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[Zaeranos]

Zaeranos

Mobile Suit Gundam AGE

I know there are some people here that like Gundam as well, but I am wondering what you guys think of the latest Gundam anime series called "Mobile Suit Gundam AGE"? I have seen 11 episodes now. All of them fansubbed by the #Anime-Gundam group, I don't know what other groups are subbing this series.

Of what I know, it is the game developer studio Level 5 that is primarily responsible for the series. Although it is a cooperation with the franchise holder Sunrise Studios. And this is also noticeable in the story and visuals.

I must say that I am not really warming up to this series. I find the animation a bit plain. It is a serious throw back to the earlier Gundam series, when it was just to costly or difficult to create more lively animations. But even then Mobile Suit Gundam Zeta has more interesting animation. It just does not look as good when you have seen the lively backgrounds and scenes of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED and Mobile Suit Gundam 00.

The story is also not really compelling. It really feels like a story made for a game and not a series. The premise given at beginning of each episode is that we are the start of a hundred year war. From promotional information I know that we get to follow 3 generations of protagonists. Which makes it even more obvious that the story is actually written for a trilogy of games.

You have an antagonist faction that you do not know anything about and the protagonist do not make any visible effort to get to know more about them either. You just have too little information and too little effort in the antagonists to even care about them. The protagonists is just this little group of people on the main ship. And these characters are bland. The main character Flint Asuno is the most boring of them all. He is pretty much that what all the other main characters of the other Gundam series have in common and nothing more. The side characters do not add anything to make the series more interesting. The only interesting character in the series is Woolf Enneacle, who seems a bit to be the ace pilot combat mentor to Flint Assuno. The rest of the world shines in their glorious absence. Seriously by a mere cameo the rest of the world does not exist. The world seems to only exist of the protagonist characters. From the last episode that I have seen it seems that they are forcing in some love relations just to set up the next generation to follow.

Overall, I am seriously underwhelmed by Mobile Suit Gundam AGE. I really think that it was better of as a trilogy of games instead of an anime series. I hope the future will make it better.

So what do you guys think of this series?

[Theforeshadower]

Theforeshadower

Re: Mobile Suit Gundam AGE

Watched the first two episodes...Yeah, I think it is crap.  The project should not have gone through, in my opinion.

As for Zeta, I think it still has some great animation even compared to today's CG anime.  There is a lot of movement going on instead of alot of still poses that I see in today's anime from time to time.  The shading and colors still look good to me.

Personally, I think Sunrise needs to go back to the original three: Mobile Suit Gundam, Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, and Mobile Suit ZZ Gundam.  I think they should do something with keeping the story, but maybe clean up the dialogue a bit and provide a better translation for the English dubs(hate me for it, I prefer dubs most of the time).  I think They should also redo them with CG but still keep the style.  The Zeta movies were pretty good from the bits and pieces I have watched of the new scenes.  Nothing too flashy like SEED or 00(not that those are bad).  It felt liek they kept it faithful to the original art style.

Alot of the MSG franchise could benefit from a graphical face-lift.  Most people I know that are into anime are put off by what they deem is "aged art".  Sunrise could totally pull it off.  The revamps of characters in the Dynasty Warriors: GUNDAM games look amazing.

Anyway, I went off on a tangent there.  AGE doesn't interest me as it seems to cater to children for as you said as videogame or maybe even toy promotion(*cough* Transformers).

Also, I can't get into Unicorn either

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[Zaeranos]

Zaeranos

Re: Mobile Suit Gundam AGE

Don't you have the feeling that the ship Diva will transform one episode into a giant Gundam? Seriously, I get Psycho Gundam vibes from it.