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PSA – NO UPDATE THIS WEEK (4/23/18)
We apologize for the interruption of your regularly scheduled comic. There was a wrench in the page production pipeline in the form of life related issues. Regular updates will resume next Monday (4/30/18) , in the mean time, go see Infinity War, it’s apparently the greatest movie ever made! Or play God of War, it’s apparently the greatest game ever made! (Both claims have been made based entirely on internet reviews)

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Oh, those silly bandit kids and their heroic antics!

I subscribed to Crunchy Roll when I found out a remake of Legend of the Galactic Heroes was airing weekly, created by Production IG with a soundtrack by Hiroyuki Sawano. Joe and I are big fans of the old anime, and consider it easily the best space opera series told through animation to date. Over the last couple of years, the book series that the original anime was based on has also been getting English translations and is totally worth the time. If you can get over the incredibly corny title (which sounds WAY cooler in Japanese), it’s worth checking out! Unfortunately there’s still no way to actually watch the original series legally (its entire 110 episode run used to be fansubbed on youtube, as well as three movies and a 50 episode prequel series), but hopefully there will be enough interest with a new series that the old will eventually get licensed by, I dunno Funimation, and we can finally get some high quality versions available.

As of two episodes in, the remake looks great visually, but is a little less subtle in its plotting, and lacks some of the characterization of the original (and as much as I love Sawano as a composer, I do miss the epic use of classical compositions as background music). But hot dang, I do love a good scifi space opera, and Legend of the Galactic Heroes is about as quality as the genre gets!

PS. I’m totally aware that you can watch shows on Crunchyroll for free, but the ads suck, and the low quality sucks, and I wanna watch this show on my TV in as high a quality as I can get!

Published on April 16, 2018 by Alex Kolesar

KungFuKlobber

#INLYOLO
Kid Chaos

Solid guy, that Cho. 😜
- Hfar
  
  I see what you did there.
  - Kid Chaos
    
    Don’t stop not dying, Hfar! 😎
LordBolanderFace

“Why are we even here? Cho could win this war all by himself?”
“Wait, war? I thought this was the line to the hot dog stand!”
“Right… it is… and that army over there wants to cut in front of you.”
“NEVERRRRRR!”
- clogboy
  
  Actually, Cho’s response would be ‘Not if the Tao wills otherwise’, or a vague proverb, like ‘the solitary hippo is unencumbered by an army of ants.’
Major Tom

Fumio: “Screw you guys I’m going home.”
Hfar

Here he comes to save the daaay~ Mighty Mou- I mean, Mighty Cho~
Hfar

Here he comes to save the daaay~ Mighty Cho~
clogboy

Oh, the CGI in that remake! Would probably have to get into this.
Started watching Evangelion which I should’ve done way earlier…
- http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
  
  The original Eva anime I’m not a particularly big fan of. But I do love the new Evangelion movies. I mean they don’t make any more sense than the show, with all its nonsense Christian-religious-mythology-turned-real, but they are a heck of a great spectacle!
  - clogboy
    
    I’m just at the point after the main character’s angst and where he really gets into piloting his suit. It’s a bit blatant on the fan service but I like the chemistry between the main characters.
  - clogboy
    
    Off topic but sort of related, have you ever seen Xenosaga? It was on a continuous Winamp stream about 15 years ago. I like how they take shintoism (like in Spirited Away and Mononoke Hime), but then also include Western mythology like, in this particular case, the Ring of the Nibelung for the naming schematic of their space fortresses, and create their own lore, ruleset and look n feel. It probably all goes back to Gundam (and earlier shows like Godzilla with giant beings stomping around in cities), but each show complements it with their own specific universe. Eva has so many aspects that just ‘feel right’ (from an emotional/political viewpoint), and more than anything it’s a coming-of-age show where the deperation and burden of responsibility are made painfully clear.
    
    My gateway drug was Kuromukuro, but it got old for me after the first season. I feel Eva is similar fated with me, especially when it will bastardize religious mythology.
    - http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
      
      You’re referring to Xenosaga the game series? I know of them, but I haven’t played them, or Xenogears (isn’t Jesus literally a character in Xenosaga??). I played over 200 hours of Xenoblade Chronicles X, but there wasn’t much depth to the game’s narrative, while the other Xeno game series tend to incorporate a lot of mythology from various religions into their lore.
      
      I’ll be curious to hear your opinion of Evangelion once you finish it, and I highly recommend the reboot films. Kuromukuro was a fun mech anime with a great premise, but it ultimately didn’t do anything surprising with the genre, and had twists that were more confusing than revealing. Great animation and music, though!
      - clogboy
        
        I’m talking about the Xenosaga anime.
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E18xoJu7mK0
      - http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
        
        Oh, haha, I forgot the games got an anime! Never watched it, though. Maybe I should…
        
        Actually, looking at the opening, I think I DID watch it, but it was so many years ago I don’t remember anything about it.
      - clogboy
        
        Rewatching it as we speak. Because I’ve seen so many fragments of it, and not in the right order, I must remember it better since I’ve rewatched the live stream like a dozen times in hope of catching a new episode.
  - vancho1
    
    That’s funny – I actually prefer the original Evangelion, especially the ending! It’s a lot more coherent as a story, and in the end (Spoiler alert!) I think Shinji’s character arc and final realization makes a lot more sense than, say, End of Eva. And Rebuild is just a complete mess of fanservice, tbh – I don’t think Anno is really passionate about creating it, considering that he’s delayed the last movie pretty much indefinitely.
    
    But I am excited for the new LOGH! So far I love the new visual effects, and am ambivalent on the character designs. I also didn’t really get the pacing on the Battle of Astarte in the first two episodes. It was interesting choice, to be sure, to split up the Alliance and Empire sides of the battle into two episodes, but it really makes a more coherent story if you see them in parallel.
    - http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
      
      I understand (to some degree) what makes the original eva special, but I’ve just found it generally frustrating and incoherent, even upon multiple viewings. I thinks it’s too heady and metaphorical to really enjoy on a personal level, and although I agree with you that Anno probably is not passionate about the new films, my guess is everyone else who works on them is VERY passionate because they are some great looking films with incredible animation.
      
      I also think Shinji’s character arc in the films (at least the first two, the third is a real narrative mess) is much more streamlined and enjoyable to watch. But that’s really just my preference, I love spectacle in animation, and solid character arcs that hit strong emotional beats at an efficient pace. Shinji spends way too much time being miserable to watch for me in the original.
    - jwkovell
      
      I’m both thrilled and disappointed with Yang’s reveal in the remake.
      
      The disembodied voice of a mysterious alliance savior is pretty badass. It makes the reveal of Yang’s normal laid back attitude all the more endearing.
      
      Unfortunately, it made the first half of the second episode pretty redundant and robbed Yang of a little of his magic. This was somewhat mitigated by their decision to pull an awesome plot point from the original book – Yang’s plan to encode his fleet commands before the final confrontation.
      
      I hope Iserlohn’s design is more like the original anime than the book.
Rob Tibke

So you can watch the original series legally in the states through the site hidive a newer streaming service that I found out about recently. link here: https://www.hidive.com/tv/legend-of-the-galactic-heroes
- http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
  
  Wow, thanks for pointing that out! I figured the take down on youtube likely meant it would be added to a streaming site officially, although I’d assumed Crunchyroll (I don’t want to have to subscribe to ANOTHER anime streaming service!). Also, neat that hidive linked to a limited edition bluray western release of the series! $800 is a pretty steep price, though, even for someone who loves the series as much as I do… Hopefully in the not too distant future I’ll be able to just buy the show on amazon or something.
  
  https://shop.sentaifilmworks.com/products/legend-of-the-galactic-heroes-premium-box-set
  - jwkovell
    
    I couldn’t resist and bought it… but now I’ll have to struggle over whether I’ll ever open it…
  - clogboy
    
    If possible I would stream everything in 1080P, 60fps and then I would definitely pay a small fee for it.
  - Nos Rin aka CTCO
    
    But look how cool that case is!
    Man, I wish I could find a complete ‘You’re Under Arrest!’ collection for under 200. like maybe 100.
    And then there’s all the extra stuff they made in addition to the original show.
- Thomas
  
  Thanks for the alert. Besides having access through XBOX, various TVs, and apps for iOS and Android, it seems that sometime in 2018 HIDIVE will be available via Roku.
Ladon

I think that in this instance, you should be thanking the TAO for the reckless hero type.
- Ocean Burning.
  
  The Tao wills that you may continue in your current incarnation at this time.
  - purplelibraryguy
    
    That one time with Cho, the guy trying to pass him, and the will of the Tao is probably still my all time favourite sound effect.
Arkone Axon

Put. On. Your. Helmet.

Seriously, those things save lives. Like your own. @.@
- Joshua Petersen
  
  A helmet is a good way to be ranked as an NPC though, which increased chance of death.
Purphoros

Panel 2 could be a full strip in a gag-a-day comic…
What would be the best object to print that on?
Warcodered

Oh good we’ll just let the blind guy do the fighting for us.
Nos Rin aka CTCO

I’ll get crunchy roll once I catch up with my anime DVDs, I wouldn’t mind watching my hero academia in current time as opposed to my usual preferred method of binging stuff one full series at a time.
also there’s this cheery anime about a guy who talks to spirits that I think is still ongoing. there’s a cat character. it looks good.
I have a bit of a list, konosuba? is it wrong to pick girls up in a dungeon? no game no life, kill la kill, and some others I’m sure. I wouldn’t mind enjoying some newer stuff that I can talk to people about. Most of what I watch is random obscure stuff I got at a local used store or ebay. actually I think 90% of my anime I bought on ebay. XD first thing I bought on there was a slimpack to trim down on space. XD we all see how that worked out! XD XD
Ocean Burning.

I don’t want to sound whiny, but just wondering… is there going to be an update this week?
- http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
  
  I added an update to the blog. No update this week, but we’ll be back next week!
  - Ocean Burning.
    
    Ok thanks! Sorry, just super want to make sure I don’t miss anything!
clogboy

I hope the life related issues aren’t of the life altering kind, and if they are, hugs, thoughts and prayers. Or insert other appropriate well wishes here.
- http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
  
  Just busy with work and social obligations!
Jonathan B

My anime consumption is very minimal. Spirited Away is a favorite, even cosplayed as No Face once. Girls und Panzer I got into because of the WW2 tanks, and actually kind of liked. Haven’t seen the second season I think they eventually did come out with. Kancolle, I watched part of a season but got interrupted by real life and haven’t gotten back to it. I’ve seen a few episodes of Dragonball (which appears to be pretty much the same as seeing all episodes of Dragonball). The most unusual and perhaps obscure one I watched on Crunchyroll was Bento!. It is excessive with the fan service and uncomfortable sexual references, has the weirdest mundane foundation premise (organized fighting over half-price bento boxes at supermarkets), yet I found myself finishing the whole existing season because it had some weirdly engaging characters and storylines in the midst of the over the top delivery and predictable general formula.

Features these Characters

Belongs to these Storylines

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