Gundam AGE General Discussion Thread

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by brightman

I think he means the overall DVD ranking? (its down in the 1,000's right now)

Gundam UC is ranked 12 overall, though that's an unfair comparison since its coming out in a few weeks.

Eh...oh well, since when do kids shell out for Blu-Rays much anyway right? My only real concern is if they decide to cancel it and the unbearable levels of trolling that would result from such a thing since again we all know there's that element out there that is probably creaming themselves this very second at the prospect of a Gundam show doing poorly. I kind of want to see the series succeed if for no other reason than as a fuck you to the stupid angry fanboys, but if that can't happen I'll at least settle for it being allowed to finish.

[SonicSP]

Pardon my ignorance, but I've been puzzled about hearing this in some of the discussions..........are they actually selling DVDs/BR of AGE? Because the show is only about one month now and I always assumed they released disks much later or TV Series shows.

[brightman]

Originally Posted by SonicSP

Pardon my ignorance, but I've been puzzled about hearing this in some of the discussions..........are they actually selling DVDs/BR of AGE? Because the show is only about one month now and I always assumed they released disks much later or TV Series shows.

Preorders are available and those are the numbers we were referring to - first volume will be released in Feb.

[SonicSP]

Ah I see, that makes sense.

[casval cehack]

I don't think they would drop it (shorten maybe), considering the investment of Level 5 and Bandai in this, but if the low ratings continue on for the next 3 to 4 episodes, the story might be drastically affected in the effort to boost ratings. Would we be seeing gundam summonings or tournaments, typical of target viewership shows?

[GundamFan]

Originally Posted by casval cehack

I don't think they would drop it (shorten maybe), considering the investment of Level 5 and Bandai in this, but if the low ratings continue on for the next 3 to 4 episodes, the story might be drastically affected in the effort to boost ratings. Would we be seeing gundam summonings or tournaments, typical of target viewership shows?

I don't think we will be seeing them drop the series. I think they might shorten the length and change it from a story that covers 3 generations to one that covers 2 if the ratings are too low redo the ending and give Age-2 suped up form for a final show down and use the MS and modified versions of the characters intend for the 3rd part in a manga.

[kaito-kid]

This show has not been able to excite me from the very beginning, but I d hope it improves and the ratings pick up. If this show flops then it will be a big blow to Gundam.. We will have to wait 3-4 more years for the next one.

[brightman]

Originally Posted by kaito-kid

We will have to wait 3-4 more years for the next one.

Origins and (maybe) G-Reco will all probably come before then, no?

The thing is, kids will still watch those shows if they were made for a shounen or teenage audience like they did with Seed or Wing. Bandai misjudged how much the character designs would turn-off older fans, and they didn't seem to realize what it takes to attract kids either (hint: not just character designs)

[Westlo]

Even if AGE flops it's not like the brand is damaged or anything. You have Unicorn selling over 150,000 copies per Volume, the SEED HD Boxsets could easily go over 20k each; and we already have another Gundam project lined up with the adaption of the Gundam First manga.

All AGE will do is make sure Hino doesn't get his hands on the franchise again to promote a 3DS/VITA Gundam Game for him. Sunrise do the right thing and give the next Gundam TV series to Goro Taniguchi, if he's still pissed @ you for what you did with Geass than give him another Scryed before hand.

If there's any director in Sunrise's ranks that deserves a Gundam TV series it's Goro Taniguchi hands down. Infinite Ryvuis, Scryed, Planetes, Code Geass, R2.. his record speaks for itself yet they bring in tossers like Hino and give him more freedom than Goro ever had.

Originally Posted by brightman

I think he means the overall DVD ranking? (its down in the 1,000's right now)

Gundam UC is ranked 12 overall, though that's an unfair comparison since its coming out in a few weeks.

Yes he means overall ranking which was 2000 last I looked and now 1400. Overall ranking is what you have to go by really... and I remember when I found out Blood-C was ranked 700 (to that point I didn't even know it was solicited) and was just smh going "Man this is going to flop so fucking bad...".

Unicorn has always ranked highly on Amazon, even the first volume and well before release date.

In terms of the typical otaku crowd the show is actually doing pretty well rating-wise. Nowhere near the last few Gundam shows, but better than many otaku-oriented shows out there.

The older otaku crowd may be watching it but one things for sure going by Amazon they definitely aren't buying it.

And you forget that 99% of otaku-oriented shows air around 1am-3am, so saying AGE has better rankings with that crowd while true, doesn't exactly tell the full story...

Its just that the show isn't hitting it off with kids AT ALL like you said, and that's a really big problem, because Sunrise was counting on that crowd to not only boost the show's popularity but the franchise as a whole. Instead they seemed to have failed with creating any sense of a new audience, and to top it off alienated many traditional Gundam fans as well.

Yes it's quite the disaster in that regard for Sunrise/Bandai. It's kinda similar to the gambit that Capcom are taking with next years Street Fighter X Tekken, they're going to alienate a lot of hardcore fans but if the game sells through the roof than it won't matter. Capcom are thinking we have the hardcore already with SSFIVAE2k12 and UMVC3, we want SFxTK to be our money maker and bring in new fans to the genre. And if these new wave of fans buy into it than by sheer weight of numbers that top players will than start playing it as well, since they play where the competition is at. (As shown by most MVC2 pros saying MVC3 is crap while still playing it)

You can see Bandai/Sunrise thinking the same with UC/SEED HD/First Gundam to appeal to the typical userbase whereas AGE was to bring in the new fans. Though if AGE does flop one has to wonder the direction of the next Gundam TV series will go in....

[brightman]

Originally Posted by Westlo

The older otaku crowd may be watching it but one things for sure going by Amazon they definitely aren't buying it.

Gundam DVDs are traditionally more popular with the female crowd anyway, so I'm not surprised.

But its clear that some Gundam fans are watching it, and they are about the only ones who are so far. They probably don't deem it worthy for spending hundreds of dollars on merchandising though.

And you forget that 99% of otaku-oriented shows air around 1am-3am, so saying AGE has better rankings with that crowd while true, doesn't exactly tell the full story...

I didn't forget. That last 1% don't get ratings that are that good either. Otakus simply aren't that big of a crowd to begin with.

Yes it's quite the disaster in that regard for Sunrise/Bandai. It's kinda similar to the gambit that Capcom are taking with next years Street Fighter X Tekken, they're going to alienate a lot of hardcore fans but if the game sells through the roof than it won't matter. Capcom are thinking we have the hardcore already with SSFIVAE2k12 and UMVC3, we want SFxTK to be our money maker and bring in new fans to the genre. And if these new wave of fans buy into it than by sheer weight of numbers that top players will than start playing it as well, since they play where the competition is at. (As shown by most MVC2 pros saying MVC3 is crap while still playing it)

You can see Bandai/Sunrise thinking the same with UC/SEED HD/First Gundam to appeal to the typical userbase whereas AGE was to bring in the new fans. Though if AGE does flop one has to wonder the direction of the next Gundam TV series will go in....

Same as it's always gone in - they are going to try to appeal to new fans. The main problem is that its two series in a roll that they failed to do so... Gundam 00 was meant to attract teens and it failed - ratings for people under 20 were a huge dropoff from Seed/Seed Destiny, and it was only popular with the young adult male crowd (the same as AGE, except more so). Gunpla sales have been dropping the last few years and the average age of Gundam fans get older and older. As I said, they were right to try to appeal to younger fans. The way they went about doing so seemed to have provided the opposite results from what they wanted however.

So will they try again and go for the under-12 crowd? Or go the way of Seed and go for teenagers? Either way they will be doing it again, and hope that they can get their (in Musashi Ikeda's words) Zeta/Wing/Seed of the decade.

[Westlo]

Originally Posted by brightman

So will they try again and go for the under-12 crowd? Or go the way of Seed and go for teenagers? Either way they will be doing it again, and hope that they can get their (in Musashi Ikeda's words) Zeta/Wing/Seed of the decade.

Yeah that's the direction I was wondering they would take, try for the under-12 crowd or go for teenagers. Heaven forbid what happens if the SEED Boxsets sell like crazy...? Would a third season of SEED even be a chance if that happened and AGE flopped? I know that talentless hack of writer is sick but couldn't they just give the franchise to someone else.. after Destiny's production mishaps she doesn't deserve to work on another series anyway...

[brightman]

I doubt it would be anything related to Seed. It doesn't seem like Sunrise is interested in doing things already done before. They want to make a hit show on the level of Seed and its going to take something new and different to create a splash with today's audiences.

That's probably why they made AGE the way it was, and collaborated with Level 5 - if they could even duplicate half the ratings success of other Level 5 adaptations (like Inazuma Eleven GO) then it would have meant plenty of new fans for the franchise.

[Nvis]

How are they going to get the romance portion of this done? They're still kids!

Emily technically has a "crush"(in kid terms) on Flit.

[Rising Dragon]

They're teenagers. They'll do the romance like they do in every other Gundam.

[Westlo]

Originally Posted by brightman

That's probably why they made AGE the way it was, and collaborated with Level 5 - if they could even duplicate half the ratings success of other Level 5 adaptations (like Inazuma Eleven GO) then it would have meant plenty of new fans for the franchise.

Inazuma's ratings don't seem that flash hot to me but than again I'm probably comparing it to back in the day when stuff like Sunrise's Kekkaishi got canned because it was only pulling 7-10% ratings....

Anyway anyone know the benefits of Inazuma's anime aside from boosting the sales of the DS games? Does it move merchandise? Does it move a manga agaption? Do the DVDs for the show itself sell?

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by Westlo

Inazuma's ratings don't seem that flash hot to me but than again I'm probably comparing it to back in the day when stuff like Sunrise's Kekkaishi got canned because it was only pulling 7-10% ratings....

Anyway anyone know the benefits of Inazuma's anime aside from boosting the sales of the DS games? Does it move merchandise? Does it move a manga agaption? Do the DVDs for the show itself sell?

It's probably just a show that kids watch for entertainment and cause they like soccer since again not everybody has sales as their central focus when watching and consuming anime.

[Westlo]

Originally Posted by Kaioshin Sama

It's probably just a show that kids watch for entertainment and cause they like soccer since again not everybody has sales as their central focus when watching and consuming anime.

Yes Kaioshin, that's nice and all but Inazuma like a light novel or manga adaption is purely a trojan horse to get kids to buy something. In this case instead of a light novel or a manga it's a video game series for the Nintendo DS. We're speaking strictly on business terms in this thread now, notice the difference and stop trying to overlay different elements. It's like you go into a thread on Neogaf which is trying to analyze why something didn't sell and you continually post "Who cares if it didn't sell, it's a good game!" which is missing the point entirely.

I really don't think Bandai cared if AGE didn't sell as good as 00 let alone SEED, all you have to do is look @ other children shows like Naruto, Bleach, Yugioh etc and see that they sell like crap on BD/DVD. The problem here is as Brightman said, the kids aren't watching it. Considering it's a pretty typical Level 5 show with a Gundam theme I wonder why... if anything it should be doing as good...

And since you want to take a shot at me (for the second time, better aimed than your first one though!) as being someone only interested in sales (Yet how can Baccano! be my hands down fav anime of the last 9 years if so!)

Originally Posted by Kaioshin Sama

Am I the only one that's seeing it in the low 200's? I mean you're talking to someone who couldn't possibly give less of a damn about sales if he tried, but that's what I'm seeing.

You gave a damn enough to make fun of Nichijou on ANN and MAL when it flopped.... what's that word again.. starts with H....

[kaito-kid]

Originally Posted by brightman

Origins and (maybe) G-Reco will all probably come before then, no?

those are more like snacks.. yeah they will keep me going. (Also I haven't written AGE off yet) But what I'm talking about the next main dish. If AGE gets canceled or shortened to 25 episodes or something, I'll have to wait longer for the next one.

Originally Posted by brightman

Bandai misjudged how much the character designs would turn-off older fans, and they didn't seem to realize what it takes to attract kids either (hint: not just character designs)

The older Gundm fans are not a big problem.. I think the problem lies with the fact that they don't seem to understand their audience. From what i have seen so far I don't understand what's so "kiddy" about this show.. In fact if I was a kid, I probably wouldn't watch this show because there is too much talking, and not enough action and explosions.. inazuma eleven would be 100x better in my eyes.

Talking about Level 5.. What is it about this show that made Bandai think, we can't make this without Level 5..? What exactly makes them so important to this project? Why dose Sunrise a studio with so much talent and so many prolific shows under their belt need Level 5 to write the show?

So will they try again and go for the under-12 crowd? Or go the way of Seed and go for teenagers? Either way they will be doing it again, and hope that they can get their (in Musashi Ikeda's words) Zeta/Wing/Seed of the decade.

Interesting that he put Wing in the category as Seed and Zata.. I always thought Seed and Zeta were well above the rest of the Gundam shows when it came to financial success. I know that Wing was successful in the west, but I thought it tanked in Japan and was one of the reasons why Seed was so radically different..

[Westlo]

I thought Wing did well in Japan; just that it got completely overshadowed by Evangelion which is nothing to be ashamed of... since well any other anime would've.... Buy yeah it's definitely not in the Zeta and SEED class AFAIK... I mean is Wing even better than 00 strictly in Japan? Model kits sold off the chart? Or do they look back @ Wing fondly because it broke them out of funk?

[SonicSP]

Originally Posted by kaito-kid

The older Gundm fans are not a big problem.. I think the problem lies with the fact that they don't seem to understand their audience. From what i have seen so far I don't understand what's so "kiddy" about this show.. In fact if I was a kid, I probably wouldn't watch this show because there is too much talking, and not enough action and explosions.. inazuma eleven would be 100x better in my eyes.

I have to agree with this, I guess they're trying to please everyone but still bring in a lot of the younger audience into it. I don't think its working at the moment as far, because it doesn't seem to be that a lot of the older audiences are too thrilled yet while their main investment of trying to pull in the younger audiences is not working out either.