Gundam AGE

Well, they take themselves seriously. If you think it's poorly written or campy, then I can't really argue with you.

Really if Gundam wanted to be a serious war story first and a giant robot toy commercial second, you'd cut out the Super Prototype units and put everyone in a grunt mecha so it doesn't matter who has the fancy weapons and everyone's in danger, then. And I've yet to come across a Gundam show that could pull that off, even The08th MS Team had units that were clearly superior to others.

at least in AGE, the bad guys seems more like monsters or an AI than an enemy army, and, rather than Minovsky Physics or stuff like that, they explain the tech by blatantly saying that the Gundam is not a military weapon.

edited 10th Oct '11 12:42:55 PM by Clawshrimpy

Why should all units be equal? They aren't in real life.

Not that having superior units has any affect on seriousness. Seriousness≠realism.

edited 10th Oct '11 1:01:10 PM by ElderAtropos

Oh, yes it does. It's hard to take something seriously if there are a few important characters running around in super-powerful tech making everyone else look bad in comparison. Especially if it's to be taken as a war story.

Yes it's true in real life that there are differences in weapons used by different sides in the conflict, but rarely does it give a gross advantage like it does in hi-fi science-fiction like in Gundam. Just because the Germans in WWII had the Panzer and the King Tiger tanks did NOT mean the people driving those tanks were untouchable, nor did it mean they could wipe out an entire force in 10 seconds flat.

If the tech level is not evened out and streamlined so not any one person can contribute more of an effort than another, then everything that happens becomes nonsensical and ridiculous, and all the tension of the war drama dissapates immediately.

At least AGE is just up and saying "It's a Super Robot show." at least makes it more watchable than the rest of the franchise.

No, it really doesn't. Look at Space Runaway Ideon, despite having a godlike mecha against pitiful tripods, it's one of the most effective super robot series ever.

Don't try to argue with him. He caused a Gurren Lagann thread to get closed because of it.

edited 10th Oct '11 1:53:38 PM by Demongodofchaos2

But the robot in that show basically couldn't even be piloted, it's sentient power source pretty much did whatever it pleased at the time, so that comparison makes no sense.

It seemed pretty good at killing enemies, though. But if you insist...

The Five Star Stories. The Knight of Gold has a weapon that can roast planets, but it's extremely serious and manages to avert Kudzu Plot and Wangst.

edited 10th Oct '11 2:12:25 PM by ElderAtropos

What do you mean? Super Robot shows aren't the same as Real Robot shows, and my whole point is that robots that are invincible and powerful like that is a VERY bad thing, especially in things intended to be serious war stories. It effectively makes the "seriousness" not matter because the hero never loses anyway and will solve every problem as they come up.

edited 10th Oct '11 2:17:48 PM by Clawshrimpy

I'm not sure what you were talking about, but if you mean The Five Star Stories...well.

First of all, it is a Real Robot Genre piece. Second of all, it doesn't matter that Amaterasu never loses, because the story isn't about his victories

But this is about AGE, not FSS. Moving on!

I love all the 0079 homages. It's like a little tip of the hat from the director, showing that they're going to do something new with the old formula.

I like the freaking show and I still end up in stupid arguements because I don't like everything else in the franchise and I feel it needs change like this.

Okay, sorry.

Anyways, I'll bring up my old question: why stream only in southeast Asia? Doesn't matter to me, but is there some sort of financial incentive?

Due to the negative backlash from English-speaking fans, most likely. look at the youtube comments on the Preview.

edited 10th Oct '11 2:34:55 PM by Clawshrimpy

So I have to watch it illegally because of the backlash. Ugh...

That seems extremely unlikely to me. It's almost certainly because of legal issues. They're probably holding off until it's actually licensed in the west.

So, how about some actual Gundam AGE conversation? What's everyone think the UE are going to end up being? I can't really say, because the only two options that come to mind ("aliens" and "people pretending to be aliens for some reason") make me sad.

Ok some gunine Gundam AGE disscusion commming right up!

Like a lot of other folks I think that U.E. are going to turn out to be humans:though I'd be pleasantly surprised if they weren't.

I think that during the war torn past of A.G. one of the factions towards the end of war either retreated from settled space or was driven out. They settled in deep space most likely around Jupiter,assuming no FTL. In the following centuries these people developed a completely different culture and technological design aesthetic. Somebody or bodies high up in the U.E government wasn't happy with their deep space civilization. And wanted to get revenge/justice on the Earth Federal Government. They declared war on the EFG,and have deployed advanced scouts to test the military capabilities of the Earth Federal Forces. And strike terror in the hearts of the EFG populace in preparation for a full scale invasion.

edited 10th Oct '11 8:49:47 PM by Fomar

I saw it. I like it so far. Like the mech designs so far. The people are meh, but they're not important.

I dislike the mech designs. Except for the Gafran. It's a no-eyed, one-horned flying dark blue people eater!

The entire "lost splinter-group of humanity" ala Martian Successor Nadesico does seem to be the most likely to me.

Level-5 is making a Gundam AGE RPG.

edited 11th Oct '11 1:52:07 PM by sirnoob

My theory is that the UE are a more extreme Celestial Being. Oragnization no one knows anything about shows up out of no where and starts wrecking shit with Nigh-Invulnerable mecha? I'm guessing that they're doing the Zero Requiem Gambit— setting themselves up as the Big Bads of the world so humanity unites against them.

My second favorite theory is rogue A.I.s.

My third favorite is Space Seanchan

I can't even bring myself to watch this show because the shitstorm (and art style) has me so apprehensive.

Since I usually wait for the dub but made an exception for this (partly because of the art style), I am currently wracking my brain for some clever comments about what a contrast we make.

^^Just watch it and see if you like it. Give it a few episodes to let it win you over.