"Why can't Saturday morning cartoons look like this?" Topic

Now having a cartoon that looked like this on Saturday mornings would be worth getting up early to watch:

YouTube link

Major Broode
I'VE GOT A BAD FEELING ABOUT THIS…

Indeed… until such a time, we'll just have to make due with Yamato 2199…

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Wow that artwork is excellent.

Meh. It wasn't bad, but certainly not "worth getting up early" for.

It looked pretty good but the disappearing helmets thing was annoying and distracted from everything else.

Nowadays with availability on the net NOTHING is worth getting up early for. Watch it later on Youtube or Netflix! 8)=

Struck me as a massive pro-Empire fanflick/propaganda video.

Odd, but that's how it felt watching it.

(And yes, the disappearing helmets was… annoying and a weird visual effect. I guess to 'humanize' the pilots?)

Thanks for pointing this out. I like like not only the style, but that it seems to focus on imperial pilots. Up until now that side of the fight was relegated to embarrassing explosions and big helmets.

I like it. If it was proper anime space opera, the bad guys and good guys would get equal time. Also, the Empire characters' philosophy would be well articulated, even if it is insupportable. Thanks for posting this video, Major Broode!

Ron

The helmet thing annoyed me too but it was pretty good other than that.

Seen it before, loved it. Gets me in the mood for gaming Star Wars every time.

-Will

It looked pretty good but the disappearing helmets thing was annoying and distracted from everything else.

No moresoe than having an in-cockpit view of the pilots in the first place, I thought.

My Saturdays were spent watching this series:

YouTube link

Wyatt

Anime. No, thanks.

Why were the bad guys blue?

I've seen this before, and like it!

And I do like the artistic device of fading the helmets away. TIE fighters require helmets in their ships. Having established that, we fade to seeing the face characters and being able to easily track them in the battle.

It's not directly equivalent, but we do see Tony Stark's face inside the Iron Man helmet. It's a good way to dig down into the emotion beneath the equipment.

It's a pro-Empire story so it's important to show the Empire stars of the story. Without the helmet fades it's harder to tell who is who and it also makes you connect with the characters more, rather then them just being another faceless fighter goon. I think it is a good idea and liked the helmet fades.

But the whole point of the Empire is that it's a faceless war machine.

But the whole point of the Empire is that it's a faceless war machine.

Rebel propaganda!

-Will

Struck me as a massive pro-Empire fanflick/propaganda video.

Odd, but that's how it felt watching it.

Yeah. That's how I felt too. The disappearing helmets were specifically to show you the star character's reaction in the battle…the same reason they did not have enclosed helmets in Star Ship Troopers movie.

Personally, I liked everything about it except that the bad guys were the ones humanized. I could give a rat about them. You can give a general history of the empire without major characters. YMMV

Thanks for posting. Fun little diversion.

John

Struck me as a massive pro-Empire fanflick/propaganda video.

I find your lack of faith …

While true to the regular story arc, the 'faceless war machine', from another point of view…

I CAN'T STOP QUOTING!

Anyway, the Iron Man open front still lets you know he's inside a helmet. I've seen anime with fades that just occur to the front of the helmet, with maybe a ghost of the faceplate.

Better device, methinks.

Doug

the same reason they did not have enclosed helmets in Star Ship Troopers movie.

And a clear face visor would have solved that problem nicely without having to completely rewrite Heinlein's classic novella into a deliberately over the top anti-war/anti-military dark satire…

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Clear visors mostly never work in movies.

Did you like Robocop?

Doug

And a clear face visor would have solved that problem nicely without having to completely rewrite Heinlein's classic novella into a deliberately over the top anti-war/anti-military dark satire…

What? The movie is not what Heinlein intended in his book?!?!11?

It isn't even a very good anti-war, anti-military movie.

Anyway, this cartoon looks interesting and my thanks for pointing it out.

Agreed.

Never considered it either pacifist or anti-soldier.

Anti-big-government, of course. But I'm a liberal, so that won't fly with me.

So, did you like Robocop?

Doug

Is it just me, or is there something slightly disturbing about a Japanese-style anime favoring the forces of a quasi-deified emperor and his loyal-to-the-death minions?

On the other hand, a thoughtful exploration of how and why one becomes a warrior for such a leader, and what the consequences of such choices are, might be interesting. After all, plenty of people have (and still do) swear allegiance to such leaders (and worse) for reasons that I know exist, but find hard to fathom.

the bad guys were the ones humanized

Rebels, human?

More alliance propaganda! Death to Rebel Scum!!!!

Major Broode
I'VE GOT A BAD FEELING ABOUT THIS…

Nice!

I've always like that, including the style and the effects. I might not get up for that, but I'd set the DVR for it :)

Clear visors mostly never work in movies.

Did you like Robocop?

Clear visors depend upon the visor:

Yes, I enjoyed Robocop. I mean, a film that had a cyborg super cop shooting up everything In sight, a combat robot (ED-209) that never worked right, massive casualties and widespread property damage, what's there not to love?!

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

They worked great in U.F.O.

listal.com/viewimage/5373724

But we all know that TIE pilot helmets don't have visors.

Notes on clear visors:

To see an actor behind a sheet of glass or plexiglass, the actor's face must be lit from within the glass, otherwise the light reflects off the faceplate, rendering the actor's face invisible. However, this also creates an unrealistic helmet design, as a real astronaut (or space whatever) would want to minimize illumination inside the helmet, so as to be able to see outside the helmet (recall what it's like to try to look out of a brightly lit room at night; unless you're practically against the glass and the exterior object is well lit, all you''ll see will be a dark reflection of the room you are in).

Of course, in Star Wars the stormtroopers and pilots are deliberately faceless to add to their mystery and menace. Visually, they are cut off from being humans we could care about or relate to, and simply become the obstacles or monsters our heroes must defeat.

artwork/graphics..etc.. was outstanding in my opinion. I didn't care for the helmet/face switch either, just felt odd.

I also thought it was over the top pro-empire even for a pro-empire story line, which I don't necessarily have a problem with, but a tie bomber engaging 2 x-wings (if i remember correctly) and a y-wing just didn't seem to click with me.

Interesting and it definitely beats anything else that's on tv on Saturday mornings.

To see an actor behind a sheet of glass or plexiglass, the actor's face must be lit from within the glass, otherwise the light reflects off the faceplate, rendering the actor's face invisible.

Parzival I would disagree with you. That UFO shot is cracking example of it ain't necessarily so. It's just well lit.

'Course, if you want all of the action to take place in moody low light*, then yeah: you'll have to put lights in the helmet.

John T

* As is often the case with modern SF

I like it a lot. As for the issue of it being about the bad guys. Does that mean the movie Cross of Iron sucked, Or Das Boot?
Considering the WW2 influences of the Empire i can only assume that, much like pre WW2 Germany, there were a lot of military officers who threw in their lot with the Emperor at the beginning believing in the promise of a better galaxy and are now stuck in a situation they do not agree with but perhaps hope will one day change.
People like Langsdorff in WW2 for instance.
The faceless mass of the Empire works well enough for a movie or two but in an expanded universe seems like too much of an easy fallback position "Why do they do that? Because they are all evil"

Parzival I would disagree with you.

And I with you; I don't think the shot works. Yes, you can see their faces, but it doesn't work for me.

People like Langsdorff in WW2 for instance.

I consider Lutjens an even better example. I love and regularly watch Sink the Bismarck, but the film has Gunther all wrong.

However, I enjoy this AS an Empire agitprop, the way I look at Robocop. And Starship Troopers.

I was startled by the last, but only for a short time as I was watching. Then I remembered Robocop, and realized I was guilty of the worst intellectual turpitude.

Shamed me no end.

Doug

Lutjens probably was a better example but i like the Graf Spee and therefore Langsdorff. Enough so i named one of my Space battleship Yamato style cruiser classes the Langsdorff (along with the Scheer and Raeder. I shouldnt name ships right after watching Pursuit of the Graf Spee *L*)

The Empire have millions, or probably more soldiers at their disposal. If you read some stories outside of the movies, you'll quickly see that they are more than just evil henchmen, all evil, no face. Some have to enlist because he/she's got no other option. Some wants to fulfill a military role because of family traditions. Not all of them are evil, and I doubt except the personal bodyguards any Imperial soldiers know the evil they are lead by. The army itself is so big, that the Emperor cannot concentrate on them – and it is possible that officers think and act differently with their men. Instead of soulless murderers who think that discipline could only be maintained by executions and brutality, bearing comradeship with them works better (like…Gaunt from W40k).

Personally, I liked this flick. And how it showed characters. And see the rebel scum blown up.

Einar Gosric with regards to naming ships which I have done with my StarBlazers(Space Cruiser Yamato)ships and my Star Trek ships.

For example some of my StarBlazers names are Adm Togo and Austerlitz for example since I name my SB ships after French,American,German,Japanese and Russian leaders,locations and Battles.

As for my Star Trek ships I've named them the same in some cases but since their names are on the ships it's more permanent than with my SB names.

Also with the Star Trek ships there's also the Mirror Universe as well so some ships are named one way in our universe but something else in the MM universe.

And in the MM universe the history of Earth was much different so you could've names which are never used in our universe for example we would NEVER see a ship with the name A.Hitler but in the MM universe there might be such a ship with that name.

Overall I like to name my ships as it gives them personality so to speak so I like that a lot.

I toyed with going all out evil with my mirror universe designs but couldnt bring myself to create a Heydrich or Reichenau class cruiser. I went for a bit more of a Russian feel with the Temujin and Stepan Makarov classes instead after considering the time period when Star Trek came about and the whole red paranoia thing.
The pre-wave motion designs i did for our Yamato game for some reason ended up being almost exclusively German. Probably because my character was from Germany and i was in that frame of mind But i was planning on expanding that with the next generation ships.

Just as a note. That clip is not part of any bigger anime series or movies (sadly), but an one-man art project by a guy who does a bit of small anime projects to celebrate the hand drawn cartoon techniques that are now rare in Japanese animation. He is pretty good obviously. He said he was influenced by the Tie Fighter game in creating it.

This is the guys channel YouTube link

Anime series tend to partly humanize the bad guys (sometimes very well creating anguish in you the viewer, and sometimes really bad). Its one of the reasons I prefer them over many western stuff. I a more immersed in many anime stories because the conflict does create anguish and while I want the "good" guys to win, I also feel for some of the "bad" guys.

Mind you most anime is not that good, but the good anime is really really good.

One of the reasons the original Gundam worked so well was that humanization of the 'bad guys' Amuro might have been the hero but who didnt like Char Aznable and Ramba Ral. And of course the one year war era MS Igloo did that incredibly well as well as having some great SF versions of German WW2 experimental super weapons.