Alright, so I'm reviving this thread because I have to bitch about a couple of things. Watch out for my wall of text and hot opinions.
Iron-Blooded OrphansSo in the past, I've said that I was liking Iron-Blooded Orphans (the currently airing gundam) and was pretty optimistic about it. Well forget it. The show has been slowly pissing away its potential, and I really just have to admit that it's dull. It's been 13 episodes and what's happened so far is not much. I don't have anything against slower moving shows. For example, Turn A is quite slow, but it's one of my favorite shows ever because it worldbuilds so effectively and develops its characters very well. Or another is Legend of the Galactic Heroes which is literally mostly just people talking to each other, but the dialogue is absolutely excellent, the characters are compelling, and the grand scale with political themes makes it amazing. IBO has virtually none of this.
One of the more frustrating things is that the setting is great. The backstory is basically about kids used as soldiers on the backwoods of Mars that finally decide to take their lives in their own hands and "overthrow" their masters and win the freedom. In the process, they secure the funds of Kudelia who is a young aristocrat with serious connections that has advocated for the autonomy of Mars. The organization, Gjallarhorn, has de-facto control over most of space and exerts heavy influence over the governance of Mars. HIgher ups convince Kudelia's dad to try and kill her (he's a wimpy pushover in character basically). Of course, the plan fails and she ends up on stranded on Mars. She wants to find her way back to earth to meet with the leaders of the various spheres that control the territories to try and grant autonomy to Mars, so the Tekkedan (the group of kid soldiers) decide to take her on as the first job.
This sounds like a great setup so far for a good war/political drama right? Well forget it because none of that happens in the story. Seriously, there's like zero politics here. 13 episodes in and Gjallarhorn has been barely explored. The show introduces some group called "Teiwaz" which are like some weird space Yakuza with strong emphasis on family. I'm okay with that, but they're mostly pretty dull. The characters are barely, barely explored. For example, Mika and Orga are two of the main characters and essentially introduced as the bestest of bros to each other to the point of codepedence. How has their relationship changed as Orga steps up to the plate as the leader of the group, and Mika becomes the cold-blooded, piloting ace? It's literally exactly the same as it was in the first episode. Or for another example take Kudelia. Surely as a prominent leader (or at least figurehead) that promotes the independence of Mars; they can explore how a sheltered child copes with the harder life of the Tekkedan crew? Admiittedly, it's touched on a little bit in the beginning, but no real development happens. Hell, Kudelia has even repeated the same character arc ("I'm so useless, but there's something only I can do!") so many times that I've lost count. Man, I haven't even talked about the really poorly written romance between Mika and Kudelia. LIke 90% of it is based on the two randomly walking into each other; it's bad.
To make matters worse, the plot itself has barely gone anywhere. I have no idea why they are going so slow as the show is billed for only 25 episodes, but this is too slow even for 50. It honestly seems like they are going to end the show when the ship arrives on earth (yes, they've been in space for like 10 episodes; it's stupid) while wasting time doing dumb sideplots like Akihiro's brother (atrocious writing all around). Overall, it's not nearly as bad as say AGE or SEED Destiny, but this looks like one it'll be another terrible gundam. What a shame too, the setup was really good and full of potential, but most of the time is spent just meandering in space. If you want to watch gundam, please don't watch this trash. Go watch 0079 and the rest of classic early UC or if you really are just that allergic to old animation (cel animation is great you silly people), then maybe try 00 if you want a more modern style Gundam that's not awful.
Macross DeltaThe other thing on the list to whine about is Macross Delta. I love classic macross and everyone browsing this thread should watch SDF Macross, Do You Remember Love, and Plus (if you haven't already) for sure. I like 7 too, but admittedly that one is more controversial. Frontier and Zero are more eh, but I thought Frontier was pretty enjoyable for what it was (modern-esque take on SDF Macross). So Macross Delta is going to air this spring, and there's a pilot episode/special out and I took the time to watch it. Unfortunately, I was pretty much disgusted.
I wasn't expecting much anyway since Kawamori has put out a lot of crap lately (Nobunaga the Fool was something I actually watched all of it for some reason and it was awful), but it's sad to see Macross sink this low. Okay, it's not technically done so the terrible CGI might be fixed and maybe the wonky pacing will be fixed, but there's so many huge red flags here. For one, it's, horribly, horribly cliched. Literally every character falls neatly into some archetype (lazy but brilliant guy, genki girl, cool, mature type, the hardworking genius, etc.). Sure it's possible that they'll be developed into something interesting, but I'm not going to hold my breath here. None of the past Macross shows start off this cliche; not even Frontier. Everything just seems ridiculously shallow.
Another thing I'm not sold on fully is the idols being a part of some special taskforce. Yes, yes, I know 7 exists, but Basara was a skilled pilot in a Valkyrie that constantly had to avoid crazy missiles and shit. And no I'm not stupid enough to be complaining about the presence of idols in Macross. That's fine. What I don't like is that they are literally right in the middle of combat, and I don't really see why. Yeah the Firebomber flew in combat situations all the time, but if you've watched the show you know there was actually a very, very good reason for it. Obviously, the scenes are made to cater to idol fans with the magical girl-esque transformations and dancing, but I just can't see any strong in-universe for why they would do that. They aren't flying any Valkyries. They don't seem to be wearing any sort of power armor. Their role is basically to sing in universe and stop the Var infections. That's fine; previous Macross shows have done similar things. What I don't like is that they are in the middle of combat and seemingly give a performance as if they were at a concert while occasionally deploying some drones that shield people. This just doesn't make much sense. Why not deploy drones from a safe distance? Why not broadcast the songs through the radio like past Macross shows? In SDF, Minmay sang through speakers that was broadcasted through the whole fleet. For Frontier, Ranka and Sheryl did something similar. The Firebomber was active in combat in 7, but there is a very strong in-universe reason for it. I know this seems pretty nitpicky especially for anime, but the past Macross series were pretty consistent for the most part (even 7). Delta just reeks of shallow pandering in comparison.
It's also kind of lame that they are just rehashing idol pop for the music again. I'm not surprised, but I wish they were a little more creative. Yeah, SDF was also idol pop, but it was distinctly very 80s and differently stylistically. Macross 7 was about a rock band. Frontier went back to idol pop, but in a modern sense and Delta pretty much just rehashes that again. Lame, but it's what sells I guess. And really let's just go back to why SDF Macross is great. The love triangle is actually well-done and incorporated into the story. The setting is pretty compelling. The characters are unique and fleshed out pretty well. And of course, the action was great.
So far, Delta feels like they just put in the obligatory Macross elements (the main character meets two girls in the first episodes, there's idols, and aliens attacking people), but with little regard to any sort of good writing. The action is mostly okay (the really bad CGI doesn't help, but again it's possible that they'll fix it) although there is one Itano circus in here and it's pretty good. All of the characters seem generic. And the aliens this time (whatever causes the Var syndrome) seem okay. If this was just some other show, I wouldn't hate it so much, but this has the freaking Macross name on it and it really reeks of a cashgrab. Maybe I'll be wrong and this will be a solid show. It's too early to give a final judgment, but there's so many warning signs that I'm pretty sure this will be awful. If you want Macross, do yourself a favor and go watch SDF Macross. The character development and drama placed in a high-stakes sci-fi war between different species is what makes Macross great. Not idols.
Man, all I care about these days are old franchises. I should just binge watch 80s mecha over and over.