The All Purpose Mobile Suit Gundam Thread

ayase said:
@HdE - I never thought I'd find anyone else willing to badmouth 0080 either (improve your relationship with Mr. Oshii and you can be my friend :p) which I found severely underwhelming as well.
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Way ahead of you! I just watched Patlabor 2, and I actually believe it could well be one of my new favourite movies. Utterly brilliant stuff, and Oshii reigned in his excesses to do it, too! I've not mentioned it here before, but I really like the first Ghost In The Shell movie he did, too. :D

I have a friend in the USA who raves about War In The Pocket at the drop of a hat. I actually bought it on his recommendation. I wouldn't say I didn't enjoy it, but it's definitely not deserving of the fawning praise I often see heaped upon it. In my opinion, it's about twice the length it should be, and that's being generous.

Massive SPOILER here, but it's good for a laugh:

You know how in the last couple of episodes Al suddenly makes a point of saying to Bernie 'Ya gotta promise me you won't die Bernie! I love you Bernie!'

Yeah. As if ANYBODY was in any doubt here that Bernie was dead meat. The character even has that look about him that says 'oh crap. This kid's read the script and he knows something I don't. Poop.'

And then Al goes to pray to God to protect his friend Bernie... ick. You can see the ending a mile off. And when it comes, it has ZERO weight at all. It's just funny.

It's actually become a frequent joke among my friends now. We quite often abruptly grab each other and say 'Don't die Mike / Karen / Graham / whoever! Please God, ya gotta watch over my friend and make sure he doesn't die!'

ayase said:
I would like to see 08th MS Team though, which looks a little more like my cup of tea.
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It's GREAT. A really good Gundam show. Miller's Report is a bundle of yuk, but the series itself is a real fun little show. We NEED that in the UK!
 
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HdE said:
It's actually become a frequent joke among my friends now. We quite often abruptly grab each other and say 'Don't die Mike / Karen / Graham / whoever! Please God, ya gotta watch over my friend and make sure he doesn't die!'!
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Weird you single out this one show for this. Doomed pilots are everywhere in the franchise, and endlessly more hamfisted than in 0080 (Slegger Law springs instantly to mind). Besides, it's not like 0080 sets itself up as some kind of royal-rumble, 'WHO WILL SURVIVE?!' showdown. It's a pretty standard tragedy narrative where the point isn't who dies, but why and how they die. I guess you either care for Bernie's motivations or you don't. But if you need Al's silly 'I love you! Don't die!' bits to clue you into the fact that the doomed third time axe-wielding pilot from the opening-scene-defeated-and-swiftly-dead-team probably isn't going to survive taking on the double-chain-gunned-uber-robot-from-hell, you haven't been watching nearly close enough :p
 
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Nah - none of that's lost on me! And kudos on a rather funny post there!

My biggest criticism of War In The Pocket is that it just doesn't work nearly as well (in my opinion) as so many in the fan base would have me believe it does. I found it really heavy-handed and clumsy.

Which isn't to single it out as opposed to other Gundam shows. Heavy-handed and sporadically awkward kind of goes with the territory to a degree. For example: 'Hi - I'm Nena Trinity - I bomb civilian gatherings for no logical reason, and nobody, not even the screenwriters, bats an eyelid about it!'

But hell yeah - such is my devotion, I'll take it all. All the warts, all the clunky bits. I don't care. I just dig this franchise coz it's fun!
 
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I watched War in the Pocket and started dozing off once or twice. However, that had been near the end of a 24-hour marathon. I sadly don't remember enough of it to even formulate an opinion.

ayase said:
Gundam is not a franchise of extremes.
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I agree. I also think that applies to their general quality. While I enjoyed one or two Gundam shows, the franchise as a whole hovers at 7/10. Good, but not stunning; flawed, but not irredeemably so. And always full of nostalgic value.

Incidentally, Unicorn is still only average in the sense that it hasn't done ANYTHING new from the old Gundams. Random boy with emotional problems gets to pilot Gundam through a series of consequences. The animation is stellar and makes even 00 look boring as hell, but animation is hardly a key factor to a show's value. There are two things that give it potential: 1) This idea that Newtypes powers were supposed to lead to deeper human understanding but that they were misused to make deadlier pilots is a highly original theme, and the Banagher-'Audrey' pairing is a great vehicle to explore that, not least because they're both instantly likeable and seem complex enough. 2) MINEVA!!! YES! I goddamn love the fact they placed her at the heart of the story. Her complicated heritage could lead to some fascinating political developments. Knowing Gundam, however, I strongly suspect this awesome girl will be quickly sidelined in the plot or made into a whiny victim so she can get saved over and over and over again.

PS. Banagher is a crap name. Really, really awful name. It doesn't even suit him.
 
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VivisQueen said:
I agree. I also think that applies to their general quality. While I enjoyed one or two Gundam shows, the franchise as a whole hovers at 7/10. Good, but not stunning; flawed, but not irredeemably so. And always full of nostalgic value.
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I know there are lists out there that contradict me saying this, but pretty much yes. It's damned good at what it does and like most anime, what it does isn't exactly a keystone in the achievement of modern civilization.
 
From what I've seen so far I gotta agree. Aside from 00 the series I've seen are enjoyable occassionally poignant, but more or less just decent shows nothing spectacular.
 
I'd be inclined to be a bit more generous about the overall franchise, personally. More like 8 /10 than 7 /10. But that's just me.

I think Gundam stands out from other mecha shows just because it has such a focused ethic going on. The Gundams are always a treat to behold, and the formula generally always delivers on the points I'm looking for.
 
Bit late with the naming of favourites it seems but what the hell.

1) Turn A Gundam- I've not even finished the show yet (keep stalling with it) but already its reached the top of the pile. Once you get past the strange mech designs and the way the story is told, you wind up with a great story and greater characters (although there is some glitches with that...)

2) Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket- Regardless of what's already been said here, i really enjoyed this OVA and i see it as the best of what has been released, far better then the sub-par 0083 which wasn't really needed (i know the same could be said for any ova but 0083 just served as a prequel to Zeta)

3) G Gundam- I think i'm the only person who would put this in a top 3, ever. Am i insane? a little. Considering its practically a Super Robot Type show then the normal Real Robot Type that Gundam normally is. For all its trappings though, there's a good story there and some good character development. The early part is formulaic though, with its gundam fighter of the week but, it had me hooked from the mid point line.

Shave: Anyone who knows me will know what this answer is, its becoming old hat at this point. Anyway...SEED and SEED Destiny, if i could get rid of these yet keep SEED Astray in existence then i would gladly do it
 
BlackWolf said:
i know the same could be said for any ova but 0083 just served as a prequel to Zeta
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It's pretty awful at doing that even. Inventing a bunch of technology and then saying everyone plum forgot about it at the end... may as well have ended it with Kou sitting up in bed and saying 'aww shucks, it was just a dream!'
 
Just finished IGLOO 2, while I disliked the first 2 eps I kinda liked the third, especially the twist at the end. I still think the Death God angle is freakin' weird. I think personifying death was fine, but having it speak to the characters was a bit much IMO, supernatural doesn't mix too well with sci-fi in my opinion (inb4jedi/theforce)
 
Haha. It's not that special. Of the "trilogy" One Year War is the best overall. After that a lot of them blur together. There's 3 episodes about tank-on-zaku warfare, which are all pretty decent but it's kind of like "how do I rehashed old story?"
 
My friend pointed out it could refer to a Full Frontal Assault or something, rather than the desperately awful implication the name immediately had to me...

Looking forward to part 2 now I've finally managed to get the first from Beez!

R
 
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