Duelling Mobile Suits

Gundam Battle on the Dinner Table

Last week I made some Mobile Suit Gundam paper minis for Irfan to play with using pictures downloaded from the Gundam Wiki. He has deviced a turn-based Gundam battle game based on the minis. I arrayed the Anno Domini universe Gundams for a group photo, as can be seen above. Left to right: 0 Gundam, Gundam Exia, Gundam Dynames, Gundam Kyrios and Gundam Virtue. We played a one-on-one battle. My Build Strike Gundam vs. his Unicorn Gundam in a desert environment with boulders and one crater for cover. The Build Strike Gundam stats as written by Irfan. Only D6s are rolled. Weapon damage depletes hit points. The mobile suit is destroyed when its hit points reaches zero. The two Gundams from different universes face off in the crater. After his beam magnum blows my head off so I can’t use my Vulcan cannons, we engaged for beam sabre duel. Both beam sabre […]

Continue reading
Osathulhu

My Pet Cthulhu

It was show and tell time at school, so little Ayumu Kasuga brought her pet that she found washed ashore along Osaka bay. She could not really recall how she came to have it, or how she brought it home… or even how she got it to school for show and tell, but there it was like a shadow upon a shadow deep from a lingering nightmare. When it was her turn she began to speak. She was somewhat aware that she spoke in a tongue both beautiful and ugly to hear but she thought nothing of it. Some of the sounds she made did not seem possible to have vocalised by a human but she also thought nothing of this. But her voice carried, and everyone who heard it came – even ones who were too far away to listen. Soon her class was filled with students from other […]

Continue reading

They’re Really Just Form Five Schoolkids

For a single glorious moment in time, the song Diamond Crevasse, as sung by May Nakabayashi the singing voice of Sheryl Nome in Macross Frontier, became the most heartbreaking song in the whole universe. Thrice I’ve seen the ending of episode 20 and thrice I teared up… though it might just be the damn conjunctivitis. [[image:diamondcrevasse01.jpg:The galactic fairy:center:0]] There’s so many bait-and-switches in this story, you just can’t predict who lives and who dies. You kind of know someone will buy it, and you sort of figure out which ones would, but you think, “No, maybe it’s another bait-and-switch.” Then wham! When it happens, it happens right in the middle of that song which had stood for something else when you heard it in previous episodes, and was sung in this episode for a totally different reason. But the melody and the timing of it just interposes with each other […]

Continue reading

Just Two Short Movie Reviews

Hooray for Cheap Ass Wednesday. Because of Cheap Ass Wednesday, it’s cheaper for Irfan, Ain & me to catch a movie than it is for me to buy one novel to read. That stinks to high heaven but it’s a rant for another day if I’m bothered to do it. Ain didn’t feel well enough to get to work that morning. So I picked up Irfan after classes (so he skipped daycare) we went to Cathay Cineleisure where a lot of movies await us. Some really good ones are out cause we’re smack dab in the middle of the summer movie season. I chose two movies for us to enjoy. No spoilers ahead! A Non-comic Book Comic Book Movie: A Hancock Review [[image:movie_hancock01.jpg:Aw hell naw:left:0]]Hancock is a study of the Superman-type superhero template, with a twist. John Hancock is the only super-powered human around. He has the power of flight, […]

Continue reading

Out On The Frontier… With Giant Robots

[[image:macross_frontier02.jpg:VF-25 Valkyrie:center:0]]I wrote earlier about the continuation of the Robotech saga with the Shadow Chronicles. Robotech is actually three different anime series juryrigged and tweaked so they become a (more or less) coherent whole to be syndicated on the American market. However, the first of the three, The Super Dimension Fortress Macross is a saga still being told in its native Japanese, disregarding the entire Robotech thing. [[image:macross_frontier01.jpg:VF-25 Battroid:center:0]]Throughout the years, there’s been among others Macross Plus, Macross 7, Macross Zero… and now the latest series to continue saga of the original Macross is Macross Frontier. [[image:macross_frontier03.jpg:VF-25 Gerwalk:center:0]] As with the first Macross, the story’s teenaged central characters are positioned in a love triangle. Saotome Alto is a male student pilot and former kabuki actor who has long and pretty hair and nicknamed hime (princess) by his schoolmates. Ranka Lee is a female aspiring singer who works in a Chinese […]

Continue reading
Scott Bernard of 21st Mars Division

And The SDF-3 Is Still Missing

Robotech Defense / Expeditionary Force is back in force in the form of the direct-to-DVD movie Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles. And this time, they’re continuing directly from the Robotech The New Generation (the third chapter of the series that was derived from the Japanese standalone series Genesis Climber MOSPEADA) episode “Symphony of Light”. In fact the first 20 minutes or so is a retread of the Battle of Reflex Point from the point of view of the returning fleet. However, this also means that the aborted Robotech II: The Sentinels movie and novels (especially The End of the Circle) has been de-canonised and considered never happened. Returning characters include Scott Bernard, the Invid simulagent Ariel, Louie Nichols formerly of the 15th ATAC. Previously non-canon characters Vince and Jean Grant, General Reinhardt and Janice Em are also featured. New characters that pop up include Marcus Rush (brother of Marlene) and Maia […]

Continue reading