(no subject)

[which_chick]

Was pulling weeds in the field last night -- I've worked my way around from the fence bordering the UB field to where the excavator is parked uselessly, so I'm about half done. There's jimsonweed in the field and I'm uprooting it and removing the seed pods so that the damn stuff doesn't take over. It's poisonous and the horses won't eat it. Apparently the damn stuff got in the field in some round bale and then got scattered/tracked across the field. The seeds are heavy seeds that don't spread much on their own, so if I can get all the pods before they pop open and all the plants before they make pods, I'll have made a huge inroad on the damn stuff. It stinks to high heaven but is thornless and the plants uproot easily enough.

In other, unrelated news, I need some suggestions on giant-robots-with-explosions anime that is suitable for an eight year old boy. He's done all of Star Blazers, is working through Transformers (the "new" ones, I think). Brother-the-younger is thinking something Gundam, but I'm not sure if the explosion-to-political-crap ratio is high enough to keep him interested. Anyway, since my eye for giant-fighting-robots anime is not exactly tailored to the sorts of things that would appeal to an eight year old boy, I'm asking for help. Help?

Comments

[cassandramorgan.livejournal.com]

I suck at 'Things That Boys Like' but here's my list of giant robot anime that I have seen that might possibly fit the bill:

Dai-Guard
Giant Robo (this one is the husband's favorite)


Yeah, my giant robot knowledge is weak. The Iron Giant isn't really anime (I don't think.....) but it always ranks high when the boys talk robots....

[electroweak.livejournal.com]

I've put the question to Ben and Bill, my mecha-and-space anime gurus. We'll see what they come up with.

[fooliv.livejournal.com]

It's easier to predict what wouldn't fly. Dai-Guard would bore his socks off - all that corporate satire, social serio-comedy, and grim military politicking would fly right over the head of an eight-year-old. Most of the old Gundam (original series) is pretty leaden politically, but at least it's aimed at the 7-12 demographic in terms of complexity. Space Nazis is a lot easier to explain than arguments over SOFA clauses and appropriation catfights. Giant Robo is broad enough & colorful - Imagawa's good that way - but a real downer. Most Imagawa's that way, actually. Maybe his Tetsujin 28 TV series? It's kind of intense, but I think it'd work better than Giant Robo.

First Gundam's a pretty good bet, in my opinion. It irritates me because of the lack of a subtitled track, but he's a kid - dubs are made for kids.

Gao-Gai-Gar's aimed right up the 8-year-old's lane. Bright, goofy, repetitive, cheerful as all heck. It's like Sailor Moon for boys. I didn't enjoy it too much, but then, I'm not eight years old anymore, and I kept waiting for it to get better than high-grade Z-brand Transformers.

They just reprinted Mazinkaiser, which although it's really violent, it's also fairly kid friendly - not much in the way of nudity or confusing politics or grimness, and most of the violence is against robots.

I could loan you copies of Mazinkaiser & Tetsujin 28, and if you just want to give the sprout my copy of the first season of Gao-Gai-Gar, it's yours - I won't be watching that one again.

[fooliv.livejournal.com]

Also, Robotech and Voltron if he hasn't been given them yet. Hacked-to-heck-and-gone dubbed giant robot shows are *made* for prepubescent boys. Most anime imported for the DVD market is aimed at post-pubescent boys, which is why it's a little hard to come up with good choices. Most of the really popular mecha shows are metafictional commentaries on the primary-colored repetitive television which real kids actually like. There's a million shows like Gao Gai Gar, but they don't get released in North America because most of them are utterly boring to the teenager-and-man-child audience which dominates what's left of the anime DVD market. They're like sentai shows - five billion variants on the color-coded masked ninja teams fighting guys with putty on their faces, and only the few obsessive trainwatching otaku who geek out over them can actually tell you which one is which.

[electroweak.livejournal.com]

First reply, from Ben, who includes non-anime space things:

Robotech
Nadesico (Kid won't bang their head on the wall at Ruriruri's horrible dub like I did and should get most of the site gags but may want to wait a year or two if uncertain)
G Gundam (Show was designed for 8 year olds)
Real Ghostbusters (Yes, I know its neither space nor anime, but the wierd science is good)
Tranzor Z (dub of Mazinger Z, may be hard to find due to rights issues though)
Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors (Once again, not anime but one of JMS of Bab5 fame's earlier works)
Duck Dodgers in the 24th and a Half century
SD Gundam (Note, the adults aren't going to want to watch this though)/blockquote>

[fooliv.livejournal.com]

G Gundam would be good. If you can find a copy. Bandai's North American branch is *terrible* at keeping back-catalog in print. I was meaning on getting it, and I can't find a copy of the first collection.

Nadesico is the sort of metafictional commentary that I was warning about - it's more for people who loved these sorts of kids shows when they were kids, than the thing itself. Also, all of the harem and fandom stuff will perhaps irritate a kid.

Are there any copys of Tranzor Z floating around? That's why I recommended Mazinkaiser - it's not really the original Mazinger Z, but at least it's in print, and isn't as vicious and blood-soaked and wildly inappropriate for children as, oh, say, New Getter Robo.

[cousinsue.livejournal.com]

Johnny Socko? Live action rubber monsters?

[electroweak.livejournal.com]

Reply from Bill: "I can't do better than Ben's list."