"...despite every positive aspect, it's all too easy to highlight something negative."
Autocar UK wrote this on their road test of the Mazda RX-8 around four years ago. The RX-8 is a convention-bending car: it's a coupe but comes with four doors, has no B-pillar, seats four people, and to date is the only production car powered by a Wankel rotary engine.
So what are the negatives? Well, no B-pillar means its bodyshell tends to flex more than its competitors, which detracts from ultimate handling. And while the twin-rotor Wankel develops 228 BHP from 1.3 liters of displacement, it's got precious little torque, requires frequent oil changes...and let's face it, rotary engines were never fuel-economy champions.
***
The same can be said of "Turn-A Gundam," which I finished watching just this morning. Gundam as an anime franchise is known as a space war opera with cool-looking giant robots and lots of action. Turn-A doesn't fit in this mold at all.
A post-apocalyptic story with great emphasis on surviving with 20th-century technology and peace negotiations between the Earth and the Moon, it's the most akin to a Hayao Miyazaki movie out of all the Gundam TV series. Let's face it, you don't expect hulking robots to act as bridges and save cows---oh no, you'd expect them to beat the mechanical crap out of each other. And speaking of robots, the mobile suits in Turn-A are as far removed from a traditional Gundam as they come, as they were designed by American Syd Mead of "Blade Runner" fame. Mead's design of the Turn-A Gundam has a distinctive upturned crescent beard---enough to have Gundam fans crying sacrilege.
The tradition set by other Gundam series prevents others from appreciating "Turn-A Gundam" on its own merits. Yes, it's almost Miyazaki-like in pace and tone; that doesn't mean it's a bad series. If anything, "Turn-A" is the series that places the most emphasis on the characters---from front-line soldiers to the civilians to the politicians behind the conflict. It certainly drags at first, and its weirdness won't endear it to many, but "Turn-A Gundam" is proof that the franchise was at one point a human story, not simply a tool to sell kits and merchandise.
***
I wonder if the same rule applies to me. I wonder if I am so different from other people that they don't even bother to look for anything positive; all they see is the usual unfavorable first impression I make.
Autocar UK wrote this on their road test of the Mazda RX-8 around four years ago. The RX-8 is a convention-bending car: it's a coupe but comes with four doors, has no B-pillar, seats four people, and to date is the only production car powered by a Wankel rotary engine.
So what are the negatives? Well, no B-pillar means its bodyshell tends to flex more than its competitors, which detracts from ultimate handling. And while the twin-rotor Wankel develops 228 BHP from 1.3 liters of displacement, it's got precious little torque, requires frequent oil changes...and let's face it, rotary engines were never fuel-economy champions.
***
The same can be said of "Turn-A Gundam," which I finished watching just this morning. Gundam as an anime franchise is known as a space war opera with cool-looking giant robots and lots of action. Turn-A doesn't fit in this mold at all.
A post-apocalyptic story with great emphasis on surviving with 20th-century technology and peace negotiations between the Earth and the Moon, it's the most akin to a Hayao Miyazaki movie out of all the Gundam TV series. Let's face it, you don't expect hulking robots to act as bridges and save cows---oh no, you'd expect them to beat the mechanical crap out of each other. And speaking of robots, the mobile suits in Turn-A are as far removed from a traditional Gundam as they come, as they were designed by American Syd Mead of "Blade Runner" fame. Mead's design of the Turn-A Gundam has a distinctive upturned crescent beard---enough to have Gundam fans crying sacrilege.
The tradition set by other Gundam series prevents others from appreciating "Turn-A Gundam" on its own merits. Yes, it's almost Miyazaki-like in pace and tone; that doesn't mean it's a bad series. If anything, "Turn-A" is the series that places the most emphasis on the characters---from front-line soldiers to the civilians to the politicians behind the conflict. It certainly drags at first, and its weirdness won't endear it to many, but "Turn-A Gundam" is proof that the franchise was at one point a human story, not simply a tool to sell kits and merchandise.
***
I wonder if the same rule applies to me. I wonder if I am so different from other people that they don't even bother to look for anything positive; all they see is the usual unfavorable first impression I make.
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