Blog: Spring/Summer 2021 Status Update

Well, as we enter the summer, and I begin to receive my Covid vaccination, it seems a good time to discuss the blog and where I am as a person.

 

The biggest thing that happened to me recently, excluding a recent wisdom tooth removal, was the closure of my toy selling business. I'll admit that this closure was a gut punch of thing, but it had been on the table for a while. The pandemic was just the last straw. It wasn't profitable, and my own interest in the Transformers brand had declined so it no-longer felt like a hobby. Its a shame, but I realise that I started the business for the wrong reasons. So, as I approach a big number, entering the realms of the old fart, I find myself pondering the big questions and having more free time. This isn't great, because, and I don't know if' you've noticed this lately, it's very easy to find an external factor to worry about instead, just by touching the news cycle. It's not all bad however, as this represents a chance for a fresh start, whatever the hell that may involve.

This blog is of course a distraction as much as it is a creative outlet. I'm usually running a month ahead, because depression and creativity tend to be on the same see-saw, so even if I'm feeling bad, I keep to the timetable. One thing I have noticed is a desire to get back into the wargaming scene, I'm an Ork at heart, while at the same time my Battlefleet Gothic fascination has largely ran its course. With the pandemic hopefully coming to an end, actually playing the game is possible, but it's not necessarily a step in the right direction, more of a relapse into an old habit. I also find my Mecha Hack writing to be reaching a natural pause. I have at this point published 6 articles of homebrew, including one personal best, and I find there's little more to say. This isn't a sad event however, as I will shortly be gamesmastering again, which will no-doubt be a source of inspiration. I will however need to find something to write about soonish, lest I fall behind. The blog will continue, one way or the other, until morale improves.

 

Here's a preview of what you might expect in coming weeks:

A dirty, dirty, dirty Leo.

An article on BFG:XR.

An article I've previously held back on, Orks in The Mecha Hack.

An article on how do Real Robots in The Mecha Hack, as opposed to “super” ones.

Possibly something on those new Beast Snaggas.

Something from the pile of unfinished kits.

Maybe an article on Transformers, as I no-longer have a conflict of interests there.

 

Remembering: King of Braves Gaogaigar

I've never found a series with quite the same vibe as Yusha-oh Gaogaigar, and that makes no sense whatsoever now I come to think of it. The show is a purposeful throwback to the Super Robot Genre of the 1970s, and the latter part of a franchise similarly thereof. Its merchandise driven, overtly so, and as it was made by Takara, its a second cousin to the Transformers brand. There are hundreds of animes of similar providence, and maybe a million in the same, glorious, "punchy-punchy-robo-boomy" bracket. King of Braves Gaogaigar should not have been memorable, even amongst obsessive collectors and trivia obsessed nerds like myself. Why do people care then? I don't quite know, but I think it's a zeitgeist thing, a fluke combination of circumstances, where somebody rolled six sixes in a row. But that's selling it short. Gaogaigar is very much the perfect version of what it's trying to be. And then it becomes something more.

 

Now, what it's trying to be is a toy advert with a lot of stock animation. The show has a new toy to sell every 4 or so episodes, and puts a lot of effort into making them seem cool while fighting the proverbial Monster of the Week. Transformation and combination sequences get spammed and remixed endlessly, and I'm suspicious that one episode does this as deliberate self-parody. It's a very formulaic and simple anime, especially in the beginning, but those terms are not inherently negative. There is always something to be said for televisual comfort food, a pizza ordered from your favourite takeaway. You know exactly what you are getting, it may not be the best thing objectively, but you'll be satisfied. In twenty minutes or less. Gaogaigar is very good at being a mecha show, following a Monster of the Week format, with a target audience of kids. It is an ideal example of something like that. As a result, the show seems utterly daft if you try to describe what actually happens in a given episode, and the excessive design work that went into it. If I speak of this anime for any length of time, my words become those of an over-excited eight-year-old, one whom has to be making stuff up. In fact, let's do that now.

 

So, a typical episode plays out like this. First, a cold opening, followed by the expository theme song. Then, there's this big CG face under Tokyo Tower, and it's out to cause trouble. So it sends out one of its lackeys to turn a human into a robot monster. Those minions are a car-ballerina, a slug-train-conductor, a demonic looking chap with a big nose, called Pizza, and something that looks like Captain Birdseye's secret shame. The human is usually very stressed about something, which affects what form of robeast they end up being. This monster starts making a mess, which prompts the Gutsy Geoid Guard, (GGG, pronounced 3G,) to respond. Cue commercial break, and schematics of a mecha or item from the show. A plan is made by Mission Control, whom maybe panic a little. This involves the deployment of Gaogaigar, a combining robot seemingly made from whatever was left in the spares bin. It's built from a lion, a stealth bomber, a bullet train and a drill tank. And it's piloted by a cyborg with long red hair and battery bangs, whose cockpit area seems to be just a globe of light. He's called Cyborg Gai, incidentally. A huge amount of animator effort and screen time is expended on just combining. It borders on technology porn. The very hammy Chief Taiga bellows his approval, there's an exchange of blows, and Gaogaigar unleashes it's finisher, which at first is to rip the monster's core out by hand, but later involves a gigantic squeaky mallet. But wait, there's more. The core will regrow its body unless you "purify" it to free the person inside. This involves a boy, Mamoru, the audience avatar, spreading a set of fairy wings and chanting Latin at the organ while growing green. The victim inside regains their human form, openly weeping, but with joy. Roll credits, and cue a hyperbolic preview of the next episode, with the last shot being the "key to victory", an image of what will save the day next week. There's also a narrator, for the younger kids, I think. Later additions include a police car ninja, set of doomsday pliers, and a robot whom fights with the power of rock.

It is an incredibly memetic show.

So, why does this overtly silly stuff get treated so earnestly, and animated so well even as they repeat segments endlessly? It's because it's a reconstruction. Gaogaigar was planned and went to market in the aftermath of the famously depressing Neon Genesis Evangelion, when everybody else was following its lead. Somebody took a look at that trend, maybe one of the creatives, maybe the man with the money, and said "No.". I don't have much to go on, but Wikipedia entries do make mention that the production purposefully avoided the intrigue and dark secrets common to the mecha genre at the time. The Brave Saga was always firmly in the Super Robot Genre, but with Gaogaigar somebody decided to double-down, and I want to hug them for it. The show could easily have been bleak, looking at the details. Take Cyborg Gai, I mean, this guy cheated death and is now a walking weapon system. His kinda-girlfriend Mikoto perhaps has it worse as her parents died in the same incident, and now has to watch Gai fight monsters. But these aren't merely creatures, these are civilians transformed into mechanical abominations, unwilling participants in their rampage. And if wasn't the 9 year old with super powers, said monsters would be undefeatable. Is the cast necessarily happy about this? No. Are they consumed by despair? Nah, they roar defiantly. They power through it, with Gai treating his resurrection as a gift from the capital g God so he can help people. What is the titular Gaogaigar's defining accessory? The Dividing Driver. What does it do? Well, it's not a weapon, its a device that creates a safe battlefield where collateral damage cannot happen. Negative emotions are explicitly described as what fuels the enemy, while courage makes the difference. This anime simply does not indulge in needless tragedy or cynicism, and while not everyone makes it, there's a happy ending. It is pure, wholesome, heroism. And ham. Hot-blooded ham.

 

 

 

If the Gaogaigar anime had only been unironic kiddy fare though, that would have been fine, but it might only have been a footnote. Like I said, there's many toy-driven animes with the same basic formula. But, Gaogaigar breaks its own format and starts escalating the conflict. A super robot anime may be fundamentally juvenile, that is not to say actual drama is absent. Far from it. After a series of seemingly random attacks, the baddies lay claim to Tokyo, prompting a desperate battle to save the 10 million living there. It's a close run thing, only for the victory to be hollow. The team at GGG was only dealing with a scouting party, and the main force promptly turns up for some payback. With the stakes raised, foreshadowing paying off, and stronger continuity between episodes, the anime achieves greatness. And it does this while retaining its fundamentally hammy, hot-blooded nature. There's almost some genre subversion going on too, as GGG finds itself with allies whom have a somewhat different set of priorities. Most notably, the stakes go big and then intensely personal for the end, in a mirroring of the first episode. TBH, if you are still watching after the fifth episode, you're already committed fully to the show, but there's no disputing that things improve sharply by the midpoint.

Gaogaigar received a western release circa 2006, but notably not a complete English dub. Its not exactly easy to obtain now, and remains absent from streaming services. There's also a two sequels, of similarly limited accessibility. If anything I said above appeals, you might want to make the effort.

Plamo: Gorbag's Revenge (Battlefleet Gothic)

Well, technically not plamo. This is a white metal release. Metmo? Sounds like a Pokemon. Why do I scratch-build ork ships? Well, a lot of it is because I can, and I'd say quite well, thanks. But, honestly, there's a cost aspect to thing. Battlefleet Gothic is long since out of production, and Orks were a metal fleet. Well, obviously everything in 40k apart from the T'au is pretty METAL, I mean that Orks never got any ships in plastic or resin as far as I know. Humies and Spikey Boyz however got plastic cruisers in the box. This means its relatively easy to find those models, even as that number decreases through attrition, and if not? People do 3rd party options these days. With Orks it's somewhat harder, as while you can easily find the escorts, the capital ships are stupid money, and so you'll have to consider making your own. Maybe its time to play around with a 3D printer...

Today's subject is the Gorbag's Revenge, a metal model like those above. I got it as new around the time of release, and didn't actually finish until now. And it's good that I did save it, as these go for the aforementioned stupid money on ebay. I'm honestly surprised nobody has reversed engineered any of this.... the weapon bays look easily re-castable for bits. Did nobody but me care to? Or do I need to research more?

I don't have a huge amount to say about the creative process on this one. It's a straightforward assembly and paint job, using the techniques I favour. This is meant to be a specific vessel, so there's little room to go nuts. I will instead take the opportunity to point how metal is probably the worst material for models like this. The Revenge weighs more than my Space Hulk while being a quarter of the size, which makes it a liability on the standard GW flying base. I broke three bases before drilling into it to make a better mounting point, I remember having exactly the same issue with the smaller kroosers. As a medium, white metal is so tough you need serious tools and a vice to cut it up, but not so tough those tiny prow gun-barrels stay on.  Then I broke another flying stand when photographing it. I don't mean to be salty, but this was a right nuisance, and I've drawn a line under this whole project.

While significantly more annoying than it should have been. Gorbag's Revenge basically turned out OK. I just cannot get over this stand issue.

The Mecha Hack: Super Robots & Combiners

Generally speaking, my interest in the mecha genre comes from two angles. My default is the intellectual, armchair general kind of way. You'll see this in the rambling introductions to my gunpla articles, I like the worlds and history they live in. When you get right down to it, a good mecha anime is a good story. My inner child however simply loves the wonder of giant robots, and my numerous neuroses can be calmed by a show that tries to be awesome and hot-blooded. Such things are usually typified by the Super Robot genre, a concept which is known in the West, but perhaps not consciously, or by that name.

What is A Super Robot?

Super Robots represent the original form of the Mecha genre, with its own conventions and tropes. As the name implies, these are robots that are akin to superheroes, as opposed to Real Robots like Gundam, which aim for realism as a design motif. This distinction was popularised by the Super Robot Wars series of games, which features massive crossovers between numerous mecha franchises, and is more of a spectrum than a hard line. Remember, Real Robots were an evolution of the Supers, and there can be a lot of overlap. If a mecha looks and behaves like something out of Power Rangers or Gurren Lagann, has powers as plot demands, and does not attempt realism, its probably a super robot. If a mecha looks like a mass produced item that follows a consistent internal logic, it's probably a real robot. Pacific Rim is a pretty good example of the middle ground between these two extremes, the Jaegers being highly individual monster wrestlers, but with a logistic angle like a battleship. Alternatively, Gundam Wing is for most intents and purposes a real robot show, but the titular Gundams are so overwhelmingly lethal they might as well be supers. More generally, super robots aim at young kids as opposed to the teens reals aim for, although the idea has been around long enough that deconstructionist works and gritty reboots are a thing. Fashions ebb and flow, don't they? Put another way, if a real robot show is like a Christian Bale Batman, a super robot show is the Adam West Batman. And yes, people can get defensive about that, and then go and hire Ben Affleck.

Playing with Super Robots

The Mecha Hack and its Mission Manual are generally quite good at handling Super Robots as is. The influences are very much worn on their sleeves there. Kaiju can be left as is, or reskinned as "Robeasts", and classes like the Colossus and Vanguard are pretty much there already. Things can however be taken further. The sample class below is an example of how. Here I've taken the view that a super robot is a close range fighter, reliant on its modules for ranged attacks. As super robots are fundamentally built for punching, I've treated the fists as light melee, rather than unarmed or improvised. You may wish to add "eye beams" or similar as a ranged weapon. Meanwhile, the Chassis Abilities play to prominent genre staples, namely courage/guts and stock animation attacks. For the full effect, make it so enemies can only be defeated by a Finishing Move. The primary influence here is my personal fave, Gaogaigar, which has an article pending BTW.

Super Mechanoid Chassis

Hit Die D10 Damage Die D10 Reactor Die D6

Levelling

Roll your hit die to gain new hit points. Roll to see if attributes increase, rolling twice for Power and Presence. At levels 3, 6, & 9, gain a new module

Starting HP

1d10 + 4.

Proficiencies

All melee weapons, Heavy Armour.

Starting Equipment

Comlink, Bare Knuckles (Light Melee Weapon), Heavy Armour.

Heroic Courage

As a use action, test Presence to regain 1d6 HP and reset your Reactor Die to 1d6. You may not attempt this if you are undamaged and/or have a Reactor Die at its maximum, but you may do so the turn after Overheating.

Finishing Move

As an attack action, test Presence to inflict a Finishing Move to a single Close enemy. If that enemy is at 33% HP or less, it is destroyed, otherwise it suffers 2D8 damage. Roll your Reactor Die twice.

Super Robot Modules

Rocket Punch: As an attack action, test Power to inflict 2d6 damage on a single Near or Far Enemy. Roll your Reactor die.

Giga Drill: As an attack action, test Power to inflict 2D4 damage on a single Close or Near enemy. If the target is Close, the damage is 3d4 instead. Roll your Reactor Die.

Alternate Rules for Combiner Mecha, Featuring the Lovelace Liberator

I'm going to tell you a little story. So, its the time of the first UK lockdown, and I'm desperately trying to find something to do. One of those things ended up being the “New-Texas Test Team”, a Mecha Hack Campaign for assorted groups, which eventually was whittled-down one party of good friends. It might have been the smartest thing I ever did. One man, he knows who he is, asked about combining, and my response was basically “I'm not saying no, but there's not rules for that, lemme come back to it later.”. Because I aim to please, I made this the focus of the mid-series climax. Simply, a character had dared the resident mad scientist, Diana Lovelace, to put in a gestalt mode, but forgot to due to an off-screen drinking binge. This eventually is revealed several weeks later when the party faced an otherwise unbeatable foe, combining to form the Lovelace Liberator. There was theme music, and everything. This was my first ever attempt to write and play with my own homebrew rules for the Mecha Hack, and looking back, it was a bit of a bodge. I ended up revising pretty quickly. TBH, I now feel I was unduly harsh in my Mission Manual review when I said the Combiner rules lacked oomph. They seem quite functional, and I'd use them for “Symmetrical Docking” style, Fusion Dance, two-part combiners. However, you may wish like I did for a combiner to be an event. A high point. Something with its own distinct rules. So, here's some guidelines as to how.

1. The combined form has its own character sheet, with pilots operating as Mecha Crews, see page 38 of the Rulebook.

2. A combined form should have a minimum of 100HP, 20AP, 2d8 Damage Die, 1d10 Reactor Die, while Mobility is capped at 10.

3. It should have the Chassis Ability “ALL YOUR POWERS COMBINED: As a special action, any and all pilots may choose to activate an chassis ability or module from their individual mecha, the effect lasting until the start of their next action, and benefiting the whole combiner. Triggering this ability does not count towards the action limit, but the Chassis Ability or Module you activate otherwise functions as normal.”

4. It should have the Chassis Ability “EMERGENCY COOLDOWN: Should it Overheat or loose its last HP, the combiner instead immediately separates into its component parts, i.e. the party. Individual components have their reactor die set to 1d4, with HP at GM discretion. Combination may not be attempted for the rest of the scenario.”

The feel I was aiming for here was “big punchy thing, but players have to collaborate”. Such a Combiner might have as many as six actions a turn, enough to muller most foes, but would run through its Reactor Die pretty quickly. Therefore players have to pace themselves, possibly spending actions on “ALL YOUR POWERS COMBINED” to maximise the attacks they make.

If you do end up using any of this, do let me know how it turns out.

Remembering: Orguss 02

Super Dimension Century Orguss is so obscure as to have apparently no modern merchandise since 2015, and virtually no English online presence. Its from the same people whom did Macross, although significantly less influential. Its legacy consists mainly of a significant role in the crossover game series Super Robot Wars, and today's subject, Orguss 02, which is hardly any better known. The annoyingly misnomered Manga Entertainment did an English dub for VHS and eventually DVD, but unless you taped anime off cable, you'll likely be ignorant of it. And if you care to track it down? The dub has all the sins of localisation circa 1995, and the DVD release is shoddy. Seriously, its alright for a casual watch, but if you set it to subs to avoid the dub, you're gonna find corners were cut. However, this is not a review. This is an article about how Orguss 02 made fairly a big impression on me. 

 

Let's talk about genre conventions and their subversion. In order for something to be recognised as in the Mecha genre, it has to do certain things. These should be fairly obvious, but to spell it out: a teenager in advanced humanoid weapon, fighting other humanoid weapons, in what is probably a war story of Japanese origin. The thing about definitions like that is that they are flexible, and a convenient shorthand, but people like to argue. Orguss 02 fits into that definition nicely, but then you check out the details. It's got the robots, but the lead characters spend little to no time piloting them. It's a war story, but the show is more concerned with the politics that create one and the civilian experience, rather than the actual fighting. It's Japanese, but visually is a hodgepodge of Western/European styles. It's a sequel, but one that initially ignores its predecessor, taking the mecha from it and giving them a crude dieselpunk refit. Orguss 02 is a mecha show, but its subverting the genre norms almost constantly in ways big and small. What makes it personally interesting to me is that A) its one of my earliest mecha experiences, possibly an odd place to start, I admit, B) while I enjoyed it as a novice, it only improves once you know the genre in which it exists a bit better. I'm not gonna talk about everything though. It's a fairly short series, if a very busy one, so talking in too much depth would detract from it. And in previous drafts that ended up being a gushing summary. That's not interesting to write or read.

I will instead however talk about what is its most distinctive, but ultimately secondary, aspect: the mecha. Most of the show by comparison is an espionage thriller meets Game of Thrones, where the lead character is just a naïve nice guy, his mentor is a war profiteer, and his main love interest is an escaped prisoner with extreme misanthropy. The mecha aspect, and the war it enables, is but one plot point of three. Like I said, genre subversion. It is however extremely memorable, as not many animes mix high technology with the 1940s. The mysterious robots they have were dredged up from the oceans or dug out of mines, and they haven't been fully restored. We mostly see the Rivilian examples, and these are all about taking the titular Orguss mecha, and simply replacing the head with machine guns in the absence of original weaponry. They also put on searchlights, and in one extreme case, a dude with a trumpet. Nobody seems to have realised that the things can transform. The Zafrin military meanwhile follows along similar lines, at least until the point where they dig up what is probably the animes' defining design, the absolutely humongous Zerifer. This is a looming threat in the background, and of a scale rarely seen. I mean, yeah, the likes of the Macross class are more dangerous, but you don't see one of them striding across Central Europe like some personification of overwhelming force, do you? Just about every scene involving this faintly daft thing is a winner, and the show is just as imaginative with the robot stuff, as it is with the characters dynamics. This series is pushing 30 years old, and yet it still somehow feels fresh and novel.

Mind you, it is not unique. Coming about 6 years later was Turn-A Gundam, a series much better known, but suspiciously similar. That show got a lot of flak back in the day for daring to change the basic Gundam design, but I think the elephant in the room was how similar it was to Orguss 02. I mean, its got a early-20th-century look to it, the mecha are mysterious and largely dug out of the ground, there's a huge great secret behind it all, there's some literally apocalyptic machines waiting to be discovered, it suddenly becomes a direct sequel after doing its own thing, and so on. The difference is that Turn-A was a TV series in a much better known franchise, with its creator in a happy mood, while Orguss 02 is an obscure 6 episode OVA that pitches towards an higher age rating. I remember being grumpy about this at the time, and while I bounced off the anime, I've grown to respect Turn-A in recent years. It may be following a path a more concise show made, but Turn-A has aged far better than most Gundam instalments. Either that, or I just like animes where its both the past and future at once, and literally anything could come out of the woodwork.

Anyways. I'll happily admit this anime is an influence on the mecha RPGs I run, and on a recent rewatch it holds up. Its also fairly easy to find, so if any of the above appeals, give it a go.