Buki yo Saraba "A Farewell to Arms"
This one is worth the ending, and out of all the pieces in this Otomo anthology, it's the Otomost. Keep your eyes peeled for fiddly things, things falling apart, and automatons where every bolt has its own foley effect.
Bingo.
We've got rock and roll, a desert, and an all terrain vehicle. No, it's not a commentary on the Gulf Wars, but it could be. It's just a bunch of guys in the desert. A bunch of guys with suits.
Casual Friday! No ties!
We've got the Chief (blond), Nobu, Jin (with the mustache), Yankee (Junkie? The driver), and Maru (in glasses). The roomie swears that Maru has an Osaka dialect. That's right; make the stereotypical intellectual the hick.
Don't stand there.
While they're tootling around in the desert, we get some flashbacks of them scavenging (salvaging?) various things. These guys get in their power suits and rummage around in the ruins, looking for guns or ammo or whatever. They pull the doors off containers looking for stuff.
No idea where they get gas for the vehicle or their snacky-treats, but there it stands.
They also have a drone.
Mail call!
The kids who watch this now are going to have fond memories about it the way I do for Robot Carnival. I'm kind of embarrassed for them, because this is going to look so dated in twenty years. This is the one they'll all remember and it's the one that will look the hokiest. (Also, I giggled like an idiot for the last ten minutes of this one.)
Anyway, the drone has some interesting footage. They've found something in the city and so it's time to drive over there, get into the “protect suits", and check it out.
Hey, Nobu. No showing off.
This is also where we get to see that the suits have “Peacekeepers" on the badge on the side. The suits are pretty nifty: both armor and power-assist with face-masks that are an intelligel that you can peal off after damage. I can hardly wait for the cos-play.
But the drone saw something in the city! Time to break out the heavy gear and go to town. Literally.
Don't forget the beer.
The boys rush into the city square and set up their kill zone. Maru sends some flying bombs on trip around the sky, Jin ties off some missiles to a railing, and Nobu sets up his sniper's nest. the Chief overlooks all of this and radios back to Yankee.
Because Yankee sees what the drone sees.
And we get to see what a drone sees right before it's blown to kingdom come by a robot. Yes, I know that a robot is actually controlled by an external intelligence and these are automatons, but I'm calling them “'bots" here because that's going to be easier for everyone.
Plus, look at it.
Maru decides to give away his position with a green laser pointer. The 'bot fires on him.
Nobu fires, but misses, so the 'bot fires on his position. Thankfully, Nobu knows that when you are the sniper, you fire, then relocate. This involves a little roof-jumping, but that's easy in a power-assist suit.
Also helps to have computer-assisted targeting.
Maru fires some of the flying bombs at the 'bot, but it's no good. Nobu gets another shot in, but a building crumbles under him during his relocate and the 'bot has him dead to rights.
With no power, it's just dead weight.
Maru runs out to save him, while the Chief watches. It looks like the 'bot is close enough to some smoke bombs; the Chief orders a full discharge to hide Maru and Nobu so they can get away.
The 'bot is just firing at where ever those smoke bombs came from, which is a nice distraction for the others to try to get a hit in. No luck. Nobu's legs aren't working, but he can still fire his gun, so he does. Maru just drags a guy to possible safety.
Finally, the dumb 'bot wanders into the kill-zone that Jin set up earlier. All the little lights turn from green to red and that's it. It shoots a few down, but...
Nice catch.
Bye, 'bot.
With that out of the way, let's go to the subway! There's no way that could be a bad idea.
Actually, this piece is a little long and this is a good place to stop. We'll pick up more tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment