From: Chris Campbell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [gundam] (OT) Letters from Iwo Jima
Date: Fri, 02 Feb 2007 15:02:10 -0600
At 02:49 PM 2/2/2007, Joseph Riggs wrote:
I haven't seen either version of Southern Cross, and I haven't seen the
original Mospeada, but Macross makes it clear that Hikaru is, in fact, a
very good pilot. Maximillian, of course, is even better.
Way I remember it -- from both versions -- is that he was good, but not
exceptional (Max falling into the latter category). He had a history as an
amateur pilot, and was capable enough to move into a command position, but
he wasn't gifted by any stretch of the imagination (unlike Amuro, Kira,
Shinji, Ayato, and so on). He was just competant, or perhaps a little
better.
I'd hardly call Shinji gifted, aside from being able to pilot Eva in the
first place. Asuka's raw skill was far better; even if her judgement was
often lacking. Shinji simply didn't have any real talent for fighting or
strategy.
Hard to judge Ayato on skill; he's the only one we see in the Rahxephon, and
thus the only one able to harm the Dolems for most of the series. We're
getting into Useless What-If Fight territory now, but I'd wager Hikaru in
the Rahxephon would show far more talent.
Kira OTOH, even more than Amuro, is practically an Ubermensh by the end of
SEED (haven't seen all of Destiny yet, but IIRC from reviews the only time
he loses a fight is when Shinn takes advantage of his reluctance to kill).
I'm not sure there's even a direction for Kira to go as a character; he's
TOO competent in his field to evolve further and too level-headed by now to
mature further. There's no room for character development.
While Hikaru's not in Amuro/Kira territory, I'd expect he's in the top 5 or
so on the Macross, probably second only to Maximilian, Fokker (while he was
alive), and Millia. Upper end of real-robot talent without going into
superhuman status.
Here's a character I'd like to see evaluated by the list, at least as far as
talent goes: Chirico Cuvie from VOTOMS. Seems like VOTOMS sticks very
closely to real-world talent levels (or at least as close as you get in
anime), and even at the end of the series with Chirico at the height of his
Perfect Soldier talent, plenty of Chirico's foes manage to score hits on
him. Same goes for shows like Gasaraki and Blue Gender.
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