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Old 2012-09-23, 06:54   Link #33
Arabesque
Licensed Hunter-a-holic
 
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 35
Quote:
ガンダムAGEもいよいよ最終回。関わってくれた人、最後までみてくれた人に、感謝します。ガンダム作るこ とはかなり大変で苦しいこともたくさんあったけれど、本当に楽しい時間でした。みなさんありがとうございま した。ガンダムに関する書きこみ控えていたけれど、今日だけは書かせていただきたく。
Akihiro Hino's comment on the finale. He had stopped writing anything Gundam related for a while now, but decided to do so just for today.

A while back, I ended up going back through the older discussion on this sub forum back before AGE had began to air, and seeing the reactions all the way to the first few episodes.

I ended up noticing something I wrote a year ago
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arabesque View Post
Anyway, reading through the thread, I guess I should clarify that my issue hadn't been with the designs of the characters as much as it had been with Level 5 taking charge of the story. I made my feelings clear on the matter several times already, how I considered them fantastic game makers but piss poor story tellers, hence why I was apprehensive to their involvement here. But after following the pre-airing news for a while, I decided to set aside my bias for the show, since it looks like they are really aiming to put in more effort into making sure this comes out at least being good.
It's hard to really talk about this episode, or this series really, without at first addressing the general reaction to it. I will try and not make it a major focus of my post, but I feel the need to touch upon it.

Looking back at what I wrote, in the 1st Episode and the General AGE threads, I don't think my opinion changed about Level 5 or of Akihiro Hino. They will always remain top notch game makers who create and bring out some wonderful and fun games that I greatly enjoy, and from the praise the AGE game had been getting in regards to it's gameplay, I think there is every reason that is to remain true.

I have not changed my opinion on their stories either, unfortunately. It is sad to say, but Gundam AGE had proved beyond a shadow of a doubt to me that while they can think of interesting and fun concepts and premises, they are incapable of writing not only a compelling story, but even a decent one. This can be excused in games where the plot normally isn't important as long as the game play and mechanics are great, but when it's the thing holding everything together, then that weakness starts to become too noticeable to excuse.

I sympathize greatly with Hino-san. I can not begin to imagine what it was like for him to feel like the entire world was against him, being placed under insane pressure and criticism thrown at him at every turn, whether unjust or otherwise. That said, I can understand it was difficult, and when he mentioned that this was a painful experience, I believe him and my heart goes to him regardless of what I felt about this show. I have never been nor will I ever be part of the hate group that had attacked Hino-san and never gave him a chance to prove himself, and despite what I think of his writing, I hope he and his company can bounce back from this and have better luck in the future. Level 5 is still rising upwards, and despite any set backs now, I still think they have a bright future ahead of them.


This might have been better to go in the Overall series thread, but I wanted to add this before I talked about the final episode of AGE, and some of my unsorted general thoughts about the show. I apologize in advance for the length, but much like the episode title said, it's been a long journey so naturally I had a lot of things to say at this point.

For better or for worse, I think that this is the best possible outcome we could have gotten from this anime, due to how the writing hadn't left much room for anything else other than the outright annihilation of Vegan and all of it's population, and we couldn't have had that sort of conclusion to this story. No, the only way to achieve a happy ending is to have Kio get across to his Grandfather, to show him the light and have him forgive the Vegan's for what they had done, no matter how illogical it is for that to happen in the first place, or that there were many points were it might have been better to set up this ''Eureka moment'', to have their earlier conversations be grounds for showing the changing mindset in Flit, rather than being a dumbed down showing of 2 people taking ''positions'' on how to deal with this topic of external forces trying to destroy them.

It wasn't done in a bad manner, certainly a whole lot better than the game for sure, where only Yurin had shown up and gave the unfortunate implication about Flit and Emily's marriage, where in here the people Flit cared most about and who had lost the most to Vegan came and helped him come to accept that if he truly wants to be a savior, he must not black out and entire segment of mankind. A true savior does not cherry pick who to save, he is someone who defends mankind from all evil, even from itself. It was a potent moment, and seeing Marina, Yurin, Godrick, Woolf, Don Boyage and Bruzark was really nostalgic and I could believe that they could let Flit let go of his hatred, even if it made little sense going by what we had come to see from X-rounder powers in the long stretch since episodes 14 and 15 and the show tried to paint them as being more feral than having Newtype like abilities. But we will ignore that since the show does.

Of course, this development isn't without it's share of issues, much like everything in this show at this point. Kio proves himself to be unlikable to the highest degree by only coming at this point to try and convert his own Grandfather, the man who cared for him and raised him, to see his point of view when all this time he had been trying to talk with Vegan soldiers who had been proven to be insanely fanatic and had no issue with killing civilians and noncombatants, and even went as far as not talking to Flit a few episodes ago and not even bothering to try and reason with him properly instead of telling him to see his way without trying to put himself in his Grandfathers own shoes and giving him some things to think about.

Of course, Kio is a child so it is a given he wouldn't be able to argue on even grounds with an accomplished man such as Flit, but that makes it all the more clear the farce that is allowing him to remain in the battlefield when the show never put in the effort to justify the reason for doing so other than him being one of the 3 main protagonists, flying in the face of reason and logic every time we see him on screen and wondering why the hell is Flit and Romary allowing him to risk his life in such a careless manner, but like everything in this show we have to take the good with the bad and just let it roll.

Despite how the show had made a strong case for them deserving one, I do not support Flit in what he wanted to do, and even then I find myself siding more with Seric than I ever did with any of these 2 as he was the voice of reason in this show. Alas he died and along with the last shards of what might resemble a decent reasonable human being in the cast, with us being treated by three people of varying character taking center stage in Space Opera clusterfuck, one a genocidal old man who had been shown to be a good human being otherwise and someone who is a father to his men on the battle field, who will defend everyone on earth as if they are his own family, another who is a deserter who abandoned his country and family to become a pirate only for him to now stand with them again for some unspecified reason, and the last a child who has no idea what he is doing.

Good with the bad.

On the whole, not much else to say. The battle was okay, certainly nothing mind blowing in either animation or situation, since the central villain was nothing more than a no face evil entity tragic figure who to the very end attempted to save mankind from it's own stupidity only to be defeated ironically by everyone teaming up to destroy it (Thanks for ReddyRedWolf for pointing out how much of a tragic figure SID truly was. That AI died for our sins.). The music was the best thing about is as usual, but like I had said in my OST1 review and as webkid94 had mentioned now on the few of points I agreed with him on, it is not on the same memorable level I had come to expect form a Gundam series.

The voice work was of varying degrees on this episode, from decent to excellent. Hearing Toyonaga Toshiyuki one last time was a treat and seeing the younger Flit again brought back some nice moments to the front, Inoue Kazuhiko continued with his veteran work giving the older Flit a kinder yet tired voice. Saori Hayami being back for one last time was also great, and I think we can all say who one in that race for Flit's heart once and for all, going by the soft and mesmeric talk they had shared.

In general, yeah, this is the best that we could have gotten. That's not saying much since it was only a notch above a complete FUBAR ending, but I wont be picky.

I honestly feel awful writing anything about this show at this point. I don't want to add in more to the negativity, but at the same time I can't say this was anything approaching good which I have just witnessed. I suppose that in conclusion, much like it's show, the final episode of AGE had it's touching moments, was technically well made, but overall it was illogical in a lot of places, didn't make sense in the context of it's own series, and left much to be desired by the end. I could think of a more fitting final episode for this anime.

Final thoughts later.
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Last edited by Arabesque; 2012-09-23 at 07:06.
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