#genLOCK : @RoosterTeeth's Latest Endeavor
Those of you who've been reading my blog regularly (all five of you) know that one of my favorite show's is RWBY. I found it by accident while I was in college, between the time when the first two Volumes were out and the third was in production, and I've been a fan since.
Well, recently, to fill the void that Volume 6's conclusion left, I decided to see if the newest show the RT team was bring to the world, gen:LOCK, was any good. I actually waited for about four weeks from the release of the first episode to test it out, just so I'd have a little binge-able set of episodes. And, I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Parmenides--one of the not-so-well-known, but nonetheless great Greek philosophers--noted that "Nothing comes from nothing." The modern interpretation of this is that everything that exists must have been inspired, influenced, and created by something that chronologically precedes it.
In the case of gen:LOCK, that something is the wide world of Mecha anime. Anyone familiar with that particular genre of anime/manga will get an idea of what they're in for with this show. Basically, the series tells the story of heroes--always a ragtag group of people--who combat villainous forces with the aid of giant, heavily destructive robots.
Gray Haddock, the creator of this show (and a familiar name to fellow RT fans), cited two perfect examples of Mecha as inspirations: Aldnoah Zero and Gundam. There are however many others in the genre as well, including Neon Genesis Evangelion, Darling in the Franxx, Voltron, Gurren Lagann and, though it isn't an anime, Power Rangers. With so many previous examples proceeding it--some of it fantastic, some of it of meh--how is Rooster Teeth supposed to put their own spin on this well-trodden terrain to make it feel new and original?
The answer is twofold: the characters and the method by which they use their robots.
(Let's start with the latter). Like all those previous examples I listed, the method by which people can use the Mechs in gen:LOCK is unique. In Franxx and Evangelion only certain types of people, with a particular personality, can pilot a mech. In Gurren Lagann, you can only power a mech if you have enough "fighting spirit"; in Power Rangers, it's only if you're a ranger with the mechanism to power a Zord. Well, in gen:LOCK, it's not a matter of fighting spirit or having the right key to the right machine. It's a matter of being compatible with the software.
You have to have a nervous system--one that's still malleable, still regenerative--that will allow you to use one of the mechs. This distinction makes you, as one of the characters says in the second episode, "gen:LOCK compatible." Think James Cameron's Avatar, except instead of big, blue cat people, it's machines.
Even more crucial to a series like this. I would argue, more so than the genre furniture are the characters.
Any variation of science fiction or fantasy is a hard sell to an audience so familiar with genre tropes, as we viewers in the 21st Century are. The best way to engage an audience with a new spin on an old favorite is therefore to get us interested and invested in the characters. Compared to prose, doing so in the visual medium is quite easy. Make them look and act likeable, or at least, interesting, and you're golden. In animation, this is made even easier because you can design the character. All you need then is a good voice to complete the personality.
In this department, the RT team did, as they've done in all the projects of theirs I enjoy, an astonishing job.
They created characters that are intriguing to look at and fascinatingly three dimensional. Nobody is a cut-and-dry goodie-goodie. They're presented as people, with complex pasts and personalities shaped by their experiences. Nonetheless, they take pains to point out that there are good hearts beating in all of them.
The designs aside, the voice cast is also phenomenal.
At the helm, playing the two lead roles are Michael B. Jordon (Killmonger in Black Panther) and Dakota Fanning (who you might recall was the voice of Coraline). Backing them up are actors like Masie Williams (Arya Stark from Game of Thrones), David Tennant (Doctor Who, DuckTales, Harry Potter), and Asia Kate Dillon (Taylor Mason from Billions). There are also a couple of actors I wasn't too not familiar with, but who are fantastic, such as Koichi Yamadera (the original voice of Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Bebop) and Golshifteh Farahani (who had a role in the last Pirates of the Caribbean movie, Dead Men Tell No Tales).
If the name recognition of this voice cast surprises you, it's because gen:LOCK is the first RT project that had ever used actors who are members of SAG, or Screen Actors Guild of America. (How they got that to work, I don't know).
More so, what I love about this cast is its diversity. One of the major ideas behind this show's inception was to have a cast of characters--and a cast of actors by proxy--who were diverse. Jordon's character, Chase, is African American, and Fanning character--who is also Chase's "it's complicated" love interest--is white. (As the child of an interracial relationship, Honduran and German-American, it's always nice to see something like that). Williams and Tenant's character are both British--because why make them work hard?--with Williams' character MacCloud being Scottish, like Tennant's character, Dr. Weller. Dillon's character is a, Valentine (for now) is Ukrainian and gender-fluid. And Yamadera's character is--you guessed it--Japanese, and he never speaks English (all his dialogue is in Japanese), and Farahani's character is Iranian, like the actress herself (but, she does speak English).
It makes sense to have such a multicultural, multinational, multi-gendered cast. It is set in the future, after all. Eventually, we will have to accept that humanity isn't homogenous. And perhaps, it will take a force that's powered by sadistic nanotechnology to eventually get us to recognize that, but who knows?
What I do know is that with even these first few episodes, gen:LOCK is on my list of things we should be watching now. If you like Science Fiction, Big Robots, Diverse Casts, great Animation, and witty dialogue, I am tell you this: you should be watching this show.
In fact, you can go watch the pilot episode now. Check it out. You might enjoy it. Just click the link below:
https://roosterteeth.com/episode/gen-lock-season-1-1
Well, recently, to fill the void that Volume 6's conclusion left, I decided to see if the newest show the RT team was bring to the world, gen:LOCK, was any good. I actually waited for about four weeks from the release of the first episode to test it out, just so I'd have a little binge-able set of episodes. And, I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Parmenides--one of the not-so-well-known, but nonetheless great Greek philosophers--noted that "Nothing comes from nothing." The modern interpretation of this is that everything that exists must have been inspired, influenced, and created by something that chronologically precedes it.
In the case of gen:LOCK, that something is the wide world of Mecha anime. Anyone familiar with that particular genre of anime/manga will get an idea of what they're in for with this show. Basically, the series tells the story of heroes--always a ragtag group of people--who combat villainous forces with the aid of giant, heavily destructive robots.
Gray Haddock, the creator of this show (and a familiar name to fellow RT fans), cited two perfect examples of Mecha as inspirations: Aldnoah Zero and Gundam. There are however many others in the genre as well, including Neon Genesis Evangelion, Darling in the Franxx, Voltron, Gurren Lagann and, though it isn't an anime, Power Rangers. With so many previous examples proceeding it--some of it fantastic, some of it of meh--how is Rooster Teeth supposed to put their own spin on this well-trodden terrain to make it feel new and original?
The answer is twofold: the characters and the method by which they use their robots.
(Let's start with the latter). Like all those previous examples I listed, the method by which people can use the Mechs in gen:LOCK is unique. In Franxx and Evangelion only certain types of people, with a particular personality, can pilot a mech. In Gurren Lagann, you can only power a mech if you have enough "fighting spirit"; in Power Rangers, it's only if you're a ranger with the mechanism to power a Zord. Well, in gen:LOCK, it's not a matter of fighting spirit or having the right key to the right machine. It's a matter of being compatible with the software.
You have to have a nervous system--one that's still malleable, still regenerative--that will allow you to use one of the mechs. This distinction makes you, as one of the characters says in the second episode, "gen:LOCK compatible." Think James Cameron's Avatar, except instead of big, blue cat people, it's machines.
Even more crucial to a series like this. I would argue, more so than the genre furniture are the characters.
Any variation of science fiction or fantasy is a hard sell to an audience so familiar with genre tropes, as we viewers in the 21st Century are. The best way to engage an audience with a new spin on an old favorite is therefore to get us interested and invested in the characters. Compared to prose, doing so in the visual medium is quite easy. Make them look and act likeable, or at least, interesting, and you're golden. In animation, this is made even easier because you can design the character. All you need then is a good voice to complete the personality.
In this department, the RT team did, as they've done in all the projects of theirs I enjoy, an astonishing job.
They created characters that are intriguing to look at and fascinatingly three dimensional. Nobody is a cut-and-dry goodie-goodie. They're presented as people, with complex pasts and personalities shaped by their experiences. Nonetheless, they take pains to point out that there are good hearts beating in all of them.
The designs aside, the voice cast is also phenomenal.
At the helm, playing the two lead roles are Michael B. Jordon (Killmonger in Black Panther) and Dakota Fanning (who you might recall was the voice of Coraline). Backing them up are actors like Masie Williams (Arya Stark from Game of Thrones), David Tennant (Doctor Who, DuckTales, Harry Potter), and Asia Kate Dillon (Taylor Mason from Billions). There are also a couple of actors I wasn't too not familiar with, but who are fantastic, such as Koichi Yamadera (the original voice of Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Bebop) and Golshifteh Farahani (who had a role in the last Pirates of the Caribbean movie, Dead Men Tell No Tales).
If the name recognition of this voice cast surprises you, it's because gen:LOCK is the first RT project that had ever used actors who are members of SAG, or Screen Actors Guild of America. (How they got that to work, I don't know).
More so, what I love about this cast is its diversity. One of the major ideas behind this show's inception was to have a cast of characters--and a cast of actors by proxy--who were diverse. Jordon's character, Chase, is African American, and Fanning character--who is also Chase's "it's complicated" love interest--is white. (As the child of an interracial relationship, Honduran and German-American, it's always nice to see something like that). Williams and Tenant's character are both British--because why make them work hard?--with Williams' character MacCloud being Scottish, like Tennant's character, Dr. Weller. Dillon's character is a, Valentine (for now) is Ukrainian and gender-fluid. And Yamadera's character is--you guessed it--Japanese, and he never speaks English (all his dialogue is in Japanese), and Farahani's character is Iranian, like the actress herself (but, she does speak English).
It makes sense to have such a multicultural, multinational, multi-gendered cast. It is set in the future, after all. Eventually, we will have to accept that humanity isn't homogenous. And perhaps, it will take a force that's powered by sadistic nanotechnology to eventually get us to recognize that, but who knows?
What I do know is that with even these first few episodes, gen:LOCK is on my list of things we should be watching now. If you like Science Fiction, Big Robots, Diverse Casts, great Animation, and witty dialogue, I am tell you this: you should be watching this show.
In fact, you can go watch the pilot episode now. Check it out. You might enjoy it. Just click the link below:
https://roosterteeth.com/episode/gen-lock-season-1-1
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