#LOOK I came here to watch a goofy show about talking frogs and found family this is NOT what I signed up for

[soup-du-silence]

So, have you been watching Amphibia? If so, do you think it sorta nails certain elements of Ducktales better like family (Plantars vs the Ducks), actual important onscreen stuff being shown, better balance on characters (only has about 7-ish in main cast at Anne, Plantars, Sasha, Marcy, and Grime compared to the boat loads on Ducktales), and better world conquering villain (Andrias>Lunaris)? Do you also ship Anne/Sasha/Marcy?

oh anon, you're not slick. you must follow me on twitter because I know I've talked about at least one of these things already.

yes frog show is doing a way better at found family than duck show. a big part of the sell for me is that its very show-not-tell. I believe that Anne has become and will always be a Plantar-by-proxy because it's just....the truth. We didn't even start getting really meaty lore until season 2 so all of season 1 was just....Anne and the Plantars as a unit, having wacky adventures. It was a very natural progression. I feel like....a big part of the thing that others Anne, that she's human and an outsider, is always obvious and something you're always aware of. She's different, she doesn't belong here, she's going to go home eventually, so they dont need to draw attention to it all the time. Unlike Webby, who looks like she belongs, and we're told she's supposed to belong, and they keep saying family, only to keep pulling the rug out from under us by focusing on the biological McDucks or whatever. Ducktales told us she was Family without really explaining what that meant outside of her obsession with Scrooge, and then, at the last minute, her actual biological relation to them. Anne and the Plantars love each other. like, its not a question. It was, in fact, pretty devastating to find out Hop Pop had lied to Anne in the interest of protecting his biological kin, but unlike Scrooge lashing out at Webby in Last Crash, the frog show actually fucking addresses it and they work through it.

i do think the smaller cast helps, and the fact that its an original property and doesnt feel the need to waste time on nostalgia bait. amphibia isnt even a show like, say, steven universe, in which every single episode leant something vital and integral to the lore. You'd wait 6 months for a new episode then get a townie filler ep and think, "aw man," only for something set up in that episode to pay off in an important way 30 episodes down the line. there are loads of amphibia eps that are just....goofy fun. they dont add anything to the lore, except that they continue to sell Anne and Sprig's friendship. you KNOW Anne and Sprig are best friends because you've seen how much time they spend together and the adventures they have and all their heartfelt convos. on the other hand you could go ages without a Webby-being-treated-like-family ep, and instead have several while she's standing on the sidelines or excluded from Della-centric stuff because she's not Della's fucking kid. Anne and Sprig are almost ALWAYS there, because it's their show.

I feel like both Lunaris and Andrias have similar energies in that I knew not to trust Andrias, like the dude was too big, sorry. You dont trust a dude that big voiced by keith david, especially if he's nice. But yeah, he's definitely more threatening. If I thought he was maybe a little cheesy before, then he put a flaming sword through marcy's chest. so like....yeah dude means business.

I dont....really ship the girls? I always had trouble liking Sasha, particularly in season 1, not in a "i think she's a terrible character" way because i think she's a fascinating character, but in a "I had a lot of trouble believing she genuinely liked Anne because my personal experience with girls like Sasha is they do not have your best interest at heart." They kind of started walking that back in season 2 with flashbacks that kind of didn't gel with the image of her I'd formed in my head during season 1, so I just kind of...had trouble figuring out how I felt about her. PCS wrote a nice Marcanne fic I enjoyed a lot back when the ship honestly hadn't occurred to me, and seeing how...uh. Unhinged? Detached from reality? Marcy is really adds a layer of intrigue and angst that's probably definitely worth thinking about. I'll have to poke around in ao3 and see what it has to offer on that front. I'm not like, totally sold on it, but it could be interesting.

Sprig/Ivy is where it's at. Sorry, I love Ivy, she's perfect in every way. I hope she goes batshit fucking bananas when she finds out what happened.

and though you didnt ask? The big super-anne twist fucking slaps. I dont know where it came from and I dont care. It was badass. come up with something cool enough like that and people will play along. Webby-as-Scrooge's clone? Sucked balls. God. not even in the same ballpark.

#amphibia #amphibia spoilers

[mageinabarrel]

Yoshiyuki Tomino’s idiosyncrasies have rarely been so approachable, delightful, and altogether entertaining.

I came to Overman King Gainer as a Yoshiyuki Tomino (Mobile Suit Gundam, for those whom the name on its own means nothing) show by way of Gundam Reconguista in G, a show which – as you may or may not recall – I rather liked. While my overall experience with Tomino is limited compared to the overall scope of his oeuvre, with G-Reco and Turn A Gundam (which made my top shows list at #8) under my belt I felt that I had found some kind of kinship, albeit exploratory, with the legendary creator’s idiosyncratic tendencies. And with King Gainer being catalogued along with G-Reco and Turn A among the “Happy Tomino” shows, it only seemed right that I also give it a try.

I’m happy to report that, on the whole, Overman King Gainer was exactly what I was looking for in that respect. It is decidedly a Tomino show, and no one really makes anime like Tomino. That’s probably for the best considering the nature of his quirks, but I’m glad his works have a space to exist. Tomino himself composed the lyrics to King Gainer‘s irrepressible opening theme, which perhaps tell you all you need to know about the show right off:

I need King Gainer!

King! King! King Gainer! Metal Overman King Gainer!

And, later, in the full version of the opening:

Metal fire! I love you! Metal full coat!

[In background as other lyrics happen]: King, King, King Gainer! King, King, King Gainer! King, King, King Gainer!

Did you know you can do the monkey to the rhythm of that “King, King, King Gainer!” chant? Well, you can. Many of the characters do it in the opening, with the mecha joining in (thank you, Kenichi  Yoshida). Tomino himself was caught on video during the production of King Gainer doing what looks suspiciously like that dance, too. That is the kind of bubbling, enthusiastic energy that King Gainer is imbued with from start to finish. And, in gratefulness for having been able experience all of that for myself, I’d like to highlight just a few of Overman King Gainer‘s merits to hopefully induce a few others to give it a shot sometime.

Silliness Resides inside Seriousness

Tomino’s propensity for incorporating the, er, derpier side of martial conflicts into his works is an aspect of his anime that I’ve developed a particular fondness for. While I fond myself rather thrown by the frequent disfunction of the war in Turn A Gundam in my first encounter with Tomino, I came to appreciate it more and more as I completed the series, rewatched it, and then say G-Reco and Mobile Suit Gundam. However, I think it’s fair to say that only G-Reco comes close to rivaling Overman King Gainer‘s silliness—and even then, it’s not quite there.

There is a pleasant matter-of-factness to the way Tomino anime deliver their absurdities, a kind of grinning deadpan that accompanies the obviously silly moments and more obtuse humorous bits alike. At one point, a stuffed elephant is used as a shield against a throwing knife and is subsequently apologized to upon request. Later on in the series, a confession of love is used to counteract an antagonist’s mind-reading weapon and winds up being broadcast around the globe. In between, a squirrel saves two humans from drowning. And, throughout, people just kinda… say a lot of stuff. Some of which makes sense. Some of which also makes sense, but also is funny. Some of which is just funny.

I did not say that Overman King Gainer was not a dumb anime. But it sure has a lot of fun with its ridiculous ideas, and the natural way it plays its silliest ones against its more serious ones makes for a unique charm that’s just not like anything else in anime.

The Cast Is, Really, Just Charming

It’s hard not to like many of the characters in Overman King Gainer. I mean, sure, evil railway boss Kids Munt has an incredibly punchable face (spoilers: this happens, satisfyingly) and Asuham Boone is an unreasonable human being (but he’s also so bad at doing anything that you can’t hate him). But beyond them and a handful of other antagonist-types, the cast of Overman King Gainer is just a pile of delightfully varied and unique personalities. I could list out pretty much all of them and have something good to say about each, but I won’t.

Instead, I’ll just note that my favorite in a close race was the precocious young Princess Ana and her trio of squirrel-like creatures, who enthusiastically becomes a hostage for the main group and provides occasional childish verbal beatdowns and plenty of danger-unaware cuteness. Shoutouts to candy-popping genius Overman pilot Cynthia Lane, the witty and good-looking Gain Bijou, the rock-solid Sara Kodama, and the aforementioned Asuham Boone. What speaks even more to King Gainer‘s virtues in this area, though, is the way people in King Gainer are always bouncing around outside their established social circles, talking to each other and generally being a lot of fun to watch. Pretty much the entire cast has chemistry with each other, which, along with the qualities of their unique characters, means conversations are fun no matter who’s participating.

On a related note, one aspect of Tomino’s creations that doesn’t get talked about enough is his ability to build a sense of genuine affection and camaraderie amongst the makeshift families that so often form the emotional core of his shows. Whether it’s the crew of the White Base in the original Mobile Suit Gundam or the Bellri-Aida-Raraiya-Noredo quartet in G-Reco, Tomino has a knack for investing you in the bonds between these characters as they meet, get to know each other, grow closer, and go through their stories together. The way Gainer and Sara become pseudo-parents to Cynthia Lane in the series’ final quarter or so  is a microcosm of this in action in Overman King Gainer, as the whole Yapan Exodus team moves from being a scattering of individuals and smaller groups into a united effort to bring the Ceilings safely to their home.

The Giant Roboting is Exceedingly Good

There is a lot that can be said in favor of the giant roboting in Overman King Gainer. The first is that frankly embarrassing number of fun mecha designs is off the charts – all the way from the likable design of the titular mech, to the rubbery morphing of Cynthia Lane’s Dominator, to weird frog-like Overman, to uncomfortably muscle-bound ones, to the many goofy Silhouette Machine designs, and so forth. The creativity of the powers the mechs possess—speed, invisibility, gravity control, summoning giant toads, Precure villain powers, causing eternal winter across the planet, etc.—match the designs stride-for-stride.

Of course, concepts are nice, but what about the actual use of said giant robots? Well, on the whole, I would argue that King Gainer is better at giant roboting than G-Reco, as it roughly takes a mecha of the week structure, resulting in constant giant robot duels. Happily, King Gainer‘s production is such that it’s able to make those duels achieve frequent visual heights with plenty of exciting animation. The clear standout is the BONES-outsourced episode #14, which was an industry event of sorts, but the majority of King Gainer‘s fights have at least some kind of animation merit to them—whether it be longer fight sequences or just beautifully rendered explosions.

But the most important thing about King Gainer‘s giant roboting is simply that it loves the stuff. The mecha of the week format isn’t just a convenient episode structure here, it’s a chance for the show to do what it does best of all – deliver exciting, blood-pumping mecha action to the viewer. All the good designs and fun powers and sakuga are in service of that one goal: to let giant robots do their giant robot thing. The creative of concept simply bubbles out in a joyful rush as the fights get bigger, the opposing mecha more hilariously overpowered, and the titular mecha finding new ways to overcome the challenges before – all the way to the very end, which is one of the most stirring giant robot moments I have yet has the pleasure of witnessing.

And you know, this is a giant robot show—so if the giant roboting is good, what else really is there to complain about?

King! King! King Gainer! Metal Overman King Gainer!

Yoshiyuki Tomino's idiosyncrasies have rarely been so approachable, delightful, and altogether entertaining. Yoshiyuki Tomino's idiosyncrasies have rarely been so approachable, delightful, and altogether entertaining.

#Overman King Gainer #Review #this is now a giant robot blog #Yoshiyuki Tomino