QFT!

If I hear one more CG animator or CG animator wannabe complain about "cheating", as if there are actual rules for these sorts of things, I'm gonna scream! Cheating isn't important. Never was. HOW you cheat is the big one.  

zmog

 

"Sword of Fury!"

"Blaze Blaster"

etc. etc.   I still love R.I.D though


Speaking of R.I.D!... I love how the toys looked pretty much identical to their show counterparts! (with a few exceptions, such as the Spychangers and the Ruination team). They even transform pretty much exactly the way they do on-screen. BIG points in my book!

 

i always thought beast was lame. They went to all the trouble of digital and just had plain ugly designs.

 

Actually, Jetfire and many of the Cybertron robot models have been modified from the toy, mostly to improve general proportion and mobility. If you look at the Jetfire show model versus the toy, it's apparent the (show) head is larger compared to the torso, and the arms and legs are longer. Think they avoided having the large gap through the middle that the toy has as well. Still, the overall impression is much closer to the toy design overall, so large apparent parts of the toy stay large apparent parts of the show model.

I can understand the liberties taken on Beast Wars and the like, but they are also extremely apparent, like TM2 Blackarachnia shoulderpads. I remember looking at the show and thinking "Hmm, the character doesn't have the shoulderpads the toy does - Oh wait, she does, but they're really really really really small." Also the spark crystal deelie that was on her rear got moved to her chest for some reason.  

 

I've always prefered the animation models used in the show/movie.

 

well, BW did the whole maximize/terrorize shouting thing and i'd hardly call it anime-influenced.

 

I dunno... it might be. Giant robots have been using their special powers through voice-activated commands (usually shouted with great gusto) for a long, long time... I have no problem whatsoever imagining how that could have influenced the BW creators.

Granted, the use of special powers through the implementation of magic words is nothing new either, from religious incantations, to fairy tales, all the way up to SHAZAM!

But I have to say... the Chinese and Japanese have really made it their own, with style! I've always suspected that the structure of those languages just seemed to suit the practice of belting out words in the middle of performing a technique... english seems a bit awkward when doing the same.

But then, I guess half the special moves seen in anime have inexplicably ENGLISH names anyway.  

CHANGE-UH... GETTAAAA... WUNNN!!!

zmog

 

Actually, you've got it half right. Half because the samurai usually just made inarticulate yells (the kiai).

Right because Go Nagai, the guy who invented most of the super robot traditions, did indeed lift the "shouting stuff out" bit from wrestling (along with colorful designs and costumes and a few other things).

FTW!

 

True, and BM had "I am transformed". The main difference (in my view) was that in BW/BM that stuff's more a marketing, catchphrase-building exercise, as opposed to anime traditionalism. They were also far less rigorous about calling it out (almost) every time they switched modes, and toward the end of each series the callouts were nearly dispensed with entirely.

 

Ah! So THAT's where Go Nagai got that from! Neat! Learn something new every day.  

Of course I also see a lot of that sort of thing in old kung fu movies as well, so there seems to be a chinese tradition as well (which could be what influenced the Japanese wrestlers as well).

While obviously in a fight, it doesn't make sense to announce what you're going to do next in a loud voice, I figure in the kung fu movies it was probably part of their didactic, demonstrative tradition. Sort of "teaching" their audiences about the real or exotic techniques they were about to use. That sort of playing to the audience is probably the whole point, in wrestling, anime and giant robots.  

zmog