An American Writer's Thoughts on Japanese Animation

The STL of a Double Feature – Gundam Build Divers & Gundam Build Divers Re:RISE Spoiler Reviews

I love model kits. I have made no secret of that this month, and will probably be happily assembling various mechas and mecha musume into the future. I also happen to have a fondness, from the days when I consumed more Western media, for a little cult classic of a film called Tron. For those who know Tron is – I would say – a delightfully dated little adventure that tries to show what goes on deep inside a computer realm, with some very memorable visuals and basic conceits and characters, it can kind of be considered the granddaddy of the “Trapped in a video game” genre that underscores a lot of the “VR MMO” stories you see these days when, you know, MMOs exist and VR doesn’t seem equally implausible compared to digitizing a person’s entire physical existence.

Naturally, where all this is going is Gundam Build Divers. Along with its sequel, Re:RISE, Divers takes the Gundam Build idea and translates it into cyberspace, and we’re going to be looking at it as a double feature this week.

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The Plamo of a Double Feature – Gundam Build Fighters & Gundam Build Fighters Try Spoiler Reviews

Ah, Mobile Suit Gundam… it’s kind of a marvel that no entries in such a huge and venerable series had made it onto the review blog up until now. But, the very scope and scale of the affair is part of why: Gundam is huge, and that makes tackling it in more bite-sized sections a rather difficult. Of course, it’s not entirely a single continuity, and there are certainly entries that can be looked at in isolation, but if I’m really going to address Gundam I want to do it with some sort of semblance of purposeful direction.

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It’s Only a Model – Busou Shinki Spoiler Review

So, some time ago I reviewed Frame Arms Girl, a show based on a line of plastic model kits, depicting the mecha musume girls from the kits as animate… well, plastic models, leading to a kind of odd living toys setup. Well, it turns out that I might have started in the wrong place: before there were Frame Arms Girls, Busou Shinki from Konami was the main and arguably original line of mecha musume snap-fit models. Being Konami, it was a multi-media franchise including model kits, manga, games, and of course an anime outing as well, which is probably what we have to blame for Frame Arms Girl taking the “tiny androids, VR Battlefields” sort of approach, because that’s exactly what Busou Shinki does. The question will be whether or not it does it better than Frame Arms Girl.

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Earnest Fakery – Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend (plus .flat and Fine) Spoiler Review

Rounding out a February of warped love we have Saekano: the harem romcom about making a dating sim visual novel. On paper, Saekano is about the trials and tribulations of otaku Tomoya Aki as he tries to transition from fan to creator, expressing his love of 2d despite, perhaps, the prospect of an extra dimension of romance being closer than he thinks. In reality… well, let’s take a look.

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Sisterly Lust – Kiss x Sis Spoiler Review

Well, it’s Feburary, and because this month contains a holiday certain cultures associate with love and sexuality, I end up slotting it full of reviews of shows that have similar topics. This year, I’ve done heavy ecchi and pervy romance, so clearly I’m going for the twisted end of the spectrum. So, what better topic to continue the month with than Incest?

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