Heavy Metal L-Gaim

 Nailed down yet another Tomino's series and this one had more potential actually compared to other of his works. While this series still end up to be a wasted potential most likely due to Tomino's mishandling, L-Gaim managed to do one important thing; showcasing Mamoru Nagano's talent which in turn let him to create his Magnum Opus; Five Star Stories.

 Out of mecha series that i have watched, L-Gaim can be considered to be the closest adaptation for Star Wars series since the series share many of the latter's tropes. The main premise of L-Gaim is your typical last surviving Royalty raising armies to overthrow the oppressive empire. For a mecha series of its time, L-Gaim got quite some attitude among its peers and the Sci-fi setting it tried to offer definitely pave the path to future mecha series. The main weakness of this series is no doubt pacing because the 54 episodes of L-Gaim feels like a drag as well as the wacky slapstick antics of the characters which makes it hard to take the series seriously sometimes. L-Gaim did have some promising Love Triangle with Leccee being one of the best Mecha Heroine in early 80s, but unfortunately the romance are not even resolved properly by the end of the series.

 The main reason i decided to watch L-Gaim definitely has to do with Five Star Stories because i would love to how Mamoru Nagano's early works influence his masterpiece and no doubt my attempt to sit through 54 Episodes are fruitful. I am quite sure Mamoru Nagano are disappointed how Tomino treated his L-Gaim Materials and he decided to reuse them on FSS and bring it to another level. L-Gaim's storyline served as the base of the Late FSS story arcs where Colus XXVI served as the main character. You will see plenty of L-Gaim's character design reused in Mamoru's Nagano FSS with Daba Myroad is basically Colus XXVI expies while Poseidal served as Amaterasu's base model. Since i read FSS way before L-Gaim, it feels abit weird that Amaterasu base model served as Antagonist before serving as the Protagonist in Nagano's main work. Nevertheless watching L-Gaim made me appreciate Five Star Stories even more because this Magnum Opus proves Mamoru's Nagano talent if his creativity is allowed to run free. I think at some point i will talk about FSS manga again since i am rereading through this masterpiece again recently.