Retro Robots & Novel Nachos

Anime has been around for a long time. Arguably the most influential and first Anime of all time was Astroboy, published first in 1952 and broadcast as Anime on television in 1963, true it wasn't the 'first Anime ever', that was probably Saiyuki by O. Tezuka in 1960, one guess what it's about from the picture;

If you're really clueless, that's Son Goku (Son Wukong, AKA; The Monkey King), a widely popular character from the four Great Classical Novels of Chinese Literature. A little random and inane point of fact, the character that Son Goku from Dragon Ball (And Z) was inspired by rather obviously.. Anyway, back on topic..

Astroboy is obviously one of the first Anime and a highly influential Anime, the first Anime with an actual continuity and sequential plot but in the 1970s there aired another ground breaking and highly popular Anime running specifically from April 7, 1979, and lasting until January 26, 1980, spanning 43 episodes, the worlds first Gundam; Mobile Suit Gundam.

 
You may be surprised to hear that Mobile Suit Gundam in spite of it's introduction in the 70s was a very well animated Anime for it's time, had considerably impressive plot, story, and character design/development.. Of course it also treated the show in a bit of an all too anime way that we know now as common with some of the character designs.. I'll note that a couple of the characters in Mobile Suit Gundam sport some terrifyingly souless black soul-stealing eyes.

Beware those empty fucking eviiiiil eyes.

So strange design such as this aside which really has no explanation since other characters have completely normal whites to their eyes and don't tend to rend the soul and life from your body when you stare directly at them.. DEAD LIGHTS! ...Wugh.. - Anyway.. This series is one to really remember, it's great. The dub is only good in the sense that the dub is a great drinking game if you want to DIE.

Seriously. Watch the first episode of the dub, set out some alcohol, Sake or Everclear, a shot glass, get ready to pour, and every time the main characters name is spoken (Amuro), drink. Before the first five minutes of the episode is past you WILL be shitfaced out your goddamn mind and possibly suffering serious alcohol poisoning. If not by that point then by the end of the episode.

Yeah.. Anyway..

Sufficed to say that if you watch Mobile Suit Gundam, watch the original if you can find it. Not the dub and hopefully you're also still sober enough to read and decently comprehend this. Not all the design in Mobile Suit Gundam was weird, many of the characters looked quite impressive. Here's one of the DVD spreads that shows quite a few of the best characters;

Although admittedly I must also confess that the design weirdness doesn't end with just the characters, for it's time (the 1970s) Mobile Suit Gundam existed in an odd place musically.. Sci-Fi was often associated with the strange and whimsical instrument, the theremin. By whimsical and strange I mean fucking weird and goddamn insane because NOTHING says battle music like a fucking theremin.

FUCK YES THEREMIN!

I just wonder what the HELL they were thinking actually making the battle music theremin music. Can you picture someone doing music for a series of this subject and standing over one of these things just going at it? Ridiculous! ...Yet strangely awesome also... This series has also spawned some other epicness with it's shitty dub.

Course Mobile Suit Gundam set the stage for future Gundam series and revolutionized mecha-Anime - For the sake of displaying the other Gundam series I'm going to say 'fuck it' and ctrl+c the contents of the series from Wikipedia - I am NOT typing all this shit out myself;

Animated series and films

Name	Media	Year(s)	MSG Date
Mobile Suit Gundam	TV series Compilation movies	1979-1980 1981-1982	U.C. 0079-80
Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam	TV series Compilation movies	1985-1986 2005-2006	U.C. 0087-88
Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ	TV series	1986–1987	U.C. 0088-89
Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack	Movie	1988	U.C. 0093
Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket	OVA	1989	U.C. 0079-80
Super Deformed Gundam	Movie OVA TV series	1988–1989, 1991, 1993 1988, 1990 1993	Unknown
Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory	OVA Compilation movie	1991 1992	U.C. 0083
Mobile Suit Gundam F91	Movie	1991	U.C. 0123
Mobile Suit Victory Gundam	TV series	1993	U.C. 0153
Mobile Fighter G Gundam	TV series	1994–1995	F.C. 60
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing	TV series Compilation OVA	1995-1996 1996	A.C.195
Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team	OVA Compilation movie	1996 1998	U.C. 0079
After War Gundam X	TV series	1996	A.W. 0015
Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz	OVA Compilation movie	1997 1998	A.C.196
Turn A Gundam	TV series Compilation movies	1999-2000 2002	C.C. 2345
Gundam Neo Experience 0087: Green Divers	Specialty format movie	2001	U.C. 0087
Gundam Evolve	Animated shorts	2001–2005	various
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED	TV series Compilation specials	2002-2003 2004	C.E.71
Superior Defender Gundam Force	TV series	2003–2004	Neotopia
Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO: The Hidden One Year War	Movies	2004	U.C. 0079
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny	TV series Compilation specials	2004-2005 2006-2007	C.E.73
Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO: Apocalypse 0079	OVA	2006	U.C. 0079
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED C.E. 73: Stargazer	ONA	2006	C.E.73
Mobile Suit Gundam 00	TV series Compilation specials	2007-2009 2009	2307-2312 AD
Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO 2: The Gravity Front	OVA	2009	U.C. 0079
Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn	OVA	2010-?? (In Production)	U.C. 0096
SD Gundam Sangokuden Brave Battle Warriors	Movie TV series	2010	Mirisha
Mobile Suit Gundam 00 the Movie: Awakening of the Trailblazer	Movie	2010	2314 AD
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: The Movie	Movie	To be Announced	C.E.
Model Suit Gunpla Builders Beginning G	OVA	2010	2010 AD
Mobile Suit Gundam AGE[17]	TV Series	2011-?? (In Production)	A.G. 115
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin[18]	TBA	TBA	U.C. 0079

There have definitely been a lot of Gundam series to say the least, it's widely popular and while not all of them are winners, many are and more specifically Mobile Suit Gundam is and without Mobile Suit Gundam we would have never been introduced to the unintentionally racist, hilarious, and ridiculous G Gundam which featured such wonderful racial representations such as Neo Mexico's Tequila Gundam!

Haha.. Oh yeah.. Yeah.. That brings tears to my eyes in a completely good way. That's awesome, just amazing and unbelievable.

Dinner:

Is it a bit ironic that right after posting about Tequila Gundam that I make a Japanese inspired nacho dish? This is Reddosan'nachosu (Red Sun Nachos) - Interesting Japanese take on the traditional nacho dish as I said, I worked pretty hard on these and I'm very proud of how they turned out. These were a special and unique treat for James that I normally would never have made.

The main dish came out wonderfully and it differs from any other version because of several reasons - The cheese and cheese sauce I made for these Nachos is a Japanese inspired blend infused with various Japanese spices including Ginger, the tomato sauce is a Japanese sauce over it, and the beans are not normal beans but rather Anko (Sweet Red Bean Paste) - It all came together looking rather nice I think.

The sides of this dish were simple; sweet peas and an Anpan (Sweet Roll) - All together I'm really proud of this dish and James really really enjoyed it, wolfed it down, and agreed that it was a special treat. Nice, huh?