Gundam AGE is easily the most contentious Gundam show I've had a chance to review. There's so much material I could cover that I'm going to review each generation individually, so I can provide a look at the good and bad parts of each one.
AGE G1 starts out actually pretty good. The first four episodes are well-paced, dramatic and decently animated. It had me hopeful for the rest of the show, and made me think that all the bad things I'd heard about it were exaggerations by people dedicated to hating the art style.
Then the Fardain Arc started, and it was as if the writers had suddenly decided to purposefully eradicate every last shred of goodwill I could possibly have had for the show. The Fardain colony and everything associated with it is absolute cancer. It features insanely annoying characters, a plot that could only be called 'moronic' by the most generous of individuals, and the animation quality drops to below SEED levels. I cheered whenever a character introduced in this arc died, and screamed with rage whenever somebody was saved from the consequences of their own immense stupidity. Watching this arc is like being beaten with a hosepipe made of pure fail.
The main issue with AGE I’ve had so far is the obvious lack of budget. Its sound effects are almost entirely reused from SEED, or slightly modified stock sound effects. The X-Rounder ‘Newtype flash’ sound is a clip that has been around at least since the 90’s, and the UE beam vulcans use the Halo plasma pistol sound. The animation is also schizophrenic; the first and last four episodes feature fairly decent animation, but the Fardain arc is peppered with awful moments.
Another problem is the antagonists. The UE are absolute idiots. They consistently fail to threaten the main characters even after being given multiple chances to destroy or disable the AGE-1 at no risk to themselves. Desil (aka ‘little fuckwit’) even calls off an attack that would have destroyed the Titus simply because he’s bored. Of all the Gundam villains, the UE are the only ones that seem like they’re better at defeating themselves than the enemy. Fucking hell.
Minor problems include Flit constantly treating UE weapons as dangerous even while the AGE is immune to most of them, the incredibly boring designs of the Federation MS, and the ridiculously insulting way the Yurin plotline is resolved. You know your writers don’t give a fuck when a romance arc is reduced to a still-image montage. Sending out Fardain mobile suits against the UE while still armed with machine guns is another major sin in my book, for reasons that could take an entire extra review to explain.
To wrap things up, I just want to note that AGE G1 does have a few genuinely good bits. They’re just shrouded in idiocy after idiocy. It’s tragic, really. This show had potential, but then it was gleefully squandered.
Generation 1: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
Gundam AGE is easily the most contentious Gundam show I've had a chance to review. There's so much material I could cover that I'm going to review each generation individually, so I can provide a look at the good and bad parts of each one.
AGE G1 starts out actually pretty good. The first four episodes are well-paced, dramatic and decently animated. It had me hopeful for the rest of the show, and made me think that all the bad things I'd heard about it were exaggerations by people dedicated to hating the art style.
Then the Fardain Arc started, and it was as if the writers had suddenly decided to purposefully eradicate every last shred of goodwill I could possibly have had for the show. The Fardain colony and everything associated with it is absolute cancer. It features insanely annoying characters, a plot that could only be called 'moronic' by the most generous of individuals, and the animation quality drops to below SEED levels. I cheered whenever a character introduced in this arc died, and screamed with rage whenever somebody was saved from the consequences of their own immense stupidity. Watching this arc is like being beaten with a hosepipe made of pure fail.
The main issue with AGE I’ve had so far is the obvious lack of budget. Its sound effects are almost entirely reused from SEED, or slightly modified stock sound effects. The X-Rounder ‘Newtype flash’ sound is a clip that has been around at least since the 90’s, and the UE beam vulcans use the Halo plasma pistol sound. The animation is also schizophrenic; the first and last four episodes feature fairly decent animation, but the Fardain arc is peppered with awful moments.
Another problem is the antagonists. The UE are absolute idiots. They consistently fail to threaten the main characters even after being given multiple chances to destroy or disable the AGE-1 at no risk to themselves. Desil (aka ‘little fuckwit’) even calls off an attack that would have destroyed the Titus simply because he’s bored. Of all the Gundam villains, the UE are the only ones that seem like they’re better at defeating themselves than the enemy. Fucking hell.
Minor problems include Flit constantly treating UE weapons as dangerous even while the AGE is immune to most of them, the incredibly boring designs of the Federation MS, and the ridiculously insulting way the Yurin plotline is resolved. You know your writers don’t give a fuck when a romance arc is reduced to a still-image montage. Sending out Fardain mobile suits against the UE while still armed with machine guns is another major sin in my book, for reasons that could take an entire extra review to explain.
To wrap things up, I just want to note that AGE G1 does have a few genuinely good bits. They’re just shrouded in idiocy after idiocy. It’s tragic, really. This show had potential, but then it was gleefully squandered.