Category: Gundam

AGE of Despair

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There have been a lot of Gundam announcements of late, but it seems like no matter what the internet lights up with as many negative nancys as can be mustered. Perhaps the classic case of people not actually knowing what they want? If they want to do something new, if they want to broaden the audience, if they want to remake the classic, or if they want to add to the continuity, it seems nothing will satisfy the established fanbase.

It was a perfect storm of announcements recently. On June 13 Bandai announced that the newest Gundam series would be Mobile Suit Gundam AGE. Almost immediately after the announcement there was an overwhelmingly negative outcry from the Gundam fan community. The show was instantly panned for being immature and nothing more than a toy and game tie in for children. It was clearly too far from the franchise’s legacy. Then on the 22nd they announced that they were also adapting the Gundam: The Origin manga as well. This lead to an equal but opposite outcry from the fan base that they were just rehashing the original series and that Gundam had nothing new left in it. I noticed quite a few outsiders on Twitter questioning what did the Gundam fanbase want as it seemed that absolutely nothing made them happy. As someone who considers himself part of the Gundam fandom it is still puzzling to me. It almost seems that no one hates Gundam more than Gundam fans. What do you have to do to make them happy? Is there anything you can give them that does not cause a hissy fit?

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After War Gundam X: A World Without Char

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Warning! I pretty much spoil the biggest twist you can in Gundam X. You have been warned.

hisuiconAll the way back in my 2009 review of Gundam X I promised to explain my theories on the show with spoilers and then promptly forgot to ever do such a thing.  In the article I theorized that Gundam X was partially a critique of the certain aspects of the Universal Century of Gundam but then stated that any detailed analysis would actually be a biggest spoiler for the series possible. Since the whole purpose of the Ballads of the Earth and the Moon articles was to look at the two somewhat unappreciated Gundam series I felt like spoilers would have gone against the spirit of getting people to check out the series with an unprejudiced attitude. But I am finally going to unleash my little theory for everyone who has seen the show.

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Ongoing Investigations: Case #119

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The last episode Gundam Unicorn left us with not so much a cliff hanger as a short pause before the crescendo that is the battle that opens up The Ghost of Laplace. While we get some conversation and character moments this episode is mostly a series of battles. Thankfully these battles are story relevant as opposed to lovely but time-wasting mecha porn filler. The battles are as engaging as they have been in the past although we don’t get much action out of Full Frontal. He mainly seems to be doing the Char the Manipulator not Char the Action Rival shtick this episode. We learn quite a bit about Marida Cruz and how she ties into previous Gundam material. We also get some mandatory Newtype nudity and trippyness as is a UC Gundam tradition. I did realize at the end of the episode that my Snarky Reductionist Theater title for the show would be Mobile Suit Gundam: National Treasure. It seems the main plot shall be Banagher Links pretending to be a calm version of Nicolas Cage as he goes around the historical sites of the Gundam universe solving puzzles that will unlock Laplace’s Box as he is chased by agents of various secret societies.  The end of this episode will seem VERY familiar to anyone who has seen a good deal of Universal Century Gundam but it continues the tradition of getting the audience excited for the next episode of Unicorn which is important in an OVA series like this.

I watched the short animation Out of Sight from Taiwan by recommendation from Twitter. It features a little girl whose bag is stolen, her dog then chases down the thief leaving the girl on her own searching the city for him. This is a brilliant piece of work incorporating all five senses in order bring the world to life. The design is stand-out while the little girl wanders the city as it comes in and out of focus. Beautiful, sweet, excellent.
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