Reading Report: 02 June 2024

天空のエスカフローネ

This week I finished 天空のエスカフローネ (The Vision of Escaflowne) and 本当にあった！世界の〝機動戦士ガンダム〟計画. Pretty big spoilers for Escaflowne, so be warned.
I also started watching the anime adaptation of なるたる.

天空のエスカフローネ

Finished this series. I'll probably watch the movie some time soon. I mostly enjoyed this series. Van, Hitomi, Allen, Folken, and other characters felt well balanced and in service of the climax at the end. I really liked the Zaibach 運命改変装置 moment towards the end. The way they orchestrate the kiss between Hitomi and Allen was so tense in a way no story has ever felt before. There were just so many layers to that moment. Also seeing all of the protagonist's technology fail due to "bad luck" was very satisfying. I also liked the push and pull between Hitomi, Allen, and Van, and Allen's sister deal was... well it was interesting at least (a bit rushed towards the end though).

なるたる

Needed to fit 20 more minutes into the day so I figured I'd start a watch of this. I've read the manga and so far the anime seems to be pretty faithful.

本当にあった！世界の〝機動戦士ガンダム〟計画

Finished this book. The final few chapters covered 4WDs that can jump (Jumping Geep), the value of retrofitting existing technology and how that relates to the Zakutank (a tank with a Zaku torso on its upper half) and various WW2 armoured vehicles that performed various roles with retrofitted stuff. There was more talk about VTOL (垂直離着陸), which felt like the 4th time it came up in the book. This time they actually talked about Ospreys though. Also some talk about 輸送機, and the cost and efficacy of carrying really heavy payloads (like Mobile Suits).
Some talk about Hover Crafts, Personal Jetpacks, Submarines, and Seaplanes, many of which were too expensive and/or inefficient to be worth doing. An interesting note was that Jetpacks in space are kind of bad because the alternative -- a crane or mechanical arm + tethers -- are just so much cheaper and easier to control with fine movement.
It was an okay book, but nothing particularly special. I appreciated learning more about 20th century technology, and to be honest the Gundam material felt pretty thin so maybe it'd be more interesting for someone who doesn't really care about Gundam but does want to get a primer on a broad range of military and space technology.