I’m way overdue for an anime post, and there’s nothing better to break the monotony of more stories on corrupt city government than to indulge in a little cheesecake. So when I saw that Steven Den Beste had decided to post a bunch of pictures from the Ah! My Goddess! TV series featuring Urd, I figured, what the heck, I’ll see your goddess and raise you a bunch of robot pilots! I was going to save this for a week, but when isn’t it a good time for fanservice?
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Ok, here’s the goddess: Urd, Belldandy’s half-sister. She’s got the enthusiasm to go with that outfit. (Oh fudge, I just realized he used that shot… I need another.) |
Robot Pilot Babes below the fold . . .
And here’s the raise: a few robot pilots from Godannar. It’s your typical robots-fighting-bad-things anime, except with a lot of sex.
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This is Anna Aoi and Goh Saruwatari. They’re a husband and wife fighting-robot team. You think that rack’s damn impressive for a 17-year old? You don’t know the half of it. She’s really about half Goh’s size. |
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But there’s no doubt she came by them honestly. This is mom, Dr, Kiriko Aoi. Oh, and she looks a lot smaller than normal in that shot. |
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Try this one, instead. You know, if she didn’t smoke so much, I could go for that.
Oh what the hell. Have a breath mint or six, sweetheart. |
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Anna and Goh have a little difference of opinion, while Shizaru watches in amusement. |
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Bad Goh! He makes all the women cry. This is a much better perspective on the size difference between them. (In fact, it was a negative point throughout the series; she always looked like the kid she really was next to him. ) |
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But I guess Goh’s got a thing for small women, because this is Mira, his former girlfriend, in her childlike state. She sorta got lost for five years. Or dead, take your pick. |
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But it’s only her mind that’s childlike. Hubba-hubba. (Notice Goh trying not to notice.) |
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Which, come to think of it, childlike minds can be a very good thing. “I like my dress but I think it’s too small.” That’s Goh’s younger brother, Shinobu, being prevented from getting an eyefull. |
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And this is a much better picture of Shizaru in action. She was my favorite babe of the show, despite stiff competition from the British and American women. I’m not going to even discuss the Russian pilot (much) — her tits are so big, even the ones on her robot bounce.
I’m not kidding. Not only that, but most of the female-form robots have high heels! |
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Believe it or not, Shizaru was my favorite long before this shot shows up in the series. “Who the hell do you think I am?” |
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And this is Goh with Mira. I’m not sure of the exact functionality of that low V-neck. Er, actually, I think at this point it’s a V-crotch. |
The premise is soap-opera dressed up with robot fights. You see, in the mid-21st century, five years before the opening of the series, some unexplained baddies called “mimetic beasts” showed up and pretty much ate the world’s military. Only the experimental fighting robots fielded by several countries were effective. Now there are several major bases with reciprocal defense agreements covering the world, and two orbital installations monitoring for beast appearances. Oddly, it was discovered that closely-paired fighters were most effective: brother/sister, husband/wife, lovers, etc. Goh and Mira were (two of) the Japanese pilots. In the fiercest fighting, they defeated the “boss beast” at the cost of Mira’s life and essentially, Goh’s soul. But during that battle, Goh saved 12-year-old Anna’s life. So she grew up into 17-year-old Anna, bound and determined to marry him even though he was 12 years her senior. And she succeeds, though the the marriage is supposed to be a secret because she hasn’t graduated high-school yet. Not only that, but it’s also supposed to be a secret that her mom is Goh’s boss and commander of Dannar Base, which covers Japan. (Or rather, that Anna is her daughter; no one but Goh even knew she had one.)
Got all that? Good, we just got out of the first two minutes of the show. Of course it turns out Mira isn’t really dead, she was just sort of misplaced for five years and has lost her mind, so she moves in with Goh and Anna, and Goh’s little brother, Shinobu,* and Anna’s pregnant cat (Pinpin), and the young orphen from one of the orbital stations (Lou). Unsurprisingly, this causes problems. Oh and did I mention that because of what happened to Mira, Goh is dead set against Anna becoming a pilot, even though she saves his fanny in the first episode?
Then things get. . . complicated.
*Edit, I originally had his name as Shinobuchi, which was the result of my mis-hearing “Shinobu-chin.” I checked the credits and realized my error.
I won’t give out any more spoilers; the above is more than enough. Godannar is everything that anti-robot fans hate about robot anime: the robots combine to get more powerful, they morph impossibly, the pilots shout out the names of their attacks, all the robots are different and have special powers; there’s a headstrong kid pilot (Lou), the natural pilot (Anna, of course), and massive scene reuse — especially launch and combination shots.
Godannar is everything that pro-robot fans love about robot anime: the robots combine to get more powerful, they morph impossibly, the pilots shout– oh, you get the picture. They just add the soap opera and fanservice to make it seem different. It worked on me; I normally hate robot shows. And I do groan every time I have to sit through that same launch sequence again and again. (I don’t know who those four lazy jerks are in the lounge, but you think they’d at least stand in different positions for one of the launches.)
The pilots & commander aren’t the only babes; the control room team is a pair of “cleavage cuties” and there’s some damn shapely suits among the repair crews (although I didn’t include any good shots of them). As one reviewer put it on Anime News Network, there’s a hallway scene where you can pretty much change the color palatte from “uniform orange” to “human skin” and it’s at least hard R.
We get to see a lot of the other pilots in the world, as the mimetic beasts, beaten back 5 years ago, appear to be on the increase again. The Japanese pilots are actually the most normal of the lot. The Americans are a couple of sisters, but they don’t get much screen time and no development through the first 3 DVDs. Their bots are designed for work in the water or air. The Chinese pair are a guy bigger than Goh and a girl tinier than Anna. The Brits are the most interesting; apparently brother and sister (but possibly not biologically), they’re both hung up on each other but unwilling to admit it. Oh, great, another incest show.
(Aside: What is it with the Japs on that score? At least, there’s no pedophiles running around; at 17, Anna is the youngest overt sex object in the show. Lou, at 12, has a slightly more modest outfit, and she’s not portrayed in that manner. Overtly anyway. You have to wonder why she even has an outfit for piloting. Edit: As for the Brits, I don’t know where I got that “maybe not biologically” bit, wishful thinking maybe. Brother and sister. And the American voice actors did a horrible British accent.)
The British robot is just as unique; it’s actually a bomber called Dragliner that normally operates as a single unit, but can split off the nose to become Dragfighter. The second Japanese pair of suits operates similarly; G-Gunner is the heavy combat “outer shell” around Shizaru’s Core Gunner; when G-Gunner and its pilot are trashed early in the first episode, she spends the rest of the first season “solo.”
Oh, and to complete the soap opera, she’s secretly in love with Goh. And Max, another pilot, is in love with Mira. And Goh’s younger brother, Shinobu, has a crush on Anna. And all the boys at the high-school think that if they can beat Anna at robot soccer, they get to date her. She destroys them routinely. (Edit: added names above)
The producers had a committment for two seasons from the outset, so they were able to set it up with a long-term arc and several sub-plots. As of DVD 3 (end of season 1), everything’s moving along at a nice pace — there have been no filler episodes; something is always advancing. The mimetic beasts aren’t explained at all, and a whole lot of problems would have been avoided if Anna’s mom, Dr. Aoi, weren’t so crazy about trying to keep secrets from people. And what’s up with Anna girlishly (that’s the only way I can describe it) volunteering to take in Mira and Lou? She’s young and a newlywed; it’s a recipie for disaster that her mother should have seen coming and headed off. Oh wait, if you work it out, Mom had Anna when she was 18 herself. And then there’s that whole “I’m going to keep secrets for your benefit, even if it causes a total disaster” thing. Yep, Anna comes by her foolishness naturally too.
Right now, DVD 4, which contains the first episodes of the 2nd season, is on its way to me. (4/2/06: STILL on the way to me. What’s the problem?)
Edit 3/27/06: Just a late note on the voice acting: the only two that stood out in my mind were the English voice actresses for Anna and Shizaru. Anna’s is “Shrillery Hillary” Haag. I’ve heard worse, but her screeching is almost enough to make me switch to Japanese. Which is a shame, because I like Shizaru’s American VA, Tiffany Grant, better than the Japanese, who sounds somewhat little-girlish in comparison. Oh, and the British accents of Chris Patton and Shannon Emmerick as Knight and Ellis, the Dragliner pilots, should result in their being blacklisted from ever doing non-American roles again. Eww, just ewwwwww. I kept imagining two old folks over tea and crumpets.
Update: SDB writes to say that I’m having aspect ratio problems again.
“Your images are all 720*480, which is the native size for DVDs. Problem is that no series is actually produced in that aspect ratio.
This one seems to be “wide screen”, i.e. 16:9. Proper size for that should be 848*480.”
I’m not sure what’s going on. The captures appear to be pulling the image directly from the DVD without correcting for the screen, resulting in some minor distortion. In the case of the AMG shot, some major distortion that I had to correct using PSP8. I’m going to try experimenting with a few settings tonight.
Update 2: It’s useless. Nothing I do fixes it. I confirmed that 848 x 480 is the correct ratio for Godanner, but no combination of settings will make the captures happen at anything but 720 x 480, so all my images are slightly compressed horizontally. I don’t know if it’s hardware, software, or some combination of the two.
Update 3: so here, have some new (corrected) cheesecake, since I’m not going back to fix the first batch.
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And a much better picture of Mira, in fighting trim. Yes, that’s a fire in the cockpit behind her |
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Ellis, the British pilot, who’s in love with her brother. |
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“How many times have I told you to shut your hole before somebody’s tool falls in it!” ADV had a little fun with the English dialog. It makes purists scream, but if they think the dialog can be improved a bit they’ll go for it. |
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Shinobu-chin, you are one lucky bastard. You get face-planted by mom, Anna and Mira regularly seem to lose their clothes around you, and all the chicks in the base seem to like you, even to the point of letting you hang out at the pool with them. Of course Lou kinda brained you with a pot, but hey, you can’t have everything. |
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Sweetheart, I don’t care what that loudmouth mechanic says, your ass is not fat! It’s. . . yummy. |
