Gundam AGE General Discussion Thread

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by wingdarkness

You guys can be all mature and "with-it" and $hit but this sucks...Especially given the fact they just did a SD Gundam which I might be the only person on this side of the hemisphere that sorta enjoyed it (see my avy LuBu)...

To see kids using Gundams as rockem sockem robots that might be a mere extension of their ipads is $hitty...As a true Gundam Enthusiast i won't rake it over the coals yet, but I equally won't pretend to be all even keel and optimistic...I have no desire to get caught up in the pre-production because of the content matter, which takes a huge chunk out of the fun...

I'll watch it, and if it's good I'll acknowledge it, but it's kiddie $hit...When I watched Gundam Wing as a kid that wasn't kiddie $hit (Not for westeros), so I fail to see how this will do anything but attract kids by placating them as opposed to letting them see if they like an established product...It is what it is though...Maybe this is what happens after Silver Setsuna is shat out of that Lilly...

I don't think it's a matter of being mature and with it so much as having little desire to bitch too hard over a TV show we're technically not even supposed to know about yet. Hell even if it does prove to be a kids show I really wouldn't have cause to bitch too hard because a) it's just a TV show that's probably named aimed entirely at my demographic and b) I just got Gundam 00 A Wakening of The Trailblazer (which I enjoyed even though nearly everyone else shits on it constantly for IMO bizarre reasons) and Gundam Unicorn so I'm pretty well satisfied on the shows with older cast members front.

And this is coming from somebody who has been a Gundam fan for over half his life now and swears by the franchise as his absolute favorite. It's seriously not the end of the world to me if they want to target a younger audience with this one or if they want to try a concept that is more out there than usual. I mean is that not what A.U is all about? Opening the door to different opportunities, demographics and stylizations and freeing the Gundam concept from being bound to any one interpretation or timeline. I honestly probably wouldn't be that into Gundam if it weren't for it's stunning ability to reinvent itself every few years.

I honestly think most Western internet Gundam fans have yet to grasp what the whole purpose of A.U is and it's kind of unfortunate cause it's been around for a good 15+ years. They also tend to have really shitty and selfish attitudes when it comes to Gundam which is nothing short of a source of constant source of embarrassment for me when trying to get people into Gundam. I basically have to take them aside, tell them to listen to my advice and only my advice and tell them to try to not read anything pertaining to Gundam on the internet cause the fandom is likely to immediately put them off.

[wingdarkness]

Originally Posted by LGear

Claiming a show is for kids while using expletives in such a fashion doesn't strike me as particularly mature nor adult.

Hence my point, I'm being surly because I didn't get what i wanted...it happens...I could be the bigger man, but remote control Gundams with kids don't allow me to...

You might be totally right, it might be tonally acceptable, but from first impressions it doesn't have anything that initially excites me...I see 3 butterface kids with PDA's and what appears to be the "Heroman" version of RX-78...It might be good, but first impressions have meaning...The acuteness of the fan reactions here have as much meaning as my realtalk...This is what occurs when you get your balloon popped...


@K-Sama - You know I'm true Gundam, probably, most likely, even more than you, but I just got my balloon popped...I'm skillful enough to get anybody to bite at gundam based on the error of their misconceived notions, but I, like the fringe fan, have a normal emotional output that reacts to something I naturally am disappointed by...Like anyone else who pines for new Gundam I got excited...I then saw 3 kids who look like they were dropped straight outta yugioh GX with a pop-up book cut-out of RX-78 at their flank...This is my natural reaction to that...Something that doesn't come close to touching my Gundam cred throughout the years...I completely "get" AU, and this is AU popping my balloon...

[LoweGear]

Originally Posted by wingdarkness

but remote control Gundams with kids don't allow me to...

And here we start with one of the problems of early presumptions and jumping the gun. Have they been confirmed to be remote control Gundams from anywhere asides from non-reputable sources? Last I saw from searching around, that particular bit of info has been disproven as hearsay until otherwise reinstated by official sources in the near future. The only confirmed info we have are those that are stated by reputable sources like Anime News Network, and they mention nothing of the sort. Heck, there are still people who believe AGE is going to be a Card Game-themed Gundam, and yet that has never been the case from the beginning.

I know about first impressions and such, and I pretty much understand the impact such impressions can make. I too got a very acute reaction from seeing the scans initially to the point of denial. But then I have been betrayed by first impressions before for good and bad - series that look awesome suddenly going south, and series that look like they don't suit my taste becoming some of my favorites. Hence why I'd rather not rely on my first impressions to prejudge whether a series is good or not.

[wingdarkness]

You never get a second chance at a first impression LoweGear...

I'd say the cover art supports my impression of what I see, more than what you're optimistically expecting...Again, I welcome being wrong with psycoframes on...

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by wingdarkness

@K-Sama - You know I'm true Gundam, probably, most likely, even more than you, but I just got my balloon popped...I'm skillful enough to get anybody to bite at gundam based on the error of their misconceived notions, but I, like the fringe fan, have a normal emotional output that reacts to something I naturally am disappointed by...Like anyone else who pines for new Gundam I got excited...I then saw 3 kids who look like they were dropped straight outta yugioh GX with a pop-up book cut-out of RX-78 at their flank...This is my natural reaction to that...Something that doesn't come close to touching my Gundam cred throughout the years...I completely "get" AU, and this is AU popping my balloon...

Okay you got me, this post is hilarious.

I mean I only wish I had Gundam cred. How do I apply?

[LoweGear]

Originally Posted by wingdarkness

You never get a second chance at a first impression LoweGear...

I'd say the cover art supports my impression of what I see, more than what you're optimistically expecting...Again, I welcome being wrong with psycoframes on...

You never get a second chance at a first impression, but you can change your impression over time for better or worse. Otherwise the human race would've come to a complete halt from judging each other over their first impressions and never giving someone a chance to improve their impressions. That first impression you have of that lady in red as a charming, wonderful person might turn out to be a manipulative, dangerous and filthy slut, or that plain and underwhelming girl next door might turn out to be your soulmate. Cliche examples, but valid nonetheless.

A favorite example of mine in media to point out the difference between first impressions and the actual result is Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica. Cute girls with frilly outfits and pink backgrounds just like any other mahou shoujo supposedly aimed at young girls... until the death, despair and sorrow overwhelm 3/4's of the entire story enough to make Greek tragedies proud.

I am not "optimistic" about anything if you want to know. I'm just saying that being prejudgemental and all that is rather premature.

[SonicSP]

Aren't they going to do a presentation about it?

We're likely getting more information when the thing is officially annonced on Monday, we should wait till then as part of our first impressions of the series. Since it's really meant to be first impresions anyways.

[LaSean]

Well I really like the gundam design all 3 of them. A modern take on the classic design gundam look. Simple yet effective. I don't like the characters look though.

Hopefully this is a super robot show like G gundam. I need new G gundam and this might be the closest I will get. I'm just glad it's not new seed so d-klack can be upset. SEED was so horrible it made me stop watching when it aired and 00 got me back into gundam in 2010. I not too happy about this kiddy direction but I will give it a chance.

[ttdestroy]

Originally Posted by LoweGear

You never get a second chance at a first impression, but you can change your impression over time for better or worse. Otherwise the human race would've come to a complete halt from judging each other over their first impressions and never giving someone a chance to improve their impressions. That first impression you have of that lady in red as a charming, wonderful person might turn out to be a manipulative, dangerous and filthy slut, or that plain and underwhelming girl next door might turn out to be your soulmate. Cliche examples, but valid nonetheless.

A favorite example of mine in media to point out the difference between first impressions and the actual result is Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica. Cute girls with frilly outfits and pink backgrounds just like any other mahou shoujo supposedly aimed at young girls... until the death, despair and sorrow overwhelm 3/4's of the entire story enough to make Greek tragedies proud.

I am not "optimistic" about anything if you want to know. I'm just saying that being prejudgemental and all that is rather premature.

I ain't gonna lie I prejudge the hell outta anime especially when we hit a new season, I have 2 hrs. a week dedicated to watching anime so I may be able to get in five shows a week. I certainly don't have time to watch the first episode of 15 new shows, so I prejudge.

Being prejudiced against something isn't always bad sometimes it keeps from making dumb mistakes, for instance I was raised to believe that Ford and Chevrolet do not make great vehicles and for a time I was prejudiced against them, then 2 years ago I drive a Chevy with 4500 miles off the lot and by the time I hit 20k I've put more money into fixing it than I did buying the darn thing. Now rational thought says "Hey every Chevy can't be bad!", but to an overwhelming degree I'm thinking: "I should've listened to Dad."

So back to anime, I'm investing in a show, not necessarily with money but with time, so yes some people have to prejudge. However thats not to say I'm not gonna watch this show of that being prejudiced keeps me from watching crap(last year I made some bad investments), I'm just saying it pays dividends to be prematurely prejudiced, sometimes. Now that's totally like the opposite of what wingd was talking about but thats my two cents.

[LoweGear]

Originally Posted by ttdestroy

Being prejudiced against something isn't always bad sometimes it keeps from making dumb mistakes, for instance I was raised to believe that Ford and Chevrolet do not make great vehicles and for a time I was prejudiced against them, then 2 years ago I drive a Chevy with 4500 miles off the lot and by the time I hit 20k I've put more money into fixing it than I did buying the darn thing. Now rational thought says "Hey every Chevy can't be bad!", but to an overwhelming degree I'm thinking: "I should've listened to Dad."

Would like to point out that that isn't quite prejudice on your part, it was advice given to you by your father from his experience. You didn't get your judgement just because you saw a Chevy and thought it was bad, you got that judgement because someone else you respect told you so, which formed the initial impression in your head. Once you did get your hands on a Chevy and had evaluated it personally you were pretty much in your right to say whatever you wanted about the quality of a Chevy, and either deny, or in your case affirm your initial impressions.

It's a totally different situation from seeing something for the first time, and then immediately writing it off as a bad thing using only your own initial conceptions and impressions even though you've never seen it before. And in this case, there's no one telling you the thing is good or bad by prior experience, because none of us have a time machine to go look into the future and say "hey guess what? This thing is this and that. Don't/Do see it". What would've happened if your experience with the Chevy had been good, contrary to the advice you got? Then the bias you've built up would've been wrong. This stuff has the chance to go both ways.

I'm not saying to watch each and every title out there, heck I don't. Just that prejudice in this case isn't really a good reaction to the title. If people don't like to watch it, then they shouldn't, but I'd rather not hear them going on about it's weaknesses and flaws then they're not even going to see what the deal is about, as is the case with every series ever.

[Rising Dragon]

It's still boiling down to a lot of people not willing to give the show a chance due to stupid and illogical reasons. Par for the course on this forum, really. It's a shame.

[kiak666]

Well, all I can say is that the next Gundam series isn't exactly what I had expected. However, the concept does seem to have some potential in it.

As for the design, I think the new Gundam looks decent. Not great, but not horrible either. And as a kid who grown up watching Digimon (the first two seasons) and some other kid-oriented shows, I'm not that bothered by the character's look actually.

[Arabesque]

^As a man who had grew and watched all of Digimon (and still does ^^) I have to say that aside form Furitto's design, the other two generations had grown on me. I mean in general dresses the way a typical A.U. Gundam pilot might dress casually, while Kio has a ... Kamille like vibe I guess? Or maybe because he looks like a girl lol

BTW, isn't it about time to change the name of the thread?

Originally Posted by Nightengale

Speaking idealistically, I would very much love to see a pseudo-Assassin's Creed style of generational storytelling ( minus the Animus, thank you very much ), where we get to see at least one of the 3 main character's growth into adulthood just as AC2's side of the series spanned the 20+ years growth of Ezio into a full-fledged 50 years old master assassin.

Yeah in this way I admit would be very cool to see. There is of course remians the question how much time will be given to each one ...

Originally Posted by fertygo

Btw this one gonna replacing Digimon Xros timeslot that gonna end soon or what?

Is it? I have no idea what is happening with the way Xros Wars has been going these past few episodes. It really remind me of the same problems Adventure used to have behind the scenes.

My guess is that they will take the older time slot that Xros had held, though this might a Nichigo anime (it would fit with the announcement date etc.)

Originally Posted by Kaioshin Sama

I'd kind of be okay if it actually were a card game show if it meant I'd finally get that Gundam TCG video game I've always dreamed of.

Seriously the day that Bandai Namco makes a Gundam War portable game or some equivalent is going to be a great day if it ever happens.

Why not? I mean they already have Level 5 working on it, so its only one more step to make spin off games!

I'd personally love to see a game about nothing but Gundam card battles. If its anything like Digital Card Battle was, it only means its going to be awesome.

Originally Posted by Duo Maxwell

Now that you mention it....

This show is looking more appealing already

Originally Posted by LoweGear

A favorite example of mine in media to point out the difference between first impressions and the actual result is Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica. Cute girls with frilly outfits and pink backgrounds just like any other mahou shoujo supposedly aimed at young girls... until the death, despair and sorrow overwhelm 3/4's of the entire story enough to make Greek tragedies proud.

Not disagreeing about anything you wrote (I agree with in fact) but about Madoka, ever since the announcement people had been anticipating that it was going to take a very grim turn thanks to Gen's involvement, and had been more than certain once the manga artiest mentioned how the project had very grotesque elements. So it's not an exactly accurate example.

To be fair to the show, I agree that we have to wait until the 13th till we figure what sort of tone the show will be taking. At the moment it looks like they are attempting of gathering a new market while appeasing the older one with Unicorn, but we don't know what they aim to do other than target a younger audience.

Originally Posted by Rising Dragon

It's still boiling down to a lot of people not willing to give the show a chance due to stupid and illogical reasons. Par for the course on this forum, really. It's a shame.

?

I've read through these past few pages, and I have to say I'm not really seeing ''a lot'' of people who aren't willing to give this show a try. I only seen a few who seemed genuinely upset about it (and not only because its too kiddy) with the majority on this forum being more cautious than anything, and rightly so since we have no idea what exactly is in store here.

Your either making too big a deal from what some had said, or are predestining something that may happen.

[JC...]

Originally Posted by Rising Dragon

It's still boiling down to a lot of people not willing to give the show a chance due to stupid and illogical reasons. Par for the course on this forum, really. It's a shame.

Tomino isn't a member of this forum, and he's probably annoyed too.

[Arabesque]

Originally Posted by JC...

Tomino isn't a member of this forum, and he's probably annoyed too.

he sort of mellowed out these past years though. Maybe he'd approve of this new direction?

[JC...]

He probably got used to it.

[LoweGear]

Translations of relevant info from Zeonic Corps:

Originally Posted by Zeonic Corps

Here’s the latest information from the next Gundam series from the CoroCoro magazine release:

PLOT
Piloting a Gundam to fight to defend the Earth! Suffering an attack from the sudden appearance of the enemy “UE”, Frite completes the “Gundam” together with technological developers of the Federation Forces. With the power to become strong while fighting, the unknown enemy “UE” is beaten back one by one. In order to protect mankind, the Gundam sallies forth!

CHARACTERS
Frite (or Gullit) Asuno – Main character who developed the Mobile Suit Gundam AGE-1 equipped with the AGE SYSTEM.
Asem Asuno - The second main character and son of Frite. Inherits the Gundam and fights.
Kio Asuno - The third main character and grandchild of Frite. Inherits the Gundam passed down from generation to generation.
Emily - Friend of Frite since the age of seven.
Groudeck – Earth Federation Forces Commander. Captain of the battleship Diva.
Millais – Earth Federation Forces Lieutenant Junior Grade. Comm chief of the battleship Diva.
Gafuran – A mysterious enemy like an alien who strikes at mankind.

MECHANICS
The Gundam AGE-1 is the main characters unit. Although it’s a machine, surprisingly, the Gundam grows with the “AGE SYSTEM”. It’s form seems to change with growth from experience in battle!
GUNDAM AGE-1 NORMAL
GUNDAM AGE-1 SPARROW (Speed Type) – A cool blue unit is the highlight. The enemy is torn to shreds with the cutting edge of the sharp Sigl Blade.
GUNDAM AVE-1 TITUS (Power Type) - Though it doesn’t appear to carry weapons, with it’s unbelievable destructive power it crushes the enemy.

** Please not that the romanized names for the characters presented here are my take on them and may differ from other variations. They will suffice until official English names are available.

[SonicSP]

Originally Posted by kiak666

Well, all I can say is that the next Gundam series isn't exactly what I had expected. However, the concept does seem to have some potential in it.

As for the design, I think the new Gundam looks decent. Not great, but not horrible either. And as a kid who grown up watching Digimon (the first two seasons) and some other kid-oriented shows, I'm not that bothered by the character's look actually.

I would not mind an Digimon Adventure Gundam I guess, since I grew up with those shows too when I was an adolescent.

Originally Posted by Arabesque

BTW, isn't it about time to change the name of the thread?Yeah in this way I admit would be very cool to see. There is of course remians the question how much time will be given to each one ...
Is it? I have no idea what is happening with the way Xros Wars has been going these past few episodes. It really remind me of the same problems Adventure used to have behind the scenes.

I dont want to sidetrack the threa to Digimon but I have to ask, what problems did Adventures has behind the scenes?

Regarding getting a younger audience, it seems like a good move on Sunrise's part to me. Gundam itself is quite a brand, so getting these kids to maybe start watching them would get them to the more darker Gundam series as they grow older (note that this last semtemce sentence is presuming this is not like most of the so called darker serious series out there; and this show may well be for all we know).

[kakakka]

The description I read so far feels like super robots.

I couldn't feel anything for the character designs. These aren't the designs I am accustomed on watching. I didn't grow up watching Digimon tbh, and I always skip Pokemon whenever I could (for reasons I have forgotten). I also didn't watched Yu-Gi-Oh (except reading the manga) and never bothered the sequels/spin-offs.

I guess I'll just wait and see what's in store. Though, this would definitely be different from the other Gundam shows before.

Another question. So no Sunrise, right?

[SonicSP]

Originally Posted by kakakka

The description I read so far feels like super robots.

I couldn't feel anything for the character designs. These aren't the designs I am accustomed on watching. I didn't grow up watching Digimon tbh, and I always skip Pokemon whenever I could (for reasons I have forgotten). I also didn't watched Yu-Gi-Oh (except reading the manga) and never bothered the sequels/spin-offs.

I guess I'll just wait and see what's in store. Though, this would definitely be different from the other Gundam shows before.

Another question. So no Sunrise, right?

I grew up with Digimon, and I'm not feeling for the character designs either.