Mobile Suit Gundam UC (Unicorn) is an OVA series which supposedly scheduled for 6 episodes as the 6th is the finale, but The “Mobile Suit Gundam UC Film & Live 2012” event revealed a thrilling/shocking news on Sunday that there will be a Seventh and final episode of the Gundam UC anime coming “in the near future.“ The Sixth volume, “Sora to Hoshi to” is scheduled for release Spring 2013, while the premier of episode 5: “Black Unicorn” is on this May 19th.

P.S. The length of the seventh volume has not been determined yet, but it was already decided that it will be over one hour long.
ANN

Via: ANN / JEFusion

Back in December 2011 I posted about Jackie Chan‘s newest movie which will be the the third part of the Armour of God series and it’s called Chinese Zodiac. Here’s a little update on the project, From April 18 to May 2, Jackie has been shooting some acrobatic scenes for the movie at the Aerodium vertical wind tunnel in Jelgava, Latvia. The movie set also took place in France, China, Taiwan and Vanuatu.

The movie tells about Asian Hawk bringing back the bronze head statues of the 12 Chinese zodiac animals, which were sacked by the French and British armies from the imperial Summer Palace in Beijing in 1860.

P.S. There’s a major fight scene of the action movie cost 70 million yuan, or more than 10 million U.S. dollars!!

[YouTube Link]

[YouTube Link]

[YouTube Link]

Via: Asian Movie Pulse

Two days ago the supermoon was anticipated by a lot of photographers around the world, and our Gundam videographer Darwinfish105 took the opportunity to capture this amazing timelapse of the Odaiba Gundam and the supermoon together.

Video details:
Camera : Panasonic DMC-GH2
Lens : Limux G Vario 100-300mm
Lens : Voigtlander NOKTON 17.5mm F0.95
Camera : PENTAX Q
Lens : 01 STANDARD PRIME
Lens : 02 STANDARD ZOOM
Music : Our Lives, Our Destinies by mindthings

[YouTube Link]

Via: Darwinfish105

Few days ago Pep Guardiola has announced that he’s going to quit being Barcelona manager after 4 successful years achieving 13 amazing titles. Pep succeeded Frank Rijkaard on 5 June 2008,  and in his first season he won the treble of La Liga, the Copa del Rey, and the Champions League, making him the youngest UEFA Champions League-winning manager ever, in the following season Guardiola won the Supercopa de España, the UEFA Super Cup, and the FIFA Club World Cup and by that Pep Guardiola becomes the first coach to ever complete the sextuple.

Pep Guardiola Barcelona records:

And here’s Guardiola post-game (Barca vs. Espanyol) tribute video:

[YouTube Link]

Gràcies Pep!

Title: Seirei no Moribito / Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit / Guardian of the Sacred Spirit / 精霊の守り人
Type: TV Series, 26 Episodes
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Historical
Themes: Female Bodyguard, Parallel Universe, Fugitives
Year: 07.04.2007 till 29.09.2007
Producers: Production I.G
Rating: PG-13 – Teens 13 or older

Plot: Once every 100 years, a water spirit implants an egg into a person who then becomes the Guardian of the Sacred Spirit. This time, the responsibility falls on Chagum, the Second Prince of the New Yogo Empire. The Emperor, fearing that the spirit’s possession of Chagum could destroy the prestige of the royal family, attempts to have Chagum killed. As a result, the Second Empress secretly asks a female bodyguard,Balsa, to abscond with Chagum.
AniDB

Review:
Production I.G the same studio that produced Ghost in the Shell (TV series and movies) did another masterpiece in another completely different genre than the Science Fiction seen in Ghost in the Shell. This time they shifted to one of Hayao Miyazaki favorite category which is Fantasy mixing it up with adventurous and dramatic events that resulted in a magnificent storytelling. Balsa the leading character in Seirei no Moribito became one of my favorite characters of all time after watching this series, her attitude, martial art skills with her short spear, and also her Seiyuu Andou Mabuki were all perfectly fit into that leading role. Also the same thing can be said to Chagum‘s Seiyuu Adachi Naoto this kid has a bright future in the voice acting industry.

It’s been very long time since I’ve seen a wonderfully and beautifully drawn anime and Seirei no Moribito‘s animation art was a top notch, not just the characters design nor the background, but the whole thing, and by that I mean there wasn’t a second of a bad drawing moments, you can witness how great it is during the fights and in emotional or awkward moments.

Now the music, the opening theme of the series called SHINE by the one and the only one L’Arc~en~Ciel, and Itoshii Hito e by Sachi Tainaka was the ending theme, both were amazing plus the stunning soundtrack by Kawai Kenji which accompanied each scene perfectly.

I loved watching Seirei no Moribito, and it’s on my top anime list, it’s a flawless work that must not be missed.

Art: 10/10
Storyline: 8/10
Characters: 10/10
OST: 9/10

Title: Ozuma / Ozma / オズマ
Type: TV Series, 6 Episodes
Genre: Sci-Fi, Action
Themes: cloning, sand pirates, post-apocalyptic
Year: 17.03.2012 till 21.04.2012
Producers: LandQ Studio, Gonzo
Rating: PG-13 – Teens 13 or older

Plot: In an endless desert without a speck of greenery, Sam Coyne rides a motor bike, looking for something, when he sees a girl being chased by seemingly-hostile ships. Sam saves the girl, whose name is Maya, who might actually not be a criminal on the run, but royalty… Before returning to the safety of his group’s base, he sees a giant monster rise out of the sand. It’s the monster who is his brother’s enemy… The sand whale Ozma.
ANN

Review:
Ozuma’s script was written in 1980s by one of the anime and manga legend Leiji Matsumoto (Space Battleship Yamato, Galaxy Express 999, and Space Pirate Captain Harlock), but it hadn’t been animated. WOWOW reached Matsumoto to animate Ozuma as the 20th anniversary project of the channel. Ozuma’s desert themed story is sort of nice but in the same time it makes the ability to develop the plot just kind of lacking. But the 6 episodes were perfectly enough for the whole storytelling.

Now there was something that made me keep watching Ozuma, and sometimes put a smile on my face, and that was the classic art, or more specifically the touch of the master Leiji Matsumoto which was flawless. And yet another thing was the SFX which also came from an old age.

So is Ozuma worth watching? If you’re a fan of Leiji Matsumoto then it definitely is, is it one of his best? certainly not, but for its classic art among all those new anime with their CG art, it’s fulfilling to see the likes of Ozuma for change.

Art: 7/10
Storyline: 6/10
Characters: 6/10
OP/ED: 7/10

Exterior view of a double cylinder colony

These pictures of space colonies aren’t from Mobile Suit Gundam but from NASA! Yes NASA was thinking about space colonies back in the 1970s.

A couple of space colony summer studies were conducted at NASA Ames in the 1970s. Colonies housing about 10,000 people were designed. A number of artistic renderings of the concepts were made.

Gundam Guy claimed that Mobile Suit Gundam used these concepts to depict the space colonies in the animated series, and I couldn’t agree more due to the similarities they both share.

There are three types of space colonies: the Cylindrical Colonies, Toroidal Colonies, and Bernal Spheres Colonies.

Cylindrical Colonies

Toroidal Colonies

Bernal Spheres

Pictures: NASA
Via: GundamGuy

Macross 30th anniversary can’t be celebrated better than this, a life-size VF-25F Messiah Valkyrie fighter jet (18 meter long) displayed in the 30th Anniversary Macross Super Dimension Exhibition – Valkyrie de Sasotte! at the Sunshine City complex in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. In spite of only showing the nose and arms of the Valkyrie it’s just beautiful. Visitors can stand on the arm of the badass transforming fighter jet, and that alone must be an awesome experience. There are also a full life-size of Lynn Minmay from Macross: Do You Remember Love?, Ranka from Macross Frontier, and Sheryl Nome from Macross Frontier.

Pictures source: GundamGuy / Mecha Guy
Via: ANN

Title: FREEDOM
Type: OVA, 7 Episodes
Genre: Adventure, Action, Sci-Fi, Romance
Themes: Motorcycle, Space, Dystopia, Post-apocalyptic
Year: 24.11.2006 till 25.05.2008
Producers: Sunrise
Rating: PG-13 – Teens 13 or older

Plot: In the year 2041, mankind created their first space colony on the moon. But after a freak cataclysm devastated human civilisation on Earth, the republic of the moon built a domed megalopolis known as Eden. Now in the year 2267, a boy called Takeru spends his time engaging in hover-craft races against rival street gangs, unaware that he is about to embark in the journey of unearthing Eden’s origin.

Review:
OVAs’ art, storytelling, theme, and music are always masterfully well-made exceeding most of the anime series projects, might be due to the great gap separating each episode. Imagine that handled to the man who was part in changing the anime industry for good, the man behind Akira, Katsuhiro Otomo, but this time “unfortunately” he wasn’t directing, his role involved in character designing, mecha design, and storyboard of the  Freedom project. Thus a lot of Akira’s unique character design can be noticed from a mile, especially the main character Takeru, who looks a twin brother of Kaneda.

The plot of Freedom was simple yet astonishing and could never been told any better although I hope it would be adapted into a series so it would be easily conveyed without the time jumps; that doesn’t mean it’s confusing to comprehend, but I just wanted to see more. Now, the thing that always bugs me… CG, Freedom was way to computerized, when it comes to mechas and building I have no problem, but I just hate CG on characters. From the first episode I got disappointed since it’s obvious how bad it was, some scenes it’s noticeable that characters body measurement don’t fit, at all. That’s why I wished if it was directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, I felt like all his work on the character design went down the drain.

Freedom is great to watch and really fun, Takeru’s crazy characteristics and behavior were excellent. If it was made without the CG touch, I’d rate it as 10/10 hands down.

Art: 6/10
Storyline: 9/10
Characters: 8/10
OP/ED: 7/10

Visual Scene‘s newest issue (April-May) is filled with new interesting articles that are fun and informative to read. Here’s some previews:

Check them out on their official website and their facebook page.