Forum - View topicNow Streaming: Mobile Suit Gundam (dubbed, TV ver.)
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vashfanatic
 Posts: 3495 Location: Back stateside |
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Yeah, so I tried watching this when it was on Crunchyroll. Setting aside the fact that the dub was pretty poor... so was the first episode. The villain looks like he's a cheap Halloween costume, the hero spoiler[learns to pilot a robot while reading the manual in his lap], and apparently the only way to justify the existence of these ridiculously huge robots was to have all the tanks be unable to hit the broad side of a barn.
It was laaaaaame. I wanted this to be my foot into the franchise, but I spent most of the time laughing or groaning, so that didn't work. Go ahead, Gundam fans, try to argue why I should watch the rest of the thing. |
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Otaking09
 Posts: 637 |
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Why bother arguing over something that's true? 1st Gundam, let's face it, isn't the "best" place to start the Gundam universe. vashfanatic, try examining what it is you like about anime and match the correct Gundam series with that. Example: Love heartpounding ambition that overcomes EVERYTHING(including logic apparently...), watch G Gundam! Love bishonen preteen tykes whose goal is to stop the war in a multitude of ways, coupled with an ever-changing direction of a plot, watch Gundam Wing. Love the realism of battles combined with solid mecha action, watch the 8th MS Team. etc... I'm not lying when I say the Gundam metaseries has "something" to please everyone. Me? My favorites' are almost always gonna be SEED and SEED Destiny(asking me why would take a lot of time...), and the closest to beating those are Turn A Gundam. Then again... what is that you have against the Gundam series already? Maybe that's what the issue is with enjoying these shows. |
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8502 Location: Penguinopolis |
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Uh... the compelling drama? The charismatic characters? Mobile Suit Gundam is a classic masterpiece. Certainly better than most of the garbage out today. And the English dub is excellent. |
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The Naked Beast
 Posts: 1028 Location: A Blue Planet |
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First, Bandai Entertainment is re-releasing the series with subtitles if that helps. The article is located here. Second, well, tanks are not exactly useful in space combat. Here is to a long post hoping to convince you to keep watching Mobile Suit Gundam. I will also go over the importance of the series. To start, the show is the first to introduce the real robot genre. It blends military technology with applied science fiction elements. The mobile suits have to be powered through a conventional means. In Mobile Suit Gundam's case, nuclear reactors within the mobile suits. They also had to fudge a little on the science side but that is why they call it science fiction. The mobile suits themselves are powered by the most unlikely of nuclear materials, helium and hydrogen. It will take a long time if I go into it but yeah, helium and hydrogen. Shows like Macross, Patlabor, and Full Metal Panic! would not exist if not for Mobile Suit Gundam. The show also introduced the concept of the next step of human evolution. Much of the earlier series were essentially space-born humans fighting against natural Earth-born humans. It was theorized that living in space has allowed humans to transcend their limits. The political aspect is another drawing point of the series as well. The world is drawn out thrown their policies and real-world like struggles. Even in the future, humans will inevitably still fight against one another. This was partially caused by the issue of space colonies' and undetermined status. Should space colonies be recognized as an independent entity or should it adhere to the policies of the Earth's governing bodies? This has led to some intense debates culminating in a bloody war of independence with many casualties, combatants and non-combatants. Of course, one of the main draw are the mobile suits. The technology is in its infancy but had potential military applications. It makes me feel like a kid again when they unveil a mobile suit for the first time in the series. What are its capabilities? Who will pilot it? The other big draw, for me, is the very apparent difference in skill level of the pilots. The recurring theme for most part throughout the franchise is that the enemy forces will almost always have the more skilled pilots despite the gap in technological development. The lesser-skilled main character(s) are dependent on the overwhelming power of their machine rather than their piloting skill. This leads to some intense battles. But what happens when the antagonists even the technological aspect when their side in on par with mobile suit engineering? The masked antagonist/rival is also a recurring theme in the later Gundam series. I have no comment on this but it does serve its purpose well. The masked rival is usually of great importance to the overall plot. I can go on and on but I will leave it here for the moment. I encourage you to give the series a second chance. Please keep in mind that it was made in 1979 so a few things might not have aged so well. Without this landmark anime, a few other iconic series might not even exist. |
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YoSoyJaponesa
 Posts: 65 Location: Behind my desk, doodling... |
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I've only seen the first episode so far, but it's pretty interesting so I'm going to give it another shot. I'm a fan of mecha, which is what I've been craving since I'm too cheap to buy the Eva movie lately.
I've only seen about 4 Gundam series (2, I've fully watched. Oh, and Char's Counterattack and a little of Endless Waltz) and I'd like to see how it all started. Sure, it's a little rusty in some parts but I have to remember that it's older than me so who am I to complain? Plus, having Brad Swaille as Amuro is a bonus for me since I loved him in 00. |
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Penguin_Factory
 Posts: 732 Location: Ireland |
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Whooo! I only managed to watch the first half of the series last time. I'm also glad to finally have a way to try out the new player (it is indeed much better than the old one).
I'm not going to argue that you should watch something you don't like (not a fan of the "it totally gets better in episode 30!" mindset), but I had the complete opposite reaction. The newer Gundam series are all way too goofy and stupid for me to enjoy, whereas this feels a lot closer to more traditional sci-fi. The lingering super robot elements are kind of jarring though, I'll give you that. One thing I take exception to, I keep hearing people complaining about the dub to this, but I actually quite like it. Amuro's voice actor is the only one who seems sub-par. |
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LeoKnight25
 Posts: 319 Location: Puyallup, WA |
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My personal feeling is that, while the TV series is a landmark for Mecha anime and really, just anime in general, it's kind of teetering that line between real and super robots. The three movies, however, are absolutely fantastic. They may seem truncated if you've seen a lot of the TV series, but having not watched much of the series, I thought the pacing in the films was quite good. Much better than the first Space Battleship Yamato film. The three films are compilation movies of TV episodes and re-worked animation so, they look a bit better- animation wise- than the TV show does. If you didn't like the series, maybe give the movies a shot.
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smilydude13
Posts: 11 |
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I thought it had a pretty good dub, to be honest. I can't imagine Char being played without a Michael Kopsa-esque voice. |
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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My introduction to the franchise was by means of the compilation film trilogy. Whilst each third is notably lengthy, it was sufficient for me to develop an instant appreciation for the franchise. There were numerous respectable moments of pathos, and the climax was a sublime combination of action and imagery. |
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DangerMouse
Posts: 3994 |
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Agreed, I also liked him 00. While I haven't had the chance to watch any of the episodes just yet probably until tomorrow, I remember his Amuro was pretty enjoyable back when they aired on CN. I also seem to remember Sayla's voice being quite good and a pleasant surprise back then since I don't think I'd ever heard her before whereas some of the others were already quite prominent, or sadly since, aside from maybe a bit part somewhere (outside of one of the Gundam games). smilydude13, I agree he had a great voice for Char, though I do think they made a pretty good choice for Unicorn's cast, I'm personally already getting a strong liking for Keith Silverstiein's really unique voice in Unicorn as well. I think I'm really going to like it as Frontal gets more screentime since I thought he was fantastic in the new episode and I think his unique sound worked great. Last edited by DangerMouse on Wed Nov 17, 2010 5:11 am; edited 1 time in total |
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kgw
 Posts: 1189 Location: Spain, EU |
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Oh, I am shocked, 1979's animation is not as cool and crisp as 2010's.
Please... |
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amagee
 Posts: 333 Location: Orlando, FL |
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I am an insanely devoted Gundam junkie myself so I thought I might at least give the 'Gundam' reasoning surrounding some of the things that you mentioned. The reason that mobile suits exist as viable weapons in this universe are two-fold. Firstly, mobile suits just perform better in space due to something called AMBAC (which has some basis in how astronauts move around in space working on the concept of mobile suits are big human-shaped things) compared to more plane-looking fighters. Secondly, on the ground, due to a specific Gundam universe thing (called Minovsky particles) basically anything radar, laser guided, or otherwise fancy and modern which makes it easy to blow stuff up from a distance doesn't work. If you need to see a battlefield effectively, a mobile suit ain't half bad for such a thing seeing as they are about 60 feet tall, already being used in space, the things still work on the ground (albeit not nearly as quickly), they can take pretty hefty damage, and they can shoot back artillery-sized rounds at an alarmingly high rate. As to the whole 'kid jumps in an experimental robot and juggle an entire herd of reindeer with it while baking a pie with his foot', this is just a Japanese staple and in Gundam it's basically comes down to: Amuro > you. |
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Vicserr
 Posts: 480 Location: Carolina, Puerto Rico USA |
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Well, although I think most modern fans won't tolerate late 1970's anime (enjoying the shiny , pretty things too much, to see beyond the surface), I'll say you're missing out on a great anime. MS Gundam is the original "Real Robot" show, as that it carries over some of the tropes of Super Robot anime, stuff like VOTOMS, Macross, Dragonar, even modern stuff like Evangelion and Code Geass owe a lot to Gundam.
Heck for a better understanding of the melting pot that brought Gundam people should check out Tomino's Invincible Superman Zambot 3 or Tadao Nagahama's Romance Robot Trilogy (Chodenji Robo Combattler V, Chodenji Machine Voltes V, Tosho Daimos) that were evolutionary steps from the classic Super Robot formula that was pioneered by Go Nagai (Mazinger Z, Great Mazinger, Ufo Robo Grendizer, Kotetsu Jeeg, Groiser X) and Toei shows like Daiku Maryu Gaiking, Balatack and Magno Robo Gakeen, and as a Post Gundam example Space Runaway Ideon. I know that some of the stuff in the series is going to come out as silly (The salt episode) but when the drama and the politics rise to the forefront of the storyline it will be an enjoyable experience IMHO. |
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jsc315
 Posts: 925 |
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I had recently finished watching this on Crunchyroll. I have to say this is a really well done dub. Normally I don't watch the dub unless i dont have a choice. I really did enjoy this series even if they ending was kind of rushed and tact on. Yes it does have it problems and isn't perfect by any means but I really did enjoy the story.
Then soon after I decided to follow up with Zeta since they are very close related. I was a bit bored and annoyed with the characters most of the time. As well as the voice acting just did not seem to have as much heart as the dub for MS Gundam. I felt bored and uninterested in about half the whole series other then the last 15 episodes or so. |
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tojik
Posts: 13 |
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The original has a mythical quality that I haven't found in other Gundams (or much entertainment in general). I don't mean it's place in anime history, mind you, which I think might hurt it a bit. The actual story being told is beyond epic, closer to something like Star Wars than the other Gundams I've seen. The staging of the later battles, that otherworldly musical queue and bizarre animated interludes, gives everything a mystical quality (pretty far from "real robot" or hard sci-fi).
There are plenty of barriers from getting into it (dated animation, clichés - although for this series you can call them archtypes, some jarring sexism and personal violence that bothers me less after watching Zeta). But if you do get into it, its internal universe is fairly consistent and, especially towards the end, completely engrossing. Actually getting into that universe? Probably a matter of acclimation. When I was younger, I wouldn't touch older films, but later became a cinephile, but who wouldn't touch animation. There are various "gateways" to new genres and styles, just like most of us had certain works that originally got us into anime. Maybe some day you'll find something that gets you hooked on classic mecha shows, and you'll start to see First Gundam in a new light. |
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