Post Apocalyptic Science Fantasy Mecha (CROSSOVER) Game: Gundam, Evangelion, Mazinger

EDIT: Not sure why the majority of the images I tried attaching didn't work upon initial posting, will see if I can fix...

Setting

A Super Robot Wars style crossover! And also post apocalyptic science fantasy! What if, hear me out, instead of a post apocalyptic science fantasy world of warriors and wizards, instead it was mecha and kaiju? The evil wizard overlords have "Super Robots" like Mazinger Z or Gurren Lagann, and our scrappy OSR-esque underdogs have "Real Robots" like Ichinana or mass-produced Gundam GMs. But over time, they may scavenge or steal Super Gear and Mods to empower them further.

I couldn't think of a good "Real Robot" alternative to Getter Robo but I'm including this pic anyway.

System

The system is a stripped down version of Into the Odd or Maximum Recursion Depth, with the Mecha Concept Crafting mechanics from MRD Vol. 2. I've mostly moved away from Get into the Machine, Shinji!, it was a decent proof of concept but now I use basically just MRD + Mecha Concept Crafting.

Most recent MRD Vol. 2 Play Report with a Mecha Battle for additional reference.

Into the Odd Compatibility

Each Ability Score is its own HP Pool. Additional HP is just a buffer if you take additional damage after depleting an Ability. Ability Score damage does not affect Saves.

Karmic Attachments listed for each PC are character goals. You can treat like a Milestone XP thing, or just a suggestion.

Maximum Recursion Depth Compatibility

Karma is not demonstrably real in this micro-setting, so Karma and Karmic Attachments actually are just an abstraction (unlike MRD). You can replace Karma and Karmic Attachments with something like Gilgulim and Nazarite Vows from MRD Vol. 2, or with an HP buffer and Milestone XP like explained above for Into the Odd Compatibility.

Brief Recapitulation of Mechanics

• Just Ability Scores, HP, etc. for Pilots.
• Each Character is assumed to be able to deal d6 Damage of any Ability Score in or out of Mecha as contextually appropriate, unlike MRD where it varies by Item, Feature, or Nazarite Contract in MRD Vol. 2.
• Saves are roll-under Ability Score or MRD style: roll-under Ability Score and roll-under Karma for degrees of success/failure.
• Each Mecha has a Core and three Gear, each consisting of two words (WORD1+WORD2).
• Swappable Mods can be added to a Gear ((WORD1+WORD2)+WORD3) and expand the scope of what they can do.
• Use of Gear is freeform; maybe it deals d6, maybe it requires a Save, maybe it just does whatever it does based on GM rulings.
• When Gear are disabled, they lose a Word. Mods are destroyed permanently, but regular Gear compounds can be repaired outside of Conflict. Again, how they are disabled is freeform.
• Enemies can be defeated either by depleting HP (most enemies just have a single pool, PCs have separate pools for each Ability Score), or by destroying Mecha Gear and disabling the Mecha, if in Mecha Conflict.

Koji Kabuto in Z Armor.

Pre-Gen PCs

If you want to make more PCs, just generate an Into the Odd character, reflavor or tweak it as you see fit, and make a Mecha with Mecha Concept Crafting.

Pilot

Shiro Kabuto

Even after his brother's death, and well past the end of the world, Shiro still lives Koji's shadow, the hero pilot of Mazinger Z.

Karmic Attachment / Milestone Goal

Shiro wants to find a Super Robot of his own and become an even more famous hero than his brother. Sometimes he's more concerned with being recognized as a hero than actually being a hero...

Ability Scores (ITO/MRD)

STR: 11, DEX: 14, WIL: 11

NAT: 12, WIS: 10, PRO: 13

Unique Skills

Super Science: Trained under his Grandfather and "The Three Scientists", Shiro has exceptional science and mecha engineering skills.

Starting Equipment

Z Armor: +1 STR/NAT armor. Helmet allows for limited remote controlling of Ichinana Blanc.

Photon Gun: Typical lasergun.

Mecha

CORE: Ichinana Blanc (BLEACH+AMBITION)

An all-white mecha with a red visor. The Ichinana were mass-produced units designed off of Mazinger Z.

GEAR 1: Assault Rifle (ASSAULT+RIFLE)

A mecha-sized assault rifle useful for general purposes.

GEAR 2: Breast Fire (BREAST+FIRE)

Chest-mounted plasma blaster. Extra-powerful but requires charge-up time leaving Ichinana Blanc vulnerable, and uses a lot of energy.

GEAR 3: Mazinger Blade (SUPER+SWORD)

Magic sword made of Super Alloy Z, originally wielded by the Super Robot Mazinger Z. Unwieldy for Ichinana Blanc, but capable of cutting through that which would be otherwise insurmountable.

Starting Mods: HURRICANE, WING

Like this except all white and with a red visor.

Pilot

Rei Ayanami

This Rei clone was activated when the world ended in order to enact Human Instrumentality. She knows she is a clone, and knows her instructions, but otherwise knows very little else.

Karmic Attachment / Milestone Goal

Rei was created with a specific purpose, to protect the developing Evangelion within her Mecha, and enact Human Instrumentality. But, as far as she knows, SEELE is no more, the world as it once was is no more, and despite these obligations thrust upon her, she seeks to find her own purpose.

Ability Scores (ITO/MRD)

STR: 8, DEX: 10, WIL: 14

NAT: 9, WIS: 15, PRO: 10

Evangelion didn't really have special items besides the plug suit and this Rei's Mecha isn't a typical Eva, so I had to get creative...

Unique Skills

AT Field: Rei can produce a psychic field protecting herself against physical and mental attacks once per Conflict.

Starting Equipment

Plug Suit: Although not piloting an Evangelion, the Plug Suit still gives Rei enhanced environmental protection and the ability to breathe the LCL fluid in the incubation chamber of Jet Alone Duo.

Lancer: A communication device with an orbital weapons satellite. Rei can summon a bunker-busting "Lance of Longinus" once per scenario (however you're defining it in your game). Risks alerting whoever remains of SEELE any time it's used.

Mecha

CORE: Jet Alone Duo (JET+ALONE)

A Jet Alone mecha with a swollen belly. It carries an incubation chamber for gestating an Evangelion.

GEAR 1: Giant Hammer (GIANT+HAMMER)

A giant hammer, good for close range impact.

GEAR 2: Wrist Ring (ELECTRIC+RING)

Wrist-mounted ring capable of electric discharge. Not especially powerful and minimal range, but good for area of effect.

GEAR 3: AT Field (ABSOLUTE+TERROR)

The incubating Evangelion coupled with Rei can produce a psychic field providing momentary protection.

Starting Mods: SHIELD, POSITRON

The one on the left, except if it looked pregnant. Jet Alone didn't do much in the anime so some of its Gear are inspired by Jet Alone Kai, but I prefer the simple design of the original Jet Alone.

Pilot

Quattro Bajeena

An infamous mobile suit pilot during the Universal Century wars, thought dead, now lives under a (not-so-)new alias as a restless and guilt-ridden wanderer.

Karmic Attachment / Milestone Goal

Quattro once held great ambitions for the Space Colonies and the course of humanity, and he nearly changed the world. Living in the wreckage of the world at least in part of his own doing, Quattro seeks atonement, but he isn't quite sure yet what that means.

Ability Scores (ITO/MRD)

STR: 14, DEX: 11, WIL: 11

NAT: 15, WIS: 11, PRO: 11

Like this but Old Man Logan aged.

Unique Skills

Newtype: Quattro is a low-level Newtype, someone with exceptional human abilities and psychically enhanced mobile suit piloting skills.

Starting Equipment

Rapier: Quattro is an exceptional fencer and swordsman.

Psycho-Frame: A handheld, T-shaped device allowing him to pilot mobile suits as though they were an extension of his body. With the psycho-frame enhancing his natural Newtype abilities, he can empathically "read" other pilots.

Mecha

CORE: Hyakku Shiki Retrograde (GOLD+RETRO)

A once cutting edge golden mobile suit, rusted and well past its prime.

GEAR 1: IDE System (IMAGE+ENCODE). Image Directive Encode System. High-resolution real-time data streamed from Hyakku Shiki's visor. Only a Newtype like Quattro could process it effectively.

GEAR 2: Beam Saber (BEAM+SABER). Lightweight melee solution, requires a lot of energy.

GEAR 3: Clay Bazooka (CLAY+BAZOOKA). Slow but effective long-range explosive.

Starting Mods: VULCAN, MEGA

Like this but rustier and more of a rose gold color.

If there's interest (or if I have interest), I might make a future post with a campaign setup, small sandbox hexcrawl, or some encounter tables, basically a primer for getting the ball rolling with a campaign or short adventure of this.

Stop!! Hibari-Kun! Not-Review

 

I saw this anime (originally a manga but I watched the anime) recommended on a tiktok (unfortunately can't remember where specifically anymore). I'm not gonna lie, I went in with low expectations, expecting it to be a slog to get through at the very least, or extremely offensive at the worst, but I was actually pleasantly surprised on both counts. It certainly is of a time and place, but all things considered I thought it handled the issues surprisingly well (obviously I am hardly an authority on the matter though so take what I say with a grain of salt), but more importantly, it was just a really fun and enjoyable show, I liked it so much I ended up practically binging it.

So I've buried the lede, but Stop!! Hibari-Kun! is a 1980's animated sitcom about a "cross-dressing boy" (although in most regard she really seems to be transgender and I will use she/her pronouns), her yakuza family, and a boy, a friend of the family, who is living with them.

While many episodes do involve Hibari's gender at least in some way (much less so as the show goes on), Hibari herself is basically always in control of the situation, never in any real danger, always comes out on top, and it always feels like the audience is expected to be on her side- to the point that she will often wink and stick her tongue out to the audience in fourth wall breaking assurance. It has almost a Looney Tunes / Bugs Bunny kind of logic to it.

Her family largely doesn't understand her identity in critical ways and I can very much imagine that would be triggering for people, yet at the same time, despite being this traditionalist yakuza family obsessed with conventional masculinity, they ultimately are mostly accepting of her when it counts, on the occasions where they're kinda shitty to her it's usually about something else, and her grace in the matters feels more like a strength of her character than an implicit acceptance of those characters. There are subtle things, like how her youngest sister and one of the yakuza underbosses will refer to her with she/her pronouns and call her Hibari-chan instead of -kun. There is one episode where Hibari has a really sweet moment with her dad where he is more explicitly accepting of her and they bond; little nice things like that. Similarly, whenever characters treat Hibari poorly due to her gender identity, they are always painted as the butt of the joke or being in the wrong in the situation. Also, there are plenty of episodes, especially as it goes on, that have little to nothing to do with Hibari or her gender and are good on their own terms.

As for the situation of the sitcom; there's Hibari, her yakuza father, her three sisters (two older, one younger), and Kosaku who is Hibari's age, the friend of the family who is living with them because his mom died, and then various ancillary characters like school friends, bullies/rivals, yakuza henchmen, etc. Only her family, Kosaku, and the yakuza know that she is a "cross-dresser", at school she identifies as a girl and in fact she's the most popular girl in school. There are sometimes plotlines where her identity is threatened to be exposed, and I think it's handled about as well as could be hoped for what is not an ideal plot pivot point from a modern perspective, but ya at least imo it seemed to be mostly handled well. Also, that becomes much less focal as the show goes on.

Episodes often involve episodic or slightly-serialized romcom triangles or quadrangles, typical teen sitcom type stuff. There's a bit of a will they / won't they with Hibari and Kosaku. His inability to confront his own ideas about gender and sexuality, again, could be triggering, but I think the show does a good job of framing things in such a way that the audience is not meant to sympathize with his "struggle".

The later episodes are not quite as good, at a certain point they kinda jump the shark, and over time it becomes less focused on interesting character drama and more on wacky hijinks alone which fell a little flat for me. I do appreciate though that many episodes are focused more on the side characters than Hibari or Kosaku, and some of the best episodes are not really about them.

In typical not-review fashion I'm not explaining this show well, but I just find it really fun and delightful. Hibari is a strong character, she's funny, she has that larger than life cartoon logic to her; even the situation aside it's genuinely a fun show, and I also hope people find the character to be a powerful and suitable symbol and don't find it offensive or hurtful, or can enjoy it independent of that, just for what it is, a fun show.

Getter Robo Armageddon Not-Review

I'm moving in a couple of days, not very far, but still stressful, so in my procrastination on packing and prepping, here's another not-review of an obscure-ish Mecha anime.

Getter Robo Armageddon came out in the very late 90's, but like with Iczer-One, it has this beautiful hand-drawn art style that you just don't see anymore, which I've always really loved. This would have been the very tail-end of that style of animation.

My understanding is that the original Getter Robo, along with Mazinger Z*, were the two original and still most archetypal "Super Robot" Mecha anime, but Getter Robo Armageddon is more like a sequel or spiritual sequel to the original series, set after a Getter-related apocalyptic event. I haven't seen or read the original manga/anime so can't say for sure but that's the impression I get. I will also say, clearly I didn't feel like I needed to know more about the classics to enjoy this.

There have been a couple of anime adaptations of Getter Robo since this one, but honestly the other ones didn't look or sound as good as this one and this is the one that the Super Robot Wars videogames keep coming back to, so it's probably the best modern-ish adaptation.

* I have also watched some Mazinger anime adaptations, should maybe do a not-review of those some time as well but I don't have as much to say about them, but I did reference Mazinger in my MRD2 Campaign Setup. I guess I don't have much to say here either, but oh well...

Like with Iczer-One, this anime looks and sounds really good, and while it's 13 episodes, I don't think it overstays its welcome, and it has really excellent Mecha and Kaiju designs. Also like with Iczer-One, despite how well it's produced and how much setting is implied, I will say it doesn't feel like there's a lot of there there, which I think I also said about Iczer-One.

Unlike Iczer-One, it does at least at first seem like it's going to be about more, it feels like there's intended subtext, but by the end it kind of devolves into typical shonen-adjacent Mecha action anime stuff, which is a bit of a shame. That said, this would have been a great show for the classic Adult Swim anime Saturday night lineup back in the day, would have fit right in.

Superficially, especially at first, it feels actually a lot like Evangelion, despite it's more classic designs for some of the characters and Mecha, although it's just as likely that Evangelion was inspired by earlier Getter Robo than this series was inspired by Evangelion, but it seems plausible given when it came out that it went both ways. But whereas Evangelion is about something, is an exploration of real themes or dare I even say a deconstruction of those themes, I don't think Getter Robo Armageddon really capitalizes on what it sets up.

It seems like it's trying to explore nuclear or other human-made devastation a la Godzilla and plausibly also the classic Getter Robo, and maybe commenting on Japanese Imperialism or American Imperialism, but ya it never really goes anywhere as far as I could tell, but I still enjoyed it.

I don't have much more to say about it than that, but if you like good animation and great Mecha and Kaiju designs and want to know more about the history of Mecha, check it out.

I actually struggled to find great screenshots, but hopefully these have gotten the point across.

Fight! Iczer-1 Not-Review

I've previously discussed being a big fan of the Super Robot Wars videogames, and especially since MRD2 is partially Mecha-focused, I've been trying to expose myself to more obscure, or at least less popular in the US, Mecha anime and manga, especially those which have been featured in SRW. I saw this one among a list somewhere, and for whatever reason it called to me.

As is the case with most of the other not-reviews, I'm not giving you a plot synopsis really, just my general impressions.

Iczer-One seems like one of those anime that has been lost to time, and I do get why, but I also think it's a shame, because it's pretty cool. It's only three 30ish min episodes, or there's an OVA that's basically just the three episodes, I think maybe with some scenes rearranged. Tbh I'd recommend watching it as the OVA but I've watched both and it's good either way. The short length gives them little time to develop things and leaves you wanting more, but I think that works in its favor, and it also keeps it from being too decompressed.

I am a sucker for that late 80's-90's anime style, where it has that grainy hand-drawn look, a lot of painterly backgrounds and colors and details, a little more realistic, not so super-deformed, while still recognizably anime. This is a really gorgeous anime, has an amazing soundtrack, excellent character and creature designs, just oozes style. It's got this very of-a-moment style of citypop, cyberpunk, gonzo science fantasy. There's a creepy weird ominous vibe that permeates the whole thing.

I don't think all of these screenshots do it full justice; there was a lot of cool stuff that I'm struggling to find in screenshots.

There's lasersword fights in subspace dimensions, Mecha fights, body horror, and creepy monsters. I will say the Mecha designs are just ok and they don't get to do much, which I suspect non-trivially contributes to why it has not had much resonance over time. In general, there's just not a whole lot of "there" there, which is fine, it's only three episodes, and for someone like me, all the unknowns and open questions of what this is and what's going on actually just makes it better (as opposed to some uninteresting or trite background on this or that).

Big Gold is a creepy motherfucker, really left an impression on me. You really have to watch it to appreciate it. It makes this... groaning/whining sound. Also, what a name.

The anime was apparently based on a manga that was serialized in a hentai magazine, but I haven't been able to find many particulars on which issues, if they've been translated in English, etc. I will say that while the anime has some "ecchi" elements, like the pilots of the Mecha being shown naked inside the cockpit, but it didn't really come off to me as hentai, but maybe the manga is more graphic. Anyway, many of my favorite elements of the anime were the music, sound design, colors, and painterly backgrounds, so I would like to read the manga just to have that context, but I'm inclined to think I'd prefer the anime anyway.

Also, there were two "sequels", neither of which were great but not terrible, but I'll briefly comment on those too. There were also apparently some spinoff manga and audio dramas and stuff like that, but I'm not gonna bother with any of that.

Iczer Girl Iczelion was I think nominally connected to Iczer One, but it felt more like a spiritual sequel / retelling than an actual sequel. It takes a lot of the same core plot beats, but does it as more of like a magical girl thing, no mecha, and with a lighthearted tone compared to the weird, dark, ominous vibe of the original. It has a few clever ideas, and it's short (only two episodes) which also works in its favor, and it does have a style of its own, but I can't say it left as strong of an impression. Both in animation and in art design it feels much more 90's to me, with sort of a gothic science fantasy vibe that I do appreciate in itself but not as much as Iczer One's. I dunno, if you like Iczer One it's still worth checking out I guess.

Iczer Reborn / Adventure! Iczer-3 was easily my least favorite of the three. It's six episodes, which still isn't long, but even under that strain I think it struggles compared to the three and two episode runs of the preceding shows. It has an animation style closer to Iczelion, while merging the two art directions in a way that feels like neither more nor less than the sum of its parts. It's more so a sequel to the original, while also feeling weirdly like a retelling. It just... doesn't add anything. Most of the plot beats and even designs are taken almost directly from the original, but Neos Gold is a poor-man's substitute for Big Gold, and Iczer Three herself I found kind of annoying. It also has more of that goofy / lighthearted tone of Iczelion which to me clashes with the stylings of Iczer One. I didn't hate it, and it's only six episodes, so if you enjoyed Iczer One and Iczelion well enough, then go ahead and watch it, but don't expect anything more than more of the same. I dunno, thinking back on it, I could imagine a version of this that's more like Vampire Hunter D, if it brought more new ideas rather than feeling like a retread, but as-is there's no "there" there.

So ya, that's the Iczer series. It's a shame that there isn't more of it, particularly in the style of the original. I'm glad for the original as it is, bad or mediocre sequels don't take away from that, but it would be cool to see someone with a vision for the franchise revisit this.

Worldbuilding with Pokemon

An earlier version of this post was first shared on The Cauldron. I've fallen behind a bit and digging into my backlog, but I do have a few upcoming blog posts in mind that are more directly RPG related.

Pokemon is obviously a huge decades-long phenomenon of a franchise requiring no introduction. Yet despite this fact, I am surprised by just how little impact it has had on fiction, how little regard is paid to the fact that it is a unique science fiction or fantasy sub-genre. My intention for this post is to describe what I think makes Pokemon unique as a sub-genre, and using that as a case example for how to go about thinking about works of fiction and how they might be extrapolated into new kinds of sub-genres, which can then be explored in tabletop RPG form.

I am aware of the rash of Pokemon knockoff videogames or anime and manga, some of which have come into their own, or for that matter Pokemon-inspired TTRPGs or unofficial Pokemon fan TTRPGs, but that's not really what I mean. Yes, there is a unique gameplay aspect to the monster collection / monster battler genre, but I'm speaking more to the setting aspects.

Pokemon is a world of magical creatures that are not quite animals but also not quite human, even when they have human or superhuman intellect. They're more like nature spirits or fey creatures from mythology. The Detective Pikachu movie characterized it really well, such as the interrogation of Mr. Mime, where it could only communicate through mimery. It made really salient the way that, even when they look humanoid and seem to have human-like intelligence, they operate by a different, magical kind of logic. I had been interested in exploring the concept of Pokemon much earlier, such as the Monsters & Madmen micro-setting from my old micro-setting post (I'll come back to this later), or even when I was ~10 years old or so first playing the videogames and watching the anime, but Detective Pikachu was where this idea that they're more like magical creatures really hit me.

People have of course talked about the questionable ethics of monster collection and battling, and I don't think this idea of them being magical creatures totally mitigates that, but it does put an interesting alternative perspective on it. Pokemon are magical creatures, metaphorical extensions of humans; they can be examined from a human-centric approach and the monster collecting and battling can be recontextualized as a form of ritual and reverence towards nature and humanities place in it, as is often the case in animist religions and hunting in animist cultures.

There are a few not-obvious equivalents to this I can think of. Another series that I am shocked has not had more longterm resonance, is the Megaman Battle Network videogames (the micro-setting I-Cons in that micro-setting post linked above was inspired heavily by MMBN), where the internet is basically a virtual reality space where human operators use AI avatars called net navi to traverse the internet as if it were a physical space, and where the net navi usually reflect and exaggerate the characteristics of their operator. The manga/anime Shaman King also did a similar thing, where the ghost or spirit companions of the Shaman usually reflect some aspect of their personality or identity, and in this case the mythological elements are overt and literal. There's actually a recent ongoing Netflix remake of Shaman King, but sadly it's kind of mediocre (maybe Shaman King just doesn't hold up as well as I remember :(?).

So as I'm listing it out, I guess there were some other settings, it seems almost exclusively from Japan, around the early 00's, that either consciously or unconsciously got at these same sorts of ideas, but it was like a flash in the pan- maybe more exists out there, but not much I can think of, and nowhere near proportional to the continued popularity of Pokemon as a game or singular franchise.

So let's return back to Monsters & Madmen. That name is not great, it was always a placeholder, and I still have not developed this setting much or done anything with it, so here we're just using it to examine the thesis of this discussion.

The big war; the cities bombed and nations EM-pulsed; civilization as we know it is on the way out, but adults still cling to the old world from only a few years ago. On the other hand, the children wish only to leave their homes, to travel the empty, broken roads, and to collect and battle the monsters that have surfaced (or, perhaps, resurfaced) in the wake of humanity's decline. The world is in anarchy. Some of the magical creatures the children geas are intelligent, some infinitely more so than humans. They bide their time as anarchy ensues and humanity dissolves under its own weight.

I was inspired by fan theories discussing "The Pokemon War" that canonically exists in the setting, and how a world could exist where 10-year old children travel the country or world alone, towards this seemingly frivolous goal of becoming a Pokemon Master, where the protagonists are missing fathers (who likely died in the war).

I was also inspired by Mad Max. Not Mad Max: The Franchise as it is popularly conceived, but the first Mad Max movie, the one that still looks and feels mostly like the real world- where an apocalyptic war occurred, but where there is still conceivably a chance of a return to "normalcy", where the adults still remember "normal", but the children live in a very different world.

One can imagine why I was thinking about this in 2018, but it is perhaps an even more relevant idea post-2020.

On the surface of it this could be a dark and dystopian setting, and that was more so the idea at the time that I first conceived it. But even then, I wanted there to be that possibility of hope- again, it's no Mad Max Fury Road, it's Mad Max 1. But also, adding in this human-centric approach of the monsters as extensions of people, as a part of nature- it's still a bit half-baked within the context of this setting, but I believe this has legs.

So this is just one example of how Pokemon could be extrapolated into something fairly novel, and gameable, and how one might approach thinking about extrapolating other popular series into new kinds of sub-genres that have not been seen before.

Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time Not-Review

Reminder: Maximum Recursion Depth is now available on drivethrurpg and itch.io check it out so you can say you were into it before it was cool

Not sure when this will get posted but I watched the movie on 10/19/21 and drafted this blog post on 10/20/21. Also, note that there may be spoilers.

Probably unsurprising to read, but Neon Genesis Evangelion was formative to me creatively and personally growing up. It's one of those series where, as a child, you can rewatch it year-over-year, and get a completely different experience out of it, because it is by design exploration of the experience of childhood. I have been writing a lot about Mecha lately, and this movie is making me remember why this genre is so profound to me, what kinds of themes it can explore, and it may even be changing the direction in which I'm thinking of exploring this genre further. It is a deconstruction of the Mecha genre in the best sense, regardless of whether some people think that's an overrated term (I will run this bit into the ground I swear it!). It identifies the core themes of the genre, as well as the core superficial trappings, and it tells a story that uses those parts and is true to those themes, but all the parts are arranged in a totally different kind of way than anything before it.

This is not a not-review of the series, nor even of the Rebuild of Evangelion movies in their entirety, just of the final movie. But if it helps, I will give very brief thoughts on the previous movies. I watched these movies more or less as they came out, and they took around a decade to complete, so it's been an interesting experience in its own right and many details are now lost to me, and also I was a different person upon watching each of these and did not do a rewatch and likely will not do so ever, although it's not impossible.

First Movie: A mostly faithful retelling of the first handful of episodes of the show, but with a much bigger budget, and some general streamlining of the plot that worked in its favor.

Second Movie: Had some pacing issues, made some plot changes that I had mixed feelings about, but I respected that they tried to do something a little different with it. There were a few red flags, but on the whole, I enjoyed it enough.

Third Movie: I hated this movie with a passion. I won't elaborate too much, because the fourth movie actually retroactively makes me seriously question if I fundamentally misunderstood this one, or maybe I could not have known what Hideaki Anno was trying to do until the fourth. I thought it had betrayed the underlying themes of the series in a critical way (as opposed to the second movie which made relatively "harmless" changes), but I no longer think this is the case.

This brings us to the fourth movie.

I wish I could give these really beautiful, sweeping reviews of the things I experience like Patrick Stuart does. I'd like to think I've demonstrated on this blog that I know how to write, and yet something about trying to coalesce my memories into words in some specific, coherent way... it just doesn't have the same effect. That's why I do "not-reviews". But it's a shame because this movie deserves that kind of review and analysis, the kind that is like a piece of art unto itself, that makes you want to have that experience- that may very well be better than the experience per se.

In lieu of that, I'll just say the following things. First, because it's easy to start here, the movie is gorgeous. I don't just mean in a big-budget sense, although certainly that, but it is just very visually interesting. It wasn't quite as experimental as I might have liked, as a younger Hideaki Anno might have done, but it also doesn't fall prey to lack of constraint either, as is often the case when creators are given unlimited resources and nobody telling them No. It does some things I've never seen before; it felt like a big-budget Saruri-Man.

There are battleships and Mecha being puppeteered on strings, with gun-hands on a discus, being launched like missiles, on massive whirling planes of red and glowing colors; massive airships with cyborg parts on top of something like a whale carcass, weird dangling double-"headed" Mecha arm monsters...

But also, it explores THEMES. This fourth movie made clear to me, that these movies were really more of a spiritual sequel to the original series than a remake. Yes, it retells the story in broad strokes, but it's exploring something else, and that exploration is a satisfying evolution of the original series. The last time I watched the original series in its entirety was over ten years ago, probably shortly before the first movie. Even at the time, I remember feeling like I was aging out of the subtext. That's not to say I didn't still enjoy it or respect it, but it no longer felt like there was more for me to gain from it, which honestly was a little disheartening. For the first time in ten years, across all four movies of Rebuild, Evangelion challenged me again, felt true to my current experiences and development. I actually struggled a bit last night, evaluating where I am in life and what I'm doing and if it's getting me what I want... and admittedly that's pretty normal for me, but in this case, I guess it was in a more fresh or profound way, that unfortunately I can't better articulate, or maybe I just don't want to because it's a very personal experience.

The pilots themselves stopped aging for plot reasons, something which as of the third movie I thought betrayed the psycho-developmental subtext of the original series. But I realize now, that's the point. Shinji was in stasis- he's still the 13-year-old boy; the bridge, or point of reference between the two narratives, but also a reflection on our youth.

The "real" Rei (or one of them...) died at the end of the third and this new Rei is even more so a child- but actually, she's really more a lens for somebody discovering themselves and finding internal peace. She lives a simple life, finds appreciation in others, makes meaningful connections. All she wanted was normalcy, and she finds it and is happy.

Asuka is on the face of it just as angry and frustrated as before- if not more so, borderline psychotic, like a hermit. But it eventually becomes apparent that she did in fact grow up, in her own way, and that while she'll always be this anti-social and awkward person, she's discovered herself a bit. She has unresolved issues, some of which she may never figure out, but it feels like she has made growth and is continuing to grow. This movie did right by Asuka in a way that I deeply appreciated, as Asuka was always the character I most resonated with (for whatever that says about me...).

Then there's Mari. Prior to the fourth movie, I never understood why she was introduced. Why would you create a new character, in an already overstuffed narrative? And prior to this movie (or admittedly, even in this movie), there's not too much to her. She's got a bold personality, but she never felt quite like a real person. It becomes apparent in this movie, though, that really she's more of a cipher (if I'm using that term correctly...), and maybe one could argue that that's problematic, but I think it worked here.

In the end, Rei comes to terms with herself- her issues were always more personal than interpersonal. Asuka recognizes that she grew up and grew into a different kind of person than Shinji, and she moves on, but the break is amicable. Mari is the love you find later in life. You have Rei and Asuka, these proxies for Shinji's sexual and romantic development (who also as I just explained, very much have their own narratives as well); these are the childhood crushes you think will last forever and have permanent importance. Mari seemingly comes out of left field, but in the end, they develop their little quirks together (cute little hand over eyes games and such), and although we don't see the full development of their romance, I am convinced of its truth.

Every character gets a proper send-off, all of which feels deliberate and considered. The conversation that Shinji and Gendo have at the very end, especially, is such an evolution from the original series. Shinji grows into his own, not by becoming some badass tough guy who yells and screams and has his shonen moment, but because he is reflective and contemplative. He shows bravery and empathy. He doesn't want to just defeat Gendo, he wants to understand him, and come to terms with him.

Looking back, and I know others have said this not just me, one complaint I might have with the original series, is that it narrowly straddles the line between grimdark and bittersweet. This movie feels decidedly more positivist, with still an appropriate amount of bittersweetness. It feels more adult- it doesn't just identify problems, it tries to solve them.

Every moment of this admittedly rather long movie feels deliberate. It is clear that Hideaki Anno thought a lot about what kind of story he wanted to tell, how he wanted to reflect on his own life or life in general. I know that no matter how well told, no story is an accurate reflection of life, but if the original series is a reasonable metaphor for my own lived experience up to this point, and Rebuild is where I see myself currently, it is encouraging and inspiring to believe that maybe I can find that degree of growth and acceptance that the characters in Evangelion, that likely Hideaki Anno himself, have experienced.

Super Robot Wars-style Mecha

Super Robot Wars is a videogame series of tactical RPGs where a bunch of Mecha anime cross-over, and it's delightful. Many of the recent games have been translated into English for the Singapore and/or Hong Kong regions and PS4 is not region-locked (they're also available on Switch and I believe are also not region-locked), so I finally get to play Ray Amuro / Nu Gundam, Shinji Ikari / Evangelion Unit-01, and Space Battleship Yamato, all together, in one of my favorite game genres. Childhood dreams do come true.

I'm not familiar with all of the series represented in the games I'm playing (so far I've beaten Super Robot Wars V, am working through Super Robot Wars T, and I've already got Super Robot Wars X and OG ready to go!), but even for the series I am not familiar with, by virtue of being a cross-over of All-Stars, even some of the off-hand Mechas I've never heard end up becoming my favorites, and I've since gone on to start watching several of the series I was introduced to through these games.

There's something interesting and understated about it- good design is rare, and it seems like good Mecha design is especially rare, let alone to make a new property where every Mecha feels distinctive, classic, and stands out. But by being a cross-over, where like half the characters are all main characters from their own series, and many of those series are standouts and classics, it makes for an entire game of standout characters and Mecha.

I'm still searching for my ideal Mecha TTRPG (perhaps it will be Get into the Machine, Shinji!), but in the meantime, here's a Weird & Wonderful Table of Mechas. The schtick here is, there is a meta wherein all of these Mecha are assumed to be the star of their own series in some fictional reality, but now crossing over in a series where in-universe they co-exist and in most cases always have co-existed.

One tricky thing with Mecha is that it's hard to describe them, and much of the appeal is visual, which I think is part of why Mecha written fiction is not as prominent as Mecha visual fiction e.g. comics, anime, or videogames, and also part of why it's less common in TTRPG where there are fewer pieces of public domain art for Mecha (in addition to the difficulty of designing rules for Mecha games that allow for in and out of Mecha gameplay, as described in the previous link for GItMS!). I hope I have done a reasonable job here, please let me know what you think!

In addition to these, you can find more entries by other creators (or share your own!) in my Let's Build: Mecha posts on The Cauldron (must be a member of the NSR Discord server to join) and The OSR Pit.

Weird & Wonderful Mecha

Arsenic: Black. Tripod legs on a humanoid core with clawed hands. Its head is a long metallic tentacle with a Tesla Coil at the end of it.

Razzle-Dazzle: Surprisingly mobile "walking weapons platform" with a core that looks more like a tank than a humanoid Mecha. Black and white clashing stripes or other holographically overlayed camouflage make it difficult to track in cluttered environments.

Chimera: Quadrupedal but ape-like, somewhere between a lemur and a wolf, with a long snout. Its high-frequency maw glows with ultraviolet. White with purple trim. Long thin tail tipped with a snake-like "head" consisting of rear sensors and laser beam weapon.

Dogu: Alien craft like if Jack Kirby made a psychedelic Celestial inspired by the eponymous Jomon-era figurines.

Rebis: Neon yellow bio-"Mecha", a genetic hodgepodge of non-human animal, fungus, and bacteria in a humanoid form. Keratin plates that look like sleek near-future body armor. Shimmers with a bio-engineered tardigrade film for environmental protection. A fungal/bacterial microbiome can excrete through the skin weaponry such as sphaerobolus (aka artillery fungus). Retractable silken wings that work as solar sails for space travel. The pilot operates The Rebis via an umbilical cable that connects to their spine like in the Cronenberg movie Existenz.

Matrioshka: A supermassive starship, wherein the command deck is an ejectable battle cruiser, piloted by a Mecha whose cockpit is designed to fit a Power Armored pilot, all of which is entraining on the brain waves of the unborn child of the pregnant pilot.

Psycho Baku: Minimalist trunk-nosed Mecha using sensory-scrambling technology, psychophysical illusions, and even psychoactive gases, to create large-scale illusions, mirages, and hallucinations.

Panic Slug: Wrist-mounted shotgun sprays “slugs”, autonomous AI missile drones that seek to infiltrate enemy Mecha and hack them or physically disable them from the inside. As the slugs infest Mecha, they exhibit behaviors like myoclonic jerks.

Murder Crow: Head like a plague doctor mask. A “field medic” Mecha with two autonomous crow-like drones for surveilling disabled/damaged Mecha or for defense, while primarily equipped for Mecha field repairs or ad-hoc constructs.

Mazu: The rainbow dragon Mecha of Pirate Queen Prismasha, Empress of Space. The cockpit of the Mecha is Platina, a dolphin/sea serpent-esque space fighter craft. Mazu and Platina are demigod/AI from an ancient spacefaring civilization. They each dueled Prismasha in “hand-to-hand” combat for her love and hand in marriage, and in their respective failures, vowed to serve as her guardians.

Mecha-Buster Squad: Wear light power armor and utilize mobility tools such as rocket packs, magnetic grappling wires, and solar sails, weaponry such as RPGs, high-impact "one-shot" sniper rifles, and vibro-lances, and various kinds of immobilizing or debilitating traps, to take down significantly larger and more powerful Mecha.

Gacha: The corporation that makes this series of Mecha sells them exclusively in capsules where the specific model inside is not revealed until after purchase. While an expensive and potentially risky way to build a fleet, one lucky Gacha capsule can justify the purchase of dozens of other overpriced and lower-quality Gacha Mecha. Some are desired solely for their rarity, as a status symbol, or for their value in the speculation market, as opposed to actual combat utility.

Saruri-Man: Midsummer Nights Adventures Not-Review

I was walking down one of those obscure alleys of the internet and saw something that grabbed my attention- a few episodes of some really obscure Mecha anime- I think it was a more recent show but it kind of went out of its way to look older. I can't even find much about it on the internet; maybe the name I found was a fan translation or maybe it's some obscure Japanese web show. But anyway, like many obscure things of its kind, I found it super fascinating and I wanted to give it a little not-review.

So it appears to be basically the world as we know it, with some anachronisms leaning into an 80's cyberpunk / Japanese City Soul aesthetic with other quirks here and there as well, so it feels kind of timeless. However, a core distinction is that a literal monkey ruling class somehow controls this world. Like, they aren't super-monkeys or alien-monkeys or genius-monkeys, just regular ol' monkeys. They're treated kind of like politicians or business executives or gang leaders, which is to say, there's a kind of religious reverence towards them, but the surrounding pomp and circumstance are toned down. It's not clear how or why this is the case, but that's part of the charm.

Oh ya and also, like monkeys banging on a typewriter until they create Shakespeare, these monkeys have inadvertently opened a portal to the Faerie Realm, and so all sorts of monsters and kaiju leak through, like the Pakku (I assume a translation of Puck from Midsummer Night's Dream). One of the Pakku is a kaiju-sized cross-section of a goat's eye in extremely graphic detail, like out of a medical textbook, and it's gruesome and amazing. Another one is a ball of diseased goat flesh and parasites and fur.

Kaiju are usually portrayed as either Bestial monsters, like Godzilla, or Uncanny monsters, like the Angels in Evangelion. Some of the monsters and kaiju fell more into the Bestial type, but the Pakku are more so in the Uncanny type. One thing that I found interesting about them though, is that they seemed curious, and somewhat playful, like toddlers or Dionysian drunks. They were causing damage, but they weren't necessarily trying to cause damage, and it made them pitiable, and it made the conflicts bittersweet.

I couldn't find any screenshots from the show, so enjoy this sheep's eye!

The art design in general is shockingly good. Even the monkeys themselves- it might have been tempting to make them kind of cutesy and lovable, but I think the show makes the right call in making them really uncanny. Again, they aren't monstrous, but they are scary and uncomfortable- both obscured in shadow, kind of like in Princess Mononoke, but where not obscured, uncomfortably detailed and graphic in their depiction.

The Mecha are also really wild. One of them looks like an emaciated humanoid body or skeleton with a tank for a head and is apparently the sexual bonding of a decapitated alien being of an unclear but non-carbon-based nature and an American military-industrial complex super-AI experimental tank that gained self-awareness and went on a journey through space.

Another is still Mecha-sized but looks kind of like Iron Man and is able to spontaneously summon weapons and mods out of energy, but then it turns out actually the whole thing is just a UFO-like craft and a series of drones with holographic projections and various weaponry to make it look like it's a cohesive thing but it's not.

There was one other one that I only got to see a little bit of in the episodes I saw, but it was like a typical humanoid Mecha, except four-dimensional, so when it moves, its three-dimensional representation tesselates, sometimes really elegantly like a Hindu god, other times grotesquely like a Lovecraftian extra-dimensional creature. As it moves, because it exists in four dimensions, sometimes parts of it appear inside-out, and the geometry of it bends in paradoxical ways like a Bethesda videogame.

The action choreography was interesting. While there are classics like Ninja Scroll that have excellent 2D, hand-drawn action, I get the impression that action in 2D animation is just really difficult and laborious to do compared to CG animation. I have generally not been a fan of many of the very low-quality Netflix CG anime, but the ones that had a sufficient budget really demonstrate the value of CG, in how fluid and un-"cut" it can be, compared to much 2D animated action which often necessarily relies on cuts, almost like a motion comic. While I'm reasonably confident that this show was 2D animated (again I actually have no idea when this was made...), I think it's using rotoscoping or something, there's something a little funky about it, but it has that fluidity that you otherwise rarely see in 2D animation. I'm surprised there haven't been other anime that used rotoscoping for their action, or maybe there have been and I am just not aware.

I don't know how exactly to describe what I saw i.e. a hyper-real dissected eye monster torrenting puss and macroscopic parasites onto a four-dimensional Mecha suplexing it through a pseudo-Mecha hologram landing onto and subsequently pierced and punctured by the tank cannon of an alien-AI-cyborg-demigod Mecha... But ya, it was very cool. I believe this show does have cool themes and subtext and whatnot, but if you just want bizarre and over-the-top action, it clearly has that as well, at least in the episodes that I saw.

Anyway, the pilots of the Mecha are all 20-30 something "salarymen"; male and female, but it's a Japanese term, and also the title of the show is a play on words which is a pretty typical anime thing (Saru is monkey in Japanese and the Japanese way to write Salaryman is Sarari-Man). They're all overworked, underpaid, some still have optimism for their future but most are pretty burnt out. There seems to be a bimodal distribution where half of them are just completely incompetent, and the other half are highly skilled and multifaceted and way overqualified for what they're doing, and the whole thing feels like commentary but that's definitely coming from an American perspective.

It's hard to talk about the characters too much further without going into spoilers, but I'll say they kind of reminded me of the anime Aggretsuko, or I guess similarly The Office, but whereas those shows I think fell too in love with their characters to their own detriment, there's more of an edge here, where they're not afraid to commit to these characters being more real and flawed. Granted I only saw a few episodes so who knows where it goes, but I got the impression that they know when to be goofy and quirky, and when to be serious, and I can respect that.

Anyway, ya I would really like to see the rest of this show, so if anyone knows anything about it, please let me know!!!!

Grilled Squid and Peanut Butter

Originally posted in the OSR Pit.


The anime Food Wars is about a highly competitive, iron chef-esque Japanese culinary high school. It’s funny, engaging, clever, mouth-watering, dramatic, sexy, basically all of the things I like.

The main character, Yukihira Soma, is in some ways a very stereotypical shonen anime character, but there is one characteristic about him that I feel is unique, and speaks to the intelligence of this show.

He likes to experiment; combining ingredients that make absolutely no sense together, that are even viscerally disgusting. And, he doesn’t really care whether or not it works. There is value in the exploration and experimentation, even if the end result cannot possibly succeed, because he understands the fundamental components of cooking and can meaningfully apply these speculations.

And so, he makes grilled squid and peanut butter.

This is how I think about genre conventions.

I can respect a well-realized but otherwise basic setting, and I can even see the logic in conforming to these conventions. Game of Thrones, for instance, is about political machinations and grand drama, at a level of depth which would be difficult to do in a very Weird setting; in this case, it makes sense to keep it mostly low fantasy, and mostly traditional fantasy where it’s supernatural at all.

Likewise, I can understand the logic of less is more; of using a mostly mundane setting to accentuate one very Weird idea, and explore that well. As much as I love the Lovecraft Mythos, creators often struggle to make it work to the same effect when integrated into an already overloaded, high-power fantasy setting. Or similarly, taking something that is well understood, and subverting it in some very clever way, like the comic book Rat Queens which juxtaposes modern sensibilities with traditional fantasy to positive effect.

But for me, I like Weird, Gonzo, Pulp. I want a million ideas jam-packed together, that don’t really make sense and don’t pretend that they do. That is fundamentally different in some critical way, intentionally or not, as the sum of its parts or at the level of its parts, than anything that has come before. There is an art to all of those cases I describe above, but there is also an art to doing something truly Weird, genre-defying, and unapologetically unrestrained, and those are the works that most inspire me and that I strive to create.

Sometimes those ideas work and sometimes they don’t, and it’s important to understand why. I’m willing to acknowledge when an idea doesn’t work, or when I think it failed to work because of something I did or didn’t do that is ancillary to the core idea itself.

These ideas require more buy-in from the audience. I can’t leverage your preconceived notions of orcs and elves, or colonial marines, or whatever else the case may be. That means I have to do more to earn that buy-in, to pique the interest of the reader, to express the core concepts coherently, or have such compelling ideas that even without context they are engaging. It also means the ideas themselves have to be better. All of this, when the audience for something of that sort may not even be that large. Some people just want orcs and elves, and there’s not anything I’m going to be able to do about that.

So, sometimes, I create something that I know can’t possibly work, something like Grilled Squid and Peanut Butter, just to see what happens. 9 times out of 10 I am more interested in an ambitious idea that fails, than a safe idea that succeeds.

But also, there is a difference between throwing random shit together or making over-ambitious hypotheses out of ignorance, and doing so because you understand the things you’re doing and want to understand them better.

That’s where the brilliance of Yukihira Soma comes into play. He understands flavor profiles and cooking methods, he understands Grilled Squid and also Peanut Butter, and where they work and where they don’t and why, but he chooses to experiment anyway, just to see if there’s anything he missed, some emergent, inconceivable phenomena, that would make it delicious. Or that still fails, but that he might take with him to another recipe.

So I will end with a food idea. The next time you make pancakes or waffles, mix some soy sauce into your maple syrup; 2 parts maple syrup to 1 part soy sauce, or to your own taste. You can even very briefly boil or simmer them together to get some more caramel-y notes. Some people completely balk at this concoction, but the mix of sweet and salty, and especially these two with rich, complex notes, is wonderful. Not just the saltiness, but also the umami of the soy sauce, combines so well with the sweetness of the maple syrup. It’s even better than salted caramel, or like the sauce of mitarashi dango.