J And there's an Game only Upgrade for Zeorymer called Great Zeorymer and he is Busted af! Not only he can use all the attacks of his Enemies but his usual Attacks gets a HUGE Buff he's pretty much a playable Boss character but the devs forgot to Nerf the boss.
Does Big O count as Spooky Mecha? Because it's not... exactly a _horror_ series, but there's this real sense of bone-deep existential dread and it has some of the most genuinely unsettling things I've seen in a mecha show. You ever seen one of the mecha suddenly reveal it's semi-sentient and eat its pilot? I mean, maybe you have, _but so have I._
I remember a anime on Adult Swim about a organization using steampunk suits to fight against evil spirits using steampunks mechas. Anyone remember that?
It's really incredible all the different things you can do with this genre. I'm excited to see if you every do that coming-of-age/ youth insecurities video.
I would like to write my own science fiction stories and hope to put my stories realizing your urges and impulses is it easy is often terrifying an often quite painful live with family who may it's doubly so
When I think of a scarier mecha series, I think Ideon was the first to really go in hard more cosmic horror. I don't think Ideon actually pulls it off that well, Evangelion, Bokurano and the latter chapters of the Getter Robo saga all do it better, but like so many of Tomino's brainchildren it was a hugely influential series despite its major flaws. Another really interesting horror mecha series is Betterman, which is set in the same universe as Gaogaigar but has little in the way of actual connection to that series (bar the crossover sequel manga that came out a while ago) and has a very different tone. I think it's also very flawed, its visually murky a lot of the time, the plot can be hard to follow, and the animation has this uncanny quality in that it's clearly the same visual style as Gaogaigar, which was a series made for children, but it's still very much a horror anime. In a weird way it all helps contribute towards how unsettling it all feels. It feels like watching someone else's strange dream-turned-nightmare. I'm also a huge fan of its lore, the initial plot hook is about a mysterious disease called Algernon that causes people to go insane for reasons unknown and the reveal of the truth behind it is one of my favourite plot twists in sci-fi. I don't think there's another part-mecha, part-kaiju (the namesake character fights by transforming into various giant monsters) part-horror, part-conspiracy-thriller series quite like it.
