A girl for a main character in Gundam?

[Obi-Wan]

If Gundam went shojo it would murder the franchise. Plain and simple. SEED is borderline shojo as it is. The last thing we need is a Gundam show about a 15 year old girl deciding which of 20 pretty boy supporting characters she wants to be with, on top of her getting her period and dealing with whatever the day happens to bring.

Instead, I think Gundam should stop focusing on emoing teenagers and move in the direction of young adults. Part of the reason I liked G Gundam is because none of the main cast was a kid, aside from Sai Saici, but he wasn't an emoing teenager, so it was okay.

Supporting heroine characters are okay, but if you put a girl into the lead role of a Gundam you may as well make her a catgirl with magic powers and a shit like that too.

[Last_Hope]

Originally Posted by Obi-Wan

If Gundam went shojo it would murder the franchise. Plain and simple. SEED is borderline shojo as it is. The last thing we need is a Gundam show about a 15 year old girl deciding which of 20 pretty boy supporting characters she wants to be with, on top of her getting her period and dealing with whatever the day happens to bring.

So just because it´s a female in the lead part it´s automatically shoujo? And who said she has to be 15? Why can´t she be around 25-30 and already have a husband at home with a kid which she is fighting to protect?

Originally Posted by Obi-Wan

Supporting heroine characters are okay, but if you put a girl into the lead role of a Gundam you may as well make her a catgirl with magic powers and a shit like that too.

I suppose some things just got to have a male hero...

[Sety]

Originally Posted by Obi-Wan

Supporting heroine characters are okay, but if you put a girl into the lead role of a Gundam you may as well make her a catgirl with magic powers and a shit like that too.

From what I'm aware of though Ecole Du Ciel has a female main character but they still managed to stray well clear of the shoujo genre.

Still I really wouldn't mind a heroine, but it'd depend on how they execute them.......gender of the hero shouldn't matter as long as the script and character is well written and we still get plenty of mecha action.

Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 and J had the right ideas as they had female mains who were battle hardened ZAFT operatives. Now if only they'd do it in a Gundam series.

[tetsuo69]

If Gundam went shojo it would murder the franchise. Plain and simple. SEED is borderline shojo as it is. The last thing we need is a Gundam show about a 15 year old girl deciding which of 20 pretty boy supporting characters she wants to be with, on top of her getting her period and dealing with whatever the day happens to bring.

i agreed i dont want a female as the main character in a gundam series "mai hime" Ewwww
and i hope the next gundam maincharacter isnt a teenager

[Eidolon Sniper]

What's wrong having a female lead? At least it's hopefully not another emo kid taking on the rest of the entire universe kind of thing.

Or maybe she'll do some kind of Escaflowne ROFL

Seriously, if we have a female for a lead, then it would be nice to know that certain GODS won't be hogging the best hero spot award 9,999 years in the running. And all guy fans would have nosebleeds, especially if the female lead in question is someone as hot as Fllay Allster.

Then maybe yuri would be the flavor of the day (other than the usual yaoi pairings).

Problem is, there aren't too many female fans of Gundam (save for those hauled in by the Wing and SEED/Destiny eras) like myself. So having a female lead would be like trying to shoot for the moon.

[Last_Hope]

Originally Posted by Eidolon Sniper

What's wrong having a female lead? At least it's hopefully not another emo kid taking on the rest of the entire universe kind of thing.

It seems some people have a barrier. Some things are just not acceptable.

From my point of view a lot of people seems to think that the girls just should be there as some kind of jewelry. Look good, they can fight if they want to as long as in the end the guy gets to save the day...

And it´s not like Kira, Athrun or Shinn for that matter behaves like a normal teenager so why should a female main character be 100% based on normal teenagers behavior?

For a Gundam show I would rather have a 20-30 years old woman as the lead character ratjer than a 14-16 year old boy...

[Shinji103]

Yeah, I'm sorry, but it is sooo arrogant to assume a Gundam series with a female as the lead character would be shoujo, or even bad. Case-in-point: the Jinki/Jinki: Extend manga. (the anime just sucked, but not because it had a female lead , the anime was just way too short and they had no time to make a decent story or plot, the first four episodes rocked though )

Rui Kosaka from Jinki and Jinki: Extend would kick @$$ in Gundam. And she is so incredibly not emo.

[SNT1]

Why Gundam probably wouldn't have a female lead in a series? Beacuse its a risk, and Sunrise might make less money than they would with a male character. Sorry, that's just the way it is. You don't see Elektra, Catwoman, Aeon Flux movies topping male superhero movies like Spiderman, Batman, Superman etc etc. (In fact in some cases female superhero movies tend to tank)

Now I don't know how long this will last. The formula 15-21 year old male pilot in a powerful prototype 'Gundam' has already worked for the last 26 years...

its not like 'Gundam' series characters are exclusively male... I mean in the last 'Gundam' series you practically have two 18-yr old girls ruling the earth and space...

or they could just make Lacus Clyne the main pilot protagonist in *GS3*, watch the fans fap all over, and become the most popular pilot/character in Gundam history...

[Obi-Wan]

My point is imagine a new Gundam series, and the main pilot is Meer in her Pink Zaku. How gay would that be? Totally. Or imagine Asuka in a Gundam. Super gay. This is enough emo and angst in Gundam with male characters. Replace their Y chromosome with another X and you will have emo to the fifth power. An older married female character wouldn't work because you couldn't play the romance angle at all with that, unless they were both in the military (i.e. Matilda and Woody in MSG) but it wouldn't be as powerful as two people coming together during a war. I'd love to see another Gundam show with adult or older characters (22-25ish) but it's just not in the cards. Gundam is all about the teenage boy falling into the cockpit and having to save the world. It works. It sells. And it's not going away.

And I fail to see your point Shinji. You can't compare another show to Gundam, it just doesn't work. It's like comparing a Chevy to a Ford. Similar, but different, and one is way f*cking better than the other (Chevy=Gundam).

[Shinji103]

Dude...Meer in a Pink Zaku is an incredibly horrible example to use because she was so incredibly overloaded on "cuteness" and "hotness." (bleh) And pink suits? Why in the world would anybody make the main suit pink in the first place, regardless of whether or not the lead is a girl or guy? That example would be the perfect example of someone intentionally trying to make a Gundam series into shoujo. (and that person would have to be a total idiot for trying to do this >.> ) Your "example" is just horrible. >.>

Now for an actually good example: Rui Kosaka from Jinki and Jinki: Extend. (as said above) While she may not be the lead character, she's a main character, and she's got far less Emo than Kira and Athrun in either GSEED or GSD, which shatters your ridiculous "emo to the fifth power" idea. Heck, even the main character Aoba has less emo than Kira and Athrun. (Rui just has less than Aoba) And just for good measure, I just got done reading Jinki: Extend volume 8, and after seeing the awesome battle at the end of the volume, I can gurantee you 100% that Aoba can kick both Kira and Athrun's @$$es simultaneously. That was the most awesome giant robot battle I've seen since Nu vs Sazabi at the end of CCA. She took on five Jinkis, all piloted by ace pilots simultaneously, lured them into a split-second devised trap, split them up, and keeps them all running for their money. Kira couldn't even handle Clotho and Shani at once. Seeing Aoba in a Gundam series would be the uber-ness.

And yes I can compare Jinki and Jinki: Extend to Gundam. Why can't I? We're talking about female leads in a giant robot series about war. That's what Jinki is. (moreso in Jinki: Extend) Teenagers piloting gaint robots to fight in a war. And the main is female, with less emo than Kira in either GSD or GSEED.

[Shinji103]

It seems that there was plenty of interest in this topic in a thread here, and there was plenty of interest back in the thread of this I made before the hack, so here it is reborn. To start off, continuing from where the debate left off in the best written character thread:

Originally Posted by Deacon Blues

*dodges*

The "smack" signifies the hit already landed. When someone says "takes a crack at," it's dsodgeable, but you can't dodge what already hit you.

Originally Posted by Deacon Blues

Right. Gundam > Jinki since, well. It's been around longer. Hokay, you want to talk actual swords versus beam weaponry. Look at Lowe Gear. Not so much skill, but how one weilds the sword. I.E. SHE HAS NO SKILL THAT YOU SEE.

And, just because somebody didn't think up Jinki: Extend 26 years ago, Gundam is better? That's so incredibly arrogant, it makes me want to puke. And besides which, it's not about which anime is better, it's if a female in Gundam would be good or not. And how does pointing to Lowe Gear and whatever skill or lack thereof with a sword or whatever (I think he had great skills, especially for a Natural) point to Aoba Tsuzaki's skills with a sword or whatever? Your example makes absolutely no sense.

Originally Posted by Deacon Blues

LAWL AIMBOT FTW. Yeah, okay whatever. So his entire existence in SEED was 'lawl lack of skillz' then? I think not. Funny how he reprogrammed the Strike in the desert.

Kira's entire existence in SEED after he got Freedom was a lack of true skills, yes indeed. I'm glad you see the truth. All he is after he gets Freedom is bangbangbangbang. When he had the Strike he was awesome and Kira vs Aoba would have been awesome, but Kira is oatmeal to Aoba's frosted flakes (speaking of the difference in flavor i.e. awesomeness, fyi ) once he gets the Freedom.

Originally Posted by Deacon Blues

EVA sucks. Period.

In your demented mind.

Originally Posted by Deacon Blues

Yeah... except for the fact that if it were animated, IT WOULD FAIL. Gundam is all about models and not characters. Ecole du Ciel has a female main character, but I doubt that it would survive animation.

Err, the Gundam anime is not about models. (except for GSD, and GSD sucked) Jinki: Extend was indeed animated (obviously you have no idea what Jinki: Extend is, and thus have no say in whether it's good or bad) and it rocked for the first four episodes, then it veered from the manga in episode 5 and it sucked from there. Thus showing the manga would succeed in animated form, because it did succeed in animated form. The part of the anime that veered from the manga doesn't count, because the veered-off part wasn't from the manga (no duh) and thus doesn't show the awesomeness of the manga. And you have a habit that many bashers have: saying things and not backing them up. Why wouldn't Ecole du Ciel survive as a TV series? How would your point be in any way convincing without showing the ground your beliefs are based on?

[monster]

I don't really see what the problem (or the difference, for that matter, other than genderwise of course) if a girl is the main character of a gundam series. As for

Gundam is all about models and not characters.

I believe this can mean that as long the mechas and the fights are well presented, having a girl, who also just happens to be the main character, piloting it shouldn't matter much to the fans.

[tetsuo69]

it will never happen and i'm happy it wont. like i said already i hate mecha anime series where the main character is a girl, it become really girly and boring.the girl on shinji signature gundam next main character!! Ewww!!! make it stop!!!! lol i'll rather have shinn as the main character again than that!!!! and have kira and asuran kill b4 lolicons become gundam main characters....

i can swallow something like 8th ms team where Aina Sahalin play a big role as it had to do with shiro and her the series..
well this just my opinion.. no females as main characters plz!!

[monster]

They could make it not girly, like Cagalli.

[cloudedge]

By having a female main we will have to throw away many of the Gundam traditional themes and symbology though

One of them being: Boy coming of age, which is vastly different from a girl coming of age story

And "mask" man opponent relationship would look kind of like.... Salior moon? /panic.... ughh I don't want to go there...

No offense, I'm a female myself, and I'm happy that people are rooted for gender equality even on the anime field... but even still some themes just works better with a male character...

[Last_Hope]

I can´t help but laugh when I read the complaints about making a girl as the main character. I mean, it seems that it´s alright for Kira to angst but if we were to have a girl that would behave the exactly same as Kira in SEED people would think of it as boring and girly...

Same thing as with fillers, people judge them before they´ve even seen them.


I´m definitely for a female main character. I think it would be far more interesting than seeing a 15 year old genius boy adapting perfect to every situation and shooting down trained soldiers with ease, again. This is one of the reasons why I love, absolutely love, 08th MS Team.

And a female main character doesn´t mean that every other single important character in the story needs to be a girl... The masked character can still be a man.

I mean look at the Banner (Crest) of the Stars, a girl as a main character and an excellent story!
(I wouldn´t call Banner of the Stars, girly...)

Edit//
I accept that people don´t want a female main character for Gundam. If they were to talk about tradition to name one example. But the reasons, for not wanting a female main character, brought up by most Gundam-fans is just...

[maohayato]

/me points at Haman, Puru, Ru, Allenby etc.......

seems we already have female MS pilots who are better than their male counterparts.

Girly??? nope. you can,t really say Haman is girly and emotional. Haman was more the main character in ZZ than Judau could ever be. Even Ru has better screen presence than Judau and she is a Z Gundam pilot+newtype. And look at Allenby, she is carnage, pure and utter carnage. the only equal of Domon.

girls in mecha, love it

/me points at Godanner
this one has Anna as the main(it revolves around Anna, not around Go). is it girly?? does it suck? NO. its great Hot Blood Super robot action.

/me is all for female pilots

[cloudedge]

Originally Posted by Last_Hope

And a female main character doesn´t mean that every other single important character in the story needs to be a girl... The masked character can still be a man.

Actually I do mean the mask guy being a guy... I was refering to tuxido-mask >.>;;

[monster]

That's a different genre of anime though. I don't think you need to worry about that in a gundam series just because the main character is a girl. Now if other signs start to show up...but I'm sure they won't.

[Last_Hope]

Originally Posted by cloudedge

Actually I do mean the mask guy being a guy... I was refering to tuxido-mask >.>;;

Ah~ My bad. Well the masked man - heroine relationship could be as between Kira/Mu and Rau for the most part. They don´t need to meet eachother. All that is required is for them to recognize eachothers Gundams, suits or whatever they´re flying.


But, and this is a big but, I´m in no way interested in seeing a female main character like the ones Hollywood gives us.

Back to watching football (it´s called football, not soccer!).