Problem with alien-invasion anime

Madzack · Post by **Madzack** » Thu Aug 28, 2003 10:54 pm

Have to bump this. I need more opinions on this.

angelx03 · Post by **angelx03** » Thu Aug 28, 2003 11:28 pm

What about those two alien races in Vandread?

oh wait............................

Warpwind · Post by **Warpwind** » Fri Aug 29, 2003 12:44 am

Some alien invasion animes that have a sting in the tail ending (or at least something that you weren't exactly expecting)They both start out fairly standard... Big bad aliens invading and destroying things. However they don't end that way.
Gatekeepers

and by far one of my favourite animes...
Argento Soma

I'm sure there are some others out there but the romance flavoured ones tend to have the aliens looking remarkably human.
Onegai Teacher
Techi Muyo
Vandread (kinda)

Ashyukun · Post by **Ashyukun** » Fri Aug 29, 2003 7:24 am

Warpwind wrote:Some alien invasion animes that have a sting in the tail ending (or at least something that you weren't exactly expecting)They both start out fairly standard... Big bad aliens invading and destroying things. However they don't end that way.

I'll add one to that list- Detonator Orgun. OK, so ignore the little WTF trick that gets pulled at the end...

generalhs · Post by **generalhs** » Mon Sep 08, 2003 12:41 pm

Anlushac11 wrote:8)

I just saw a bunch of Last Exile Episodes and I think the Guild kicks butt.

Im not sure if I would call them Aliens but the Guild pilots seem to be pretty good pilots, and the one female guild pilot was just toying with the main character.

Umm, Dios and Luciora are both male. Yeah, I thought he was a girl at first as well.

Don't worry, though, the Guild really get developed later on.

Toecutter · Post by **Toecutter** » Mon Sep 08, 2003 5:33 pm

Well, it's either you have the hordes of invading aliens, or you're stuck with the dragged-out "tournament" style duel between two over-confident, annoying characters. Why in God's name do the Japanese do either one or the other, but they can't do the in-between mobile/guerrilla warfare seen since WWII?

I mean c'mon! How many different series have the same formulaic "DBZ" style confrontation that goes something like this:

1) Main bad guy shows up, kills civies, and randomly blows up stuff
2) Main good guy comes out of the wreckage, in some over-glorified, awe-inspiring pose, brags about how he's so much tougher than the main bad guy.
3) Bickering is exchanged between the two
4) Beginner's level sparring/hand to hand combat begins
5) Five minute break, in which the chracters sum up their adversary's potential, look for weaknesses, etc.
6) Last two minutes of the break are spent exchanging more bickering.
7) Main good guy/bad guy is enraged, powers up, and tries an overkill approach to defeat the other.
8) Main bad guy/good guy dodges attacks with ease, and then steps up his attacks another level.
9) Main bad guy/good guy retaliates, and knocks out main good guy/bad guy.
10) Main good guy/bad guy stops fooling around, and reveals his true _insert terminology here_ (aka synch ratio, power, psycommu abilities, spirit energy, etc).
11) More blows are exchanged.
12) Cliffhanger ending
13) Next episode preview, and end credits

Kamoc · Post by **Kamoc** » Mon Sep 08, 2003 5:43 pm

and then a bear jumps out and shoots him. alright, we get it.

UncleMilo · Post by **UncleMilo** » Mon Sep 08, 2003 6:58 pm

Actually, there are many alien invasion series from Japan where the Aliens are presented as being simialr to human beings.

One of the common themes in anime is that of trying to find the humanity of the enemy...

In Star Blazers (Yamato), the aliens had the same anatomy as human beings. Desslock (I have to use the English names, I don't know the Japanese ones on this series), was attacking Earth to find a home for his own people. Later on, Desslock sides with humanity against the Comet Empire because he recognizes the Earthlings in their struggles as being the same as his own.

In Macross, the Zentradi are revealed to have their origins associated with a culture similar to our own. The initial forces of Zentradi learn that the way of mankind is better than that of what they know and they join in our fight against the rest of the Zentradi.

Yes... there are some series where the aliens are just creatures and therefore cannon-fodder...

but I have seen MANY more series where the aliens have personalities... and often their plight is sympathetic.

-Uncle Milo

generalhs · Post by **generalhs** » Tue Sep 09, 2003 9:19 pm

Milo, you mention some great serieses there.

Those are the type of villains I like. The ones who can also be at least semi-justified in their actions.

soshamaru · Post by **soshamaru** » Tue Sep 09, 2003 9:38 pm

u just described every saga of dbz. course the part u missed is

a) main hero is training/injured
b) minor characters serve as filler and do all the dirty work
c) main hero comes back automatically stronger than minor characters and hogs all the glory

"if gokus so great y's he always dead?"