Gundam Reconguista in G

Just in case people are confused about the "Kuntala" term being thrown around, it refers to the people who were literally raised as cattle close to the collapse of the Universal Century, according to Tomino's notes. So yeah, they were raised to be eaten.

The world is a whole lot better by the time Regonquista rolls around, but the Kuntala's descendants are treated as second-class people as a result.

Yep, I read the same elsewhere. Classic Tomino. You'd think raising humans to be livestock would prove more costly than actually developing other methods of food, but noooo. It's this sort of ridiculousness or implausibility he can't just shake off in his works.

There's also the fact that, well, how WOULD you know someone was Kuntala-descended at first glance?

Classic Tomino indeed. Like everyone was saying their thoughts out loud like it was the most normal thing, where in other series we'd be treated to internal monologues.

edited 4th Oct '14 11:10:08 AM by MyssaRei

The characters and general design actually remins me a lot of Heroman, more than any other Sunrise show.

"No, the Singularity will not happen. Computation is hard." -Happy Ent

I guess you're all too clever for Soylent Green.

The first two episodes have left me intrigued and delighted, which is more than I can say for most TV anime. There's not much of a plot yet, but the setting feels rich and alive. I love those little ostrich robot things that the characters were riding on in episode 2. The religious undertones are intriguing. I don't think Gundam has ever dealt much with religion? On another note, is it me or does it seem like Raraiya is some kind of allusion to Lalah? Eh, probably reading too much into it.

edited 4th Oct '14 3:09:49 PM by reconguista

"I don't think Gundam has ever dealt much with religion?"

Not often, but it does pop up now and again.

There's that wacky Moonlight religion from the Moon-Moon Colony in Gundam ZZ. Marida speaks of Zeon's ideals in a quasi-religious sense, specifically saying that Zeonism "replaced the light of God" for the Spacenoids. Zanscare was pretty close to being a religion, at least to the common folk: they practically worshipped Queen Maria, and she did perform "miracles".

Turn A Gundam had some sort of religion worshipping "The White Doll" going on with the Earth-born folks, but the details are never elaborated on. It also had that somewhat primitive Central American tribe that believed the White Doll was a devil, and those few Moonrace scouts who worshipped the Moon (though everyone in-show treated them like nutcases).

And of course, Gundam 00 had the wars in Azadistan, which should be obvious what they based that idea on. A big part of Setsuna's character (at least early on) was his anti-theism, as he had lost all faith and hope in a benevolent God due to the wars he'd been through.

I'm just hoping this religion of G-Reco stays in the background. Nasty things tend to happen when religion is explored in fiction in today's media, and I'm rather tired of seeing the same old cliches played out over and over again.

edited 4th Oct '14 9:16:03 PM by DarkHunter

DAT DIALOGUE.

Seriously, this show's dialogue writing is a trainwreck.

I don't get why so many people say the dialogue is terrible. It's pretty standard Tominospeak. The only thing that threw me off was the "Earth isn't square" comment, but maybe something was lost in translation.

There's basically two reactions to the show:

Seasoned Gundam fans: "As expected of Tomino"

Everyone else: "Holy fuck, what are these people saying?"

Three reactions, actually- the third of which being "all of the above". For the record, I fall under that category. :P

but HOW?

@Myssa Rei

You're shitting me, the Universal Century could get pretty bleak but that's just ridiculous.

RIP Akira Toriyama, taken from us far too soon.

I kid you not. I think the transcript is still floating around somewhere (and in Japanese), but yeah, Kuntala are literally human cattle.

Since there are two episodes out already, I'll just use the same bullet-point format for my impressions that I've been using for the other shows:

• I don't know what you guys are on about the hand-drawn mechas looking weird. As far as I'm concerned the rise of CG mecha is a travesty.
• The bright and colorful visuals really mesh well with Yoshida's art style. The scratchy '80s-style line work and shading's a pretty neat touch.
• I just finished Victory, so I was taken a bit aback when Belri opened his mouth because he sounds a lot like Uso. His disposition is closer to Judau's though, which is a good sign.
• An alarm bell went off in my head when they showed the daycare on the space elevator. I swear, if Tomino finds a way to shoehorn yet another whiny kid/crying baby onto the good guys' ship...
• Yes, any doubts that this is a Tomino Gundam show should be dispelled as soon as the characters open their mouths during battle. Chiding their opponents appropos of nothing, cringe-worthy fauxosophic statements, even so-ism, it's all there.
• It's kinda odd though to see a Tomino Gundam with mobile suits that don't have names that are complete gobbledegook.
• I do like the designs of the other two Gundams, or I guess G's they're called this time, that are in the ending sequence. I guess we all know who'll be piloting the red one...

I think the general consensus on that is that Aida meant two things: First, that since she and Bellri were fighting in space, you have to watch out for attacks that come from below or above - fighting has a whole third dimension, which Bellri took full advantage of in the situation. And second, she's countering his rather moralizing 'don't be a pirate' thing. He's saying it like she's the bad guy, but the world isn't square, it doesn't have any 'sides' to it. In other words, he shouldn't be saying that like he's in the right - both sides of a conflict usually believe that.

I, for one, hope we get more Tomino-isms. Who knows, with some luck we'll get something on the level of the whole 'souls trapped by gravity' in Zeta.

Unrelated to the current topic, but G-Reco's gonna be just 26 episodes, right?

edited 4th Oct '14 11:51:26 PM by Crinias

2-cour, don't recall if we have an exact episode count

Ah, thanks.

My favorite Tomino-ism was that comment in Turn A about an X still looking like an X if you turn it upside down. (Makes sense in context.)

New episode's out. Felt a bit slow, but I think that might have just been me.

Everything really continues to be super 80's, like the writing for this was in a basement for decades before someone decided to take it out and actually animate it. I like it. It's awkward at several points and not entirely clear, but somehow really fun, as well.

It was... interesting how little anyone cared about the G-Self getting stolen and the main cast kidnapped

I'm not convinced that the main cast cared about what was happening to them either. It's either that or everybody except Aida has the attention span of a goldfish.

That's what I meant. They should have been freaking out and trying to overpower her, but just seemed to be mildly perturbed

Perturbed? Bellri was helping her.

I was under the impression that the captain of the Research Division let them go on purpose, which is why he told them where the G-Self was in the first place. Clearly, he has a hidden agenda - he was about to tell Aida and Bellri what he wanted them to do with the G-Self right before the enemy attack cut him off. I'm betting he put a tracker on it, or something of the like.

And of course, there's the implications that the spacepope has something to do with all this... Tomino really likes to make the viewers clue in certain things on their own instead of outright saying them, but it's not really the sort of thing that can be easily understood the first time around.

Cockpit...Toilet.....

Um...Tomino? Is this a sign or something?

edited 10th Oct '14 12:28:06 AM by Thorn14

It makes practical sense, really. If you're going to be in a very long flight it's either that or pilot suit diapers.