Gundam AGE General Discussion Thread

[brightman]

Originally Posted by MakubeX2

But basically, the Japanese transcript is as follows :-

That's pretty awesome - especially the part about having only one Gundam in the show, at least for the first half of the series... Isn't that what the old fans always wanted?

Anyway, to summarize, whoever did that interview basically said this show isn't for children, and that they don't think Gundam should ever be for children, and that once people watch the show the idea that its a show for children will disappear. So its pretty definitive.

[LoweGear]

Originally Posted by Heibi

I have my hopes that it isn't directed at 8 year-olds or so. The preview though, really/truly leads one to believe that it is meant for a very young audience. I mean, the "main" character's look, the Harlock looking characters near the end, not to mention the one guy's uniform(Galaxy 999-look) makes you wonder what they are aiming for.

I'll give it a chance of course, and I hope this doesn't bring about the demise of Gundam.(Though the older series will still hold up)

If you only look at the character designs and the aesthetic then yes it'll look like it was made for young children, and was probably the intention to draw them in using that. The PV however has the directorial tone of pretty much any other Gundam in history.

Also...

http://en.gundam.info/topic/5610

Originally Posted by Gundam Info

The assembled staff also commented on their excitement for Mobile Suit Gundam AGE.

"With 2009 marking the 30th anniversary of Gundam as a TV animation, and 2010 the 30th anniversary of Gunpla, we firmly believe that Mobile Suit Gundam AGE will open a new era for Gundam while honoring its long traditions. We intend to write a new page in Gundam history, showing another part of Gundam's future to both existing fans and the children of the future."

(Bandai Co., Ltd. President, Chief Executive Officer, and CGO Kazunori Ueno)


"Gundam depicts rich human drama and finely-detailed mechanicals through a unique SF lens, adapting through its 30-year history to appeal to broad audiences. We would like to expand the Gundam world with Mobile Suit Gundam AGE, connecting to new markets and raising a new generation of Gundam fans."

(Sunrise Managing Director and Executive Producer Yasuo Miyakawa)


"Mobile Suit Gundam AGE will expand into games, initially through the SD Gundam G Generation series. We also plan codevelopment of a game with Level-5."

(Namco Bandai Games Vice President Shin Unozawa)


"I feel the pressure of working on Gundam, but I'd like to keep a festive mood throughout production. I hope to live up to everyone's expectations for the animation and detailed setting while maintaining a pleasant atmosphere. Not focusing on small quibbles, but a festive, enjoyable feeling. I hope everyone supports that kind of enjoyable Mobile Suit Gundam AGE."

(Mobile Suit Gundam AGE Director Susumu Yamaguchi)


"As a Gundam fan since I was a child, I'm honored to take such a crucial role in developing a new Gundam project. Like the director, I'd like to produce an enjoyable Gundam, but I also aim to appeal to not only Gundam fans but the parents who haven't watched Gundam lately and the children who have never watched. The title Mobile Suit Gundam AGE refers to our desire to create a new age of Gundam."

(Level-5 Inc. President and CEO, Mobile Suit Gundam AGE Scriptwriter Akihiro Hino)

AGE seems to be more of a series that tries to be family-friendly, rather than child-friendly, which does carry different nuances.

[SonicSP]

"Gundam should never be for children" eh, I think a lot of us could sync with that. Most people I know start joining around 13-14 or so, where they also start with the models.

[Kuroi Hadou]

I got into Gundam when I watched Gundam Wing on Toonami at age 11. Not really a kids' show and I wasn't really a "kid" by that point, but I was probably younger than the target demographic.

[GN0010 Nosferatu]

I like that the people behind AGE are standing strong by it, they have absolute faith in it, and I can respect that. I think that will in turn give us a great show, and merchandise down the line, ya never know.

[brightman]

Originally Posted by Kuroi Hadou

I got into Gundam when I watched Gundam Wing on Toonami at age 11. Not really a kids' show and I wasn't really a "kid" by that point, but I was probably younger than the target demographic.

The 90's Gundam, such as G Gundam, Gundam Wing, and Gundam X, were meant for a relatively young audience. That's one of the reasons why Bandai dumped Tomino - his shows were getting too violent for younger viewers, and they wanted shows that would appeal to a broader audience, including kids.

I think its the same situation here. Before Gundam 00 was made, Bandai had said that they wanted it to appeal to a new, younger generation of audience than Seed - however, judging from the ratings, it appealed to an older audience than they had intended, and was decidedly more niche than Seed's. So they're basically trying an entirely different approach here, sort of like what they did with G Gundam.

[MakubeX2]

Originally Posted by brightman

Anyway, to summarize, whoever did that interview basically said this show isn't for children, and that they don't think Gundam should ever be for children, and that once people watch the show the idea that its a show for children will disappear. So its pretty definitive.

I'm strangley reminded of Zambot 3 from that Interview. Think AGE will go down the same road ? Like featuring something like Alien kidnapping human, turns them into ticking time bomb and releasing now modified people back to human society. Needless to say, those human bombs includes relatives and friends of protagonists.

[Patriot's Blade]

so this series takes a bit of a Dragon Ball route?

[brightman]

Originally Posted by MakubeX2

I'm strangley reminded of Zambot 3 from that Interview. Think AGE will go down the same road ? Like featuring something like Alien kidnapping human, turns them into ticking time bomb and releasing now modified people back to human society. Needless to say, those human bombs includes relatives and friends of protagonists.

That's pretty Tomino-esque, and I'm not sure Bandai would have agreed to do this story had it been that depressing... I think the mature aspects might come from maybe a meaningful theme that carries through in the story or something... Plus it IS a 100 year story, so seeing your favorite characters get old and die might be depressing enough.

Though since Flit started piloting at 14 to avenge his parent(s) - does it mean his son and grandson do the same...? If so these characters might not even reach old age.

Originally Posted by DRAGUN H.E.X.

so this series takes a bit of a Dragon Ball route?

That's been confirmed since day one, but the question is where they take this "Dragon Ball route".

[rakusukira]

Originally Posted by brightman

The 90's Gundam, such as G Gundam, Gundam Wing, and Gundam X, were meant for a relatively young audience. That's one of the reasons why Bandai dumped Tomino - his shows were getting too violent for younger viewers, and they wanted shows that would appeal to a broader audience, including kids.

I think its the same situation here. Before Gundam 00 was made, Bandai had said that they wanted it to appeal to a new, younger generation of audience than Seed - however, judging from the ratings, it appealed to an older audience than they had intended, and was decidedly more niche than Seed's. So they're basically trying an entirely different approach here, sort of like what they did with G Gundam.

Wing was definitely violent for my taste.. and I watched it when I was 10 or 11 years old (when it was aired in CN) , and didn't appeal to me until I turned 18 (I'm 19 now) and had to re-watch it (still didn't appeal to me though ). But Gundam Seed, I watched it when I was 12 and it certainly did appeal to me (even until now I remember and love it so much). Gundam X was not my thing.. and I certainly despised 00 (the sexy GUNDAMS were total turn-offs for me)

IMHO, Gundam is partly about the violence.. i mean.. it is WAR.. I'm trying to be positive about this Gundam AGE thing... but.. younger audiences?? they are really doing this to sell the merchandise (which is also partly about GUNDAM, can't argue cause the sales is what funds GUNDAM) .

but my question is, does this mean they are going to lessen the violence and put in a mediocre happy ending where all the characters, even villains, don't die and they become friends in the end and bla bla bla? this is what I'm worried about

[SonicSP]

There's really little indication that it's targeted for younger audiences; with the exception of the young looking character designs. Other than that, they've gone out of their way to says it's a normal Gundam Series. Even the protaganist is of the age group we normally see main characters in.

Having said that, just because it's not specifically targeted for kids doesn't mean it cannot be light hearted; which it may or may not be. Since the series has not even started, it's hard if not impossible to even begin predicting how the ending goes.

For the moment, there does seem to be war and violence on this series. Fritz saw his mother die in an attack at the age of 7, then lives on for 7 more years building up something his mother gave him and then fate gives him a try to join the war againts the UE; which attack caused his mother's death. At the moment, seems like a war story to me; at what's revealed anyways.

[brightman]

Originally Posted by rakusukira

Wing was definitely violent for my taste.. and I watched it when I was 10 or 11 years old (when it was aired in CN) , and didn't appeal to me until I turned 18 (I'm 19 now) and had to re-watch it (still didn't appeal to me though ). But Gundam Seed, I watched it when I was 12 and it certainly did appeal to me (even until now I remember and love it so much). Gundam X was not my thing.. and I certainly despised 00 (the sexy GUNDAMS were total turn-offs for me)

IMHO, Gundam is partly about the violence.. i mean.. it is WAR.. I'm trying to be positive about this Gundam AGE thing... but.. younger audiences?? they are really doing this to sell the merchandise (which is also partly about GUNDAM, can't argue cause the sales is what funds GUNDAM) .

but my question is, does this mean they are going to lessen the violence and put in a mediocre happy ending where all the characters, even villains, don't die and they become friends in the end and bla bla bla? this is what I'm worried about

Gundam Wing might have been violent for you, but its fairly typical for a cartoon show aimed at kids in Japan. Take a look at the shounen shows like Naruto, One Piece, etc. or tokusatsu shows like Kamen Rider or Super Sentai - all of them are targeted at elementary school children, and all of them contain violence of a certain degree. Its when you get to Tomino's level of violence, where people die left and right, and kid holds his mother's decapitated head, etc. that it goes too overboard.

So no, I doubt they are toning down the violence to the degree that you are saying.

[Heibi]

Originally Posted by SonicSP

There's really little indication that it's targeted for younger audiences; with the exception of the young looking character designs. Other than that, they've gone out of their way to says it's a normal Gundam Series. Even the protaganist is of the age group we normally see main characters in.

That may be true, but when you present a preview that looks like you're aiming for a quite a bit younger audience, it makes people wonder. If all I have to go by is the preview that I've watched - evidence points to a younger audience. The parts that make me think so are his item he places to "start" the Gundam(hey, a new toy - like Power Rangers), and the other things mentioned.

The studio should have caught a clue when they had to defend it NOT being for a younger audience. The old "Oops, maybe we should've done a preview that doesn't give the impression that we now have to convince people the show is not." reaction.

But I'll still watch a few episodes to see how it goes and if the studio is telling the truth.

[jonli]

Still not feeling for the designs, but I'm interested in this new direction. If they're willing to not take themselves seriously yet bring out hot blooded emotions like G and Gurren Lagann then I'm all for it. The whole 3 generations thing seems like it could be a blast if done well, potentially the most epic gundam in terms of scope and scale of one series. Also the whole marketing campaign seems like they're going all out...a tie-in video game that isn't just a random cash-in...with Level-5? Whoa.

Aside from the designs (which might look awesome when it starts to shoot and explode stuff) the only thing I worry about is Level-5's influence on the story, because seriosuly they've never done anything with a good story so far -__-.

edit: As for Sunrise only animating the pre-one year war stuff. That would be retarded on Sunrise's part. If they're trying to avoid retconning then it's futile because a handful of series out there already retconned the shit out of the original, and the pre-One year war stuff in Origins is actually the part with THE MOST retconning -____-. If they're refusing to animate the parts that overlap because of artistic integrity then they're really choking on their own pride (fuck if that's what they think then don't make the trilogy movies!) as well as missing a giant opportunity to get a fuck load of cash. You're talking about remaking the anime that essentially jump started the real robot genre in it's full fucking glory. It's story and characters fleshed out, it's inconsistencies ironed out, no more episodic villain of the week bullshit, no more campy stupidity, no more cancelled half way and never reaching it's full potential. The market wasn't ready for Gundam as a series back then, now it is, and Origins is a re-imagination with a core story that aged so well it's still shiny as fuck.

Please Sunrise, for fuck's sake, don't be retarded. If you're going to animate this, do it, all the way OR DONT DO IT AT ALL.

[SonicSP]

Originally Posted by Heibi

That may be true, but when you present a preview that looks like you're aiming for a quite a bit younger audience, it makes people wonder. If all I have to go by is the preview that I've watched - evidence points to a younger audience. The parts that make me think so are his item he places to "start" the Gundam(hey, a new toy - like Power Rangers), and the other things mentioned.

The studio should have caught a clue when they had to defend it NOT being for a younger audience. The old "Oops, maybe we should've done a preview that doesn't give the impression that we now have to convince people the show is not." reaction.

But I'll still watch a few episodes to see how it goes and if the studio is telling the truth.

I agree, regardless of taste the character designs don't send a good first impression that this is not a younger oriented series. Some of us bother to read the research and even do not let the first impression affect us, but the problem here is a lot of people do not.

From the trailer alone though, its really the designs that give me the "this is meant for younger audience" feel, anything else from that trailer if any is really minor. I truly believe that the character design is the core impression that affects people. OF course, I think they should have counteract this with a few more so called "serious" scenes I guess. Maybe the battles from the first trailer was not enough to counteract the design for most people perhaps?

I personally was not too impressed with the trailer (it was not great but it was okay) but for some reason it actually solidified the possibility that its more of the Gundam are aware off (it has the normal Gundam feel to it) for me so it made me trust it ore, so it did its job for me at least. What makes me look forward to AGE is the background info released so far with aliens and a war lasting generations. And in the end, its a new AU!

[Heibi]

Originally Posted by SonicSP

I agree, regardless of taste the character designs don't send a good first impression that this is not a younger oriented series. Some of us bother to read the research and even do not let the first impression affect us, but the problem here is a lot of people do not.

From the trailer alone though, its really the designs that give me the "this is meant for younger audience" feel, anything else from that trailer if any is really minor. I truly believe that the character design is the core impression that affects people. OF course, I think they should have counteract this with a few more so called "serious" scenes I guess. Maybe the battles from the first trailer was not enough to counteract the design for most people perhaps?

I personally was not too impressed with the trailer but for some reason it actually solidified the possibility that its more of the Gundam are aware off (it has the normal Gundam feel to it), so it did its job for me at least.

My feelings in a nutshell after watching the preview. As soon as I saw the enemy mecha land and run on all-fours I thought, "This is not Gundam." Sure the explosions were great, and they finally stand up - but then the Gobot-looking red GM-like mecha and then they add insult to the preview with the "key" he starts the Gundam with - And to top it all off 'What are Harlock/Galaxy 999 characters doing in Gundam?" Not a good preview to get the Gundam fan's blood pumping.

[Kuroi Hadou]

You know, I love how I always see someone claim "this is not Gundam" every time a new series is about to be released. "Gundam" isn't a static thing, contrary to what diehard fans who shall go unnamed would have you believe; "Gundam" changes and expands with every new entry in the franchise, bringing something that was missing before.

UC brought us Gundam itself, the dramas of human conflict and the tragedies that result. G was the pure, over-the-top fun UC was missing, showed the impacts humanity's conflicts had on the planet itself, and introduced the idea of Gundam outside of UC. Wing explored the idea of war's indispensable role in human nature and the consequences of separating one from the other. I haven't seen X yet, so I can't really give a reliable opinion on this one. Turn A was the distant future, the culmination of humanity's obsession with war. SEED and SEED Destiny was a treatise of the dangers of genetic engineering and the potential genocides that could result; how genetic differences could be used as sources of and justification for conflict, what it meant to be human, and where humanity's drive to improve itself could lead if not careful. 00 dealt with humanity's need to change and overcome itself before it could truly achieve its full potential and take its place among the stars.

AGE hasn't even aired yet, yet people are already casting it aside as "This isn't Gundam". Why don't we see what it brings to the table before deciding whether it is or isn't Gundam?

[Heibi]

Originally Posted by Kuroi Hadou

You know, I love how I always see someone claim "this is not Gundam" every time a new series is about to be released. "Gundam" isn't a static thing, contrary to what diehard fans who shall go unnamed would have you believe; "Gundam" changes and expands with every new entry in the franchise, bringing something that was missing before.

AGE hasn't even aired yet, yet people are already casting it aside as "This isn't Gundam". Why don't we see what it brings to the table before deciding whether it is or isn't Gundam?

Until you actually see the Gundam in the preview you wouldn't even now it was a Gundam preview. There are aspects to Gundam that make it instantly recognizable. Mecha flying in space and landing on all-fours, followed by mechs that aren't recognizable. If the Gundam hadn't appeared you'd never know. It could've been a add for an alien invasion series for all you'd know.

The only reason I knew at first that it was Gundam was because the preview said it was Gundam.

Every time Gundam changes it still has some factor that makes all hardcore Gundam fans know instantly - "Yep, that's Gundam."

Anyway - most Gundam fans here are still saying they'll give it a try. And the ratings will determine if it's a success.

[monster]

Originally Posted by Heibi

Every time Gundam changes it still has some factor that makes all hardcore Gundam fans know instantly - "Yep, that's Gundam."

If you see an anime trailer and it doesn't say it's a Gundam show and it doesn't show any Gundam or Gundam-like mechas, how do you know for sure that it's a Gundam show and not some other mecha show? You could see a SEED trailer, for example, and think it's a trailer for Zoids. Or you could see a trailer for G and think it's some kind of a super robot show, maybe even a new SRW. Even a Wing or a Turn A trailer could look like some other mecha series if you don't show the Gundams.

[Kuroi Hadou]

Originally Posted by Heibi

And the ratings will determine if it's a success.

No. Just no. Commercial ratings don't determine the success of a series any more than merchandise sales. UC and CE are the most successful Gundam universes in terms of merchandise sales and TV ratings, yet in my opinion (and I know I'm going to get neg reps for this) they're mediocre under the criteria I use to evaluate a series. Saying the success of a Gundam series is dependent upon how many people watch it or how much money it makes is an insult to the people who watch any series for what they should be watching it for: The message.