I’ve long wanted to draw Echo Lyne, the tiny robot conqueror from V&U. I really like her design, and her giggle is infectious. She’s graduating on Tuesday, March 25, so it was basically now or never!
Echotsu, Boss.
When the DX Soul of Chogokin Mechagodzilla figure was announced last year to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Godzilla’s mechanical nemesis, I was drawn to it immediately. The 1974 film Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (awkward English dub and all) was a part of my childhood, and seeing this ultra-high-quality representation of the robot menace brought to the surface the realization of just how much I love its design. Between a strong dollar to yen exchange rate, a relatively low cost compared to other figures from the deluxe line (the DX Mazinger Z from thirteen years ago cost twice as much!), and the fact that this Mechagodzilla actually plays its own theme song, this was a must-buy.
Now that I have it in my hands, it makes me think about why exactly I love the classic Showa Mechagodzilla design so much.
Before I elaborate, I want to briefly talk about my experience with the figure itself. This DX SoC Mechagodzilla is so hefty and filled with diecast metal that it was initially cold to the touch. The paint job is intentionally done to give it a bit of shading and depth, and to make it look unpolished, just like in the movie. The articulation is a bit limited, but the head rotates 360 degrees just like when it’s creating a barrier, and it comes with the requisite sound effects (plus many others). About the only thing I wish it had was the song that plays when the monster first drops its disguise and is revealed in all its terrifying chrome glory, in addition to the main theme. Just playing with this toy affirms how fantastic it is.
The Showa version is also my favorite Mechagodzilla iteration ever, and it’s not just nostalgia at work. As an iconic Godzilla villain, Mechagodzilla has appeared in every era of the movie franchise, and it gets updated to match the times. The Heisei, Millennium, and Monsterverse versions are all cool in their own ways. Yet, they don’t have the same charm. The first two are almost too sleek, and the way they replicate the chest and arm muscles of Godzilla kind of detracts from the aesthetic for me. The last one, I’m not as much of a fan of the silhouette and the Michael Bay Transformers–esque bits and dongles.
In contrast, the Showa Mechagodzilla has just the right balance of “imperfection” to me, both in its 70s-era idea of “futuristic technology” and the fact that it’s not actually trying to closely adhere to the actual Godzilla’s appearance. This version looks like hunks and sheets of metal riveted together. The cybernetic behemoth mimics the broad strokes of Godzilla’s body but not the finer details. Even the fact that it doesn’t try to match its inspiration’s approach to fighting is something I find appealing—the original Mechagodzilla comes with its own arsenal of rays and missiles, yet it doesn’t even bother to have its own version of Godzilla’s signature atomic breath. And it definitely has my favorite face of them all, one that’s distinct and menacing with its pointed and angular shape. The result is that Mechagodzilla is less about appearing “perfect” and more geared towards the goal of destruction and conquest.
I really do think that the Showa Mechagodzilla design is eternal. It’s identifiably of its era, but I find it to be more timeless than any of its descendants.
Happy Anniversary, Mechagodzilla!
Mecha-Ude: Mechanical Arms is a series that went under the radar and deserves attention. In an industry that can often play it safe, here is an anime that first began as a Kickstarter project before being turned into a full-fledged TV series.
In Mecha-Ude, mysterious otherworldly sentient beings resembling mechanical arms arrived on Earth, and were found to be able to fuse with humans and grant them new and powerful abilities. In the present, these Mecha-Ude are still something of a secret, but they’re integrated into a number of organizations each with their own aim. But when average middle schooler Amatsuga Hikaru discovers an amnesiac Mecha-Ude named Alma who is on the run from the wealthiest corporation around, Hikaru’s decision to save Alma brings him into this world he never knew about.
Mecha-Ude is not amazingly innovative in terms of story or setting, but it just does a lot very solidly. The simple gimmick of the Mecha-Ude makes for fights and action scenes that aren’t overly bloated like what one might see in a shounen battle anime. Hikaru and the main cast of characters are endearing because they’re a bunch of silly dumb-dumbs who nevertheless have to deal with serious problems that range from the personal to the Earth-shattering. In this sense, it actually manages to portray its middle schoolers in a way that’s both wish fulfillment for younger viewers and an accurate portrayal of the way youth can be both empowering and limiting.
(Also, there’s a ninja character who shares a voice actor with Volfogg from Gaogaigar).
The result is a series that successfully mixes the dramatic, the silly, and the heartfelt into a short-yet-sweet work of SF action.
The people behind Mecha-Ude are Studio TriF, and this is actually the group’s first anime. It’s about as good a start as I think a fledgling studio can possibly have, so I really hope they have a bright future ahead of them.
WARNING: FULL MOVIE SPOILERS
Optimus Prime and Megatron are iconic adversaries as the heroic and villainous leaders of the Transformers franchise. We’ve seen endless iterations of them in animation, comics, films, and more, and now Transformers One provides an origin story about the two rivals when they were best of friends. Going into the film, I expected at most a decent if predictable work, only to discover a narrative that is surprisingly political. Not only does it focus on a suppressed underclass throwing off their chains, but its portrayal of the differences in left- and right-wing thinking is remarkably enlightening for what is ostensibly a cartoon popcorn flick.
Transformers One centers on Optimus and Megatron when they were known by their original names: Orion Pax and D-16. The two are denizens of Cybertron, where they eke out a living as non-transforming miners of energon, the essential power source that runs their planet. Orion is brash and headstrong, while D-16 is more cautious, but the two have something in common: They both look up to Sentinel Prime, their world’s current leader and the last surviving member of the strongest Cybertronians, the Primes. When the two friends discover a clue to the missing Matrix of Leadership that can restore the once free-flowing energon of Cybertron, they embark on a mission to help Sentinel.
The Cybertronian Caste System
The class friction between the transforming elite and the non-transforming laborers would in itself provide plenty to chew on, but in a major plot twist, it’s revealed that Sentinel is actually a traitor who betrayed the Primes and now sells off the planet’s energon to the very enemy they had been warring against so that he alone can exist at the top. Even worse, Orion and D-16 learn that all are born with the ability to transform, and Sentinel has been forcibly removing it. In other words, Cybertron is a world where a lone robot sold out his people in a coup, enslaves the majority of the people by robbing them of autonomy that is their birthright, and reserves that power for loyalists and those who promote this hegemony. Worse still, the leader has deceived his subjects into believing he is a great and benevolent hero.
I really, truly did not expect this out of Transformers. While this is a franchise with famous lines like “Freedom is the right of all sentient beings” and “Until all are one,” this is a level of overt political theming well beyond what is typical.
Megatron’s True Driving Force
But it’s with D-16, particularly the way he contrasts with Orion that impresses me most because it shows how Megatron’s own right-wing authoritarian nature comes not from a place of strength, but one of fear. One would think him to be the rule breaker between the two, but D-16 worries about losing what little he has already gained. He sees Sentinel Prime as a leader who can do no wrong until he discovers the truth, and when he does, he lashes out at Orion for shattering the comforting illusion. Every time he gains more power, he increasingly sees himself as someone who must exert his superiority over others because they would do the same to him. And when Orion takes a shot meant for D-16 and the latter sends the former to his seeming death, it’s not a premeditated backstab but an impromptu action fueled by the fact that D-16 blames Orion for the loss of his stable world.
I felt that the 1986 animated movie was very revealing in terms of the inherent cowardice of Megatron. While Starscream is usually portrayed as the snake, it was clear that Megatron was cut from the same cloth when confronted by a vastly stronger being in Unicron. Transformers One complements that image by showing how D-16 would have been satisfied living as a lowly drone if he felt everything was in its place in the social hierarchy.
As for Orion, he clearly leans towards the liberal and left side of the political spectrum. His self-sacrifice is what grants him access to the Matrix of Leadership and direct contact with the god of the Transformers, Primus. He’s willing to fight to protect the lives and freedoms of all, but his willingness to let Megatron go at the end of the new film can be argued as the wrong choice, given what we know of the Decepticon leader down the line.
Side note: I really like how Orion’s conversion into Optimus Prime is a lot like Megatron’s own forced change into Galvatron by Unicron in the 1986 film. In lore, Primus and Unicron are brothers who are eternally opposed to each other.
Final Thoughts
Transformers One does a remarkably solid job of showing how two individuals could be true friends at a point in their lives when they have next to nothing, and then have it fall apart once they have more. The differences between Orion and D-16 go from small cracks easily ignored to massive fissures that threaten to tear everything apart. And central to it all is the question of what to do with power in the face of injustice.
The untimely passing of Toriyama Akira was one of history’s biggest blows to the world of manga and anime. While he had long since taken more of a backseat role for his most famous titles, knowing that he was there to provide some guidance for the Dragon Ball franchise lended some reassurance that his vision was included. So when the anime Dragon Ball Daima was announced, there was a real weight to its very existence: It’s the last work in the franchise Toriyama had his hand in and an inadvertent farewell message as a result.
According to reports, Toriyama was more involved with Dragon Ball Daima than he had been with other anime in years, but regardless of the exact amount, I think the end result manages to successfully capture his spirit and the spirit of Dragon Ball as a whole. Daima celebrates what has come and expands the world of its characters in a way that fascinates the imagination.
Dragon Ball Daima takes place after the climactic battle with Majin Buu in Dragon Ball Z. Unbeknownst to Goku and friends, King Gomah of the Demon Realm has been observing them, and is alarmed at how powerful they are. Majin Buu, it turns out, actually comes from the Demon Realm, and was a force so menacing that he was thought impossible to defeat. Gomah gets paranoid that they might come over to his side and overthrow him, so he uses the Demon Realm’s Dragon Balls to make a wish to turn Goku and the others into children to reduce their power, and kidnaps a now-infant Dende (current guardian of Earth’s Dragon Balls) to prevent them from undoing the wish. Unfortunately for Gomah, this actually becomes the motivation for the crew to travel to the Demon Realm and fix everything that’s gone awry.
Or to put it a little differently: This is Dragon Ball GT except instead of traveling to different planets, Kid Goku visits a magical world of demons. In a sense, it’s “What if Toriyama did GT?,” and it’s wonderful.
Dragon Ball Daima strikes a nice balance for itself that incorporates the whimsy of the early stories and the action of Dragon Ball Z, resulting in an anime that’s fun and lighthearted but also knows how to crank up the tension and excitement at key moments.
One of my favorite things about Daima is that in addition to the excellent action (some of the best Dragon Ball has ever seen), it’s also about the thrill of exploring a new world. There are unusual creatures and environments, insights into the culture of demons, and even revelations on series lore. Notably, it turns out that Namekians are originally from the Demon Realm, and that’s also where the first Dragon Balls come from. This reveal is very amusing because Piccolo was originally supposed to be a demon in the mystical sense, only to later be retconned into an alien. But actually, Daima says, they’re really demons who emigrated to the universe we know, and settled on a world that became Planet Namek! In other words, they’re demons and aliens.
Brilliant.
Another aspect that Daima highlights is that martial prowess alone isn’t always enough. One of Goku’s travel companions is actually the Supreme Kai—a character who didn’t really get much attention in the rest of the series. Here, though, his wisdom, knowledge, and cleverness are on display; and it gives me a new appreciation for him. We even learn his real name! Another character, among the antagonists’, is also more about brains than brawn, and is severely underestimated even by their own side. To have someone like that in a fairly major role in Dragon Ball of all things is kind of amazing.
Dragon Ball Daima is only 20 episodes, and so it doesn’t suffer from needing a huge time investment or endless filler or any of the things that can make Dragon Ball intimidating to get into (or get back into, as the case may be). This is a short and sweet work where the meandering elements, the focused battles, and everything in between are truly a joy to experience.
There’s a lot I want to write about Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX: The Beginning. It’s a film version of the early episodes of the upcoming anime TV series, and it carries an interesting pedigree as the first Gundam by Studio Khara of Rebuild of Evangelion fame. But I really don’t want to spoil anything, and this post is mainly to nudge people to avoid information and check it out themselves if they can.
What I will say is that GQuuuuuuX feels like it’s trying to appeal to every type of Gundam fan, and it might very well be capable of accomplishing this feat. Whether they’re old school diehards for Universal Century–style stories, newcomers who fell in love with The Witch from Mercury, or part of the crew that prefers alternate universes with quirky rules like G Gundam, there’s just a lot to chew on and enjoy. The way GQuuuuuuX incorporates these nods to the history of the franchise as a whole also stands out to me in a manner reminiscent of Anno Hideaki’s Shin movies (Shin Godzilla, Shin Kamen Rider, etc.).
So I recommend watching this, whether you’re a relative Gundam newbie or a longtime fan, and whether in movie format or the TV series coming in April (though one thing that’ll be missing from the latter is an insert song by hololive’s Hoshimachi Suisei). I hope to see you back here in a few months, where I’ll be ready to talk GQuuuuuuX again—just without holding back my thoughts.
In December last year, news came out that the Dutch VTuber Roca Rourin had a serious medical emergency and needed to be hospitalized. She was announced to be on indefinite hiatus due to the severity of her situation. But earlier this week, we got word from her for the first time since 2024: She only recently came back from the hospital after a successful surgery, but it’s a long and difficult road to recovery ahead for her.
I’m very happy to know that the worst hasn’t happened, and Roca has said that she’ll slowly be returning to creating content. In celebration, I just wanted to write a bit about why I really enjoy Roca as a VTuber.
While there are many solid singers among Virtual Youtubers, sometimes a voice stands out so much that you can’t help but take notice. They dazzle and amaze, and make you wonder if the sky’s the limit for them.
That’s Roca covering “The Pretender” by the Foo Fighters. In a space where so much of the singing and music is pop-focused (be it Japanese, Korean, or English), Roca stands out as a performer with a passion for other genres of music—while also still showing love for the more familiar fare. It’s hard not to be mesmerized by her voice no matter what she’s singing.
Naturally, Roca’s karaoke sessions are a highlight of her channel, and she’ll even challenge herself to sing in languages she doesn’t know too well. But she’s not just about being an excellent vocalist—she’s also very entertaining just shooting the breeze with her chat.
Maybe that’s why I’m also a big fan of her ASMR. She’s only ever done two in total, but she’s one of my absolute favorites in this area, even when compared to the people who dedicate themselves to it fully. She makes them fun and comfortable, and while they can be a bit flirtatious, they also feel relatively platonic. Sometimes, they’re just what I need after a stressful day, or if I just want to stop thinking about the state of the world for a bit. For that alone, I’ll probably be a fan forever.
I’m so glad to have Roca back, and I hope she doesn’t feel pressured to rush her recovery. Regardless of how things pan out, or how long things might take, Roca has been and is a wonderful artist and creator. She’s accomplished so much in the few years she’s been around, and whatever the future looks like, she’s a real rock star in my eyes.
Given recent news in the world, I’m reminded of the biggest geek fallacy of all: The belief that just because you’re good and knowledgeable about one intellectual area means you are or will inevitably be an expert at another. I think this assumption is often a kind of insufferable macho chauvinism that replaces muscles with brains. Failure to accept with humility that one cannot know it all or be accepted into every area—sometimes because one lacks the necessary culture or context—leads to some of the worst of what we see.
So please understand that it’s okay to be bad at something and that you might not ever be “good” at it. I know it can sting, but it’s also freeing in a way.
Thanks to my supporters on Patreon. In other news, it took basically 10+ years for me to realize I’ve been doing something wrong on the platform the entire time. Never too late to learn!!!
General:
Ko Ransom
Diogo Prado
Alex
Dsy
Sue Hopkins fans:
Serxeid
Hato Kenjirou fans:
Elizabeth
Yajima Mirei fans:
Machi-Kurada
Gridman delivers on the big screen.
VTubers truly are real-life anime.
Providing the Japanese version we always needed…sort of.
Kio Shimoku
This coming weekend is hololive 6th fes. I am hoping I can stay awake to watch it live, but my body can’t guarantee that.
In response to a fan hoping that Kio will release his 18+ doujinshi in print format, the man says he’s considering it because of all the credit card payment issues as of late.
Kio cut his finger with a design knife while building a garage kit.
Zenbu Sensei no Sei. 2, Part 1 has sold over 5,000 digital copies on FAFSA and over 2,000 on DLSite. Good numbers, but Kio can’t help but be impressed by the really big sellers.
New chapter of Spotted Flower in Rakuen: Le Paradise. Print edition 2/28, digital in March.
Kio put up manuscript pages of Zenbu Sensei no Sei. 2, Part 1 on Pixiv.
“The wind is strong!”
Kio had a slight headache, but it got better after reading Shibata Yokusaru’s manga Toma Tonzaburo Wants to Become a Masked Rider. (Shibata is the author of Air Master and one of my favorite manga, 81 Diver).
He recalls a similar thing happening back in college, and he even got a CT scan that turned up nothing. But what fixed his headache then was the manga Shakariki! by Soda Masahito (author of Change!!, Firefighter Daigo, Capeta). Apparently, there’s nothing quite like a devastating loss by a main character to let out some of brain fluid, whether it’s in Shakariki (a bicycle manga) or Air Master (a fighting manga).
Kio recalls Shirow Masamune (author of Ghost in the Shell) once saying, “Amphibious assault ships sure are nice.” When shown the Albion, a real-life example from seven years ago that was near Summer Comiket, Kio responds that he thought it looked like a wooden horse. This is a reference to Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory, which features a Federation ship called the Albion.
A short comic about building the OurTreasure Z.A.P. model kit from The Five Star Stories.
The 2024 anime Bartender: Glass of God stands out to me because of how different it is from the previous Bartender anime from 2006.
Both series adapt a manga about a bartender named Sasakura Ryu whose observation skills and alcohol-mixing expertise allow him to help customers work through whatever problems plague them by providing them just the right drink. But the 2006 version came from director Imagawa Yasuhiro and leaned more into the director’s roots with Mister Ajikko and its establishment of the now common trope of “seeing characters make exaggerated reactions to the incredible food and beverages they consume.” It feels more like a healing anime not far from the slice-of-life titles that usually populate that genre, and Sasakura’s presence is downright therapeutic.
In contrast, Glass of God does show Ryu as a generational talent in bartending, he’s situated in a greater world. He may be amazing, and there are characters who want him for their hotel bar, but Ryu is not necessarily the best. He’s in the middle of his own journey that has him occasionally cross paths with those who are even better at making and serving drinks. Whereas the 2006 series feels like one where time stands still, the 2024 series gives the impression of progress, however gradual it might be.
While this might sound like a cop-out, I feel there are benefits to both. Sometimes, you might need meditative work to repair a bruised soul. Other times, you might need something that invigorates and motivates instead. Right now, I think I need a bit of both.
OGIUE MANIAX 