Turn A Gundam

[TangentZ]

Wow, all of a sudden, we see 2 groups subbing Turn A!

[microlith]

Actually Turn-A was reasonably successful for Sunrise, as it (unlike X) completed its run and was later given a movie compilation. There was also a concert for the show, which features a 10 minute medley of several major tracks from the show. Wonderful CD.

It wasn't an unsuccessful series, but it did throw a lot of people with the western designs for the mecha. Personally I like the twist of the writing from the Sunrise crew and the application of Syd Mead's mecha designs (especially the White Doll) and the art style that gives it a look like it cropped up in some western sci-fi novel.

I'd like it if more mecha designers would make things as stylized and unusual as what we see here.

[brightman]

Originally Posted by TangentZ

Wow, all of a sudden, we see 2 groups subbing Turn A!

Anime-Gundam's releases are pretty old actually. They just started putting them up on BT... But the problem is that they are on a pace of 1 episode per month (and are up to Ep 9)

On the bright side, their release are actual fansubs of the R2 DVD, which means a MUCH higher quality than anything else you'd find out there.

Originally Posted by microlith

Actually Turn-A was reasonably successful for Sunrise, as it (unlike X) completed its run and was later given a movie compilation. There was also a concert for the show, which features a 10 minute medley of several major tracks from the show. Wonderful CD.

It wasn't an unsuccessful series, but it did throw a lot of people with the western designs for the mecha. Personally I like the twist of the writing from the Sunrise crew and the application of Syd Mead's mecha designs (especially the White Doll) and the art style that gives it a look like it cropped up in some western sci-fi novel.

I'd like it if more mecha designers would make things as stylized and unusual as what we see here.

Turn A had a fanbase, that's why they gave it attention (as opposed to Gundam X where a fanbase was in most parts absent). But according to Bandai, Turn A did commercially worse in the merchandising department than everything else related to Gundam. And we know how important merchandising is to Gundam.

There's also the fact that if Gundam X wasn't moved to a 6AM Saturday timeslot, Turn A's rating would be the worst ever for a Gundam series. And its DVD sales barely reached 200,000. So poor merchandising, poor ratings, poor DVD sales = FAILURE.

[Isandore]

First off, a tip of the hat to Hero Legends for subbing Turn a Gundam!

After watching episode 3 last night I have to agree mecha design isn't the best I've seen but the characters and setting more than make up for it. I can't wait to see all 50 episodes

[Kouji Kabuto]

Merchandising is the ultimate goal for these shows anyway. The original Gundam's series was cut short after toy sales went sour. However, the franchise was revived when it was found that Gundam's audience was more of young adults as opposed to kids. And the successes of the Compilation movies prompted them to make Zeta Gundam six years after the original was made...

[brightman]

Originally Posted by Kouji Kabuto

Merchandising is the ultimate goal for these shows anyway. The original Gundam's series was cut short after toy sales went sour. However, the franchise was revived when it was found that Gundam's audience was more of young adults as opposed to kids. And the successes of the Compilation movies prompted them to make Zeta Gundam six years after the original was made...

Don't know about that shift of audience (since just about every kid in Japan was watching Gundam at that time, as opposed to young adults).

But it did get revived because of the movies, and I guess it's also partly because of the fact that Bandai took over MSG's toy production and their model lines caught on with the masses which resulted in tens of millions of them sold.

Anyway, right. Merchandising is the goal, because that's the main moneymaker for Gundam. So a show like Turn A with mechas that did not appeal to the masses was a failure even if it has an excellent story and some excellent characterizations as well.

[kuru]

Originally Posted by brightman

There's also the fact that if Gundam X wasn't moved to a 6AM Saturday timeslot, Turn A's rating would be the worst ever for a Gundam series.

But wasn't it Gundam X moved to that timeslot exactly because of its poor ratings ?

[brightman]

Originally Posted by kuru

But wasn't it Gundam X moved to that timeslot exactly because of its poor ratings ?

In a way, since its average rating was 3.5% before the move which was the lowest rating in a Gundam series at the time (as opposed to V Gundam's 3.9%, G Gundam's 4.1%, and Gundam W's 4.3%... And of course, MSG, Z and ZZ all had ratings above 8.0% while SEED's average was 6.1%)... But at that time there was also the relatively poor reviews, not very good model sales and other stuff that I have no idea about.

But nevertheless, Turn A Gundam only got a 3.0% on FujiTV and worse, much of Japan didn't even bother to air it on TV.

[Secca]

The story is quite packed, at first I didn't realize there is a transition 2 years has passed in episode 1.

[RyuHayabusa]

question about the subbing:
Are the subs from Hero Legends and Anime-Gundam really good? I want to see what you people's opinions are before downloading it.

[Guts]

Originally Posted by Pai

But He's a man!

I love this series, but only for the hottest woman in anime ever. I only got to rp 6. Then icould'nt find a single other. Thk god for hero.

[Kouji Kabuto]

Originally Posted by brightman

Don't know about that shift of audience (since just about every kid in Japan was watching Gundam at that time, as opposed to young adults).

But it did get revived because of the movies, and I guess it's also partly because of the fact that Bandai took over MSG's toy production and their model lines caught on with the masses which resulted in tens of millions of them sold.

Anyway, right. Merchandising is the goal, because that's the main moneymaker for Gundam. So a show like Turn A with mechas that did not appeal to the masses was a failure even if it has an excellent story and some excellent characterizations as well.

Hmmm, I could have been wrong. I based my opinion on the fact that toy sales were poor but garage kit sales exploded like the fourth of july.

[Imazul]

As a hard core Gundam fan , its my duty to hate Turn a Gundam.
What did they do to my Gundam!!!!!!!!!! The mech design is almost repulsive if you saw any other series.
The story is ok but I wouldnt compare it with the great gundam serie , id say its more Wing, X and even Seed level .

Turn a is still watchable, for fans its probably will give you a FFU or Dragon Half feel when you first watch it. Well anyway its a Gundam serie and every human being shoulld watch all Gundam serie because each of them unfold a message that could be awfully close to our next reality.


P.S. I have a question, whats the timelien for Turn a and its AR right?

[FlyByNite]

The "TURN-A GUNDAM" voice-over at the start of the music reminds me of the "RISE FROM YOUR GRAVE" guy from old-school Altered Beast... lol

[Realist_Classic]

Originally Posted by Imazul

As a hard core Gundam fan , its my duty to hate Turn a Gundam.
What did they do to my Gundam!!!!!!!!!! The mech design is almost repulsive if you saw any other series.
The story is ok but I wouldnt compare it with the great gundam serie , id say its more Wing, X and even Seed level .

Turn a is still watchable, for fans its probably will give you a FFU or Dragon Half feel when you first watch it. Well anyway its a Gundam serie and every human being shoulld watch all Gundam serie because each of them unfold a message that could be awfully close to our next reality.


P.S. I have a question, whats the timelien for Turn a and its AR right?

Most fan sources seem to classify it as an alternate universe (as opposed to the original UC universe) although there's a much discussed "Turn-A Big Bang Theory" that holds Turn A's time line as the Uber-timeline encompassing all of the various Gundam universes--UC and alternate alike. You can see this in scenes from Turn A where the characters talked of a "Dark History" and watched a centuries-old documentary of the apocalypse that befell Earth, and within were clips and images of previous Gundams from X, Wing, Zeta and so on.

[Imazul]

Originally Posted by Realist_Classic

Most fan sources seem to classify it as an alternate universe (as opposed to the original UC universe) although there's a much discussed "Turn-A Big Bang Theory" that holds Turn A's time line as the Uber-timeline encompassing all of the various Gundam universes--UC and alternate alike. You can see this in scenes from Turn A where the characters talked of a "Dark History" and watched a centuries-old documentary of the apocalypse that befell Earth, and within were clips and images of previous Gundams from X, Wing, Zeta and so on.

Thats why I wasnt sure, I thought it was AR (or AU if you prefer) but it got me all mixed up, thats also a reason I dont like Turn a much.

[Cagalli]

Originally Posted by Realist_Classic

Most fan sources seem to classify it as an alternate universe (as opposed to the original UC universe) although there's a much discussed "Turn-A Big Bang Theory" that holds Turn A's time line as the Uber-timeline encompassing all of the various Gundam universes--UC and alternate alike. You can see this in scenes from Turn A where the characters talked of a "Dark History" and watched a centuries-old documentary of the apocalypse that befell Earth, and within were clips and images of previous Gundams from X, Wing, Zeta and so on.

People who deal with a lot of math will recognise the "Turn A" (") symbol in mathematics means "for every." So that gives me reason to go along with the uber-timeline theory.

[brightman]

Originally Posted by Realist_Classic

You can see this in scenes from Turn A where the characters talked of a "Dark History" and watched a centuries-old documentary of the apocalypse that befell Earth, and within were clips and images of previous Gundams from X, Wing, Zeta and so on.

Actually, if you look through the very beginning of the OP frame by frame, you can see Gundams from all those too... (and actually the whole beginning sequence with clips of various Gundam being sucked into that black ball is pretty much representative of what Turn A is)

[Cichlisuite]

IMO i think it would make better sense if Turn A is based on UC timeline. The only thing that goes against this is where in the hell are all the colonies? Where they all dropped on earth during the "apocalypse"?

[brightman]

Originally Posted by Cichlisuite

IMO i think it would make better sense if Turn A is based on UC timeline. The only thing that goes against this is where in the hell are all the colonies? Where they all dropped on earth during the "apocalypse"?

Spoiler:

The colonies and much of the technology in previous eras migrated out of the solar system to different parts of space