Seraphim & Cherubim (Day 247)

There are 14 different anime series included in Super Robot Wars J, as well as characters original to Banpresto. I'm on mission 17 and have come across characters from all of the featured series, although no one from Full Metal Panic has yet joined my roster. Still, when Sousuke, Kurz, and Mao popped up in dialogue, it was really cool to see. It makes me realize how much more fun games in this series would be if I was familiar with the anime series the characters came from. According to Wikipedia, these are the anime featured in Super Robot Wars J.

• Blue Comet SPT Layzner

This is an anime from the mid 80s that I've never heard of. For an older anime, the art style is not too bad, but the robots involved are a tad vanilla compared to some of the other over the top options. The titular robot Layzer is pretty solid, but I haven't been using it much at all and it's definitely not going to be in my final roster. Baybull and Buldy are two other robots from this series that I consider support units. They're useful, but I have other units that serve the same purpose. I don't really have much interest in watching this series.

• Brain Powerd

I've never heard of this one either, but it distinguishes itself from other mecha anime with its organic element. The robots are called Antibodies or Brains--I'm not really sure which because the in-game text is somewhat inconsistent about it. I like the art style and I'm planning on using all four of the robots included from this series piloted by Hime, Yuu, Lasse, and Nanga. I think I'd probably like to watch this one because it seems interesting and it's also pretty integral to the plot of the game.

• Dancouga - Super Beast Machine God

This is one of those 80s robot anime where multiple smaller mechs combine to create one giant one. I'm not sure if they can separate in the game itself because I haven't been using it. I'm not as big a fan of the robots from the really old anime for some reason. I'd say it's because they're cheesy but let's be honest--how can giant robots not be cheesy? Maybe it's an acquired taste. Still, I don't have much interest in checking this one out.

• Full Metal Panic

I have seen this one! I liked it a lot and it's really cool to see these familiar characters in the game. Unfortunately I don't have any Arm Slaves on my side just yet, but it was super cool to see Chidori, Sousuke, Kurz, Mao, and Tessa. One of these days I'm going to watch Fumoffu and The Second Raid. 

• Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu

I never watched this although I'm not completely against doing so. Evidently it has almost nothing to do with giant robots, but that's fine, I guess. I do like the characters--but I wonder what Super Robot Wars J could include from this anime. Hmm.

• Mobile Fighter G Gundam

Even though G Gundam was on Toonami a lot, I never really watched it. Even though it's from the 90s it seems like it has a really 80s art style which typically turns me off. I still might give it a shot one day if I really get into the Gundam series.

• Mobile Suit Gundam SEED

I like the art style of this one a lot better than G Gundam--makes sense, since this series is from 2002. Still, I've never watched it before and I think I'd like to. It's 50 episodes long though, so it's quite the investment. I'm using three Gundams from this series: Kira's Strike Gundam, Mu's Skygrasper, and Cagalli's Skygrasper. Evidently the Archangel ship is from this series as well and I didn't know that. I'm using it as well, mostly because you have to.

• Hades Project Zeorymer

Evidently there was only an OVA for this series, meaning it only spanned four episodes. It's pretty old (1988-1990) but the Zeorymer itself looks really awesome. It might be worth checking out since it wouldn't be much of an investment to do so. I'm definitely going to be using Zeorymer, but I just now recruited it into my roster.

• Martian Successor Nadesico

I'm definitely going to try this series. It's only 26 episodes and I'm using just about every robot featured. The Nadesico itself is the primary warship for the first half of the game, with Gundam SEED's Archangel functioning as your secondary ship. I'm using all five Aestivalis pilots--Akito, Hikaru, Izumi, Ryoko, and Akatsuki--as well as the crew of the Nadesico itself. All of the characters seem really fun.

• Mazinger and Mazinkaiser

Apparently there's a huge number of Mazinger anime series dating all the way back to 1972. I'm not all that interested in it, but considering just how old the series is, Mazinger itself is not too bad. Maybe one day, but I'm not using Mazinger in game, at least not on this playthrough. He tends to show up in a lot of these games, so we'll see what happens.

• Robot Romance Trilogy (Chodenji Robo Combattler V and Chodenji Machine Voltes V)

Both of these series are extremely old so I'm not sure how interested I am in watching them, especially considering the fact they both have a lot of episodes. Combattler has a devastating yo-yo attack of all things. I'm comfortable with giant robots being silly, but yo-yos aren't high on my list of cool robot attacks. I'm also not using either of these robots in my roster.

• Tekkaman Blade

Apparently the Radam aliens that are attacking the Earth in Super Robot Wars J come from this series. I don't think it's even technically a series about giant robots. The protagonist is capable of transforming into Tekkaman Blade, a being that resembles a mech but may not actually be one. I'm not terribly interested in this series, but if I get really bored I might try it out eventually. I am actually using Blade because he has powerful long range abilities that no one else really has. 

Out of that list, I'm going to try Brain Powerd, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, Martian Successor Nadesico, and maybe Hades Project Zeorymer. I can't promise I'll finish them but I'm going to watch at least one spisode from each. I should write about my impressions soon.