The Gundam Series

[hopeful_monster]

Though i'm a big mecha fan, never really got into the whole Gundam phenomena. Was introduced to it when I was working in the states and caught a run of about 15-20 episodes of Wing. Lately found the rest of the series and watched it. Didn’t think much of it, as although the overall plot was good, the characters pretty I thought were soulless. Also found the amount of chivalry quite absurd. Been renting Seed off amazon, and up to about vol. 4. While better than Wing seems to be trying to do too many things at once, teen romance, action, and war drama, amongst many other things. Also the V.A.’s irritate me (in both English and Japanese).

PS Kupo could you please re colour your post, as i'm red/green colour blind and can't make out the difference.

 

[Laughing Manji]

Holy ****, that's a lot of Gundam.

Are all of those available in the UK to buy, or do I have to do some annoying online hunting for torrents and crap?

Very little of it. While Bandai are committed to licensing all of it for North America, theres a lot of it unlicensed, and almost none of it here. We got the famous stuff, 0079 original movies (shrewd choice by Bandai UK), SEED and Wing. And some odd stuff like the stardust memories recap OVA. But none of the best of breed stuff.

If you are to start somewhere, and don't mind dated animation, go right to the beginning (Universal Century) - Mobile Suit Gundam aka Gundam 0079. The three movies are a good introduction as they are a digest of the original TV series. They are also available here. There are numerous OVAs that expose other elements of this part of this time in the gundam timeline; War in the Pocket & The 08th MS Team are possibly some of the best things that the Gundam series produced. Import only.
Then watch Gundam Zeta. Its not perfect, but it is the best Gundam TV series. Import only and not cheap. It directly continues the events of the first TV series. Theres also the Stardust memory OVA (0083) which is worth looking into as an introduction to one of the factions (its also great looking). Gundam ZZ (double zeta) continues the events from Zeta directly, but its attempts at unfunny humour clash badly with Zeta fans. Its meant to be decent. Gundam ZZ is not available to buy at all I think.

Chars Counterattack finishes out the main story. I think this can be bought. There are other UC gundam titles but they dont continue the main story, and many of them are not meant to be great at all.

After this, the die was set. Gundam was an established property and virtually every Gundam that followed was a remake or a re-imagining of the original basic story ( a war story told from the viewpoints of the main characters on either side, with a few variables like settings, faction names changed). The graphics gets updated, and Gundam has always had good production values, so they are worth watching if you are a fan.

Post UC the big highlights of the Gundam franchise are Wing & SEED. Some people are fans of G Gundam (Dragonball with Gundam), but there are some clunkers. While some people liked SEED, the overwhelming opinion on SEED Destiny is that people want their time back. Theres a fansub-only Turn A Gundam, which is somethign of an overlooked gem, proper high quality Tomino helmed Gundam.

Also UC gundam is back in fashion. Theres the Zeta Gundam movies which were surprisingly successful. Now licensed so they will be available in the US soon. Theres also a bunch of oddities like Gundam Evolve & MS IGLOO. Also Sunrise have committed to another UC Gundam project. It won't be soon, and the good money is on a proper adaption of the Crossbone manga. Lost War Chronicles & Ecole du Ciel adaptions would make good OVA adaptions too.

 

[Paul]

Generally speaking though, the only other UK Gundam release worth getting is Char's Counterattack, but only after you've seen the first gundam movie trilogy and the Zeta Gundam TV Series (Avaliable in the US but not over here).

CC is perhaps worth seeing, but I cannot fathom at all why it is regarded as actually "good". It's Gundam: Advent Children from where I'm standing.

Char's Counterattack is the end of the greatest rivalry in the world, ever Taken as a stand alone movie it is weak, but as a conclusion to main UC arc, I loved it. But then Char was always my favourite character. And the Advent Children comparison is a low blow! For a start, there's no talking animals or collective "jump" sequence in which the hero is literally thrown into the sky by his friends!

 

[Ork_dreadnought]

Time for another shameless plug!

I think I started a trend.

 

[Noratav]

CC is perhaps worth seeing, but I cannot fathom at all why it is regarded as actually "good". It's Gundam: Advent Children from where I'm standing.

I never said it was any good as a standalone movie, I merely said it was worth getting, because it is the ending for the entire UC saga. As a part of the gundam saga, it is a reasonable film and well worth seeing.

Finally, It is also worth noting that Gundam Seed Destiny (the sequel to Seed) is by no means as bad as Kupoartist implies.

Oh, it is. You pretty much substantiate why I find it so bad after this sentence.

It is by no means a good series and is significantly worse than Wing

'Nuff Said

The last ten episodes aside, GSD is actually a half decent show. The basic plotline of those final ten episodes shows a lot of potential too. These last ten episodes were let down by the most pointless recap episode ever and exceptionally poor execution. Final Phase Plus improved things significantly but couldn't compensate for the mistakes of the previous few episodes. Take away the ending, though, and much like Wing, GSD is a mediocre series that is neither bad nor good. Hopeful_Monster sums it up perfectly as a series with a good plot lacking in soul.

 

[kupocake]

The last ten episodes aside, GSD is actually a half decent show.

I make it a bad show from the point that Kira turned up and stole it back for himself. In that period, you get Shinn/Stellar and Shinn/Lunamaria, two of the most dire "relationships" I've seen in Anime, you get Kira / Athrun defeated and somehow able to both survive just so they can return with new, even more ridiculously overpowered MS, you get numerous unneccessary clip shows, the throwaway LOGOs genocide, and overall, you get more deriative MS design and plot work than can humanly be fitted into an anime series. The first 20 episodes are worth watching. It's completely downhill from there.

Char's Counterattack is the end of the greatest rivalry in the world, ever Wink. Taken as a stand alone movie it is weak, but as a conclusion to main UC arc, I loved it.

I'm having trouble wrapping my head around this one. The movie is weak as a standalone, yet because it's the end of something, that makes it good? Surely you'd want a stronger ending for something so spectacular? My major beef with CC is that in fact, watching Zeta Gundam and ZZ Gundam and possibly even Gundam 0079 is entirely pointless: the movie IS standalone. Char and Amuro are just fighting a pointless battle with no real motivations carried over from previous productions. Slinging a giant space-rock at the earth isn't a rational plan, so why and when did Char become irrational? Why can a 2 hour long movie not answer questions like that instead of showing us more dull as dishwater Hathaway / Quess antics?

 

[Paul]

Char's Counterattack is the end of the greatest rivalry in the world, ever Wink. Taken as a stand alone movie it is weak, but as a conclusion to main UC arc, I loved it.

I'm having trouble wrapping my head around this one. The movie is weak as a standalone, yet because it's the end of something, that makes it good? Surely you'd want a stronger ending for something so spectacular? My major beef with CC is that in fact, watching Zeta Gundam and ZZ Gundam and possibly even Gundam 0079 is entirely pointless: the movie IS standalone. Char and Amuro are just fighting a pointless battle with no real motivations carried over from previous productions. Slinging a giant space-rock at the earth isn't a rational plan, so why and when did Char become irrational? Why can a 2 hour long movie not answer questions like that instead of showing us more dull as dishwater Hathaway / Quess antics?

The movie won't stand alone if you have no idea who Char or Amuro are. It is the end of their own personal rivarly and it sat perfectly fine with me- the rest of it was fairly average Gundam fluff (Quess). I suppose I see it as more of an extended TV episode.

And yeah, desperate people become irrational; sometimes you just get so frustrated with something that you feel like putting your fist through it. Indeed, Char's last attempt at evolving the human race was extreme- but sometimes terrorists must resort to extreme measures in order to completely express themselves. And Char has enough motivation to take on both Earth and Amuro, RE: MS Gundam and Zeta Gundam.

 

[kupocake]

I don't see the build-up at all. I list it among ZZ Gundam's many failings. There's lovely but put-upon Quattro Bagina in Zeta, gets owned and WHAM! "MUAHAHAHA! I CHAR, AM AN IRRATIONAL VILLIAN MISSING FOR 5 YEARS COME TO MAKE YOU ALL PAY FOR SOME MOTIVATION THAT WILL ULTIMATELY HAVE TO BE PUT INTO SOME MANGA SERIES OR OTHER!"

 

[Andy]

I don't think the comparison to Advent Children is an unfair one - both are only really going to be enjoyed by the fans, and aren't really accessible to newcomers. I'm not saying CCA perfect, by any stretch of the imagination - the way Amuro and Char just completely ignore the events of Zeta is rather poor, and I think they tried to cover a bit too much ground without filling in enough of the gaping holes - but as Paul says, as an ending to their rivalry it does the job well enough. As Gundam movies go, it is one of the better ones.

 

[kupocake]

As Gundam movies go, it is one of the better ones.

Indeed, i'd rate only the 1st and 3rd 0079 movies over it. Means nothing of course, they're the only Gundam movies that aren't entirely dire.