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Oh gosh, yeah, that Nanai rant is legendary, and him shit-talking Shinkai was beautiful. Although, that comment he made about his next project destroying EVA and Demon Slayer was a bit suspect. I mean, there's no way G-Reco V was ever going to out-sell both those films. Don't get me wrong, G-Reco was better than both of those films (I haven't seen Mugen Train, but one can only guess), but yeah, surely he said that to stir controversy and get eyes on the project. Anyways, I think with his approach to character writing, it only makes sense neurodiversity would have influenced him to some extent. The parallels are too specific for him not to have read something somewhere.

Yeah, his games aren't the most technically proficient things to play—maybe except NMH3, which is genuinely challenging at some points and has tighter, albeit sort of repetitive, combat mechanics. I'd love to play King's Field at some point, particularly the fourth one. The world looks really damn cool. I kind of get what you mean with games designed to be as uncomfortable as possible. The closest game I can think of that fits that bill is the first Drakengard. And, yeah, I don't think NMH was trying to break boundaries with it's gameplay, though I suppose it's unique in that the game is structured around the concept of a boss rush. NMH is more about just hanging out with Travis and falling into the atmosphere and absurdity of it all. It's got a lot of Suda quirks, but in more of a Kojima fashion, as opposed to, say, Killer7.

Yeah, Feez is insane. I've used his blog tons of times, mainly when researching the shift that happened with Tomino's style between Victory and Brain Powerd. I, too, would be interested to hear if Tomino ever purposely incorporated any of those traits, or if themes, like aforementioned Newtype one, was inspired by autism directly. A quick google search gets you a lot of results of people discussing and theorizing, but nothing concrete. Although, there is talk about Japan's early understanding of ASD being conflated with societal withdrawal, and that being what Tomino was referencing, but, to me, in the context of the script and Kamille's character, it doesn't make the most sense, and besides, still nothing concrete from Tomino himself.

From all that I know about Suda, and the works of his I've played, I consider NMH to be his most defining, particularly in the context of NMH3 and NMH: TSA. It might be a bit self-indulgent, having a main character as into games, anime and pro-wrestling as I am, but it's special because of that. And, yeah, right off the bat, Killer is Dead is super fucking stylish, though, I know it was apart of that era in his career (along with Shadows of the Damned and Lollipop Chainsaw) where he wasn't spearheading the creative direction.

Yeah, I get what you mean by "ill-fit." The statement does undermine the evident complexity of each character mentioned, but it was meant as more of a comedic, sweeping generalisation. Though, about ASD, whether it's intentional or not, the breadth at which Tomino is able to depict neurodiversity is probably the most—not sure if this is the right word—realistic take I've seen in anime. I've seen people point to L from Death Note as an example of autism in anime, and while, yeah, I see it, that depiction, however, is certainly exaggerated for the sake of drama. Bellri really stands out to me as a character who embodies those traits in a, seldom seen—going back to this word again—naturalistic way. Just the way he blurts out words and phrases; wrestles with the spontaneity of his emotionally-charged actions, and more specifically, struggles with properly communicating his intent and feelings. Anyway, interesting stuff.

Good point about both Valvrave and Cross Ange. Yeah, they both lack what makes Tomino great, but carry general quirks I associate with him, along with other oddities. Haruto is definitely a pretty flat character, and a lot of that comes from how predictable and shounen-like he is—except for that part where he rapes the female lead, though I guess the show explains that by having it be caused by his viral-vampiric-ness. Ange, though, at least at the start of the series, starts off actively wanting an almost Third Reich-esque genocide of the Normas, only to find out she is one. After which, yeah, she does start to become rather predictable, but not to her detriment. I think she works as a hero more effectively than Haruto because her fall from grace was so sharp.

I'll spare you an endless tangent of Eureka Seven praise, but I'd highly recommend giving it a re-watch, at some point.

Btw, I checked out your Backloggd and saw you were a fan of Suda51, among other great creators, but I didn't see any of the No More Heroes games on your list. Do you think you'll ever play them? I recently started Killer is Dead, myself, after finishing The Silver Case some months ago.

That's a pretty insightful way of looking at things with Zeta, particularly with understanding characters through the lens of childhood. I can definitely see it with Kamille: he acts completely on instinct and lets his emotions drive his actions. He was the main aspect of Zeta where I started to see Tomino's authorial hand. That's probably where the "autistic" thing comes from, as—while, yeah, he was just being petulant—it's what he self-describes as. Even if that was a liberal translation, personally, I think it fits. There's been a lot of discussion whether or not Newtype is an allegory for autism, anyhow, and people have even speculated that Tomino, himself, might be autistic. But, yeah, apologies about the overuse of that term. It does come off rather derogatorily. The term has just become linked with how I personally understand Tomino's characters. Some of my closest friends have ASD, so whether or not Tomino incorporates those traits purposefully, I think it's interesting. But, yeah, I get how the language may be stigmatizing.

And about Ookouchi, yeah, I know a lot of his projects weren't exactly well received, but, imo, I thought Valvrave was great. While watching it, all I could think was, "Did Tomino work on this?" Granted, it's different, but as we were discussing before, I think it's the closest another creative has got to replicating Tomino's "Tomino-isms." It goes back to what I said in my G-Reco review: characters feel like billiard balls in a game of pool, smashing into each other, and bouncing in all different directions. Instead of constructing sentences for each other, they just talk at each other, which I think is hilarious. Yeah, it's pretty up it's own ass, but it's certainly unique—immortal, virus-infected, mech-piloting vampire high schoolers, trapped in a Lord of the Flies-esque situation, where they have to build something of a society all by themselves, whilst staving off space fascists. Pretty crazy stuff, lol. Unfortunately, S2 drops off a bit with the craziness, though.

Continuing with Ookouchi, he did a couple episodes for my favourite show, Eureka Seven, and they're very telling of his style, particularly his Tomino influence. Episode 20 sees the most Gundam moment in the series for Renton, where the 14-year-old protagonist has to come to terms with the fact he's killing real people inside of those mechs, after his emotions cloud his judgment. Then he leaves the Gekko (White Base) to meet Charles (Ramba Ral). Then episode 25 is the BIG middle point of the series where the emotion drives everything, and the cathartic pay-off happens in the form of a Macross reference. Anyway, I think those scripts are more in-touch with his strengths, without the insane, edgy stuff he become known for later. The logical end point of this is Cross Ange, if you've seen it. It's not Ookouchi, but it feels like it picked up where Valvrave left off, though, I like that show as well.

And that second paragraph is great, btw. It hits the nail on the head perfectly.

Haha, thanks. I try. I fancy myself something of a champion for G-Reco because of just how misunderstood and over-hated it is. And dw, I get that—it takes a bit to acclimatize to Tomino's style. I think it was mid way through Zeta that it clicked with me, and now I think he's just gotten better and better, and the more I watch, the more I appreciate. I value Tomino as a creative so much because it felt like he introduced me to a new way of storytelling that wasn't up its own ass or self-indulgent. It's precisely how you describe it with the naturalistic ramblings—he facilitates this way of modelling human interaction at its most chaotic, but at the same time, he grounds it significantly, unlike how someone like Imaishi may portray interactions. I stumbled across a post on /m/ a couple months ago that described that 'grounded-ness' pretty well, it was that his characters are full-bodied and dynamic, and that they passively expressive emotion naturalistically, as real people would. And yeah, i'd agree: no one has captured that essence quite like Tomino, expect maybe Ookouchi, but even then, it's not quite the same.

And yes! I'm happy that you appreciate all the details. The toilets in the mechs is one of my favourites, particularly with how Tomino will cut to a character in their cockpit, zipping up their normal suits, implying they just used the toilet, without explicitly stating anything. Despite G-Reco being primarily made for a younger audience, he puts a lot of faith in the audience to piece things together, which I love. I love how Tomino refuses to coddle the audience. It makes every watch of G-Reco rewarding cause you'll spot new, insane details you didn't notice before. This'll be hard to explain, but episode 1 is a masterpiece for how it treats characters' understanding of the situation. At multiple points, every character asks why Raraiya is there, and who she is, which in any other show, you'd just expect the characters to know, but no one has communicated anything about her presence to each other, so characters just discover her. Even one of Dellensen's men doesn't know her purpose, since Dellensen simply hasn't briefed him, or probably even forgot to. I may be overcomplicating this, but I feel like most shows would have maybe one character question who Raraiya is, then everyone else would just know her from that point on, but G-Reco holds communication as such a core theme, so if no one communicates to each other, information simply doesn't pass on.

Also, there's things they added in the movie that I haven't heard anyone talk about yet, like how one of the Nuts in capital tower has Australian Aboriginal artwork all over it, which is such a niche, specific detail. And, yeah, that shot is awesome. Such a minor character, but just adding those details makes him feel real. It even raises questions about him: like, what is that bear thing? Does he have a daughter that gave it to him? Did he buy it for someone? That type of stuff. And the fact that the books at his work space don't have bookmarks, but the next desk over has books littered with bookmarks and tassels, might imply things about his work ethic or something.

There's so much to talk about with G-Reco. I could go on forever, lol. After watching Movie V, I'm having an internal debate whether or not I think it beats King Gainer as my favourite Tomino work. Also, if you're interested, I did a review of Witch From Mercury S1 not too long ago.

I read what says on your profile and had to hold back my tears.

Well, thanks for the feedback man! It's pretty funny you say you found the review cohesive, because to me, it was just venting my thoughts, but I think it's cool you found some worth in it. And to answer your question: no, not really. I still think the ending is just a stupid Satou Dai-esque cop-out. It's just a really uncreative Matrix rip-off of an anti-climax where it feels like not even the characters can explain the events that transpired. It was just a really, really poor decision to make Shimamura that overpowered, and it's ridiculous that he was somehow able to hack every cyberbrain on earth. It's a deus ex machine at its finest. At some point, I'll come back to it to see if my opinion somehow changes and/or if the time between watches gives me some clarity.

Amazing Hakomari review

Good HakoMari review

Nice review of Endo Hiroki's Tanpenshu

Your review on Infinite Stratos is amazing lol

Oh thanks! Glad you liked it! I actually haven't read much manga depicting those subjects myself other than FukaBoku and Shimanami, so I'm not much help there. Sorry!

Passano gli anni, ma i gustacci persistono sempre di più!!! Ciao Valletto, ti trovo bene :D
Ho appena finito di leggere la novel di Fata Morgana no Yakata, in italiano però ahaha, perchè hai messo 4?! :/ Sei sbucato a caso nelle valutazioni, mi son detto, ma vuoi vedere che è lui?? E infatti.
Steins;Gate 5 :'( Basta rovinare le medie. Bei tempi con Jigoku caro, mi mancano ; )

Got it, thanks!

Yoko Taro is one of my favourite writers/game directors, glad to see him get the appreciation he deserves even on MAL. On the side note, no, it does not sound rude at all, I was looking at the scores of a certain reviewer and looked at one of his friends’ scores then did the same thing with the new profile and the next until I found your profile by complete chance.