It's a Gundam thread!

My blu-ray for the first half of G Gundam came in, so I can finally watch it dubbed as God Burning intended.

My thoughts:

• Ep 1:
  • Micholo is a really fun villain. I'm looking forward to his return in volume 2.
  • The idea of the rich escaping global warming by going to space was oddly precient, given that Elon Musk is actually advocating for this.
  • The lack of a Shining Finger monolgoue through me off, but Domon's shout of "You may have those silver feet, but I have these golden fingers!" made up for it.
• Ep 2:
  • So the trailer for this episode begins with "Everybody, it's the moment you've been waiting for! Chibodee Crockett is here to defend the American Dream!" Truly, the best character in all of anime.
  • I forgot that Rain is an Action Girl early on as well.
  • In hindsight, it's pretty amazing that Cartoon Network broadcast this episode in the US given that Domon trashes a good portion of NYC and the broadcast was only a few years after 9/11.
• Ep 3:
  • Finally, the Shining Finger monologue.
  • They don't even try to hide the Sai Saici twist.
  • Sai Saici himself is both incredibly annoying, but very awesome since he's the member of the future Shuffle Alliance who is closest to being a match for Domon.
• Ep 4:
  • I like George a lot more than I remember. I recalled him being stuffy and obsessed with honor, but memory is faulty and, while he is very honorable, he's also fairly down-to-earth.
  • Domon is a huge asshole in these early episodes and I kind of love it.
  • Why did Domon feel the need to actually tie Marie Louise up to fake kidnap her? It only really served to provide an impetus for Domon to call the match off when he accidentally endangered her.

Look if you agree to a hostage situation, you either go all out and actually tie someone up otherwise what are you doing?

Also yeah early Domon is a asshole, it really helps to establish how much different the man he becomes is.

Pretty much. As (awesomely) goofy as this show, it surprisingly has some of the best character development in all of Gundam. At the very least it's better than Wing.

So taking a gander at Characters.Mobile Suit Gundam Narrative, I'm really happy with Monaghan Bakharov who apparently is the guy who made Full Frontal, because that's one of the things that really did need an explanation. It was incredibly weird that for all of Unicorn it just seemed like Full Frontal sprang up fully formed from vague "science." As the leader of the faction, no less. Hope that he doesn't wind up creating more questions than he answers, though.

Edited by Larkmarn on Dec 3rd 2018 at 10:22:44 AM

That probably explains how the Sleeves were active for as long as they were, come to think of it.

That was explained back in the Unicorn novels. Same with who Full Frontal really is.

I do like how one of them calls out everyone on the whole Newtype theory and points out it can't be evolution as it's only been 100 years and there's little proper evidence.

IIRC Gundam X flat out calls bullcrap on Newtypes as the next stage of anything, but it’s nice to have a UC series do it.

Speaking of UC Gundam. It's Zeta Time.

Ep-20

• "The Heated Escape" sounds hot
• Amuro wants to talk to Kamile, hopefully it doesn't involve slapping
• Oh Hai Bel
• "Coffee"
• Titans supplies running low.
• "How ambiguous".
• Four needs her memories
• He's not wrong about needing to close the Newtype lab if failure continues.
• Argama descending to satellite orbit.
• The Psyco Gundam is so impractical.
• Four is going crazy
• Amuro is doing well so far
• Wow that's an entirely reasonable move, telling everyone to get out before the suicide run.
• Captain Wooder, commanding loyalty and being a decent Titan somewhat, that's a pretty low bar. His name is still bad.
• Suicide Charge Amuro, that's what it's doing.
• Kamile, hitting on Four via tragic backstory, how anime
• KAMILE IS A MAN'S NAME AND I AM A MAN
• Stop hitting on crazy Kamile.
• That was fucking ridiculous.
• Shuttle Booster is a smart choice.
• Amuro survived, of course he did.

Ep-21

• "A Sign of Zeta" 21 Episodes in and we finally see the goddamn thing
• Crazy Titans
• Hologram projectors!
• Jarocko, that's how you pronounce it.
• I like that they even did the grooves of the fingerprint
• Shoulda turned the comms off jackass.
• JUDGE THE MOON!
• Throwing punches, don't encourage it Emma!
• BRIGHT SLAP THEM ALL! NO PRISONERS!!!
• Emma stop reading him like a book, it's all anger and sand "I AM A MAN!"
• Paptimus is plotting something
• Animation improved
• Stop hitting on her! Even Jerid sees through it! JERID!
• FUCKING SOULS WEIGHED DOWN BY GRAVITY! PAP IS PREACHING IT! Seriously why was this ever a thing??
• You're fooling no one Pap.
• Kamile isn't taking their shit.
• TO WAR!
• Oh god the Gundam Gender Politics
• So Mobile Suits replaced fighters... but Mobile Armor Waveriders are suped up fighters that can outpace regular mobile suits...
• Round and round Kamile goes, where he goes, suffocation follows.
• Oh hey Fa, good to see you again, that's one badass transport.
• I like the lack of detail in the helmets when not speaking face to face.
• Matured Kamile! Even Fa acknowledges this!
• Paptimus is a total creep and I want him dead.
• Fa has joined the team!
• JUST HUG IT OUT!

Edited by EchoingSilence on Dec 4th 2018 at 6:05:59 AM

Okay so NT opened at 4th in the box office.

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2018-12-03/gundam-nt-anime-debuts-at-no.4-at-japanese-box-office/.140329

Apparently it good, like it had the "highest per-screen average over the weekend" so I guess as long as it got good legs its a success.

Its also getting released in theaters worldwide right? I wonder how its gonna do then.

You'd be surprise by how much changes happen to a species within less than a hundred years. Of course that leading to Psychic Powers is pretty silly. There's more likely to be biological changes first.

Why do I get the feeling from the first 20 minutes of the film, Rita is most likely wired directly into the Phenex's controls? And I don't mean Darryl Lorenz-style, I mean her brain is directly connected to the damn Mobile Suit. There were a brief flash of a scalpel hovering over incision markings, right?

Also, I still wonder what Banagher and Riddhe are doing in the background, while Mineva/Audrey is negotiating with the Zeon Republic.

Because if she's not a Spaceship Girl, they're actively trying to make you think she is. The only question is whether she's surgically grafted to the machine a la Graze Ein, or a Ghost in the Machine and her soul is absorbed into the psychoframe. I presume the latter.

I know it's inevitable since the movie is 100% about Newtype hax, but I find it rather... cheap that the Phenex seems to literally throw Newtype hax as projectiles. Ironically, I think I like the implication that the Phenex isn't even operating mechanically. It seems like just a puppet being controlled via Newtype power.

Edited by Larkmarn on Dec 4th 2018 at 11:09:33 AM

What I don't get is how the heck the Phenex can do that in Unicorn Mode. The original Unicorn had to tank 2/3 of a full Colony Laser blast and then went into a weird corrupted-crystal-form alongside being in Awakened Destroy Mode. Now, granted, Banagher was piloting the Unicorn for what I presume is a couple weeks at most, so maybe Rita's been inside the Phenex for two years non-stop?

Big movie spoilers from someone else who's watched it: Rita is the Phenex. It's a Blue Destiny situation, an empty suit with her mind uploaded into it. There's nothing left of her but a vestigial Wetware CPU.

Edited by Iaculus on Dec 5th 2018 at 10:18:10 AM

That sucks.

I Knew It!. Not like they weren't heavy-handed with the foreshadowing in the 23-minute preview; like I said earlier, the only question was whether her "soul" was imprinted on the Psychoframe a la Blue Destiny or if her brain were surgically connected to the suit a la Graze Ein. But there was no chance she was in the suit.

Her brain would’ve turned to mush from some of the maneuvers Phenex pulls; and even if it weren’t she’d been rogue for a full two years, there’s no way Phenex has the resources to support a living pilot for that long. Phenex being basically an Eva was the only option to begin with.

I've discovered a little something thanks to the Internet. There are people out there who believe that the Zekes are the true good guys.◊

We like to comment and jape about Zeon sympathizers and all, but I'm fairly certain everyone here who likes Zeon are more interested in Evil Is Cool and all much like how I like the Decepticons, but still not gonna pretend Zeon is morally superior.

Seriously though where did this perception of "good guys are Zeon" even come from?

Oooooh boy, this conversation again...

Trust me I don't want a argument over who is more corrupt, I know that Gundam as a war story serves as black and gray morality and gray and gray. I just want to know where the idea that Zeon are these noble heroes fighting against the oppression of the Federation government when the reality is that they're propaganda driven fascists who's leader was called Literally Hitler by his own father and they committed mass genocide and dropped space colonies on the planet. Like how does anyone miss that end part?

I suppose it's because the series does show the Federation as corrupt and stagnant, and there are people who would want to see such a government overthrown. Add to that that Spacenoids did have some legitimate grievances with the Federation government, I believe mostly over voting rights. (And I think there is some content about some of the original colonists being forced to live in space, but I can't remember how canon that is.) Wars have been started in real life for less.

Basically, they gloss over Zeon's murder of half the human race and say "Well, the Federation started it with their oppressive policies, they had it coming."

And then there might be some fans who actually, non-ironically believe the Zeonist rhetoric of humanity needing to be forced off of Earth by any means necessary in order to "evolve".

They're the "Char did nothing wrong" crowd who actually mean it.

Jesus... wait how do they miss the fact that even Quattro/Char doesn't want anything to do with Zeon in Zeta, or the fact that the AEUG outright say that Zeon is not a noble cause at all?

Humans are legendary for their awe-inspiring capability of dumbassedness.

Basically, Poor Communication Kills on a massive scale.