Read Part 1 First
Hello everyone. Welcome to the second part of a collab post between me and Ashley Capes. Before reading this one, please look into his post here first: Link. That is where we give our general reviews about Gundress before we talk about it a bit more.
In this post, my text is black and Ashley's is in red.
Discussion
Scott: To start this discussion off, is there a character that you really enjoyed or grew attached to in this short ova?
Ashley: Maybe Silvia? Good question, it's hard to choose too. Even with the comparatively short time-frame, most of them still stood out, but she had a little arc and was an important antagonistic element within the team. How about you? Got any particular favs or a character that didn't really land for you?
Scott: Oh, Silvia was pretty fun. I'm glad that she was around to me a small antagonist force at first because I don't think most people would readily accept Allissa in the situations they were in. When every situation meant life or death.
I feel a bit weird thinking about this, but I really liked the handler Takako. I thought she would simply be the person who gave the missions to her girls and said go. But I really liked how she was heavily a part of this final battle with her life being on the line. And, Takako also really cared about getting them out after they each accomplished their mission. I was pretty impressed.
Ashley: Great choice, and I agree, I was glad to see the stakes raised by having her involved. I also think of her (non-violent) confrontation with Alisa as a stand out moment in the film, leaving the audience on edge for a time.
How did you find the visuals? I know the CGI section is dated, and elsewhere there are some uneven moments but when I read reviews of Gundress, I went in kind of expecting a trainwreck but it wasn't, at all.
Scott: I really enjoyed the animation for the most part. I thought it would be a trainwreck too because I'm sure that I've read the same negative reviews. The cg was alright for its age and was used in the right spaces so that it doesn't lessen the really good cel animation. Especially since this is right before cel animation disappears.
I do think the great Masamune Shirow character and mecha designs were great. There was some decently expressive animation and just good action animation throughout most of it. Did the visuals affect you in any special way?
Ashley: I think part of what caught my eye was the designs, absolutely. I saw a little Bubblegum Crisis and Ghost in the Shell in there, along with perhaps touches of design more common to comedy anime.
I also liked the variety in the design of the Landmates - some almost had the look of knights, which I hadn't been expecting, especially given the sleekness of a lot of mech designs (which is also good). Some of the Landmates especially had a real solid feel.
Scott: Yeah, Shirou Masamune really does have an eye for building really interesting mecha. I feel like Gundress allowed him to flex a bit. But some of them looked like, if you haven't seen it yet, the mecha in Appleseed that are also called Landmates.
I Love how unique they all were and that goes with the character designs that are also unique and gives you a bit of a rundown of their personality too.
Ashley: Oh, of course! Yeah, good point about the Landmates 🙂
How about we swing across to aspects that landed a little flat - was there something in particular that stood out for you?
Scott: Oh, you had to go there didn't you? We talked about how we looked at other people reviewing this show and had negative opinions.
I would never say anything of that but I think this ova plays everything safe. The animation is good, but the writing is very workman-like. It's pretty classic 80's action movie stuff with only some characters that stand out while others are just playing their bits. Even the ones who stand out aren't that amazing or layered ether. There isn't that much bite to it.
Do you happen to feel the same way?
Ashley: Haha, yep!
Agre. I'm definitely not a viewer that found a whole lot to dislike. I know what you mean about the straight-forward nature of proceedings, bit of a double-edged sword for me. Kept the pace brisk and the story consistent, but it did mean there was some predictability, and as you say, not a lot of room to deepen the cast.
One thing that came to mind was the obvious age of the CGI, but my other quibble was actually the character of Hassan, as I wonder if he wasn't redeemed a little cheaply. Perhaps a casualty of the brisk plot?
Scott:
Oh, the cg was about what I expected to be considering that this is the late 90's. It took a long time for cg to look decent in anime. Like recent times in the past five years.
Oh, Hassan definitely was left behind to only be a plot point then anything else. He was pretty interesting in the beginning to where he was only there to be protected to just being completely dropped by the end.
Ashley: To finish up then, I think it's rating time!
For me, I think I liked it more than it may seem. Without being stellar, I think the film still ticked a lot of boxes for me, so I'm going with 4 stars.
Scott: Yeah, I'm going to give it 3.5 Stars. It was a lot of fun and for the runtime, there is a lot of bang for your buck even if the writing is pretty simple. Plus, women and mecha together is a big bonus. There just aren't as many of them which makes this feel pretty unique.
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