Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - GQUUUUUUX!!!
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TarsTarkas
 Posts: 6053 Location: Virginia, United States |
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Thanks for the article. Didn't know before who was doing the work on this. I agree it was beautifully rendered. So it is on my list to watch, I just hope they keep it's space opera roots and not go full tournament.
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Radrappy
Posts: 85 |
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Man everything about this first episode worked for me and was firing on all cylinders...except the character work.
I have no idea what the MC wants or why I should be invested in her story. I know nothing about her home life, her circumstances, or even really her personality other than scrappy. I'm definitely going to watch the next episode because I'm a huge fan...but I wish they could have given us a bit more on that front. I'm sure more is coming but I'm just not sure why I should give a (gun)damn yet. |
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Chiyosuke
 Posts: 452 |
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Can't say the first episode hooked me just like that but the complete Sunrise & Gainax stan in me is definitely along for the ride
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dmanatunga
Posts: 89 |
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The first episode didn't really click for me (other than beanie Haro being a goat). I personally was much more excited on what was to come from Aerial's first episode (or really Aerial's prologue which I think was amazing).
The other thing I am worried about is the mech fighting direction. I was really not a fan of that Paris sequence in Evangelion 3.0+1.0. It felt all that dynamic camera action and rotation made things overly confusing and nauseating. That same style appeared in the Gux vs. Red Gundam battle and I continue to not be a fan. I did think the 3D mechs looked better than expected, so at least that was a nice surprise. |
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Kicksville
 Posts: 1282 |
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I think it's good (I also saw the movie), although I'm not quite as over the moon about it as some people seem to be. For Machu and the gang, the basic set up was kind of what you'd expect in so many ways. The mobile suit fights have been kind of whatever so far.
I did like the portrayal of a version of spoiler[Zeon victory]. After so many years of basic spoiler["Zeon should've won, everything would be great"] speculation, it's interesting to see a big official shot at it - not exactly spoiler[perfect, clean justice for everyone living in space.] All those years made me worried any such attempt would be, uhhh...lacking maturity, and I'm glad that's not the case here. |
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tintor2
 Posts: 2296 |
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I don't get well what can exactly do the new Gundam that stands out. From what I see it basically responds to everything a Newtype demands which kinda felt rushed. Amuro did had his original Gundam redesigned a bit in the final episodes of the 70s in a similar fashion since everybody was already aware of the Newtype power in the final episodes.
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kaiju3
Posts: 10 |
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Am I the only one who believes that a grieving 15 year old untreated mentally ill (Ray had autism symptoms BEFORE getting into the Gundam and then developed PTSD, clinical depression, panic attacks etc.) kid with no background, aspirations or aptitude for military service at all had every right to want nothing to do with fighting on the frontlines in a war? Ray never volunteered for the military. Was afraid of his newtype powers. Was terrified of dying. Being the main person responsible for protecting the White Base and the lives on it caused him tremendous stress. And oh yes ... Ray actually hated killing people! Early on was wracked with grief and guilt every single time. His anger at Char made him battle-hardened, but it did not represent him "growing up", "taking responsibility", "becoming more manly" or any other sort of positive character development. Instead Ray was supposed to be the most tragic figure in a work whose entire goal was to cause its primary target audience to hate war. So no, sorry, I don't see "petulant child" in Amuro Ray or Shinji Akari. In Evangelion the only ones who WANTED to get into the Evas were Asuka (loony tunes cuckoo insane), Makinami (an adult trained spy ... and also not right in the head), and Rei (less crazy than Asuka but definitely crazier than Makinami). Toji thought that Shinji's problem was "not being a real man" ... until he found himself in the robot. Afterwards, he didn't want to go anywhere near an Eva either. Why? Because Toji was actually sane. Misato treated Shinji as a "coward" because of her own severe problems. (Just one example and illustration of those problems: she, age 29, wanted Shinji, age 14, before even meeting him. Ritsuko even called her out on it.) Yet everyone accepts this mad woman's estimation of Shinji as rational fact merely because she was good at military strategy? Asuka's also regarding Shinji as a coward is just more of the same. And you know who else called Shinji a coward? Gendo. Who destroyed all life on Earth just to see his deceased wife again. Hasn't anyone stopped to consider that just maybe the value judgments of crazy people are wrong? Yes, Shinji had issues but - Kaji aside - he was the most sane. Fine, all fiction requires suspension of disbelief. Still doesn't make jumping inside a giant robot to fight battles to the death something that a normal junior high kid should embrace with zeal and glee. Even an actual sociopath would recognize it as contrary to his rational self-interest. |
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EmeraldSaucer
 Posts: 144 |
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We're not that far out from people actually taking Shinji's issues seriously and not just saying "get in the robot" for the memes, original Gundam sadly hasn't gotten the worldwide cultural penetration yet for people to talk about how terrible Amuro had it (have a nice shirt of the moment where his eyes go blank white as he undergoes a mental breakdown in his room) |
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kgw
 Posts: 1248 Location: Spain, EU |
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What I found interesting is how, in this parallel universe where Char stole the Gundam and won the war*, the technology adopted the old Zeon models. At least, for now, Zakus are the custom model for MS, bullet ammunition and heat hawks instead of beam /plasma weaponry. Or two-eyed MS.
It's true that after a war, people follow the trends set by the winner, who usually takes everything good** that the user had to offer. Here it seems a bit backwards. But I also liked that living in a space colony seemed "living in a space colony", with all its cons. Not a "colony" totally undistinguishable from Earth, like in Mercury. * unlike Tomino novels, where Char took over the Gundam after Amuro is killed and then he fights along the White Base and then kill alll the Zabis… someone would've think that "winning the war" was AFTER the "getting revenge on the Zabis". ** even whole factories and people. |
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Raebo101
 Posts: 823 |
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All I'm saying is, the next male Gundam protagonist(s) better also be gay as hell. It's only fair. If Gundam heroines are allowed to be gay (and ONLY gay, apparently), so can the men. And no, Char and Amuro don't count. |
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FishLion
 Posts: 396 |
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GQuuuuuuX convinced me to finally watch the original Gundam.
Well, not exactly, this one and Witch from Mercury have been encouraging me to get into Gundam for awhile. What really encourged me to get the original off my backlog for awhile was the video by Mother's Basement. It talked about how all Gundam series call back to the original story's archetypes (which I am a sucker for) and it also made me realize that Evangelion is a commentary on the more psychological side of what war hero teenage protagonists might actually experience. So it ended up connecting the dots and making me want to understand the bigger picture of Gundam. There's a big difference between hearing something is influential and seeing the connection to other stuff you love in the big picture so I finally started on it. I still need to actually watch WFM and G but they sparked my interest enough to pull me in. I am also surprised it's so watchable. Any time I saw Gundam come on as a kid it was in the middle of stuff I didn't understand because I was catching it randomly on Toonami and also possibly because those subsequent series make more sense when you know the universe. Watching it in order from the beginning it is actually a very smoothly laid out story compared to what I expected. |
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Fluwm
 Posts: 1142 |
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Of course you're not the only one to recieve the intended message of the story. It wasn't exactly subtle, ya' know? This isn't something that flew over peoples heads, and in general I think it would be wise not to assume that people joking about something (EG memes) is correlated to low media literacy. (And this applies just as much to Eva, and everything else.) The vast majority of people who watch Gundam are gonna view Amuro -- or literally any other Tomino protagonist -- as a deeply broken child soldier whose problems are only exacerbated by being forced to fight. That knowledge is not, however, going to stop them from making fun of them for being whiny, or making funny memes (the Bright Slap comes to mind).
This was also true in the "prime timeline," with the EFSF widely adopting Zakus and Zeon technology, in general. The core idea of early UC has always been that Zeon has the superior tech, and the Federation has the superior resources. From what I've heard, at one point it was "canon" (and has possibly since been retconned, I don't know) that the RX-78-2 Gundam itself -- and by extension all of the GMs -- were basically just Zaku frames with a better reactor and redesigned armor. Underneath the skin, them bones were all Zaku. (EDIT: Regarding the Zaku specifically, it might be worth pointing out that -- aside from it's real-world popularity (which is very deserved, it's a brilliant design) -- it has such staying power simply because Zeon built so many of them, so even after there end of the war, there are a ton of them laying around to be repurposed by various government and nongovernment entities, including civilians by the time of CCA.) |
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EmeraldSaucer
Posts: 144 |
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The problem is that a bunch of people don't watch the show and take those memes seriously, and so they think the Bright Slap actually works and isn't a sign of a 19 year old privileged earth kid being suddenly thrust into a position of leadership and so having no idea what he's doing lol |
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Beltane70
 Posts: 4049 |
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The “Bright Slap” isn’t a case of Bright not knowing what he’s doing. I don’t know if they still do it now, but the slapping of an insubordinate soldier by a superior officer was a real life form of discipline in the Japanese military. |
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BadNewsBlues
Posts: 6521 |
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…..I would think it’s been long established both are not gay given one of them winds up fathering a kid in the novel/manga that was based off the first draft for Char’s Counterattack and the other had at least one potential love interest that died to stop him and Amuro from killing each other. |
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